The Denver Nuggets have given the Sacramento Kings permission to speak with their current Vice President of Basketball Operations Pete D'Alessandro, according to Sam Amick of USA Today.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>The Denver Nuggets have granted permission to the Kings for them to speak with VP of basketball ops Pete D'Alessandro about their GM job.</p>— Sam Amick (@sam_amick) <a href="https://twitter.com/sam_amick/status/343835685880475648">June 9, 2013</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>The Nuggets had deliberated for days after the request was made, but Kings can now sit down with D'Alessandro.</p>— Sam Amick (@sam_amick) <a href="https://twitter.com/sam_amick/status/343835964881399809">June 9, 2013</a></blockquote>
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Speculation from Denver media members on June 7th was that D'Alessandro was about to be named the decision maker of the Nuggets at a press conference led by Josh Kroenke. But that presser did not contain any announcements. With reports swirling about the Kings wanting permission to speak to D'Alessandro I asked Josh about it during the presser:
From yours truly: "We've seen reports that other teams have maybe reached out to speak with Pete D'Alessandro. Can you tell us about his status with the organization?"
JK: "Pete's status with the organization, I think he is here in this room somewhere - maybe hiding in the back. Pete's a great guy, he's a wonderful, wonderful front office executive and when you hire good people, people take notice of that. There have been teams that have taken notice: one obviously with Masai and again with Pete. Pete and I are going to have a conversation about everything that we want to do moving forward. The direction that I want to take this team, the direction that he sees himself in the organization, and Pete's really excited about the opportunities that might be here ahead as well."
What can we get from this statement? There was speculation that today was going to be a press conference announcing Pete at the official GM of the team. He might be stepping in for Masai ... "excited about the opportunities" ... but nothing official yet.
I failed to ask the follow up question of if the Nuggets were going to grant teams permission to speak to Pete, but now we have our answer. I'm not sure why you'd let Pete go speak with another team if you were about to promote him. Did Josh and Pete fail to come to an agreement on him staying in Denver? The Kings have talked with Grizzlies GM Chris Wallace about their open position and rumors came out that Wallace would be interested in bring Pete with him if he got the gig. Well, Pete may now get the job himself.
Allowing one executive to speak with another team has already led to that executive leaving town. Might we see another talented basketball mind on his way out? I sure hope not. Josh Kroenke talked about the excellent team around him - hopefully the Nuggets can keep some of that talent around.
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