Candid and Lengthy Q&A With (Nuggets VP B-Ball Operations) Mark Warkentien

[ABM]

Great stuff...............

From: Pro Basketball News

Although there were a flurry of deals at Thursday's trading deadline, the best move came over three months ago, when the Denver Nuggets sent Allen Iverson to the Detroit Pistons for Chauncey Billups in a swap of star guards. While Detroit has struggled to acclimate Iverson, Billups has fit perfectly in Denver, lifting the Nuggets to the top of the Northwest Division and serious contender status in the rugged Western Conference.

The architect of this deal was Mark Warkentien, who has been the Nuggets' vice president of basketball operations since September 2006. Warkentien has always had a terrific eye for talent, whether it was helping Jerry Tarkanian build a national champion at UNLV or Bob Whitsitt construct a powerful Portland Trail Blazers team that reached the Western Conference finals in 1999 and 2000.

Less than an hour after Thursday's deadline, Warkentien was nice enough to speak with PBN about some of the details of his job and how it is similar to poker, football and the stock market all at once.....................

 

[STOMP]

nice read throughout, but I found this early bit on the salary cap worth highlighting.

PBN: Did you sense a reluctance to deal from some of your colleagues when it became known that the salary cap may be going down next season?

MW: I don't think this year's salary cap had a huge impact on things, but the 2010 salary cap, the impact the economy could have on that weighs more on the minds of the decision-makers. Suite renewals, season tickets, things like that, most of those decisions were made before the economic tsunami. When businesses go to renew this summer, it's going to be tougher than it was last summer. The consequences could be -- you could argue -- while the revenues are maybe flat this year, they could be down next year and that would have a real impact, if that were the case.

so the 2009-10 cap will probably be effected but not drastically because much of the league's revenue stream was in place before the recent "economic tsunami." But the 2010-11 cap could really go down. If the salary cap goes way down so does the line on Luxury Tax meaning more teams will be paying double for every dollar over. Where that 2009-10 cap is set really bears watching.

Like KP said in his post trade deadline conference..."If the economics get worse, that might be better for us."

STOMP

 

[Bwatcher]

Thanks ABM, a good read.

 

[handiman]

I wonder if some of the star players will sign shorter term deals these next two summers? Figure there won't be as much money to commit right now, but deals could be better once the economy rebounds.