{"id":661497,"date":"2026-03-16T18:20:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T18:20:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/661497\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T18:20:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T18:20:16","slug":"should-we-be-worried-about-nuggets-coach-david-adelman-as-playoffs-near","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/661497\/","title":{"rendered":"Should we be worried about Nuggets coach David Adelman as playoffs near?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Troy Renck: The Nuggets showed they have the talent<\/a> to contend for a championship on the court. But do they have it on the bench? The honeymoon is over for David Adelman<\/a>. He is quickly approaching his one-year anniversary as the Nuggets coach after taking over with three games remaining last season<\/a>. He continues to show he can get pinball scoring. Denver leads the NBA in offensive rating. The defense remains inconsistent. And there is something else at work when watching finishes at the Thunder<\/a> and Lakers<\/a>. Adelman made decisions that led to the losses<\/a>. Should we be worried about the coach entering the postseason?<\/p>\n

Sean Keeler: Losing sleep? No. Losing games? Sadly, yes. The Nuggets\u2019 maddening inability to put good teams away isn\u2019t a fluke anymore \u2014 it has become baked into this team\u2019s DNA.<\/a> Denver woke up Monday with a 7-11 record in games decided by three points or fewer. They were 8-6 in those games a year ago. They were 6-6 in \u201923-24. They were 7-6 in \u201922-23, when those Nuggets won it all. In \u201921-22? A mark of 8-3. Just one Western Conference team since the pandemic has lost more than 11 games decided by three or less \u2014 Dallas in \u201922-23 (8-12). These Nuggets are the only team in the West this season to have played in more than 15 tilts decided by three or fewer, which shows, on one level, they\u2019re used to the kind of frenetic finishes they\u2019ll see in the postseason. But winning fewer than 40% of those nail-biters is the stuff that can become a habit. And not a good one.<\/p>\n

Renck: Adelman must improve in critical situations. The injuries provided cover for months, and, frankly, Adelman was at his best when putting together starting lineups with chicken wire and duct tape. When Peyton Watson returns, Adelman will have the team that was expected to push for a title. He has stressed that the players need time to find their rhythm, accepting blame for any hiccups. But the indigestion can\u2019t come from the sideline. Last Saturday alone, there were multiple gaffes. He should have challenged Jamal Murray\u2019s sixth foul. Not having four players to rebound on Austin Reaves\u2019 intentionally missed free throw was a mistake. Jokic and Gordon were underneath and Spencer Jones on the top right. The space across from him was left empty as Murray fronted Marcus Smart above the 3-point line and Cam Johnson face-guarded LeBron James near midcourt. It makes sense to shadow James. Not so much with Smart. If the Lakers got the rebound and dished to Smart for the game-winner, tip your cap. Regardless of the odds of Reaves executing the play, he should not have been in a position to beat the Nuggets.<\/p>\n

Keeler: Doncic\u2019s winner was a Kobe\/MJ level dagger \u2014 right down to the no-call on Luka\u2019s push to create space. Grit your teeth. Tip your cap. Stars don\u2019t get foul calls on those makes. Ironically, it was a well-placed miss by Reaves that hurt more<\/a>. You have to scheme for the carom and account for the shooter. Jones looks as if he\u2019s doubling Doncic, which makes sense, then realizes too late that Reaves is all alone. That\u2019s on the staff, either in how it was drawn up or in making sure that the instructions were understood.<\/p>\n

Renck: Adelman also has to be prepared to pivot. Twice, he has trusted Spencer Jones to defend a star in the closing seconds<\/a>. Both times, Jones failed to direct the player, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Luka Doncic, into defensive help. They made great shots. But Adelman has to communicate the assignment better or ask Christian Braun or Bruce Brown to fill the role. Adelman admitted \u201cit\u2019s going to be an investigation of what the team is supposed to be\u201d when fully healthy. That\u2019s on him. As is the increasing responsibility to put the Nuggets in the best position to win.<\/p>\n

Keeler: To Adelman\u2019s credit, he\u2019s rarely had the full complement the front office designed for him. He\u2019s had to \u201cMacGyver\u201d lineups and looks for most of the past three months. He\u2019s weathered 18 months\u2019 worth of crummy injuries packed into about three months. He\u2019s given Watson runway to be a star. But this is a league of elite talent and fine margins \u2014 and so many Nuggets games lately feel like the end of a \u201cMacGruber\u201d sketch.<\/a> The lead blows up, the other team\u2019s fans laugh, roll closing credits. Fifteen seconds, JokGruber!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Troy Renck: The Nuggets showed they have the talent to contend for a championship on the court. But…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":661498,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1013,7,6850,1828,561,250,301,187,762,165,185,368,326,6,11,302,179,1146,4098,8869,209,26517,66,198,3788,8870,574],"class_list":["post-661497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba-playoffs","tag-austin-reaves","tag-basketball","tag-bruce-brown","tag-cam-johnson","tag-christian-braun","tag-david-adelman","tag-denver","tag-denver-nuggets","tag-jamal-murray","tag-latest-headlines","tag-lebron-james","tag-luka-doncic","tag-marcus-smart","tag-nba","tag-nba-playoffs","tag-nuggets","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-peyton-watson","tag-sean-keeler","tag-sean-keeler-versus","tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","tag-spencer-jones","tag-sports","tag-sports-columnists","tag-troy-renck","tag-troy-renck-versus","tag-western-conference"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}