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Back in June of 2013 the Nuggets hired Tim Connelly as their general manager. Just days after Connelly's hiring, two of the Nuggets' three scouts left the team when Mike Bratz joined the Sacramento Kings and Dan Tolzman joined Masai Ujiri in Toronto with the Raptors.
The only scout remaining to help navigate the 2013 NBA draft with Connelly was Herb Livsey. Today we learned that former NBA player Jared Jeffries, who appeared in 38 games for the Portland Trail Blazers last season, will be joining the front office in a scouting role. From Adrian Wojnarowski from Yahoo! Sports:
Jared Jeffries, an 11-year NBA veteran, is transitioning out of his playing career and has accepted a front-office job with the Denver Nuggets, league sources told Yahoo Sports.
He will begin his post-playing career centered on a scouting role, sources said.
Jeffries, 31, has a strong history with new Nuggets general manager Tim Connelly, who worked in the Washington front office when Jeffries played with the Wizards from 2002-06.
Jeffries joins new hires Arturas Karnisovas (assistant GM), director of basketball operations Ben Tenzer, international scout Rafal Juc, and manager of basketball analytics Tommy Balcetis in the front office.
I'll always remember Jeffries for his run with the Indiana Hoosiers during the 2002 NCAA tournament. He led the 5th seeded Hoosiers all the way to the title game, where they lost to Juan Dixon's Maryland Terrapins, 64-52. Both Jeffries and Dixon led the tournament with 155 points each. Jeffries went on to be the 11th pick of the Washington Wizards and had his highest scoring NBA season in 2004-05 when he put up 6.8 points per game.