The Nuggets won’t be retaining assistant general manager Tommy Balcetis, according to a report from DNVR Sports (Twitter link).
Multiple sources confirmed the news to Bennett Durando of The Denver Post, who notes that Balcetis had been on an expiring contract, which won’t be renewed.
Balcetis has been with the Nuggets since 2013. He was initially hired as the team’s basketball analytics manager and worked his way up the organization from there, earning the title of director of strategy and analytics, then VP of basketball strategy and analytics. In 2020, following Arturas Karnisovas‘ departure from the organization, Calvin Booth was promoted from assistant GM to general manager, with Balcetis promoted into Booth’s old assistant GM role.
Notably, however, it was VP of basketball operations and G League GM Ben Tenzer who was named the Nuggets’ interim general manager in April when the club dismissed Booth, with Balcetis remaining in his assistant GM position at that time.
Although Balcetis has since been mentioned as a potential candidate to become the Nuggets’ permanent head of basketball operations, the fact that the club initially chose Tenzer over him perhaps signaled that this split was coming.
With little indication that the Nuggets have been seriously considering options outside of the organization, Tenzer now looks like the clear favorite to run the team’s basketball operations department going forward, though it’s possible Denver has just done an excellent job keeping a more expansive front office search under wraps. As for Balcetis, I wouldn’t expect it to take long for him to find work with another NBA team.