Grading The Week: Want to win Nikola Jokic’s heart, David Adelman? Bring Monte Morris back to Nuggets

David Adelman didn’t just “win” his introductory news conference. He throttled that thing the way the Thunder throttled his Nuggets in Game 2. It was over from the jump. Only in a good way.

The basketball wonks on the Grading The Week (GTW) crew are not too proud to admit when they dig what they hear. And our hoopsters found themselves nodding an awful lot while Adelman formally offered up his platform as the new full-time head coach for the 2022-23 NBA champs.

Conditioning? Oh, yeah!

A focus on shooting? Preach!

More wacky defenses? Hallelujah! (Your most indispensable players, Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, are also among your most inconsistent defenders. Junk it up, brother. Junk. It. Up.)

“New ideas are good ideas,” Adelman said. “I have to give them something to come back to that excites them.”

Team GTW is somewhat less excited about the feeling that team president Josh Kroenke is going to solve the Nuggets’ vacant GM position the KSE way — either by giving interim/in-house guy Ben Tenzer the full-time gig, as they did with Adelman on the coaching front, or by low-balling someone from Tim Connelly’s staff in Minnesota to keep it (sort of) in the family.

But if they want someone who’ll work cheap, GTW’s always happy to lend a hand. Or an ear. Or a new idea. In fact, we’d like to run this one up Kroenke’s flagpole right now.

David Adelman’s presser — A

In fact, let’s call this particular gambit a new idea with an old face. In a perfect world, the Nuggets and KSE could find a way to make a reunion work with Front Range favorite Bruce Brown, the sixth man who helped finally get this franchise to the mountaintop. But just like 90% of the proposed Michael Porter Jr. or Zeke Nnaji trades that get kicked around social media, we’re not sure if Brucey B is all that realistic. Considering that the do-everything guard had a $23 million cap hit in ’24-25, he’d have to want to take a whale of a “hometown” discount to fit Denver’s budget. Especially with extensions for Jokic and Christian Braun looming.

But we won’t give up on the idea of a Nuggets alumni reunion just yet. Because you know who else is about to hit the open market? Monte Morris.

Yes, Big Game Tae will be 30 when training camp opens. No, his twitch isn’t quite the same as it was five years ago. But the ex-Nuggets guard ticks a few Adelman boxes, especially if Russell Westbrook decides to move on. For one, Morris can still shoot the 3-ball well enough (36.0 % on 3s this past season) to spread out a defense. For another, he knows how to play with Joker, Murray, Aaron Gordon and Michael Porter Jr. He could serve as a big brother/mentor to the likes of Jalen Pickett even and Julian Strawther. And, with a $2.1 million cap hit as part of the Suns’ bench last season, the price will probably be right. If nothing else, just think how happy Jokic will be to have a friend back in the fold.