Should John Calipari Be Denver’s Next Coach?

Denver Nuggets head coach Melvin Hunt seems to have the team moving in a better direction, but there are still a number of questions regarding his coaching ability. He began his coaching tenure with six wins over his first eight games, but his team has hit a rough patch over the past 10 games (2-8 record). The Nuggets have often looked overmatched on both ends of the floor and they have been out of a number of games early.

Hunt seems to have a solid reputation as an offensive coach, but if you look at the Nuggets numbers over the past 10 games, you will see that they have been below the league average offensively. The team has been averaging 97.4 points per-game, while shooting 42.6-percent from the field and 34.5-percent from the three-point stripe — Denver ranks 19^th or worse in all three of those statistics.

As bad as the team has been on offense, they have been far worse on the defensive side of the ball. The team has given up 105.6 points per-game (27^th in the league) over that 10-game stretch, while allowing teams to shoot 47.2-percent (26^th) from the floor and 36.4-percent from beyond the arc. While it is smart for Hunt to maximize the city’s elevation and implement a fast-paced offense, it is not going to work if you can’t score more points than the other team — and they are failing on both sides of that equation.

More from Nugg Love

• Was trading Bones Hyland a mistake for the Denver Nuggets?
• Did Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets break Anthony Davis?
• Denver Nuggets stars face serious disrespect in recent NBA rankings poll
• What will it take for Denver Nuggets star to become ‘inevitable?’
• Denver Nuggets NBA Training Camp report, other preseason dates to know

Hunt will gain some consideration for this coaching job when the offseason rolls around, but that may be out of respect for how he has handled the situation. Considering where the Nuggets were a month ago, you might as well show the man some respect and at least feign some interest in his coaching abilities. In the end, they would be wise to go in another direction, but where should they look?

One name that is being mentioned as a potential NBA head coaching candidate is Kentucky Wildcats coach John Calipari. He is fresh off of a Final Four loss to the Wisconsin Badgers last night, and there are rumors that he wants to return to the one league where he failed as a coach. Last offseason, Calipari reportedly turned down a 10-year, nearly $80 million offer to become the Cleveland Cavaliers head coach/team president. Whether these rumors of Calipari wanting to the return to the league this summer have any merit, the Nuggets may want to explore this possibility.

Calipari has been a successful collegiate coach for the better part of three decades, coaching the Massachusetts Minutemen, Memphis Tigers and Kentucky Wildcats to a combined six Final Four’s. He has a 593-174 overall record, including nine 30-win seasons, and he has been named the National Coach of the Year five times in his career. He has made three NCAA Championship Game appearances (2008 with Memphis, 2012 and 2014 with Kentucky) and his 2012 Wildcats won the National Championship. There isn’t too much more he can do in the NCAA, so a return to the NBA would make a lot of sense.

In 1996, Calipari left UMass for the opportunity to coach the New Jersey Nets. His first season was a disaster and he won only 26 games, but the team made some significant strides in his second season. They ended up winning 43 games and clinching the Playoffs on the last day of the season, but they were swept in three games by the Chicago Bulls. There was a lot of optimism surrounding the Nets headed into the lockout-shortened 1999 season, but the team was a complete disappointment. Calipari lost his job 20 games into the season, with the Nets sitting at 3-17. He coached one more season in the NBA as an assistant under his mentor Larry Brown (for the Philadelphia 76ers), and made it all the way the NBA Finals, where Philadelphia lost the Los Angeles Lakers in five games.

Shortly after making a Finals appearance with the 76ers, Calipari went back to the college ranks as the head coach at Memphis. That’s where he reclaimed his identity as respected coach. In 2006, Calipari instituted a new dribble-drive motion offense that consists of four players spread along the perimeter and one big man in the lane. The offense is based on spacing and rotating, with the point guard initiating the first drive. If he can make it to the basket, he will attempt to shoot the ball, but if he is cut off, he will kick it out to one of the men roaming the perimeter. The process will begin again with the new ball handler, as the rest of the team rotates. The man in the post will usually stay weak-side, but sometimes the point guard will initially dump the ball in to begin the offense — depending on the look of the defense. This offense became known as the ‘Memphis Attack’ and Calipari has won a number of games (and recruits) based on this scheme.

April 3, 2015; Sacramento, CA, USA; Sacramento Kings head coach George Karl writes on a whiteboard during the fourth quarter against the New Orleans Pelicans at Sleep Train Arena. The Pelicans defeated the Kings 101-95. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

If this offense sounds familiar to you, it’s because it is. This offensive philosophy was so successful in the NCAA, former Nuggets coach George Karl began to implement it into his offense in 2011. Karl ran a variation that had the set begin with a screen, but it was very similar to what Calipari was doing at Kentucky. The offense worked too — the Nuggets won 57 games in 2012-13 thanks to the dribble-drive penetration, with Ty Lawson and Andre Miller getting to the hoop regularly. If Denver’s management wants to return to the glory of the Karl days, picking up Calipari and his system may be the best option.

The only holdup in this situation may be money and power. Calipari is currently making $7 million a year for coaching an NBA farm system. It will take an offer similar to what the Cavaliers threw out there last year for him to leave that luxurious job. Denver general manager Tim Connelly would have to give up his power regarding personnel moves and I’m not sure that’s the direction this team would like to go. In his previous stop with the Nets, Calipari clashed with a number of his co-workers and players. There is a feeling that he has learned from his previous mistakes, but who really knows for sure. He does have a good rapport with a number of younger players from his days on the recruiting path. Would he be able to run his own front office, coach the team and get everybody (on each level) on the same page? There’s only one way to find out.