Not all of the Nuggets had disappeared from Denver yet. A trio of them poked their heads into the Ball Arena lounge area above their practice gym, an area usually reserved for club-level ticket holders but at that moment occupied by team brass, reporters’ recorders and the man of the hour — a man they wanted to support with their presence.
Julian Strawther took a front-row seat, intermingling with reporters and David Adelman’s family. Jamal Murray and Jalen Pickett lingered in the back of the room, which was repurposed for Adelman’s formal introduction as the Nuggets’ 23rd head coach in franchise history.
The event itself was mostly a matter of decorum, an opportunity for Adelman to replace the usual quarter-zip with a black suit and tie while issuing his mission statement. His promotion from the title of interim coach was six weeks in the making. By the time it was made official by the Kroenke family last week, it was a foregone conclusion.
Denver’s players were offering public endorsements of Adelman for the umpteenth time.
“To develop trust with them during that time was really important to me,” he said.
Consider that the prevailing theme that’ll define Denver’s next big decision as well. Michael Malone’s replacement is locked in. The inheritor of Calvin Booth’s master plan is not.
Seated next to Adelman at the dais Wednesday was team president Josh Kroenke, who is responsible for hiring a general manager who will communicate with Adelman more effectively than Booth and Malone ever meshed.
“Whoever has that (general manager) spot going forward, it’s just developing a relationship, sacrificing your own thoughts for the betterment of the whole group,” Adelman said, asserting that the NBA is a business “about cohesion” but “not about finding your best friend.”
Differences of opinion between an executive and coach are almost unavoidable, as Malone used to point out. For example, Adelman believes “consistent shooting” is the most important need for Denver to address this offseason, whether internally or externally. A new GM might audit the roster and decide perimeter defense is a higher priority.
But under Denver’s previous regime, typical opposing philosophies about the roster snowballed into a more deeply damaged environment, leading to the firings of Malone and Booth. So it’s only natural that Kroenke’s new hires will be under the microscope as they attempt to establish a healthier synergy.
And it bears asking why Kroenke felt comfortable appointing a coach before a general manager under these exact circumstances — an atypical order of operations that’ll prevent the next GM from hand-picking who deploys the roster on a daily basis. Often, a team’s director of basketball operations will conduct his own coaching search to ensure philosophical alignment. Booth did not hire Malone.
The crux of Kroenke’s long and winding answer to that question was a confident assessment: “I can say very clearly that this organization does not need a cultural reset.” He focused on the locker room as proof, referring to the leadership-by-committee style that Adelman fostered during a second-round playoff run. The central idea: Adelman has already shown his openness to hearing other voices and collaborating as needed.
“The players are policing that (culture) on a daily basis,” Kroenke continued. “And from what I saw in how the players responded, our culture is still there. We just needed to peel off a few things.”
It’s another indication that Nuggets ownership viewed Malone vs. Booth as the problem, and not merely a problem.
Will the hiring process work in reverse, then, with Adelman having a say in who the next GM is? Not exactly. Kroenke plans to bring Adelman into the loop “as we reach a decision.”
“DA will come into that process at some point. … But I think the input will be relatively minimal, because what I’ll be looking for is cohesion between those two (roles),” he said. “And I think that once we decide on that, I think I’ll have a lot of comfort on how they work together.”
In the meantime, the Nuggets have not taken major steps in their search. Kroenke said he had “no news on that front” when asked if he’s hiring an outside firm to locate candidates — a method he expressed interest in pursuing last week. He did shout out interim general manager Ben Tenzer for recent input.
“This time of year, through the playoffs, there’s minimal things that go on in that (general manager’s) world from a roster standpoint,” Kroenke said. “But Ben and I have been spending a lot of time together, talking about each individual player, how we think we can improve them 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. … I’m actively inviting outside opinion into my process.”
That process is only the Nuggets’ first step in establishing an offseason plan. What follows could feasibly be a dramatic or dead-quiet summer. Adelman will be waiting at the end of it with a whiteboard and a whistle.
“We have to come back with different ideas,” he said, “and that comes from different voices.”
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