The Denver Nuggets are sticking with David Adelman for the franchise’s next chapter. The Nuggets announced Thursday that Adelman had been promoted to be Denver’s head coach after less than two months in an interim role.
Adelman became the team’s interim head coach in early April after Denver fired Michael Malone with just three games left in the regular season. Under Adelman’s leadership, the Nuggets won those final three games before beating the Los Angeles Clippers in the first round of the playoffs. Denver then went on to give the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder all they could handle in the conference semifinals before ultimately losing in seven games.
Adelman, 44, was hired by Denver as an assistant in 2017, spending eight seasons in that position before being promoted. Adelman is the son of longtime NBA coach Rick Adelman.
Prior to joining the Nuggets, David Adelman spent time with the Orlando Magic and Minnesota Timberwolves. In a news conference Thursday, Nuggets vice chairman Josh Kroenke noted Adelman’s connection to the team as being a major asset moving forward.
“Since he arrived here in [2017], he’s been on our staff, he’s grown with the group,” Kroenke said. “He understands their tendencies as players, but I think equally as important now … is he knows them as people, what makes them tick. And I think bringing somebody from the outside, while I was very open-minded to it initially, I saw the cohesiveness of the relationships on the human side. I think that’s a big factor in where we’re heading with this group now, in getting the most out of them.”
Denver’s stunning decision to fire both Malone and general manager Calvin Booth so late in the season raised plenty of eyebrows. Though Kroenke said at the time the decision “was not made lightly,” it was still an unprecedented move for a team that was in fourth place in the conference standings and for a staff that had won an NBA championship just two years ago. (Tensions between Malone and Booth likely led to their firing.)
Now Denver is moving on with Adelman. With the Nuggets’ coaching vacancy filled, they will now turn to their opening at general manager.
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