The Denver Nuggets were supposed to have an uneventful first night of the NBA Draft. Armed with the No. 26 overall pick, ahead of a pivotal summer where they will try to retool around a trimmer Nikola Jokić, no one expected much of any draft night fireworks for the NBA's resident Colorado team. It was supposed to be a quiet night.
And when the Nuggets traded out of the first round for a small horde of second-round draft selections, it seemed like a quiet Denver night was exactly what we were going to get. Uh, we were wrong on this front, to say the least.
When ESPN footage panned to the Nuggets' draft room after they traded their pick, we saw Denver owner Josh Kroenke standing in front of his employees as a few clapped. Based on contextual body language from the clip, it appeared that Kroenke wasn't very happy. But it's unclear why:
If I had to guess, Kroenke miming a clapping motion after seeing some Nuggets folks clap for trading away a draft selection is probably the answer here. I would guess that he wasn't happy about Denver's decision not to take a player in the first round. That, in itself, would be another can of worms, suggesting Kroenke and his front office aren't on the same page and that he might not be delegating to the qualified people he hired as much as he should.
Perhaps Kroenke addresses this viral moment in the coming days. It might be the only way to truly downplay what looks like awful optics for the Nuggets organization right now.
And when the Nuggets traded out of the first round for a small horde of second-round draft selections, it seemed like a quiet Denver night was exactly what we were going to get. Uh, we were wrong on this front, to say the least.
When ESPN footage panned to the Nuggets' draft room after they traded their pick, we saw Denver owner Josh Kroenke standing in front of his employees as a few clapped. Based on contextual body language from the clip, it appeared that Kroenke wasn't very happy. But it's unclear why:
If I had to guess, Kroenke miming a clapping motion after seeing some Nuggets folks clap for trading away a draft selection is probably the answer here. I would guess that he wasn't happy about Denver's decision not to take a player in the first round. That, in itself, would be another can of worms, suggesting Kroenke and his front office aren't on the same page and that he might not be delegating to the qualified people he hired as much as he should.
Perhaps Kroenke addresses this viral moment in the coming days. It might be the only way to truly downplay what looks like awful optics for the Nuggets organization right now.
2 hours ago
