The new coach of the Nuggets starts his first full-time gig as head coach without a direct superior and a to-be-determined roster of assistants.
David Adelman was formally introduced as the 23rd coach of the Nuggets on Wednesday at Ball Arena. He starts his tenure without a general manager or president of basketball operations above him in the organizational chart and plenty of decisions to be made regarding his first staff.
The contracts for much of last year’s coaching staff expired at the end of the season, giving Adelman ample opportunity to go a different direction if he desires.
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“Those are conversations we’re going to have going forward. The staff obviously did an absolutely incredible job,” Adelman said.
“Everybody had to step up in different ways.”
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A lot of times a first-time head coach will hire a veteran head coach to be one of their assistants. Ryan Saunders, who went 43-94 across parts of three seasons as the Timberwolves coach from 2019 to 2021, was the only assistant on Michael Malone’s staff this season with head-coaching experience. Saunders is roughly four years younger than Adelman.
The Denver Gazette asked Adelman if he was looking for an established head coach to be one of his assistants, and that’s a decision that will also be decided in the future.
“That’s a conversation we’ll have upstairs, because you want to find the right people, not just people that fit a narrative,” Adelman said.
“It’s about winning games. It’s about finding creative minds within your own room that you’ve been with over these years or outside these rooms.”
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The delay in Adelman filling out his staff might have something to do with the lack of a lead executive. It’s more common for teams to fill the executive position before settling on a coach. Team president and Kroenke Sports and Entertainment vice chairman Josh Kroenke said Wednesday that Adelman and the response he got from the roster passed a “litmus test” to determine whether the organization needed a complete overhaul.
“When you’re contemplating changing out the coach and general manager, one of the things I would look at from my perspective is do we need a complete organizational reset, top to bottom culturally?” Kroenke said. “That’s why I made the decision at the end of the season like I did.”
Interim general manager Ben Tenzer was among those watching Adelman’s introductory press conference from the periphery of the Colorado Social lounge at Ball Arena. While it’s a quiet time for executives — especially those without a draft pick this summer like the Nuggets — Kroenke has been impressed with the top in-house candidate. He’s still keeping his options open.
“Ben has been unbelievable since he took the reins. This time of year through the playoffs, there’s minimal things that go on in that world from a roster standpoint, but Ben and I have been spending a lot of time together talking about each individual player, how we think we can improve them as individuals and within the context of the team. Ben has a lot of great ideas on how we can improve the front office, both internally and externally. I’m also soliciting a lot of opinions outside. DA will come into that process at some point,” Kroenke said.
“What I’ll be looking for is cohesion between those two.”
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Kroenke said Adelman’s focus, for now, is filling out his staff. Even if Adelman opts to retain the rest of this season’s staff, there’s still his role to fill. Adelman said he was also undecided if he wanted to keep the same structure. Denver’s new coach previously coordinated the offense, while Saunders organized the defense with Malone overseeing the operation.
“I do think we’ll have to take a long look at everything with the staff, just like you do with your roster, your players, because every year you want to get better,” Adelman said.
“The staff this season, what they did at the end to complement everything that was going was so incredible, nothing but good things to say about everybody in that room.”