Wizards Rumors: Nuggets President Tim Connelly Interested in Washington Job

Denver Nuggets president of basketball operations Tim Connelly would reportedly "be delighted" to take the same position with the Washington Wizards if offered the job.

David Aldridge of The Athletic reported "everyone in the NBA" has linked Connelly to the Wizards' position, which became vacant when the team fired Ernie Grunfeld. Connelly's NBA career began as an assistant video coordinator with the Wizards in 1999.

The Wizards have conducted interviews for the opening but have not invited anyone back for a second interview.

Connelly has run the Nuggets' basketball operations since 2013. While the team missed the postseason in each of his first five seasons, he was instrumental in building one of the best young cores in basketball. Every current member of the Nuggets' roster, which is a game away from a conference finals berth, was acquired by Connelly by draft or trade.

The Nuggets would have to allow Connelly to take the position because he is currently under contract through 2021. Aldridge wrote it would take the Wizards doubling Connelly's $2 million annual salary to spark a legitimate dialogue.

The Wizards' president of basketball operations job is, at least from a professional standpoint, a step down. The franchise has not won 50 games since 1978-79 and has a difficult, uncertain future lying ahead of itself following a lost 2018-19 season.

Franchise point guard John Wall is currently recovering from an Achilles rupture and is expected to miss most (if not all) of the 2019-20 season. Wall is also under contract through the 2022-23 season with an average annual salary of more than $40 million and a game that looked to be in decline before the Achilles injury. One of those four seasons is already a wash, and the deal looks borderline untradeable.

Bradley Beal's a 25-year-old whose game is the platonic ideal of a modern 2, but he's the only piece on this roster worth building around. With Wall probably out of the picture, there should be a real consideration by Connelly or whoever replaces Grunfeld to trade Beal this summer and bottom out.