Nuggets President of Basketball Operations Tim Connelly Reflects on Season

Nuggets President of Basketball Operations Tim Connelly met the media for annual end of season "press conference." In an unconventional season, Connelly's appearance from in front of the only blank wall in his "Grandmother In-Laws" house in Washington D.C. was perhaps a fitting end.

Connelly pretty much answered every question you might think he'd be asked about his team that had a disappointing in to a fun year. The one thing he agreed with pretty much everyone in Nuggets Nation was, his team was ultimately to injured to advance beyond the 2nd round against a healthier Phoenix Suns team.

The most poignant things Connelly shared came at the end of a question about fans being frustrated, and guarding against overreacting to the way the season ended, "you have to be honest." he said. "We wanted to be 1 of 16 teams, then 1 of 8, we were, we eventually want to be one of one. I really like our foundation, but until we have this press conference after we win a championship, we're falling short, so how do we continue to ensure we're moving closer to that goal, not further away."

Roster makeup is always going to be a topic and he was asked first about any potential changes "you're always trying to get better, "Connelly said" we really enjoyed this group, the more we can keep the better."

As expected, Connelly raved about the season NBA MVP Nikola Jokic had, but did acknowledge his fatigue down the stretch and into the playoffs. "It's a tough one, because the old school part of me, I want him to play and he wants to play," he said. "But we also can't ignore some of the numbers. It's a delicate balance. When you have a guy that really wants to play every night. To me it's counter-intuitive to tell him not to play. The messaging can be mixed. Nikola has really grown in his leadership. He's not a rah-rah guy per se, but I think inspires with his approach, and his willingness to play everyday...I think that's part of culture. So, there's that. He's absolutely exhausted, we asked him to do so much on both ends of the floor...we asked Nikola to do a lot of things he had previously not done in his career. Like always, I think Nikola will decide. If he wants to play, it's hard to keep him off the court. But we are cognizant of the wear-and-tear that his role can be, but we have to be as strategic as possible and insure that he's as fresh as he needs to be if we're lucky enough to get in the post-season next year.

And Connelly likely got Nuggets fans excite when he talked about Michael Porter Jr.'s growth and possible contract extension, "offensively you see he's in pretty rare company, what he's accomplished his 2nd full season. We're excited, we know how bad he wants it, and we want it just as bad. You guys got to know him, he's basketball obsessed. His work ethic is A+...we'll sit down with Michael's representation. Our M.O. is when we can, we try lock guys up and reward them for what they've done. We've had a lot of luck getting things done, early, rather than later, and I think it's helped with our culture. These guys are colleagues, they're not assets. The more proactive we can be to build a sustainable roster, the better.