When Nuggets president of basketball operations Tim Connelly came to Denver in 2013, his goals were to build a championship organization and develop everyone within the franchise, from players, to coaches, to basketball operations staff.
Arturas Karnisovas’ impending promotion from Nuggets general manager to the new top executive of the Chicago Bulls represents a natural progression for him after he’d been a finalist for similar roles twice before. Given the Nuggets’ rise — they’re the only team in the NBA to improve their win total each of the last four years — and the health of their organization, it felt inevitable Karnisovas was going to get an opportunity to run his own team at some point.