Nuggets’ Aaron Gordon lobbies for interim coach David Adelman to get full-time job: ‘I hope he’s our coach’

Given how well the Denver Nuggets played since David Adelman took over the head-coaching position on an interim basis, it would pretty surprising if he doesn’t get the full-time gig. Denver fired coach Michael Malone with just three games left in the regular season, after which the team won all three to finish with a 50-32 record and home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. The Nuggets beat the Los Angeles Clippers in seven games, then took the No. 1 seed Oklahoma City Thunder to seven games.

After the team’s season ended with a 125-93 Game 7 loss in Oklahoma City on Sunday, Denver forward Aaron Gordon publicly backed Adelman to take on the job on a full-time basis. 

“I love DA,” Gordon told reporters. “I hope he’s here next year. I hope he’s our coach.”

Gordon said that Adelman was “excellent for us,” adding that he hopes Adelman would get “a whole offseason and a whole training camp to figure out his philosophy.”

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The Nuggets slowed down Oklahoma City’s halfcourt offense by playing zone in heavy doses. Denver guard Jamal Murray said that Adelman “did a great job,” citing “the different schemes that we came up with” and the players “keeping a positive attitude and believing in what we can do” after the firing of Malone and general manager Calvin Booth. 

Murray said he was proud of the way the team stuck together under Adelman.

“It’s a tough spot to be,” Nikola Jokić, the Nuggets’ franchise player, told reporters. “We had three games to change something. I think he changed energy. I think the guys were woken up a little bit. The guys had more energy. He made us believe in something. And we played good, you know? We played a seven-game series with probably the best team in the NBA, and we had opportunities, we had chances. I think he did a really good job.”

Asked directly about Adelman’s future with the team, Jokić declined to get involved. “It’s above my pay grade,” he said.

Adelman told reporters that it wasn’t time to think about whether or not he’d be the coach next season. The organization’s “decision-makers will make that decision,” he said. He called the last six weeks “an incredible experience,” though, and credited the players for trying to make it work instead of fracturing.

“To have the buy-in from the guys was really special for me,” Adelman told reporters. 

Adelman continued: “Everyone’s going to remember these Game 7s and the playoff series and all that; I’m going to remember the last three games of the season. Because we showed up in Sacramento in a must-win. We did it. We did it with Memphis on a Friday night. We did it in Houston. Three teams that were vying for position. So those were big-time games. For the guys that quickly to come together and give us this opportunity [is] very special to me. I’ll never forget it.”

Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said that he doesn’t know Adelman “at all,” but came away from the series “very impressed with him from a distance.” He said the Nuggets’ players “really had his back” and noted that they kept competing despite blowout losses in Game 3 against the Clippers and Game 2 in OKC.

“I just told him on the court how much respect I have for him, after having competed against him in this series,” Daigneault said.

Denver’s governor and team president, Josh Kroenke, did not comment directly on the head-coaching position when interviewed by ESPN’s Tim MacMahon postgame. Kroenke did, however, express great pride in the way the Nuggets responded after the firings.

“Outside of the [2023] championship, this is the most proud I’ve been because these guys have really rallied,” Kroenke told ESPN.

ESPN reported that Adelman is a “strong candidate to have the interim tag removed and become the Nuggets’ head coach on a permanent basis,” citing league and team sources.