As was first reported by Yahoo!Sports.com’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Toronto Raptors are targeting Nuggets general manager Masai Ujiri for their vacant GM position after having dismissed Bryan Colangelo earlier this week. According to ESPN.com’s Marc Stein, the Raptors are more than willing to make Ujiri one of the top paid executives in the league at over $2 million per year. Stein also claims Denver’s front office is confident in its ability to re-sign Ujiri to a new deal. Ujiri was rumored to be the lowest paid GM in the NBA under his previous deal that expired this year.
For NBA Draft junkies like me, the annual Draft Combine is the commencement of a nonstop obsession for about a month each summer. Although the Combine doesn’t present the ideal opportunity for scouting, there are still an assortment of minor details revealed about teams, players and the intentions of both that can prove invaluable during pre-draft analysis. Here is what I learned regarding the Nuggets from the first day of the Combine.
For the third year in a row Roundball Mining Company has arranged an off-season priority list for the Denver Nuggets. The following items are arranged from least to most important. They are moves which the Nuggets would greatly benefit from, yet none are mandatory. After winning 2012-13 NBA Executive of the Year, it’s safe to assume Nuggets general manager Masai Ujiri will do everything in his power to improve the Nuggets once again — that is, as long as he’s still around.
All-Defensive teams have been a joke for a while now. They’re more a popularity contest than a real measuring stick of who the best defenders in the NBA really are. In this sense, it shouldn’t be surprising that Andre Iguodala has been left of the NBA’s All-Defensive First Team. But leaving him off the All-Defensive Second Team as well? That just seems… well… fitting, given how completely inept voters are with this “honor.” But it’s also unfortunate and unjustified. Iguodala changed the way the Nuggets defended this year and was a big reason his team finished with the best regular season record in franchise history. Naturally, Nuggets GM Masai Ujiri was quite perturbed by the announcement and recently let off some steam to Benjamin Hochman of the Denver Post.
Members of the All-Defensive First Team include: LeBron James, Serge Ibaka, Tyson Chandler, Joakim Noah, Tony Allen and Chris Paul. Members of the All-Defensive Second Team include: Tim Duncan, Paul George, Marc Gasol (even though he won Defensive Player of the Year), Avery Bradley and Mike Conley.
Staking a Claim is a column that takes a look at all things Nuggets through the eyes of an outsider. As those who follow me on Twitter know I am a Bucks fan, so it will give Nuggets fans an opportunity to see things through the eyes of someone who follows the team closely but isn’t necessarily a fan.
A little over a week ago the Nuggets season came to a disappointing end in a Game 6 loss to the Golden State Warriors.
Over that time I have thought a lot about how to classify the Nuggets season.
Was it a success or failure? How much can be built on and how much should the team get away from? Can this roster compete for a title with a few tweaks or is there a major change that has to happen?
And finally after watching the Warriors continue their, to steal a term from Matt Moore, nova shooting against the Spurs things started to become much clearer to me.
As Joel announced a few minutes ago Nuggets Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations Masai Ujiri has won this season’s NBA Executive of the Year award, becoming the third Nuggets executive to win the award after Vince Boryla in 1984-85 and Mark Warkentien in 2008-09.
UPDATE: Just minutes after posting this, it was announced on the official Denver Nuggets Twitter feed (@DenverNuggets) that Ujiri has officially won the Executive of the Year award. More details at Nuggets.com here.
———————-
Benjamin Hochman (@nuggetsnews) of DenverPost.com has reported that just on the heels of George Karl winning Coach of the Year, Masai Ujiri will also receive a prestigious NBA honor by being named 2012-13 NBA Executive of the Year: (more…)
After a historic 57-win season including a franchise record 15 straight wins, George Karl has become the recipient of the Red Auerbach Trophy for 2012-13 NBA Coach of the Year. Karl received 62 first place votes followed by the Miami Heat’s Eric Spoelstra with 24. Mike Woodson and Greg Popovich finished third and fourth respectively. Karl becomes the second Nuggets coach in history to win this award after Doug Moe took home the honors in 1987-88.
“By the end of the 2003 baseball season I had learned something from publishing Moneyball. I learned that if you look long enough for an argument against reason you will find it.” — Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game
As I sat trying to formulate a clever way to say the words “thank you” I had quite the epiphany: Saying “thank you” isn’t something that should be hard. The average person probably says “thank you” more than five times per day. It’s not something you think about. You just say it.