DENVER — Kroenke Sports & Entertainment vice chairman Josh Kroenke said Friday the Denver Nuggets are entering a “championship or bust” chapter that will be guided by general manager Calvin Booth following the recent departure of executive Tim Connelly to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

“We’re entering a new phase of the organization, and with this squad in particular, which is: It’s championship or bust. And this is the first time those words have been uttered around these halls, I think,” Kroenke said.

Fulfilling that promise depends on the returns of Jamal Murray (knee) and Michael Porter Jr. (back) to the court alongside star Nikola Jokic, who led the Nuggets to a 48-win season without his fellow star players last season.

“We have a two-time MVP, we have two more All-Star-caliber players coming off injuries,” Kroenke said. “And I think that we are poised in a way that perhaps this organization hasn’t been in the past.

“And that excites me. But that brings a lot of pressure. We’re no longer the underdog that’s kind of the lovable guys that are bouncing along from Denver, Colorado. I think that when we get healthy and show what we’re capable of, we will have a target on our back.”

In a wide-ranging 33-minute news conference — his first since 2015 — Kroenke said both the Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche will get new training facilities as part of a massive redevelopment plan near Ball Arena.

Kroenke also said he frets over the impact on young fans from a nearly three-year local television blackout of Nuggets and Avalanche games stemming from a dispute with the state’s largest cable company.

Courtesy; CBS Sports