Chicago Bulls: Breaking down new front office candidates

Arturas Karnisovas, Denver Nuggets GM

The Denver Nuggets have a general manager that was mentioned around other NBA camps that had various front office openings in each of the last three or four years. Nuggets GM Arturas Karnisovas has held his position in Denver since the summer of 2013. And he’s made a lot of good moves to build up that franchise since.

Karnisovas is a Lithuanian that played his college hoops with the Seton Hall Pirates under notable former head coach P.J. Carlesimo. But he spent most of his professional basketball career overseas, including finishing out his journey in EuroBasket with FC Barcelona. He then started his executive career in a basketball operations role with the NBA’s league office.

After his time in the NBA basketball operations office was over (held that role from 2003-2008), Karnisovas took an international scouting role with the Houston Rockets. He was also the director of the Adidas EuroCamp in 2011 and 2012. He did well as a scout with the Rockets by all accounts for a few years. Karnisovas would then landing the current position he sits with now.

In July 2013, the Nuggets brought Karnisovas aboard as their general manager. He’s drafted well to build up the Nuggets to the point they’re at now. But most of his work in building up rosters in the NBA came in scout and front office roles overseas.

Karnisovas is noted in the NBA Draft, along with the rest of the Nuggets front office, for taking bigger risks with players that fit into the modern style of basketball at the highest level. He also takes risks on players with injury problems and limited big time exposure that have very high ceilings (e.g. Michael Porter Jr. and Bol Bol).

The most notable signing that Karnisovas made as the Nuggets general manager of late is the contract of veteran big man Paul Millsap. While Millsap is a solid piece to the Nuggets rotation, he is a bit overpaid at this point (getting an average annual salary around $30 million).