Wizards Rumors: Nuggets' Tim Connelly to Interview for Vacant President Job

Denver Nuggets president of basketball operations Tim Connelly will interview for the Washington Wizards' opening for the same position, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN:

Connelly has done an excellent job running the Nuggets, who just finished with a 54-28 record and the Western Conference's No. 2 seed. He's not on the hot seat, but Wojnarowski provided context for why Connelly could be looking to head to the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area:

Connelly grew up in Baltimore and graduated from Catholic University in Washington, D.C. He worked 10 years for the Washington Wizards and became their director of player personnel.

He joined the New Orleans Hornets' front office before heading to Denver in 2013.

Washington could be the next stop after president Ernie Grunfeld was relieved of his duties on April 2.

Connelly has a lot of work to do after Washington's run of five seasons of .500 regular-season records or better ended this season.

The bottom fell out on the 32-50 Wizards as the team finished nine games out of the Eastern Conference playoff picture.

The present doesn't look bright, and the future doesn't either.

Of note, All-Star point guard John Wall may miss the entire 2019-20 regular season with a ruptured Achilles, and the Wizards suffered some bad lottery luck by falling to the ninth pick in the 2019 draft after having the sixth-best odds to land the No. 1 selection.

Washington already has $90 million committed to the 2019-20 cap, per HoopsHype, so adding through free agency this year will be difficult given the $109 million limit.

However, Connelly has proved to be an ace in the draft no matter where Denver picks, so Washington may very well rebuild there.

The Nuggets took All-Star franchise center Nikola Jokic 41st overall in 2014, for instance, and all he's done is become a nightly triple-double threat. Denver also selected starting point guard Jamal Murray seventh in 2016 and key backup guard Monte Morris 51st in 2017.

Connelly would be a great hire in Washington if the two sides work out a deal. Fred Katz of The Athletic reported that the exec will be looking for a "significant raise."

As Wojnarowski reported, Nuggets general manager Arturas Karnisovas would figure to take over Connelly's role in Denver if he does leave. He played for Seton Hall from 1990 to 1994, retired from professional basketball overseas in 2002, worked in the NBA's basketball operations office from 2003 to 2008, scouted for the Houston Rockets from 2008 to 2013 and joined Denver's front office as an assistant general manager six years ago before his promotion to GM.