After David Adelman Named Next Nuggets Head Coach, What’s Next For The Troubled Team?

The Denver Nuggets have named David Adelman the next head coach after his stint as the interim coach.

Adelman took over for Michael Malone after the championship coach was fired with three games remaining in the regular season. Adelman kept the ship afloat the best he could after the surprising dismissal. The Nuggets won three key games to secure the fourth seed in the Western Conference before leading the Nuggets to a first-round win over the Los Angeles Clippers in seven games.

The Nuggets ended up playing the number one seed Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference semifinals, where they pushed MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s team to the limit as the Thunder beat the Nuggets in seven games.

The Nuggets had to deal with some struggles during the series against the Thunder, as Aaron Gordon struggled throughout the series due to battling a hamstring strain throughout the series. The Nuggets’ lack of depth was exposed by the Thunder as they went on to blow the Nuggets out in the final game of the series in a 125-93 loss.

The Nuggets’ three-time MVP Nikola Jokić talked in a press conference about how the team needs to improve its depth.

“We definitely need it,” Jokić said during a press conference. “It seems like the teams that have longer rotations, longer bench, are the ones that are winning.” 

Adelman has been part of the Nuggets since the start of the 2017-2018 season, he first joined the NBA coaching ranks in 2011 under his father, Rick Adelman, who was the head coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves at the time. Next year will be Adelman’s first season as a full-time head coach in the NBA.