A model GM

Chris Tomasson, Rocky Mountain News

Ever since he was a small boy, Ernest Vandeweghe III has been nicknamed Kiki. Well, maybe with the exception of two years he spent in Dallas.


The Mavericks, who employed Vandeweghe from 1999-2001, had another sobriquet for him.


"The players over there nicknamed me Kinko because I was open 24 and seven," Vandeweghe said.


Vandeweghe's official le with the Mavericks was assistant coach and director of player development. Really, though, he was a general manager in training.


In Dallas, Vandeweghe did a little of everything. He worked with players. He advised on player personnel moves. There is no one to confirm it, but he might have restocked the soda machine at night.


"There is no harder worker in the (NBA) than Kiki," Mavericks coach Don Nelson said.


Vandeweghe obviously did something right. After only two seasons in an NBA staff position, he zoomed to the top.


On Aug. 9, 2001, Vandeweghe was named general manager of the Denver Nuggets, the team he starred with from 1980-84. And he's continuing to do a lot right.


The Nuggets were NBA bottom feeder when Vandeweghe arrived as GM. They had gone seven seasons without a winning record. The team was strapped with numerous bad contracts, making the future look bleak. Even Vandeweghe thought it would be four or five years before the Nuggets moved into playoff contention.


Fast-forward three years. The Nuggets are coming off a season in which they were the NBA's surprise team, going 43-39 and advancing to the postseason for the first time in nine years.


"It's quite a success story," Nelson said. "He saved a franchise and turned it around. It's marvelous, the job that he's done."


As far as Vandeweghe is concerned, though, the job is only beginning. The Nuggets head into the free-agent signing period armed with $23 million of salary-cap room.


They also have as trade bait three future first-round picks (all with lottery potential), including one acquired Thursday when they drafted Jameer Nelson at No. 20 and shipped him to Orlando.


Yes, the Nuggets had more than $20 million last summer. And, yes, it turned out OK, with Denver signing the likes of Andre Miller, Earl Boykins and Voshon Lenard.


But the Nuggets were coming off a 17-65 season. Now, Vande- weghe is hopeful that having a playoff team will be an extra lure for potential free agents.


"Ever since I've been a player, I've viewed the summer as critical," said Vandeweghe, who averaged 19.7 points while playing in the NBA from 1980 to 1993 with the Nuggets, Portland, New York and the Los Angeles Clippers. "It's a time when you improve your team. . . . We've got a great community and great fans in place already. Having had a better year certainly will make it easier to attract free agents."


Restricted free-agent shooting guards Quentin Richardson and Jamal Crawford and restricted free-agent big man Mehmet Okur have said they will consider the Nuggets when they can begin talking with teams Thursday. Players can't sign until July 14.


Other restricted free agents high on Denver's list are San Antonio shooting guard Manu Ginobili and New Jersey power forward Kenyon Martin. It's possible the cost-cutting Nets might not match an offer to Martin for the maximum, or a sign-and-trade deal could be arranged.


Unrestricted free agents the Nuggets will look at include Seattle shooting guard Brent Barry, Golden State center Erick Dampier and Detroit forward Rasheed Wallace, a long shot to snare. Another long shot is Lakers guard Kobe Bryant, who is facing a sexual assault charge in Colorado.


Vandeweghe says the "top priority" this summer is retaining free-agent center Marcus Camby, who will ask for a six-year, $60 million deal. That might be too pricey for the Nuggets, but Camby's camp figures to be willing to negotiate, especially because he really wants to stay in Denver.


"I love the city and the people here," said Camby, who initially didn't want to be long for Denver after he came from New York in a draft-night trade two years ago. "Now, we're winning and we still have $20 million to spend this summer. We haven't even reached the pinnacle. Kiki and Stan (Kroenke, the Nuggets owner) have really got this thing going in the right direction."


Building credibility


Things sure have changed. During the 1997-98 season, the Nuggets were the laughingstock of the NBA as they threatened Philadelphia's 1972-73 record futility mark of 9-73 before finishing 11-71.


Now, nobody is laughing as the Nuggets head into the free-agent market with their wad of cash.


"Denver has almost become a chic destination for players," said Donnie Nelson, the Mavericks president of basketball operations and son of the coach. "I think a lot of it is because Kiki's presence has made it a big-time organization that will treat players right.


"Kiki's got a very good relationship with other teams and agents. People like doing business with him because he generally is a kind, big-hearted person, and he's going to cut a (fair) deal. When you talk to Kiki, he's never going to embarrass you with an offer. When guys do that in this league, they lose credibility. But with Kiki, there is a trust factor."


Donnie Nelson calls Vande- weghe a Renaissance man because of his versatility. Throw his people skills, his work ethic, his basketball savvy and his overall smarts (the economics major was a Rhodes Scholar finalist at UCLA) together and it results in an ideal formula for a general manager.


But being a front-office executive wasn't initially what Vande- weghe sought to do when he retired from playing.


Vandeweghe's first foray in the business world was when he became a partner in a financial planning firm and in one that dealt in sports drinks.


Both ended up being lucrative financially. But perhaps they were even more lucrative when it came to Vandeweghe's training to run an NBA team.


"What that really did was give me a lot of experience, having to run your own business," Vande- weghe said. "You have to meet payrolls and meet orders and do things on a shoestring. If your company didn't make money that Monday, you didn't get paid. It was a very clear understanding for me. That was the best thing I ever did."


Still, Vandeweghe, the ultimate gym rat as a player, missed basketball. Living in Los Angeles in the mid- to late 1990s, he began to work with NBA players and prospects, primarily instructing them during the off-season.


Players he worked with included Paul Pierce, Baron Davis and Martin. Perhaps Martin will remember those sessions when free agency arrives.


Passion for basketball


Vandeweghe eventually decided he wanted to be back in basketball full time. He sold his business interests and headed to Dallas when Don Nelson called in 1999.


"I just kind of told my wife (Peggy) that we may have to take a pay cut," he said. "I'm going back to basketball. It's really what I enjoy."


Vandeweghe's wife apparently didn't see him much in Dallas. He always seemed to be toiling at the arena as he worked his way up as an NBA executive.


"How hard he worked was rare from a former player's standpoint," Donnie Nelson said. "For former players, often it's, 'I show up for practice for two hours and then I get to leave.' But Kiki, if some rookie needed work, might tell them to come back at 7 or 8 o'clock at night and they'd be there until 9 or 10."


When Kroenke was looking for a general manager in 2001, Vandeweghe was highly recommended by Dallas' Mark Cuban, the owner of an up-and-coming team that the Nuggets were trying to emulate. And it sure didn't hurt that Vandeweghe once was one of Denver's most popular players (he averaged 29.4 points in 1983-84).


"Although Kiki had no experience as a general manager or as assistant general manager . . . we became comfortable (in the interview process) that he exhibited tremendous passion for basketball, was excellent at player development and had a great knowledge of the game," Kroenke said. "We literally could talk for hours about various approaches that we might employ. . . . Although we received some criticism for (hiring Vandeweghe), we always felt he had the chance to be a great general manager."


When Vandeweghe arrived in Denver as GM, the situation was a mess. Cap-choking contracts had been handed out to the likes of Nick Van Exel, Tariq Abdul- Wahad and Cory Alexander, whose six-year, $14 million deal finally comes off the cap next week, three years after he last played an NBA game.


"If we didn't do something, we were stuck with this team for a long time," said Vandeweghe, whose first Nuggets team went 27-55 in 2001-02. "We could have kept the same team. We could have kept Raef (LaFrentz, a big man who wanted a big contract extension) and then we would have been paying the luxury tax and basically not been any better."


Vandeweghe's goal wasn't only to sneak into the playoffs and be happy. He wanted to build a championship team, which meant tearing down the Nuggets and enduring a few lean years.


"When I first interviewed for this job, Kiki made it clear to me and Stan Kroenke made it clear to me and clear to Jeff Weltman that we weren't satisfied to be a playoff team," said David Fredman, hired along with Weltman by Vandeweghe to be assistant general managers. "We want to be a championship team. And that stays in the back of our minds all the time. Any blueprint we have is how we think we can compete in the (Western Conference) and win a championship."


Many hits, some misses


Vandeweghe made his two biggest deals in his first year on the job. He unloaded LaFrentz, Van Exel and Abdul-Wahad to Dallas in a February 2002 trade that would clear cap room by summer 2003. And, fearful of losing forward Antonio McDyess to free agency and getting nothing in return, Vandeweghe sent McDyess to New York in the deal that brought Camby and a draft pick that became promising forward Nene.


"We did as much research as we could," Vandeweghe said of the moves. "I'm big on that. Then I'm not afraid to make bold moves. . . . We've rolled the dice several times. So far, so good. But you're not going to hit every one out of the ballpark."


True. Vandeweghe's 2002 drafting of forward Nikoloz Tskitishvili with the No. 5 pick might turn out to be a weak dribbler.


But most of Vandeweghe's hits have been for extra bases.


Luck has helped. Forward Carmelo Anthony fell into Denver's lap last summer with the No. 3 pick when Detroit took long-term project Darko Milicic at No. 2.


Meanwhile, Anthony has become the toast of Denver and soon will head to Athens for the Olympics.


"You've got to be a little lucky," said Doug Moe, who coached Vandeweghe with the Nuggets and is now a consultant for the team. "But Kiki really has done a great job of identifying what has to be done. He knew that he had to bite the bullet for a couple of years. It was a struggle for a lot of years in Denver, but I think the Nuggets are going to be a pretty solid team from here on out."


The Nuggets have been so successful in rebuilding that other franchise have followed their example. Atlanta and Phoenix gutted their teams in order to create cap room for this summer, a technique that has been described as "Denverizing."


"Our situation is a little bit different," said Suns president and general manager Bryan Colangelo, whose team had much more success than the Nuggets before falling off last season. "But we certainly have followed Denver's model, especially with the way the Nuggets have been able to attract midlevel free agents who have a chip on their shoulder and come in with something to prove."


While many observers were confident the Nuggets would turn things around, few imagined it would happen so soon. Even Vandeweghe admits some surprise.


"I thought that by year four or five we'd at least be in (playoff) contention and, hopefully, play meaningful games in February and March," Vandeweghe said.


The next step is to play a game in May. The Nuggets missed that by one day last season, being eliminated by Minnesota on April 30 in Game 5 of a Western Conference playoff series.


No cap on future


To continue to advance, the Nuggets this off-season hope to add another low-post player, preferably one who is a solid scorer. They also will look to add stability at shooting guard because Lenard, 31, is seen by many as a stopgap starter.


"Those two things would be good," Vandeweghe said of acquiring a big man and a shooting guard. "But I just think you always want the best players. My job is to get the players and the coach to figure out where to play them."


Vandeweghe said the Nuggets once again will be judicious with their cap space. If they can't sign or trade for $23 million worth of players they want, they'll save money for next summer.


"I've never been big on Band-Aid solutions," Vandeweghe said.


Another question facing the Nuggets is whether Jeff Bzdelik is a Band-Aid coach. Despite leading the Nuggets to a 26-victory improvement in his second season, there has been plenty of speculation whether Bzdelik is the team's long-term coach.


Bzdelik, guaranteed $1.5 million for the third and final year of his contract next season, appears safe for 2004-05.


But Vandeweghe said earlier this week he won't consider an extension for Bzdelik this off-season.


"He's our coach," said Vande- weghe, repeating what he often has said since the end of the season. "He has a contract for next year."


Vandeweghe anticipates that, next season, it will be much more difficult to sneak up on opponents. Playing in the rugged Western Conference, it won't be easy for the Nuggets to pass any of the seven teams that finished ahead of them.


Still, Vandeweghe says it's all about the future, and next season is just another step. But team officials don't mind savoring the big steps that have been taken.


"(The Nuggets are) getting back on the front page," said John MacLeod, a Nuggets assistant for three seasons before leaving the team a month ago. "I used to take (Vandeweghe) the sports page and we'd be on page nine, 10 or 12. He'd say we've got to get on the front page."


Extra! Extra! The news is spreading. Kinko's has a branch at the Pepsi Center that never closes.


Meet Kiki Vandeweghe


• Position: Hired as general manager of the Denver Nuggets on Aug. 9, 2001.


• Age: 45.


• Alma mater: UCLA, 1980.


• Playing career: UCLA, 1976-80. Averaged 19.5 points as a senior and led the Bruins to the NCAA le game . . . NBA, 1980-93. Averaged 19.7 points. Played for the Nuggets from 1980 to 1984, finishing second in the NBA in scoring in 1982-83 with a 26.7 average and third in 1983-84 at 29.4.


• Post-playing career: Partner in financial planning and beverage businesses . . . Ran basketball clinics and conducted workouts with NBA players and prospects . . . Assistant coach and director of player development for the Dallas Mavericks from 1999 to 2001.


• Outside the box: Considered a creative thinker by those in the NBA . . . Has made several bold trades to clear salary-cap room and rebuild the Nuggets . . . Started the Nuggets' open tryout camp, the third of which is scheduled for today.


• Family: Wife, Peggy. Infant son, Ernest Maurice IV. Father, Dr. Ernest Maurice Vandeweghe II (played in the NBA from 1946 to 1955). Mother, Colleen (former Miss America).


Free-agent frenzy