In 2020, Calvin Booth was named GM of the Denver Nuggets by Tim Connelly, president of basketball operations for the franchise and a real decision-maker in town. In May 2022, the latter left Colorado for Minnesota and Calvin Booth must therefore succeed him as the real boss. A difficult task to assume but which Calvin Booth seems to accommodate, since he has just been extended in this role. A look back at his career as a player and manager, sometimes chaotic, sometimes more peaceful.
Tim Connelly in Denver is a nine-year story. Nine years during which he worked, little by little, to try to bring the Nuggets to the heights of the Western Conference. And that’s what he managed to do since after five seasons without a Playoff, the Colorado franchise returned to the postseason in 2019 and hasn’t left it since. She even climbed to the Conference final in 2020, a final lost to future champions, the Lakers of LeBron James and Anthony Davis. But Tim Connelly in Denver is all about building a team. It’s Nikola Jokić, Jamal Murray, Michael Porter Jr… All of this never ended but it could have, thanks to the injuries, and then like any good story at an end, this summer Tim Connelly decided to go to greener countries perhaps, in Minnesota, at the Wolves of Karl-Anthony Towns and now Rudy Gobert.
In Denver it is therefore Calvin Booth who now has full powers or almost. The succession task is complicated, but CB has just signed a new three-year contract, until 2025, and for owner Josh Kroenke, this decision was a no-brainer.
“Calvin has been an integral part of what we’ve been doing here for five years and he has my full confidence as GM. He knows basketball from every angle and is extremely bright. I look forward to continuing with him and the entire organization to achieve the goal: bring an NBA championship to the Denver Nuggets. –Josh Kroenke
A mark of confidence for a man who knows the NBA very well since he has been around it for the last century. In sportswear, first, because Calvin Booth had a long career as a side player: 3.3 points in 12 minutes per game, all this spread over ten seasons, and all this in several franchises, many franchises even: Washington, Dallas, Seattle, Dallas again, Milwaukee, Washington again, Philadelphia, Minnesota and Sacramento, impossible to write that while holding your breath. We let you count how much it is, seven different franchises with eight transfers on the counter for lazy people, a good stable career in short, for a man whose ugliness was more often mentioned than his talent, his ears apparently picking up TNT long before that it does not exist.
This instability, one would have thought that he would also know it in his post-career, when he left the Pelicans and his scout post after only one season. But no, Calvin Booth then stayed four years with the Timberwolves, before joining the Nuggets… and this time that’s it, it’s only been three franchises and it’s easier to say in one breath. La Calve therefore arrived in Denver in 2017 as an assistant GM, taking advantage of his past acquaintance with Tim Connelly, whom he knew in New Orleans and in Minnesota. Five years that he has been a leader within the franchise, therefore, we asked for stability and we have it. This is also his main asset for his new mission: he knows the franchise very well, his players, his staff, the Connelly method, and all that remains is to apply it by adding his homemade hot sauce.
Easier said than done of course, but there are some things that bode well. The roster is stable, the stars are still there and, above all, Jamal Murray is back after a cruciate ligament rupture and a season and a half without playing. With all of this and in a still-strong Western Conference that feels like it’s never going to change, Calvin Booth could, as a true decision-maker, do as well as his predecessor: reach the Conference Finals. It has already been activated this summer, with the arrivals in particular of Bruce Brown Jr. and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. To go even further?
Calvin Booth has the difficult task of succeeding Tim Connelly as boss of the Denver Nuggets, but he has what it takes to succeed given his leadership background. It remains to be seen whether he can use his experience (and his ears) to take Nikola Jokić and Jamal Murray to the roof of the NBA.