Nuggets VP named Executive of Year

Denver Nuggets vice president of basketball operations Mark Warkentien has been named the NBA’s Executive of the Year, a league source said Saturday afternoon.

Warkentien engineered the early season trade that sent Allen Iverson to the Detroit Pistons for point guard Chauncey Billups, a move that helped turn the Nuggets into one of the top Western Conference contenders. Warkentien’s budget free-agent signings of guard Dahntay Jones and center Chris Andersen also helped strengthen Denver’s roster.

Warkentien joined the Nuggets in the summer of 2005 as director of player personnel. He was promoted to vice president of basketball operations a year later.

The Executive of the Year award is voted on by the league’s general managers.