David Adelman Reportedly Getting 'Rave Reviews' from Nuggets Players After Malone Exit
Despite being thrust into what seemed like a chaotic situation with the Denver Nuggets in the final week of the regular season, interim head coach David Adelman has made a strong impression on the team in his new role.
Per The Athletic's Sam Amick, Adelman is receiving "rave reviews" from Nuggets players since replacing Michael Malone.
Malone's firing on April 8 was stunning, both because of the timing and because the Nuggets were the No. 4 seed in the Western Conference. They had lost four straight games at the time, but it didn't seem like the sky was falling.
In the aftermath of Malone's firing, along with the Nuggets announcing general manager Calvin Booth's contract wouldn't be renewed at the end of this season, we got more information that explained the move.
ESPN's Tim MacMahon and Ramona Shelburne reported on April 11 that Malone's messaging to the team and his "cold war" with Booth led to players tuning out what their coach was saying.
One person with the Nuggets told MacMahon and Shelburne everyone in the organization was "miserable" with the way things were going.
An assistant on Malone's staff since 2017, Adelman had never been a head coach above the high-school level. He only had three games in the regular season to get his feet wet before the playoffs started.
It looked like that inexperience for Adelman might come back to haunt the Nuggets when they fell behind 2-1 in their series against the Los Angeles Clippers. They narrowly avoided a 3-1 hole thanks to Aaron Gordon's miracle buzzer-beating putback dunk as time expired in Game 4.
Facing a Game 7 in his first playoff series, Adelman had the Nuggets well-prepared for the task. They outscored the Clippers by 16 points in the third quarter en route to a 120-101 win that sent them to the second round.
Playing the first game of the Western Conference semifinals on the road against the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder just two days after that emotional Game 7, the Nuggets stole a 121-119 win thanks to another game-winning shot by Gordon.
Adelman has more wins in the playoffs (five) than games coached in the regular season (three).
While the Nuggets have not given any indication about who their next full-time head coach will be, Adelman is providing an excellent proof of concept that he would be up for the job.
If Denver is able to beat the Thunder and have a deep playoff run, it would be hard to argue against Adelman as the right person to lead the team going forward.
