Denver Nuggets President and Governor Josh Kroenke announced today that Tim Connelly has been promoted to President of Basketball Operations while Arturas Karnisovas has been promoted to General Manager.
“Tim and Arturas’ incredible work ethic, eye for talent, and integrity over the past several years has done nothing but give our organization confidence in our future and these promotions are a direct reflection of that belief,” stated Kroenke. “Continuity is one of the more underappreciated traits of championship level organizations, and we couldn’t be more excited for our group to continue to work together towards the goal of bringing Denver its first NBA title. While we acknowledge we still have lots of hard work ahead, the strides we have made on and off the basketball court are starting to reflect the culture that we believe can take us to a special place. With Tim and Arturas continuing their tireless efforts, a promising young team, and plenty of salary cap flexibility, we hope our fans are as excited as we are about the future of Denver Nuggets basketball.”
Connelly has spent the last four seasons as the Nuggets General Manager and Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations after being hired to this role in June 2013. He arrived in Denver after spending the previous three seasons with New Orleans as their Assistant General Manager. Prior to his time in New Orleans, Connelly spent 10 years with the Washington Wizards organization where he rose to director of player personnel. The Baltimore native spent the early part of his career scouting talent around the world and developing relationships with people in every aspect and level of basketball.
Karnisovas was hired as Denver’s Assistant General Manager in the summer of 2013 and served in that role for three seasons before being named Assistant General Manager and Vice President of Basketball Operations prior to the 2016-17 season. Karnisovas came to Denver after spending five years with the Houston Rockets organization and spent four years with the NBA league office prior to that. As a player, he starred at Seton Hall University and recently received the 2016 Most Distinguished Alumnus award. He also helped his native Lithuania win Olympic bronze medals in 1992 and 1996 and was named FIBA’s European Player of the Year in 1996.
Since 2013, Kroenke, Connelly and Karnisovas have overseen the hiring of Head Coach Michael Malone as well as the drafting of Nikola Jokic with the 41st pick in 2014, Emmanuel Mudiay with the 7th pick in 2015 and Jamal Murray (7th), Juancho Hernangomez (15th) and Malik Beasley (19th) in 2016. They also acquired current starting two-guard Gary Harris in a draft-night trade in 2014.