Whether the Nuggets win this series and advance to the Western Conference Finals or fall to the Thunder and see their season come to an end in round two, one thing is clear: David Adelman has earned the full-time head coaching job.
He was thrust into an impossible position as the Nuggets’ ownership group shockingly chose to clean house and fire GM Calvin Booth and Head Coach Michael Malone with just three games remaining in the regular season.
Adelman, who has been an assistant to Malone since 2017, was promoted to interim coach for the rest of the season. At age 43, he had no prior NBA head coaching experience, but he has plenty of time as an assistant, has a Hall of Fame coach father in Rick Adelman, and has interviewed with several teams for head gigs in the past several seasons.
Most pundits had written off the Nuggets and figured this was a move with an eye toward the future, but so far, that hasn’t been the case. The Nuggets immediately rallied after the changes, finishing the regular season 3-0 to earn the number four seed in the West and homecourt advantage in the first round.
Despite that, they were still underdogs coming into their opening round series against the Clippers, and considered an afterthought to make any real noise in a loaded Western Conference.
Adelman deserves to become head coach of the Nuggets
But David Adelman and his players had other ideas in mind. He coached a brilliant series against the Clippers, pushing the right buttons with his rotations, making the controversial decision to close with Russell Westbrook over Michael Porter Jr., and mixing coverages on Kawhi Leonard and James Harden to slow them down just enough to win the series.
What he has done in round two against the Thunder has been even more impressive. Adelman has masterfully mixed defensive schemes with a variety of different zone looks that have puzzled MVP-favorite Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and made him struggle more than any team has all season.
SGA has ripped just about every single defense he has faced to shreds this season, but the Nuggets have done a great job of throwing different looks at him and keeping him out of the paint. It has obviously been great work by the players, but it’s not like this Nuggets roster is littered with elite defenders.
Make no mistake about it, this has a ton to due with the different schemes and the way Adelman is putting his players in a position to succeed. It has been amazing to watch this average defense suddenly turn into an elite unit while facing their toughest test of the entire season, and the interim coach deserves an immense amount of the credit for that.
Adelman is doing more with less
He was dealt a tough hand, with six reliable playoff-caliber players, at best. Then MPJ got injured in Game 2 of the first round and has been playing with one shoulder ever since. Still, Adelman has done an outstanding job of managing his limited bench and knowing when to steal minutes here and there.
The team also clearly enjoys playing for their new coach, and we know that veteran players like Jokic have his back. With the way this shorthanded team has taken off under their young coach in the midst of adversity, the Nuggets would be crazy to waste any time in promoting him and announcing David Adelman as the head coach of the future.