The Denver Nuggets rallied around their new coach in Wednesday’s victory
Apr 10, 2025, 11:54 AM | Updated: 11:57 am
Adjusting to a new coach is difficult for any player in any sport. It’s difficult in the offseason, it’s even more difficult if it happens in the middle of the season, and it’s extremely difficult if it happens with three games left before a playoff push. It took the Memphis Grizzlies a handful of games to get adjusted after the organization fired Taylor Jenkins a few weeks back. For the Denver Nuggets, no adjustment period was needed.
David Adelman, the interim head coach for the Denver Nuggets, has been around as an assistant for the Nuggets since 2017. He has built relationships with many of the players and the staffers during his time, and the strong relationships showed during the team’s 124-116 victory over the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday. After the game, the team celebrated his first win and spoke about what Adelman brings to the table.
“DA [David Adelman]’s great,” veteran DeAndre Jordan said after the win. “I’ve known DA for a while now. I feel like he has a genius mind offensively and he knows how to talk to guys. He knows how to be a players coach and joke, but also be serious.”
Jordan has played for seven different teams in his 17-year NBA career and has seen all kinds of coaches. Seeing how he talked about Adelman as both a person and a coach should show Nuggets fans that he might bring a different emotional style to the table than Michael Malone did.
“[Adelman]’s going to probably keep it real,” Nikola Jokic said with a smile. “He’s going to tell you what he wants in probably the most simplest way possible. ‘Do this’ and he’s going to probably show you too, and probably in some smart a– way. Maybe that’s the way.”
A theme with the Nuggets players talking about their new coach is that they all talk about his ability to joke and connect with the players on a human level. Not many coaches in the league have that quality.
“That’s the type of person you want at the helm of everything so I’m super glad that we have him and I think we’re going to be a great team in the playoffs,” Peyton Watson said.
The coaching change has clearly sparked a fire under the Nuggets players, as they played inspired in the second half and showed a passion that hadn’t been seen in a while. However, the fire can’t last for one game. Denver is still in the thick of the Western Conference playoff race, and that new fire and passion needs to be seen in Ball Arena when the Memphis Grizzlies come to town on Friday.
