Denver Nuggets hire David Adelman as next head coach | Hot Takes with Goodman and Haertl
[Music] and good morning everybody and welcome to the weekend of well at least for us once the show is over the weekend for us for Memorial Day. I hope everybody has a safe Memorial Day. I know that you are doing some traveling. My wife is doing some traveling which means I’m a bachelor this weekend. So, yeah, that’ll be a little vacation for me, I suppose. As well, as far as the NBA playoffs go, you think Nuggets fans are feeling pretty good about themselves now that OKC is crushing Minnesota and then puffing out their own chest, thinking, “Well, we’re better than Minnesota. You know, at least we gave Oklahoma City a series.” Uh, I recentism tells you that the matchup with Minnesota is problematic at the very least. So, yeah. I mean, I don’t take much from Nuggets Nation uh and apply it to how Minnesota is doing against Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City is just a damn good basketball team. And uh we I think I think you and I collectively think that Oklahoma City is the team to beat uh in this tournament with the teams that remain. So um and it was good to see I will say this, it was good to see the two superstar headliners kind of go mono ammono a little bit last night. that that they combined for something like 70 points and they were active and shooting the ball well, but Oklahoma City just had too much in the tank for uh Minnesota down the stretch and don’t they at least get one of two in Minneapolis? You would think, but with the way this series is going, with the way Oklahoma City is just swarming, I mean, how many times do we say it in the OKC Nugget series? It seems like the Thunder have six or seven defenders out there. The Oklahoma City and and I know we’re going to talk about this right off the top of the of of the show. Uh Oklahoma City is built about as perfectly as you can build a team. And you give uh Stan Prey, their general manager, a lot of credit for the patience that they had and that they had to have. But to accumulate, draft, develop, they made one huge trade with the Clippers obviously to get SGA and that is huge. Make no mistake. Seems like a seems like they kind of fleeced the Clippers on that one. getting sending Paul George to LA for SGAA. But be that as it may, Oklahoma City is built to win and they’re built to win in the long term. Now, the collective bargaining agreement will have something to say about where Oklahoma City goes, but over the next couple of years, Eric, they should be in pretty good shape to win multiple championships. Want to tell you about Sasquatch and Wildcard Casinos and Blackhawk. They always have a great promotion. We’ve been talking about it for a while. And finally, it is here. They’re giving away a Ford Bronco Raptor or nearly 30,000 in cash this upcoming weekend. 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Um Josh Kroni didn’t have a specific time and a an event uh or result that pushed him to uh give David Alleman this job over the last couple of series. But it seemed to me pretty evident, pretty obvious early on that this is a guy that was really connecting with this basketball team. I will agree with uh with Josh Kroni on this. He saw and he said this yesterday. He said, “Hey, we were a plane that was going to take off and then be out after the playin round.” you know, essentially we went much much further than I really thought that we could possibly do. And he gave all the credit uh to David Adelman. You give credit to the team, too, because that’s a veteran team and obviously they they rallied around each other and they rallied to a degree around David Adelman. But those are pretty strong messages, Eric, when you’re talking about 17 games for an audition. You’ve got three games at the end of the season that are really important to get homecourt advantage in, which they did. And then the way that they played in the postseason, I would have been far more surprised if David Adelman didn’t or hadn’t gotten this job. What kind of message is it to every single candidate interviewing for the GM job? Here’s your coach. Yeah. This is who we’ve picked for you. Because when it comes to power struggles at times with GMs and head coaches, and we haven’t seen that here in Denver in the Nuggets organization for weeks with that, how much of a problem could that be for the new GM that that that this isn’t his guy? Now, David Adelman does not strike me as a guy who’s going to puff out his chest, wield his power, and say, “Dude, you were hired after me. I got more power than you.” Yeah. Well, I mean, we’ve seen a we’ve seen a dysfunctional dynamic between a coach and a general manager from a relationship that started by all accounts very well between Calvin Booth and Michael Malone. You get a change in the CBA, you get a change in the economy, uh, in the economics of the game. Calvin Booth, look, whether or not Calvin Booth provided the players necessary, his thought, his thinking was right, we are going to have four very highpriced players, essentially three and a half max players, right? And that’s where most of their salary structure goes in four players. So, you’ve got that going for you. You have to be able to draft and develop for those pieces. Hold on. Hold on. Where are they drafting now? They don’t have any draft picks this year. No. And then they go every other year without a first round pick. I saw somebody throw out a trade scenario. I started to laugh. Yeah. this player, this player, this player, and a 2031 first round pick, which is about how far you have to go to find one, right? A first or a second rounder. No, they’re they’re in a very difficult situation. But Eric, they’re not in any more of a difficult situation than we’ve talked about for the last couple of years. This is something or other. This should be very familiar to them at this particular point. Um Josh Kroni said yesterday, “It starts by looking internally because that’s where it has to start.” Does it? Shouldn’t Wait, wait, hold on a second. Hold on. I’m not going to sit and compare. Mhm. The Denver Nuggets who have won a championship to the Rockies. Okay. I’m not The Rockies have a lot of problems that they never look uh anywhere but inside their own organization, right? That’s what the Nuggets are doing. They started with Adelman. I’m not suggesting he should not be the head coach, but it has been suggested that they will likely look inside the organization, not saying it’ll happen, for their new GM. Good. Yeah. How does that make you feel? Don’t Don’t you want maybe a fresh voice? Now granted, um Josh Kroni has a pretty good history of hiring GMs. Usu Jiri came from within the organization. Um Calvin Booth though came from within the organization. And it seems like after listening to Josh, we’re probably going to hire from within and we’re going to kind of ride with the guys that we have. That’s the feeling that I got. There was a report by Sam Amik, a longtime wellrespected NBA writer. The Nuggets do not want to break up their starting lineup. I don’t have a problem with that. You just need a couple of solid bench players that you can count on for minutes, for points, and production. And I hope they’re not pinning their hopes completely on Don Holmes. Eric, isn’t it something how two years after we knew this was coming and after they drafted essentially the young players that they have now in their system on the roster that we still don’t know enough about them and look at what’s happened now in the aftermath. It’s essentially cost a head coach his job, a general manager his job. We’re still asking the same questions about whether or not they have anything with these guys that they need to have to put pieces in place to help that starting five. Josh was all about yesterday, we’ve got to know what we have come April when we begin this cycle again. Josh is a basketball guy. I mean, and he’s a smart dude. I will say this about Josh Kroni. Every time I’m in a press conference with him, I become more and I like him more and more and I’m more respectful of his experience and his and the way that he thinks about things. He’s a he’s a bright dude. He really is. The question becomes, can you get Dave can David Adelman finally be the guy that says, “Okay, look, this is the biggest part of my job. I know what I’ve got.” And we’ve talked about it a ton in that starting lineup. That starting lineup you’d put with just against about any starting lineup in the NBA and figure you could go toe-to-toe with them. We know that. What we don’t know two years later, can you trust Julian Strawther in high leverage moments? Can Picket or Hunter Tyson, can they be pieces that can help your depth and can you trust them in a playoff situation? Don Holmes, we don’t know yet. He had an Achilles, so that’s an that’s an unfair one right there. But to your point, you don’t count on too much there. You just hope that he can come along. But they have got to get answers to those things. I think it’s job number one for David Adelman. And I mean, and I think it starts early. I’m not so I mean I I I would put Don Holmes in summer ball and say yeah as as long as that Achilles is and and I’ve seen him the last few weeks he looks great at practice. get him some experience and then start figuring out what you have because if you’re going to have to figure out the Rubik’s cube of developing, letting players make mistakes so that they can learn and trying to win. Michael Malone never got there. I love Michael Malone for so many different things, but it is very clear that Michael Malone was tending to the first tenant of coaching, winning the game that you are coaching. That was his deal, trying to win games instead of trying to develop a roster that could win games into the postseason. And the and the Nuggets still don’t have that roster, right? Well, what they have in Don Holmes is something that they haven’t had. Although they actually, you know what, they have had it this year. They finally had a true DN3. Aaron Gordon. Yeah. Yeah. They’re hoping Don Gordon is a DN3. Playing the same position, by the way. He he is a good three-point shooter. I think with work he will get better and he at least in college was a tremendous defensive player. Yes, that’s what they’re hoping for. And I’ll give you another name to look out for. It is not a name that I am breaking any news on. I saw that there was interest through Twitter, but through reliable sources, for lack of a better phrase, that the Nuggets are interested in a certain guy. Uh, and if you’ve never heard the name Tai Jerome, you might want to familiarize yourself with the name Tai Jerome because he is a poor man’s DN3. He’s a good to very good defender with the Cleveland Cavaliers and he shot 44% from three-point range. I think and I think he will be affordable. He’s coming off a contract that he wasn’t get paid a lot of money. he probably will get between 12 and 14 million. And that might be a guy that they might wind up looking at because at least they need someone who can guard the perimeter. He can also guard multiple positions. I would call him probably a poor man’s Bruce Brown. Yeah, that’s a pretty fair description and a good name to throw out there by the way. Um yeah, I mean then you start I love throwing out rumors. Well, no, but I mean it but but that’s one that makes good sense. It’s not going to move the needle for Nuggets fans. But then again, did the name Bruce Brown move the needle for you? Unless you truly knew what Bruce Brown had done previously in his career in limited minutes with the Brooklyn Nets, which you did and I did. And I remember the day they brought him in, I’m like, “This is a great signing.” They got themselves a D and three. The uh Yeah. I mean, how good would it be to be rid of Zeke Naji and and Sarich and the and and the salaries that they’ve got? Well, there there’s a way to get rid of Sarich, honestly. Yeah. First of all, he’s coming back on his option, player option, unless, right, he wants more playing time. The team in Europe gives him that and the same amount of money. That’s the only way you’re gonna get rid of him. As far as I goes, that was that wasn’t the Chris Bryant deal, but that was as dumb as the Chris Bryant deal. Yeah. I mean, think about this for a second. It’s kind of like a construction company buying all of these uh tools and buying all kinds of wood, but you’re never going to use them and you’re just going to let them lie there on the ground, not putting a tarp over it and it’s raining every day. Yeah, that’s a I that’s a fair comparison, a good analogy. Um, they’re just guys that you’ve got to carry and pay and get and essentially get nothing. Let me underscore the word nothing in return. Zeke Naji is not a piece for the Denver Nuggets. He’s just he’s not. And and Dario Sarich, I don’t know how he gets on the floor. So, listen, Dadario Sarich, and I’d have to look this up, I think, played more this season though than Mike Miller did, who did nothing more than wave a towel. Yeah. Okay. I think Mike Miller as an alumnest of the Denver Nuggets is worth more than Daario Sarich as a player on the roster right now to the Denver Nuggets. Yeah. Yeah. So, anyway, but off we go. Uh it was a uh I I did get a chuckle. Uh remember Nicole Joic saying afterwards uh uh last week uh Sunday after the game against OKC when he was asked about uh the coaching hire and he said that it was above his pay grade and Josh may made a comment yesterday uh in the press conference saying well considering what Nicola is and he he he says Nicola is being is being paid nothing is above his pay grade and he’s absolutely right. So you can bet that that Jokic is at least being has been very much aware of I think what’s going on here in this process. I I am sure the Kronis have invested in Zoom. I’m sure they have their own plane. 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[Music] Frankie said yesterday, and you alluded to it uh in the last segment, uh talking about what Nicole Joic said, you know, following the loss to OKC, he said, “I heard Jokic’s comments loud and clear. Our roster, a lot of it was put together under different rules. That is fair. I don’t think he’s trying to make an excuse here, but he did say a lot of competitive teams have developed their benches from within. Well, yes, he is right. A lot of teams have built it their bench from within. The Nuggets have not. No. But what do we really know? And I’ll ask you, I mean, and you’re a guy that pays attention, you know, night in and night out. Not really. What do you know about Julian Strawther? Uh, I know at times during the OKC series he played with extra effort on the defensive end, but he’s not a great defensive player. He is a streaky shooter. He is that streaky shooter is code for he’s not a starter. And I don’t remember Vinnie Vinnie Johnson, the microwave with Pistons. Yeah, he didn’t start very often. But I don’t think that they’re looking for a starter. I just think that they’re looking for trust and I think that this is the most I think this and I’m not going to use the term dysfunctional. They just don’t have enough knowledge to know what they can trust. And even David Adelman, uh I mean look at the pattern. Anybody’s going to play their best players for goodness sakes. And he did that. He rode those guys hard uh during the postseason and they responded to him. He did get some good perform a good performance, one great performance out of Julian Strather, but they’ve got to have more quality depth. And if Oklahoma City isn’t telling you anything else, that should be looked upon as got it loud and clear. Hold on a second. Come on. Well, hold on a second. I’m not trying to give you push back here. Well, no. I’m just going to state facts and then if you disagree, that’s fine. We can have a conversation about it. Right now, the Oklahoma City Thunder have a pretty good handle on their cap because they have a lot of really young players. SGAA is about to get a huge deal and it’s still not going to blow a hole through their cap. They still have another two, three years of this window with keeping their guys together. The difference is why do they have such a good bench? Couple things. They’ve had a lot of high draft picks. That’s number one. Number two, Sam Prey knows how to spot talent. Calvin Booth. I don’t want no disrespect to Geron Holmes or Strawther or Payton Watson or Picket or Hunter Tyson. You can make the case he’s not only not as good, but when you compare him to Sam Prey, he’s terrible because just about everybody is terrible compared to Sam Prey. Right. And my point is very simply and and you’re absolutely right about that. My point is you got to have a bench. You got to have depth. I don’t care how you got it or what you ended up drafting. It’s incumbent upon. Look, the CBA obviously changed everything. You already had three of those contracts essentially because you knew you were going to have to do something with Jamal Murray. You had three of those contracts that you knew you were going to have to live with. And you probably figured that Aaron Gordon was on the come as well and that you were going to keep him. So, here you are now. You’ve got 78 to 82% of your salary structure tied up in four guys. We don’t know if anyone will be trade bait. I would suggest to you that they will try to float Michael Porter Jr. I we we’ve talked about that adnauseium. Not sure there’s much of a market for that out there, but we’ll see how that plays out. But it doesn’t make any difference. you still have to figure out a way with whatever limitations that you have to be better deeper in your roster. And that’s where the development comes for the Nuggets now. And it doesn’t matter how they got these guys. It falls into the Shawn Payeyton way of doing things. I don’t care how you got here. I care what you do once you get here. Yeah. But but but hold on. I I agree with Josh Kroni when he says this that they were the first victim of the NBA. I agree. They were the first victim of it. So, let’s add it all. This is not the same as Shawn Peyton. It is not. It is not the same as the Bronx. I’m talking about the sentiment, Eric. I’m talking about the sentiment of players once they get there. I don’t care how they get here. I care what they do once they get once they get here. I mean, there’s no preconceived notions, and that’s where the nuggets are right now. These guys have all got to start from scratch. Again, Josh said this yesterday, and I thought it was a really good point. Those guys, Strawther, Picket, you know, Holmes, Watson, these guys all have a very real opportunity to get into the rotation and the mix if they are smart. And I there’s no reason to think that they aren’t. And if they are aware, and why wouldn’t they be? The biggest thing about the Nuggets now isn’t the isn’t the starting five. It’s the next four that come off the bench and how that and how those four or five if you’re fortunate enough. I don’t think that that’s probably realistic, but if you can find three, four guys that you can count on come April, then you’ve done what you need to do to make yourself a more legitimate contender. Uh the Nuggets weren’t going to win eight more games this year. I I know that their runs through the first two series were valiant. We’ve talked about that. But they weren’t going to win eight more games. They’ve got to find trust and consistency in their depth and it’s got to be job one. And if it means that you are maybe giving up some games early in the season, then you know what? It may have to happen because these guys have got to play period or gotten rid of one or the other. Let me ask you something. When you look at the NBA draft compared to the NFL draft, is it fair to say rounds one through three minimum, maybe four? You expect them to be round one, you expect them to be starters. Round two, round three, you can expect a lot of them to eventually be starters. Yep. fourth round guys. There could be some starters there, but you really anything beyond four. You’re you’re hoping for a Nicole Yokic, a Tom Brady, so on and so forth, right? A Jonathan Cooper for in in in football terms, right? Yeah. Every once in a while you get fortunate with a Draymond Green or a Nola Joic in the second round. Once you go past number 20 in the NBA draft in the first round, you are basically in the fourth round of the NFL draft. That is correct. Yes, that is a very fair comparison. So fine with that, how many of the recent draft picks were picked in the top 19? And that’s my point. Yeah, I’m not even sure. What are you really expecting here? You you really ex see what this is what Calvin Booth did. He wanted guys who were versatile. I don’t have a problem with that. He wanted guys who can play multiple positions. Check. Got that. Wanted some guys with length. Check. Got that. But when you hit number 20 in the draft and beyond, when you hit the fourth round, fifth round, sixth round, seventh round in the NFL draft, you are taking guys who have flaws. No question. That’s why they have slipped that far. when you have made the playoffs seven years in a row, um you’re not going to you’re not going to have a lot of high draft picks. When you are trying to build your team and keep a championship window open or at the very least start one, what do you do? You do what the ABS have done. You trade away draft capital. Mhm. So, you better win in that window and then throw in the CBA in which it has become punitive for the Denver Nuggets. I I I will say this with very little hesitation. The era of the dynasty in the NBA is more than likely over. Yeah, that’s done. At least for now. Yes. the Nuggets had a chance to be the next one had there not been the second apron and all of the restrictions because they do have a really good starting five with that when the Nuggets did not have a lot of high draft picks and the funny thing is let’s look at how their team honestly was built it was built with a second round draft pick a Carmelo Anthony trade about 57 years ago for Jamal Murray, right? And a complete and total roll of the dice risk on a guy with major injury history with the 14th pick in Michael Porter Jr. That’s how they built their team and they signed all of them to max contracts. Yeah, that’s what they did. So when you when you look forward with what the Nuggets can do, they have no draft picks this year. Then every other year they’re missing a first draft pick. They’re up against the second apron. I think roughly 7 million under. And then when Calvin Booth a, excuse me, after the championship season went all in trying to compile draft picks, which he did, that was the Hunter Tyson, Strawther, and Picket draft, right? In theory, you can make the case as of right now, he has hit on none. Right. Fair. And certainly, he’s hit on none as starters. Unfortunately, you can make the case he has hit on none in terms of reserves off your bench because he did go all in on that trading future draft capital to get some of these guys that I just mentioned, you know. And it’s funny, we’re sitting here talking about this and generally we’re probably thinking of it more in terms of offensive punch that they can get off the bench when we really should be thinking defensive prowess. The problem with the Nuggets this year wasn’t in scoring. They were one of the only one of three teams that averaged more than 120 points a game. Scoring is not an issue for this roster and this team. What is an issue is being down around 24th or 25th defensively in this league. They have to be better first. And for look, you you want to try to build the depth. That’s that’s a challenge in and of itself. But then you’ve got to try to build the depth with great with with a defensive philosophy that has to come back for this team. You pointed this out a few a few days ago that when we look back on that championship team, they were one of the top 10 defensive teams in the NBA and and people forget that that was a watching Oklahoma City. Not to their level. No, not to their level, but but the Nuts playoffs were a step below. I had conversations with friends of mine outside of this market. I said whenever the Nuggets feel like they want to turn up their defense, they are suffocating. Absolutely. Playoffs when they wanted to turn it up, they shut teams down. And again, they had that with KCP and Brown and they had that with Gordon and a little bit a feisty guy in Christian Brown. They do have Aaron Gordon still. I know that he had the hamstring, but that was at the end of the playoffs. They do have Payton Watson. I mean, let’s look at who they had in their starting lineup. They had er They still have Erin Gordon. KCP is gone, but it’s not like Christian Brown is a huge drop off. No, is he? I don’t think so. I I think that that’s a I mean, Romano, that’s a fair trade. and you might come a and since he’s younger, you probably get ahead in that trade and he is a better scoreer than KCP. Yes. So now let’s look at your guy off your bench who is your D just not a three and that is Payton Watson. They had a D and three in Bruce Brown. That is one key piece that they are missing. If I were to give advice, Payton, if you’re watching the show, this is my suggestion to you. No more Hotels.com commercials for you. Your new hotel is at Aaron Gordon’s house. And let him show you how he became a three-point shooter. Yeah, that’s a great place to start. go live in the warehouse, man, and and and bunk in and and get better. There’s a couple of things about Payton Watson. He is intriguing because of the ability that he has defensively. He’s a very good shot blocker. Probably the best shot blocker on this team. But you know, one thing that he hasn’t done, Eric, in two years, hasn’t put a pound on. Hasn’t put any. And and it’s not like I you just have got to be able to you need a body that helps you get through a season. 82 games is an arduous process and then you you talk about another, you know, month or two months of of the playoffs. That’s tough. He’s got to be stronger. Listen, I don’t know. I mean, I I don’t know the person by name who their strength and conditioning coach is. And I understand that Deron Holmes um missed because of a lower body injury. Is that correct? Yes. Achilles. He better come back heavier than 225 pounds. Yeah. And if he doesn’t if he doesn’t come in bulked up, and I don’t mean so bulked up he loses mobility, right? And then we look at Pton Watson who hasn’t bulked up, they need to be shopping for a new strength and conditioning coach. Yeah, I’m with you on that. I mean, you’ve just got to be bigger and stronger. Pickicket’s a big strong guy. And Well, he’s built that way. But he’s built that way. But he’s built that way, right? He’s built that way. I mean, you you get you get a you get a bubble butt because you were born with it or you have a lot of leg days. Yeah. Right. So, I mean, we know what the challenge is. Unfortunately, we know what the challenges have been for the last two years. And unfortunately, they’re still kind of the same. Now you have a new coach who where are his sensibilities going to be in terms of developing players because I think that it’s the biggest question for David Adelman and his future is how will he develop players? He’s got the starting lineup that’s taken care of. How is he developing the pieces around them to make them better when inevitably they get into the playoffs and this is still a playoff team in April? I’ll tell you why I think David Adelman is the right coach today just like John Fox was the right coach after Josh McDaniels. David Adelman I think is willing and has the patience Yes. to coach young players. I agree. Michael Malone is a grizzled vet. He’s been around for a long time. He’s been fired in the past. He wanted to win now. And I don’t blame him. You want, as John Elway would say, you want to win now and from now on with that. I think David Adelman has the right temperament to develop these players because he’s a young guy, too. When you get older, when you’re younger, you want it now. When you’re older, you want it now. But when you’re older, you feel like your clock is ticking and you’re playing and you’re coaching for your legacy. David Alam is not coaching for his legacy right now. He is on step one of his NBA head coaching journey. Yeah. And I I’ll ask you this as we get close to finishing the show here. Do you feel good? Let’s just take where they are right now. Snapshot of the moment. This is this is my Eric Goodman stuff that I’m doing. Back to back to you. What how good do you feel better about the Nuggets today than you did two days ago or yesterday? I I I think this is how the Nuggets view it. And unfortunately, again, it’s a Rocky’s way of thinking, although I’m not comparing the two organizations. Bill Schmidt. Man, if only we had Ezekiel Tovar for a month, we could have we could have won a lot more games. The truth is, if the Nuggets had MPJ of the playoffs that they did in the regular season, they could still be playing today. And that is the truth. He They could. Yeah, they could. He was a non-factor except for one big game. Okay. So had 21 six for nine from three points. He So what what did he average in the playoffs? Maybe seven points a game. Maybe maybe double it. Yeah. 14 points a game, which was below his regular season average of 18. If he’s scoring 14 points a game, I don’t even know if the Clipper series goes to seven. Hey, they’ve already proven that they can win with these with this court, right? My my point is I think they are looking at next year saying we’re not going to break up our core. Michael Porter Jr. outside of Christian Brown has been the healthiest nugget over the last two years. Yeah. In terms of games played, maybe not healthy, but in terms of game play, it’s about let’s see what they do during the off season for their bench. Do they consult Nicole Joic? I would recommend it. You Yes. One final thing from me. We have all of this conversation and you just touched upon it with MPJ. Nicole Joic doesn’t miss time. What happens if there’s an injury at some point there’s going to be an injury to Nicole Joic that probably keeps him out for he’s missed you know five or six games here. You know what I mean? But but we have not seen a an injury that’s kept that’s kept him sidelined for a significant period of time. Not only is he brilliant, but he’s also available on top of it. Um there’s a lot of things. It’s going to be a very interesting off season. But I will say this, I feel better about where the Nuggets are with David Adelman being named as head coach. Now, they’ve got a lot of ground to cover, right, between now and when they get together in October, right? They’ve got a lot of ground to cover, but I feel good with a Josh Kroni kind of redefining his role and his hands-on that he will I think is going to probably take up from this point. And I like the sensibility and the style of communication and the relatability of Adelman for this group here. Here’s the truth though, okay? And it’s great that they have David Adelman as their head coach. A guy who’s completely unproven it. Let’s really be honest. Although he he did have a really good run in the playoffs and they went further than people thought. When I say further, pushing OKC to seven games with that. If they don’t bring in any free agents, if they don’t bring in anybody to bolster this roster, this is where the Nuggets and the Rockies are dead similar. Next season is based on hope. The difference is for the Rockies, hope is being 500. For the Nuggets, it’s winning a championship. Yeah, it’s hope. So, if Don Holmes turns out to be a player, I’ve got more hope. If they bring in a guy like Ty Jerome, I have more hope. I suppose it’s a wait and see. With that, happy Memorial Day, everyone. Safe travels, Bruce. Make it the best possible holiday weekend you can.
The Nuggets and interim coach David Adelman agreed on a deal to make Adelman the full-time head coach. Adelman went 3-0 in the regular season after taking over for Michael Malone and won a playoff series, leading Denver to one win from the West finals. Was Adelman the obvious choice? Should the Nuggets have hired the GM first? And will the Nuggets keep their starting core together for next season? Eric and Bruce break it all down.
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