Who will the Nuggets’ president of basketball operations and their general manager pick in the first and second rounds of the NBA draft Wednesday and Thursday nights?

Alas, the Nuggets do not have a president of basketball operations and haven’t hired a new general manager, and the franchise doesn’t own a first- or second-round draft pick this year.

Other than that, Kroenke & Son, how’s the play?

What if the NBA gave a draft, and the Nuggets didn’t even come?

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I bought a $5 Colorado Lottery scratch ticket featuring the Nuggets (with 25 prizes of $5,280 and a top award of $50,000) at the grocery store on Friday. If your (Nuggets) score is higher than the opponent’s (say, Thunder) you win the prize amount shown. Using a nickel, I revealed all 20 scores. The Nuggets and I lost every box with scores such as 95-91, 131-121, 135-133, 115-102, 138-137, 129-127 and 105-93 (each for $50K) and even 99-94 (for $5). I still have a nickel. But could this be the precursor (lottery ball) ticket to the Nuggets’ 2025-26 season?

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The Nuggets’ approach the draft this week as the only team in the league without either a first- or a second-round choice and without a bonified general manager or any kind of president of basketball operations.

Should the Nugs’ slogan be: “Woe R Us.’’

But they do have Josh Kroenke, who averaged a triple single (2.6 points, 1.3 rebounds and 0.9 assists) in four seasons from 1999-2003 at the University of Missouri as the fortunate son of Stan Kroenke and Ann Walton Kroenke. Ann’s family owns Walmart and the Broncos. Stan owns the NFL Rams, the NBA Nuggets, the NHL Avalanche, the MLS Rapids, the NLL Woolly Mammoth, The Jar Arena in Denver, Dick’s Sporting Goods Stadium in Commerce City and SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif. He now owns Elitch Gardens amusement park and River Mile Development. Kroenke also pursued a purchase proposal for the Rockies, but Dick Monfort wasn’t selling. Kroenke has won six professional titles, Monfort none.

Stan The Man (named for Baseball Hall of Fame members Enos Slaughter and Stan Musial) also owns North London’s Arsenal Football Club (and stadium) in the English Premier League.

And therein lies the rub.

Josh The Younger said at his Nuggets’ season-ending conference with the press that he hasn’t been spending sufficient time with this franchise since the championship season two years ago. The 45-year-old Josh oversees the Nugs, the Avs and the Raps, and he also is the vice chairman of Arsenal (which is not known by a shortened nickname for an obvious reason) and the Kroenke sports empire’s primary link to the soccer league.

For a myriad of years Josh regularly has jetted back and forth from his home in Denver to London. It always seemed that The Double Trust Funder was paying more attention to Arsenal activities than his duties with the Nuggets and the Avalanche. Stan is too busy buying all the land in the country not owned by Coloradan John Malone. Kroenke bought the largest ranch in Texas and controls about 800,000 other acres and rarely spends time in Denver. Therefore, by gosh, Josh has risen from backup guard to point man.

Josh certainly has been spreading his sports loyalty and leadership way too thin, as he admitted publicly when claiming he would become more involved with the Nuggets.

However, it must be revealed that in early March, when the Nuggets and the Avalanche were jockeying in their conferences for pivotal playoff positions, Josh Kroenke instead was at Arsenal practice. Manager (coach) Mikel Arteta told the media he was happy that Josh had traveled to London “and he really wants to be around the team.”

Oh, really.

Meanwhile, the strife between Nug coach Michael Malone and GM Calvin Booth was intensifying then, and the Avs’ front office was fretting daily over potential major trades.

At least, the Avalanche have a president of operations (Joe Sakic) and a general manager (Chris MacFarland). The Nuggets have neither. In the NHL draft Friday and Saturday the Avs will not have a first-round pick because of a trade, but will choose in the second round. In the NBA draft the Nugs have neither.

Where in the world is Josh Kroenke?

Not where he should be.

Woody Paige has been a sports and general columnist in Colorado with the Rocky Mountain News, The Denver Post, The Colorado Springs Gazette and The Denver Gazette since 1974. He has been a commentator for the ESPN network on six different shows for 20 years. woody.paige@gazette.com