

David Adelman will be the permanent head coach of the Denver Nuggets, according to ESPN. Adelman, who held the job on an interim basis in the postseason, took over for Michael Malone after both he and Nuggets general manager Calvin Booth were fired with three games left in the regular season.
At that point, it looked as though the Nuggets were headed for significant offseason change. They were in danger of slipping into the Play-In Tournament at the end of the regular season just two years after winning a championship, and the feud between Malone and Booth over the direction of the team threatened to sink the greatest era in team history.
However, the Nuggets turned things around pretty much as soon as Adelman took over. The Nuggets won all three of his regular-season games as head coach, clinched the No. 4 seed in the Western Conference, and then beat the Los Angeles Clippers in seven games in the first round.
From there, they pushed the 68-win Oklahoma City Thunder to the absolute brink in the second round, winning Game 1 on the road and forcing the series to seven games. If Aaron Gordon hadn’t strained his hamstring at the end of Game 6, and if Michael Porter Jr. hadn’t played through a serious shoulder injury all postseason, the Nuggets might even have been able to topple the championship favorites and win a second championship in three seasons.
They came up short in the final game, but coaching wasn’t the issue. Adelman’s zone defense gave the Thunder fits all series. His trust in Russell Westbrook led to inarguably his best playoff series since leaving the Thunder in 2019. Adelman took over a flawed, thin and injured roster and took it further than anyone considered likely.
Now he will remain in the top job in Denver as the Nuggets look for a general manager to replace Booth. Their roster will probably look somewhat different next season, but with Adelman in place, they can maintain schematic consistency and build on what went right in this postseason run.
This news was originally published on this post .
Be the first to leave a comment