Denver, CO
Nuggets name Ben Tenzer executive VP of basketball operations, add Jon Wallace to front office
More than a month after their season ended and more than two months after firing general manager Calvin Booth, the Nuggets have finally restocked their front office.
Ben Tenzer has been named Denver’s executive vice president of basketball operations, multiple league sources told The Denver Post on Monday. The Nuggets are also hiring Jon Wallace from the Minnesota Timberwolves to take over as executive vice president of player personnel.
Tenzer finished the 2024-25 season as interim general manager after the Nuggets fired Booth three games before the NBA playoffs in April, along with head coach Michael Malone.
Now two longtime members of the organization have been promoted to help fill the voids. New head coach David Adelman was an assistant under Malone since 2017. Tenzer first worked for the Nuggets as a student intern during the 2005-06 season, while he was a junior at the University of Colorado. He left the team in 2009 to attend Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles, then returned full-time as director of team operations in 2013, under then-GM Tim Connelly.
When Connelly left for Minnesota in 2022, he took Wallace with him. The former Georgetown star guard had spent three years in the Nuggets’ front office, most recently as a scouting coordinator. Now he’s returning to Denver to collaborate with a fellow disciple of Connelly’s tenure.
In lieu of hiring a general manager by title, the Nuggets are assigning two executives with complementary strengths to oversee basketball operations on a day-to-day basis. Tenzer has long been a salary cap and CBA expert for Denver’s front office. Wallace, 39, is regarded as a bright basketball mind with useful background as a player. Both will report to team president and KSE vice chairman Josh Kroenke, who recently said that “I need to be more hands-on in the moments of transition.”
It’s an unorthodox management structure that team owner Stan Kroenke has used in the past. From 2006 to 2010, Mark Warkentien served as vice president of basketball ops, and Rex Chapman was vice president of player personnel. The Nuggets made the playoffs every year of their tenure but never escaped the first round except in 2009, when they reached the Western Conference Finals and Warkentien was named NBA Executive of the Year.
A former Basketball Without Borders instructor and Summer League operations coordinator, Tenzer was most recently the general manager of Denver’s G League affiliate team, the Grand Rapids Gold. Wallace was general manager for the Iowa Wolves, Minnesota’s G League affiliate.
They’re joining a short list of active NBA general managers and top executives with backgrounds as a G League GM: Sean Marks (Brooklyn), Mike Gansey (Cleveland), Elton Brand (Philadelphia), Trajan Langdon (Detroit) and Anthony Parker (Orlando).
“Ben and I have been spending a lot of time together, talking about each individual player, how we think we can improve them as individuals and within the context of the team,” Josh Kroenke said in May, early in what turned out to be a long-winded search for Booth’s replacement. “Ben has a lot of great ideas of how we can improve the front office, both internally and externally. And I’m also soliciting a lot of opinions outside.”
The Nuggets conducted a handful of interviews recently with individuals who were perceived by league sources to be second-in-command candidates, especially with assistant general manager Tommy Balcetis not being retained. Like Tenzer, Wallace has no prior experience as an NBA general manager.
They’re tasked with maneuvering the Nuggets out of a corner. Denver’s payroll is bogged down by high-dollar contracts that render it difficult to improve roster depth, particularly under the constraints of a new NBA collective bargaining agreement that took effect on July 1, 2023 — three weeks after the Nuggets won their first championship.
Since then, Denver has been eliminated in the second round of the playoffs two consecutive years, both times in a Game 7. The team’s most significant roster casualties have been the losses of Bruce Brown and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope in free agency. Still, Denver fielded the seventh-most expensive roster in the league last season, and it’s projected by Hoops Hype to have the fifth-highest payroll in 2025-26 when a max contract extension takes effect for Jamal Murray.
Tenzer and Wallace will have the taxpayer mid-level exception at their disposal this offseason, allowing them to sign a free agent at a salary of up to $5.7 million. Other than that, they’re limited to veteran minimum contracts. Denver is the only team in the NBA without a pick in the upcoming draft, which begins this Wednesday — two days after the front-office hires.
Tenzer and the Nuggets’ current scouting staff have been formulating a pre-draft plan since Booth was fired.
Three roster spots are vacant as the new regime begins — those filled last season by DeAndre Jordan, Vlatko Cancar and Russell Westbrook, who is declining a player option. Among Denver’s first decisions will be whether to re-sign any of those players or bring in newcomers.
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Originally Published:
Denver, CO
Suspects sought in Denver shooting that killed teen, wounded 3 others
Denver police are searching for suspects in a Saturday night parking lot shooting that killed a 16-year-old and wounded three men, at least one of whom is not expected to survive, according to the agency.
Officers responded to the shooting in the 10100 block of East Hampden Avenue about 10:30 p.m. Saturday, near where East Hampden intersects South Galena Street, according to an alert from the Denver Police Department.
Police said a group of people had gathered in a parking lot on the edge of the city’s Kennedy neighborhood to celebrate the U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro when the shooting happened.
Paramedics took one victim to a hospital, and two others were taken to the hospital in private vehicles, police said. A fourth victim, identified by police as 16-year-old William Rodriguez Salas, was dropped off near Iliff Avenue and South Havana Street, where he died from his wounds.
At least one of the three victims taken to hospitals — a 26-year-old man, a 29-year-old man and a 33-year-old man — is not expected to survive, police said Tuesday. One man was in critical condition Sunday night, one was in serious condition and one was treated for a graze wound and released.
No suspects had been identified publicly or arrested as of Tuesday afternoon.
Anyone with information on the shooting is asked to contact Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-7867. Tipsters can remain anonymous and may be eligible for a cash reward.
This is a developing story and may be updated.
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Denver, CO
Denver’s flavored vape ban sends customers across city lines
The new year in Colorado brought new restrictions for people who vape in Denver. As of January 1, a voter-approved ban on flavored nicotine products is now in effect in Denver, prohibiting the sale of flavored e-cigarettes and vaping products within city limits.
Just outside the Denver border, vape shops say they’re already feeling the ripple effects.
At Tokerz Head Shop in Aurora, located about a block and a half from the Denver city line, owner Gordon McMillon says customers are beginning to trickle in from Denver.
“I was in shock it passed, to be honest,” McMillon said. “Just because of how many people vape in Denver. But we’re hoping to take care of everybody that doesn’t get their needs met over there anymore.”
One of those customers is Justin Morrison, who lives in the Denver area and vapes daily. He stopped by the Aurora shop a day after the ban went into place.
Morrison says the ban won’t stop him from vaping. It will just change where he buys his products.
“I’m going to have to come all the way to Aurora to get them,” he said. “It’s pretty inconvenient. I smoke flavored vapes every day.”
The goal of the ban, according to public health advocates, is to reduce youth vaping.
Morrison said flavored vapes helped him quit smoking cigarettes, an argument frequently raised by adult users and vape retailers who oppose flavor bans.
“It helped tremendously,” he said. “I stopped liking the flavor of cigarettes. The taste was nasty, the smell was nasty. I switched all the way over to vapes, and it helped me stop smoking cigarettes completely.”
McMillon worries bans like Denver’s could push some former smokers back to cigarettes.
“If they can’t get their vapes, some will go back to cigarettes, for sure,” he said. “I’ve asked people myself, and it’s about 50-50.”
While McMillon acknowledges it will bring more business to shops outside Denver, he says the ban wasn’t something he wanted.
“Even if it helps me over here in Aurora, I’m against it,” he said. “I feel like adults should have the rights if they want to vape or not.”
More than 500 retailers in Denver removed their flavored products. For many, they accounted for the majority of their sales. Denver’s Department of Public Health and Environment says it will begin issuing fines and suspensions to retailers found selling flavored tobacco products.
Both McMillan and Morrison say they’re concerned the ban could spread to other cities. For now, Aurora vape shops remain legal alternatives for Denver customers.
Despite the added drive, Morrison says quitting isn’t on the table.
“It’s an addiction. You’re going to find a way to get it. That’s why I don’t see the point of banning it here,” Morrison said.
Denver, CO
Planning to begin in Denver for American Indian Cultural Embassy
Denver will be the site of the United States’ first-ever American Indian Cultural Embassy.
Funding for the project was approved by Denver voters in the Vibrant Denver Bond measure.
The vision is for the embassy to welcome Native people back home to Colorado.
On the snowy day of CBS News Colorado’s visit, Rick Williams observed the buffalo herd at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge.
“These animals are sacred to us,” said Williams, who is Oglala Lakota and Cheyenne. “This was our economy. They provided everything we needed to live a wonderful lifestyle.”
Williams is president of People of the Sacred Land and a leader in the effort to build an American Indian Cultural Embassy.
“‘Homeland’ is a special term for everybody, right?” Williams asked. “But for people who were alienated, for American Indians who were alienated from Colorado, they don’t have a home, they don’t have a home community that you can go to, this is it. And I think that’s sad.”
The First Creek Open Space — near 56th and Peña, near the southeast corner of the Arsenal — is owned by the City and County of Denver and is being considered for development of the embassy.
“To have a space that’s an embassy that would be government-to-government relations on neutral space,” said Denver City Councilmember Stacie Gilmore, who represents northeast Denver District 11. “But then also supporting the community’s economic development and their cultural preservation.”
Gilmore said $20 million from the Vibrant Denver Bond will support the design and construction of the center to support Indigenous trade, arts, and education.
“That sense of connection and that sense of place and having a site is so important if you’re going to welcome people back home,” added Gilmore.
“What a great treasure for people in Colorado,” Williams said as he read the interpretive sign at the wildlife refuge.
He said the proposed location makes perfect sense: “Near the metropolitan area, but not necessarily in the metropolitan area, we would love to be near buffalo. We would love to be in an area where there’s opportunities for access to the airport.”
The Denver March Powwow could one day be held at the embassy.
Williams dreams of expanding the buffalo herd nearby and having the embassy teach future generations Indigenous skills and culture.
The concept for the embassy is one of the recommendations emerging from the Truth, Restoration, and Education Commission, a group of American Indian leaders in Colorado who began to organize four years ago to study the history of Native Americans in our state.
And the work is just beginning.
“We have to think about, ‘how do we maintain sustainability and perpetuity of a facility like this?’” Williams said. “So there’s lots of issues that are going to be worked on over the next year or so.”
Williams added, “One day our dreams are going to come true, and those tribes are going to come, and we’re going to have a big celebration out here. We’re going to have a drum, and we’re going to sing honor songs, and we’re going to have just the best time ever welcoming these people back to their homeland.”
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston’s staff sent the following statement:
“We are excited about the passing of the Vibrant Denver Bond and the opportunity it creates to invest in our city’s first American Indian Cultural Embassy. We are committed to working hand-in-hand with the Indigenous community to plan and develop the future embassy, and city staff have already been invited to listen and engage with some of our local American Indian groups, like the People of the Sacred Land. We are not yet at the stage of formal plans, but we are excited to see the momentum of this project continue.”
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