The Denver Nuggets are coming off a feeble defeat in the first round of the playoffs to their rival, the Minnesota Timberwolves. Some had wondered whether head coach David Adelman's job would be safe after the way the Nuggets responded to the Timberwolves and played in the series. However, the Nuggets likely quietly confirmed Adelman is going to return next season.
The Nuggets scheduled an end-of-season press conference for the front office management and coach Adelman for May 8th. If Adelman was getting fired for the first round exit, he likely wouldn't be present at a press conference with owner Josh Kroenke, and GM and front office execs Ben Tenzer and Jon Wallace.
It's the strongest signal yet without actually saying that Adelman is going to return. Adelman's return puts some Nuggets fans at odds with each other, as some were calling for his firing, and others said let him have another year.
Adelman had some questionable moments against the Timberwolves
Sure, the Nuggets were missing Aaron Gordon and Peyton Watson in the series, but Adelman never reached into the Nuggets' depth until it was too late. And even then, it was questionable.
Adelman chose to deploy Tyus Jones off the bench for ball-handling, but Jones lacks scoring, and the Nuggets had a problem putting the ball in the net against the Timberwolves. They had Julian Strawther, an offensive first player who can attack the rim and shoot well from three, on the bench the entire series. He was only given 14 minutes in Game 3's disaster loss, and 4 minutes in Game 5's win.
Not to mention the terrible response by Adelman and company in Game 3, after Jaden McDaniels called the whole team out, some by name, as bad defenders. And the Nuggets proved him right.
He didn't have a fire that Michael Malone would have had in that situation, and the Nuggets didn't even get out on the court and cause a hard foul on anyone, let alone McDaniels, and it really set the tone for the rest of the series.
Adelman had to deal with adveristy all season
Adelman did a great job navigating the injuries all season. We have to give him credit for that. The Nuggets won 54 games, all while their starters missed a combined 136 games due to injury. Nikola Jokic missed 16 games, the first time in his career that he had a prolonged time on the bench.
Almost every night, Adelman had to come up with something on the fly to combat the injuries. He did as valiant a job as you can in that situation.
The hope for Nuggets fans is that at some point this offseason, Adelman finds a bit more fire like Malone had, because the Nuggets need that edge from someone next year.
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