Josh Kroenke & David Adelman on NEW Head Coach, Nuggets Roster Problems, & More

Josh Kroenke & David Adelman on NEW Head Coach, Nuggets Roster Problems, & More

All right. Uh, thanks to everybody for coming out. Um, it’s an exciting day, uh, for the Denver Nuggets. Uh, you guys have heard from me from a few times in the last month or so. Um, so I’ll just turn it right over to our new head coach, uh, David Adam. Yeah. Uh, first of all, u, thanks to people that came out today. Uh, and thank the personal stuff. I want to get out of the way. I know it’s going to sound like I won an Oscar, but I think it’s important. Uh, first the Kroni family. Uh, Mr. K. Uh everything he’s done here over the years. Uh the support over the last two months uh has been incredible. And then obviously Josh and what we’ve done together as a partnership uh before this thing was finalized uh was really special. Uh and then I have to take some time my family’s here uh their support uh their sacrifice what they’ve done uh to help me get to this point. uh my family back home, uh my sisters, brother, uh parents, and then really quickly uh the journey of what this is as a coach. Uh you know, all the way back in Oregon in high school, Gene Potter, Jeff Peeler, um Pton Chapman, people don’t know who these people are, but they’re the reason I’m here. Uh and obviously, you know, in Minnesota, my father trusting me, on Flip Saunders, Sam Mitchell, uh Frank Vogle, and obviously Coach Malone here. So, a lot of people to thank. Uh, not again, I don’t want to be long-winded, but that’s what this is. You don’t get to sit in this seat next to Joshu, uh, if those people don’t support you. So, uh, feels extremely blessed, uh, to have one of these 30 jobs and to be the head coach of the Denver Nuggets. Open up for questions. Hey, mentioned prior organization specifically through internally through player development. That’s an umbrella a bit. I’m curious what it looks like to you, player development, in terms of your expectations for the players, the approach from you and your staff and also the expectation from the organization in terms of making sure that that happens. Yeah, I think it starts now. I mean, we have people in this building that are more than capable of creating the depth that we need. Uh it’s also me creating a different kind of relationship with these players. Uh you know, being the head coach as opposed to lead assistant is a lot different. Uh, and those expectations have to be defined for them. Uh, you know, I need to be active and go see players. Um, make sure they understand, uh, what they can do to have an impact on this team next year. And I think it’s an interesting thing, player development, because your skill set has to get better in the summer. Uh, but it has to be aligned with what we’re trying to do as a team. Uh, so there is a happy medium that you have to meet. Uh, all these guys have people they work out with away from this building. Uh, we have great people in this building. Uh, but we have to unify those relationships and I think that goes a long way and I really mean that. I think throughout the playoffs, uh, I played different people at different times depending on who we were playing, matchups, the series, the opponent. Uh, but I expect guys to come back much better, stronger, uh, more confident and understand the opportunity they have. Uh, people talk a lot about our first five and they should. It’s an incredible first five. Uh but I see a lot of talent in that room and you know confidence you know comes from trust and I think that trust has to be you know found throughout the summer and it can’t just be hey I’ll see you in September and see what happens. So it’s a big summer for us. A lot of guys coming back that I know are going to be competing for spots and that’s the biggest thing about the NBA men. You want competition in that gym and we’re going to have it and guys are going to compete for it and whoever earns it is going to play just like in the playoffs. I said that and that will translate to next season. Sorry about that. How are you? Um, thank you for taking the time. Um, I guess given like you were just talking about given this you have a summer and you have a training camp. What do you hope to implement and what kind of new wrinkles do you hope to add that to make it yours? Yeah, I think you saw some of it defensively. I mean, I think we have to be, you know, much more creative throughout the season. And that’s not that’s not just zoning or things like that, but I think it it gets guys through the year healthier. Um, you know, you can demand a very aggressive man defense. Um, but I think you can change things up. I think we have high IQ players that allows you to be, you know, more variety defensively. And I think offensively, you know, obviously we were top five in the league, but it showed in the Oklahoma City series. Our execution has to get better. You know, you can run similar things that we’ve ran that have been very successful. And I thought, you know, our our transition game was very impactful throughout the season, but some of that does not translate to the playoffs. And so that’s a major goal for us. uh we have to get back to being an executionbased team. Uh if that takes away some of our pace numbers or whatever the analytics want to say, uh I think that’s okay if it wins you a game in May as opposed to, you know, playing a game in December. It’s very different style of basketball. Uh and we have to think that way throughout the whole season. So when we get to that point, you know, we can morph into that team. And I think you see the teams that are still surviving today outside of Indiana, uh they can really slow down and execute. And to Indiana’s credit, they’re playing at a a pace that’s absolutely insane for the playoffs. Uh but, you know, I think most of the time, the majority of the time, if you want to win big, you got to play slow, you got to be efficient, you got to be clean. Uh so that’ll be things we’ll talk about throughout the summer, uh going to training camp. David, following up about the development, you know, players earn roles in the offseason, they develop skills, but implementing them, it seems to me, often takes real game experience and and maybe some sacrifice from the team to get guys there. What’s your philosophy about letting players grow into their role through repetition in the regular season? Yeah, I think to grow into a role, you have to earn a role. Uh, so guys that earn those roles will play. I do believe you’re right. Um, you know, in-game experience is better than anything else. Uh, but there’s a balance there. Uh, we know what the Western Conference is. Uh, it got better in the last month. Uh, you know, with the draft and obviously free agency and trades are going to happen. Uh, so it’s a balance of trying to get guys to have game experience while staying in the fight, you know, staying where you’re supposed to be to compete for one of those top six spots. Uh, cuz we all saw it this year. I mean, it’s the plan, you know, included the Golden State Warriors. So, it’s it’s an incredible conference. Uh we know that, but you’re right, there’s a happy medium. I have to manage that as best I can with the help of the staff uh to make sure guys are progressing at the right rate uh so we have a proper, you know, balance of guys in the playoffs when it comes. But like I said, it goes both ways. You also have to earn that. Um and these guys will get a chance to do that uh throughout the summer getting to see them uh seeing their progression as an individual player. And then into September and we have, you know, obviously runs here, guys, guys want to come in and play. And then obviously training camp’s going to be a real thing and I’m hoping to make sure we get to playing quickly uh when September rolls around uh because you don’t have a lot of time to decide. But yeah, I think it’s a balance like most things in life. It’s yes, I want to see progression, but I also really want to win games. Uh so we’ll balance that as best we can. Coach, you talked about meritocracy in the playoffs. The playoffs creates an urgency that for me creates a buyin from the players. It’s how do you do that on a Tuesday night in Chicago where you set a guy and he’s clearly upset because it’s like what does this matter? Why can’t I stay in in the last five final five minutes of the first half or the final five minutes of a game? What did you learn about doing it in the playoffs that you can apply as the head coach during the regular season? I will say this uh the last two years we’ve lost game seven in the second round of the playoffs. So when we get to December, January, February, and there’s small fires we put out and all those things and guys aren’t feeling it or whatever, I will remind them of that. And we have to understand that if we want to have our ultimate goal, then our professionalism has to be throughout the whole season. And if you want to create, you know, a way about you that’s going to translate in April and May, and I keep saying translate because it’s what it is. And this is a step-by-step process throughout the season. Uh that will be brought up a lot because we’ve been this close two years in a row of doing something extremely special like we did, you know, in 23. Uh so if guys can’t understand that, that’s an issue. And I’ll make sure that they remember that. Uh because we have to understand what our opportunity is here. And as tough as the conference is, we know where we are in this conference. We’ve been the standard for a long time. And the standard is great. And it’s it’s fun to come back and win every year and have a great team. Uh but our ultimate goal is to get to the end. And again, I’m not making blanket statements here. I’m just saying it’s a step-by-step process. And what you’re talking about is part of that process. And yeah, go ahead. You have to be aligned. And you’re the coach before a GM. Josh, you talked about this. Why were you so comfortable that you could put him David in this position before a GM that you could all still end up aligned to get to that next step? Um it’s a very good question. I think that um you know when you’re contemplating changing out coach and general manager, one of the things that I would look at from my perspective is do we need a complete organizational reset um top to bottom culturally? And that’s why I made the decision at the end of the season like I did was probably to do a little bit of a litmus test on that. With the benefit of hindsight, I can look back and see that very clearly now. Um and I can also say very clearly that this organization does not need a cultural reset. Um, I think anyone that was in and around that dressing room um, for the last six weeks, I think speaks uh, could probably say that there was a very unified group. Um, and while I understand that pressure might have brought some of that unification, I also think it was the people in that locker room. I think, you know, a long time ago, you know, when we set organizational standards to get to where we are today, uh, you know, that a lot of it of that is about culture and a day-to-day thing. Um, eventually I need to take a step back from that. the coaches take over that and eventually the coaches even take a step back from that and that becomes the players. The players are policing that on a daily basis and from what I saw and how the players responded, our culture is still there. Uh we just needed to peel off a few things. Um have a small reset and I think we’re ready to go forward. Like coach, first off, congrats. I was just curious, how much did you feel like you were able to implement in what, three regular season games and 14 playoff games that you would have, you know, I guess implemented in a training camp? Yeah, I would say defensively it was easier uh because you can put things out there in a walkth through. You don’t get to practice a lot at the end of the season. Uh the playoff schedule was insane as everybody knows. We were playing every other day. I think the offensive part we didn’t get to do as much as we would like to because offense you need repetition in live action. Uh defensively you can really talk about small things depending on what kind of zone you’re running, what we’re trying to take away. You don’t you don’t make it complicated. We had our standards defensively and our man defense that it’s always been there. Uh but I’m excited for the offensive part of it. Uh because you need repetition and rhythm together uh for that to matter. You can’t you can’t do a walk through. you can put in a set play or first play of the game atto whatever it is but that that’s not going to translate like I said unless you’re really playing. Uh so these guys will have the summer we’ll go talk to them about what our ideas are so they can implement that into their game when they’re working on it. Uh but training camp will be really fun for us and I think it’ll be good for the guys. That’s one thing about coming back this year. Yes, I’m I’m new in my role. Uh and obviously that’s going to be different. uh we have to look at the staff and make good decisions but new ideas are good ideas and I think the guys have to feel like when they come back it’s not just the same and you know some things you try you end up you know throwing to the sides it doesn’t work but I have to give them something to come back to uh that excites them and a lot of these guys have been here for a long time and that’s a goal of mine and there’s so much good basketball out there to watch to learn from to implement and when you have the talent that we have you know a lot of things can work we just have to pick the right stuff uh to make them feel like they’re coming back to something new. This could be for both of you guys. Over. Hi. Um, what are the details of what will define success for the two of you? I think it’s just the day-to-day grind. And like I said, the ultimate goal is obviously to be the last team standing. Uh, and that’s easy to say that. Uh, but it’s it’s dayto-day. Are you winning the day? And if you do that, you know, I think you you set these marks along during the season. And to have ultimate success, success has to be something you sustain. and your the personality of the team has to be consistent throughout the season and that has to happen. I thought last year uh we were up and down. We had success uh but it didn’t seem like it was a steady rise and I think that’s the thing you have to feel throughout a year. You want to go into the playoffs feeling that way and we did have momentum. Uh Josh talked about it. You know, there was change at the end obviously. Uh we took that change and had the momentum and found a way to win that first round series. Uh but I want to feel that way in February. you know, I want to work our way to that where everybody feels like we’re progressing towards the ultimate goal. Uh, so again, I said it, you can talk about finality all you want, but the the bottom line is that it is a process-based business and you have to work every day to get to your ultimate goal and not just expect it to happen. You know, that’d be my expectation for next year. Uh, to piggyback off of kind of what he said, I would say it’s a processoriented vis business. Um but it’s a resultoriented narrative and we’re very conscious of that at different times when we set about um you know when my father and I kind of set about building these teams you know 10 plus years ago start laying the foundations of the group that you want to see play out over time. Um you know success means something different back then than it does today. Um and so right now we’re in what I would say is kind of a very binary position which is you either have success which is to win the championship or you’re failing and you’re falling short. Um, so, you know, making the second round of the playoffs, losing in game seven, while we have many positives that we can take away from that, I think that we’re most aware of the result, um, how it ended, uh, seeing the teams that are still playing, um, where we can tweak our group going forward to give us the, uh, the best chances to compete against those teams, uh, and eventually beat them. David over here on your far left. Given the past two plus months, the way you grew up with your dad as an NBA coach, how prepared do you feel to step into this role full-time now? Very prepared. Uh I felt prepared when we started at the end of the season. Uh and that’s because of the people I’ve been, you know, lucky enough to work for. Uh you know, Coach Malone was a great teacher, a guy to learn from. I said it. Frank Vogle, you know, Flip Sam, uh my father, obviously. uh when you have when you’re around those people and you see how they run their business and their process uh it’s kind of a cheat code and it helps you uh when you get this opportunity and not to mention uh I think I’m ready because I have an incredible support I mean with Stan and Josh you know Ben what he did stepping in at the end of the year uh you know the coaching staff what they’ve accomplished here and obviously our players uh you know you can talk about yourself individually but it’s not about me it’s about are we ready and do we make sense together and obviously at the end of the year, you know, we found a rhythm. Uh relationships, you know, were formed in a different way to be a head coach. So, yeah, I’m excited about the group, you know, and coming together and are are we ready as a group to take the next step? Josh just mentioned it. Uh are we ready to do what we have to do to make sure when we get to these opportunities late in the season that we can win these games? And uh you know I can sit here and answer your question directly like I did and say me uh but I do think it’s it is the group and when we come back together we reconvene as a team uh you know I think we’re more than ready to take the next step and like I said at the start we talked about player development you know this is about every man in that room uh you know coming back being better uh ready to win the day and if we can do that you know obviously we’ll all take the steps we want to take uh to find ultimate success. David, kind of building off that, a lot of coaches in your situation will hire an assistant with head coaching experience, I guess. How important is that to you? And then as a whole, what kind of consideration have you given to your staff? And do you feel like it’s important to to bring in some new voices? Yeah, I mean, that’s conversations we’re having right now. Uh, and those are conversations we’re going to have going forward. Uh, the staff obviously did an absolutely incredible job. You know, I think sometimes in the media you talk about, well, I stepped into a situation and I had to handle all this pressure. Uh, but everybody had to step up in different ways. U, I do think we’ll have to take a long look at everything uh, with the staff just like you do with your roster, your players. Uh, because every year you want to get better. Um, you know, and to talk about the what kind of assistant we would hire. That’s a conversation we’ll have upstairs. uh because you want to find the right people, not just people that fit a narrative uh you know outside of this room. So, it’s about winning games. It’s about finding creative minds uh within your own room that you’ve been with over these years or outside of these rooms. So, it’s uh have to take a complete look at it. Uh make sure if we come back the right people are in place. Uh but again, I want to I want to say that again. The staff this season, what they did at the end to complement everything that was going on was so incredible. Uh, I have nothing but good things to say about everybody in that room. I guess I guess for both of y’all, but Josh, how much are you gonna lean on David or want his input on who the next GM might be? And and DA, how much do you want to be involved knowing you’ve got to put your staff together? And Josh obviously has an idea the direction he may want to go. Um, you know, I’ve already been thinking a lot about the front office. Um, I mean, first of all, I want to give a big shout out to Ben Tenzer. Um, just like DA did, Ben’s been unbelievable since he took the reigns. Um, this time of year there’s, you know, through the playoffs there’s minimal things that go on in that world from a roster standpoint. Um, but Ben and I have been spending a lot of time together talking about each individual player, how we think we can improve them, you know, as individuals and within the context of the team. Ben has a lot of great ideas of how we can improve the front office both internally and externally. And I’m also soliciting a lot of opinions outside. Uh, DA will come into that process at some point. Um, but right now I think it’s just, you know, focusing on getting him, getting him the right staff, making sure he has the right pillars underneath him to give him the most uh, chances for success. Um, but we’ll come back to that at some point. And, you know, as we reach a decision, I’ll for sure bring him into the loop. But I think, you know, the input will be relatively minimal because what I’ll be looking for is cohesion between those two. And I think that, you know, once we decide on that, I think that I’ll have a lot of comfort in how they work together. And I think DA will as well. Yeah. Yeah. And I also think just to uh respond to it, I’ve been in the NBA for a long time. Uh so you work with a lot of different kinds of people. Uh this business is about cohesion like he said and it’s all about just moving forward and winning. That’s it. Uh so it’s it’s not about finding your best friend. Uh so like he said, Ben’s done an amazing job. Uh complimentary, you know, thought process in basketball is important. Uh but you know like I listed I I the head coaches I listed I also worked with I don’t know 100 plus assistant coaches different GMs uh front offices change different ownership groups. So uh that’s what this is about. It’s it’s actually about who whoever has that spot going forward. It’s just developing a relationship sacrificing your own thoughts for the betterment of the whole group. Uh so yeah obviously extreme trust in what Josh is going to do. Uh I have my job. I’ll do my job and I’ll do the best I can with whatever comes in. This is for both of you. Um, your standard over the last several years has been very, very good, but the last two years you’ve fallen just short of halfway to a championship on your roster now. Do you have the talent to win a championship? And the second part of that in hiring a GM, do you want somebody to challenge you on that idea or not? Yeah, I mean, I think that it starts with belief. Um, and that’s was one of our main topics of discussion whenever we made the changes six weeks ago was reestablishing belief in that locker room. Um, so I think if you ask us, there’s a firm belief that that they can achieve their ultimate goal. uh can they achieve that as currently constructed? Um I think the answer as yoke said after the playoffs ended was obviously no. Um so we need to take a hard look at how we can raise our ceiling um going forward whether that’s on our internally or externally. Um, you know, as I said last week, I’m I’m actively inviting outside opinion into my process in the front office because I genuinely want to know, you know, what people think um of how we’ve operated. And, you know, to your point, yeah, the standards have have gone up significantly around here. And so to feel like, you know, losing a heartbreaker in game seven of the second round of the NBA playoffs, um, is is a is a massive disappointment. But from where we were, you know, a long time ago, it makes me proud, but I’m disappointed with where we are currently because we have a real shot to compete. And I think if you look, uh, at the team still playing, um, you know, we feel while, you know, they’re still playing, you know, with a little bit of health and maybe a little bit of luck, maybe it could be us. Um, but it’s not and we’re very conscious of that and how we need to go about improving going forward. Yeah. And I would say you never live in the present or the past. Uh so if if I answer that question, I would say it remains to be seen because what are people doing within these rooms to make themselves better. Uh because next year will not be last year or the year before or the year we won the championship. It’s going to be its own thing, its own journey, its own adventure in a way. Uh and that’s the great thing about the NBA is it never stops. And like I mentioned earlier, Dallas gets the first pick, San Antonio gets the second pick. That’s going to change. Uh so it’s the responsibility of the group uh to understand that if we want to make that happen uh it’s starting right now. It’s not just going to happen because it’s going to happen and the standard has been the standard here and we have won so many games over the years. But um there’s a responsibility from everybody myself the staff the players support staff uh front office everybody uh to understand if we want to have that goal you can’t stand Pat. He can’t just be excited about having, you know, a good season and getting to game seven and get to a really good team in OKC. OKC is coming back. They’re going to be there. Minnesota’s going to be there. Uh so for us to surpass those teams, uh everybody in that room’s got to believe they can get better. And so it’s easy to say, well, we didn’t have the roster last year because we didn’t win it. Or you can look at it and say, well, how much better can this roster get? How can we maximize what we have? And if we do that, I think we have a great opportunity. As Josh said, we’re more than capable of competing with those teams. as we showed it. Uh it’s just about getting in the right, you know, mindset when those games come at the end of the season, earning the right to be in those games first. Uh but yes, there there’s enough in there. Uh obviously, conversations have to be had. We’d love to improve. Uh but you can improve with what you have and that’s going to be important for these guys uh looking at their summers. Um I have a question for David, but real quick, Josh, you mentioned last week the possibility of an outside firm in terms of the GM search. Are you going that direction or is it more news on that front. Okay. No news on that front. Thank you. Um David, offensively specifically, uh what’s going to change for you, if anything? What stays the same? Or are you planning to have an offensive coordinator, so to speak, or how’s how’s that going to look in terms of the delegation? Yeah, still formulating ideas with that with the staff. Uh going in a lot of different ways. Think offensively next year though, I think Jamal’s Jamal’s not going to miss shots next year. He’s going to be on fire all the time. We’re going to rely on that. Uh, no. I think it’s like I said, you have to you have to always be changing with the game. Um, and you know, our players will come back. We’ve had, you know, things we’ve ran for all these guys over the years. We we have to come back with different ideas and and that comes from different voices. Uh, I have to be willing uh to listen to outside opinions. Um, you know, it’s different for me. It was my opinion before being given to someone else. Uh, so I think, you know, delegation will come as the staff is is formed. Um, and there’s different ways to do it. Uh, what we’ve done here has been successful with the offensive defensive coordinators, uh, with the head coach. Uh, but there’s other people doing it a different way across the league. And so that’s for me to sit down, uh, realize where my comfort zone is with that and then go from there to make sure we put the right people in place uh, to give these guys the best chance possible to be successful. Go back to that top five. Given the way the last two seasons ended with conversations about fatigue, injury, lack of depth, are you satisfied with the condition level, the conditioning, and the approach to availability from those guys you’re leaning on so much? No, I think we can come back better. Uh I think we can come back more ready to start the season. Uh I think you can’t every year. You know, I think every guy comes back and as they take a year, you know, they get a year older, uh they’re all trying to maintenance themselves through the offseason into the first part of, you know, the first games. Uh, I would love for us to come back, you know, more ready to go cuz I think the thing it’s funny is the year we won the championship, yes, it was a totally different conference. Uh, but the bottom line is we got off to a great start that year u, and just crushed it throughout the season which allowed us uh, to be right for the playoffs. And it’s it’s it’s hard to say we’re going to do that cuz the Western Conference is really tough, but you have to give yourself every opportunity possible to have the best start possible. Uh because it allows you to maintenance your roster as you go into the playoffs. So, uh that’ll be the expectation. We’ll have those conversations with guys. Uh it’s not all that simple. You know, guys are coming off, you know, a really, really tough season. Uh there’s mental fatigue, there’s physical fatigue. Uh but when guys are ready to get back into it, I think they have to start and understand what the challenge is going to be. uh and teams that get off to great starts usually at the end of the year uh have the best chance of being healthy in these big games. So that’s going to be a conversation uh with the whole group. Uh that there’ll be goals set, expectations, obviously private conversations. Uh but yeah, that’ll be the expectation to come back in much better shape. Coach, over the course of the last couple of seasons, especially, the team has really had probably like an eight or nineman rotation with guys playing heavy minutes. just in an ideal world, what would you hope for as kind of running things now? Yeah, I think I mean in the past it’s always been nine nine and a half to start the season and then as you gradually work your way to the playoffs, you know, it it usually morphs to eight. Um, but it every year is different, you know what I mean? It’s it’s I see two teams right now in the playoffs playing more than that in these rounds in Indiana and OKC. So, you know, it’s it’s about progression of our players. Um, you know, and the trust goes both ways. Uh, it has to be developed both ways. Uh, but yeah, that the ultimate goal would be playing nine guys, uh, to start the season and like I said, sometimes 10 and that’s the best way to get through the year. Uh, and then I think guys earn their spots. As you play more games, you realize stylistically how you’re going to play and that also helps to know who’s going to be in that rotation. So, yeah, there’s a lot of ways to do it. Um, obviously I would say, you know, the year we wanted it was more like a seven and a half, eightman rotation. Um, you know, we stayed healthy that year, but the goal would be to have more people in the fold, you know, as we go forward. So, I said it before, I mean, there’s going to be spots open. It’s going to be open competition to win those spots and our rotation. Uh, and so guys that come back ready to roll are going to, you know, reap the rewards of that. David, I know it’s the front office’s job to add personnel to the roster, but what traits do you see the team lacks right now that can be accomplished either through internal improvement or external? What traits, shooting, athleticism that the roster needs to add going into next year? I would say consistent shooting. Uh obviously the way we get guarded and that that’s nothing new. That’s not like it’s just for us. I mean, if you’re watching these series, you know, Shay and and Anthony Edwards are getting triple teamed. I mean, they’re coming from all over the place. Uh, and we we brought this up during the playoffs. And it’s funny, Julian sitting right here. I mean, his game six, you know, was incredible. And then you saw what Lou Dort did, you know, in game five. Like, it’s there’s a premium on shot making at, you know, the times you need it. And when you get into those moments, it’s not just about making shots during the season. I never look at percentages because that’s not real. When you get in those moments, it’s about the repetition, the confidence of making shots in those big games. And you know, it’s a talent and it’s something that can be I think you can enhance yourself being mentally tougher playing in more games throughout the season that mean more. Uh but to me that’s what stands out is just, you know, it’s not just making shots, it’s making shots in the moment and how do you get yourself ready for that moment? And I think the guys going through some experiences this year that maybe weren’t part of those things the last couple years, you hope that that translate to next season. Uh because the trust is going to be there. And you saw with Nola, I mean, you see Jamal, uh, they trust their teammates and they’re going to get off the ball and they’re going to make the right play. And now we’ve got to take those steps, whether that’s through talking about it mentally, uh, the repetition they put in in the summer, the type of work they’re putting in, not just getting a 100 shots up, but what kind of shots are you shooting? All that stuff matters. You get those moments. And, you know, that’ll be talked about with these guys. U, but I think that’s what stood out to me throughout the season and then obviously in the playoffs. Coach, I know this decision came down to more than just the players voices, but at the end of the season, a lot of those first five guys really advocated for you to be in this role. Did you see any of that? And what did that mean to you that to see that you’ve already built those bonds? Yeah, it meant a lot. Uh because it’s not just the fact that we’ve known each other for a long time. It was the fact that the situation was going to go one way or the other. and their decision to buy into what we were doing uh said a lot about them, not about me. And the fact that they thought that they still had a chance to make something out of the season as things were kind of going the other way. Um you know, and I I was actually talking Andy Miller, my agent’s here, and we were talking about this last night, but it was special to see the response from the guys. And these aren’t just, you know, random players I took over. These guys won a championship. These guys are some of the most accomplished players in the NBA, you know, not just the last three years, the last six, seven, eight years that have been through the wars of the playoffs and seen it all. Uh, so to develop trust with them during that time, uh, was really important to me. That’s going to continue. And I want to talk about this before this is over. What you saw from these guys communication wise is going to continue next year. These guys, this is their team and what they want to do next year and the goals they have is going to come down to what they want. and I’m there to help uh you know to shepherd this uh but this is about them and the success they’ve had. So meant a ton to me that you know Josh had the trust of me to take over and then at the end of it to have the guys feel like things were done correctly you know and to have this opportunity to come back. Uh it’s an honor. It’s an honor to coach the Denver Nuggets and more importantly coaching these players. Uh so very excited for the journey next year. Thank

David Adelman & Josh Kroenke Press Conference after Denver Nuggets announce David Adelman as the Official new head coach of the Denver Nuggets

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