After a short respite following the Denver Nuggets exit from the playoffs, interim head coach David Adelman has had the interim tag removed and will be the team’s next head coach.

At his press conference earlier today, Nuggets governor Josh Kroenke announced the news officially in front of local media, sharing his belief and the team’s belief that Adelman is well suited to take a leading role within the organization.

“I think the way the group rallied around him, not only a different voice but a different style of communication, was fantastic to see,” Kroenke shared about Adelman’s playoff run. “We’re really excited about him, both what he’s shown over the last six weeks and then having a full summer, a full year, a full training camp to get things under his belt before we go back at it again this time next year.”

Adelman first took over for the Nuggets following the simultaneous firings of former head coach Michael Malone and former general manager Calvin Booth. Previous tension within the organization has been highlighted, and Adelman was stepping into a tenuous situation at best.

Not only did Adelman help the Nuggets organization rally together again, he also helped the Nuggets overachieve in some ways during this playoff run despite several impactful injuries. The Nuggets won a seven-game series against the Los Angeles Clippers that they weren’t favored to win despite having homecourt advantage. The Nuggets also took the Oklahoma City Thunder, an overwhelming favorite, to seven games, forcing the Thunder to play their best basketball when the time came. The players deserve the majority of the credit, but Adelman was a significant factor throughout the last six weeks.

“[Adelman has] been our lead assistant for a number of years. He’s been on the radar for the rest of the league for a number of years as a potential head coach,” Kroenke emphasized. “As he stepped into that role, I knew that he was probably more ready than people probably thought.”

As the Nuggets reflect on how the 2024-25 season and look to their future, Adelman appears to be a good choice to help Denver make that transition. He’s been with the organization since 2017, and he helped design and implement an offense to best take advantage of Nikola Jokic being the best player in the NBA. Still, that’s not all Adelman is. His perspective on coaching, development, play style, and more will be allowed to evolve in a larger role. He won’t simply do what Michael Malone previously did because he had previous responsibility on Malone’s staff. The Nuggets will have to evolve and become different over these next few years, despite maintaining a similar core group.

The word from the organization, something that Kroenke confirmed in his press conference today, is that the Nuggets have been forced to emphasize internal development because they’ve run out of resources to make serious changes externally. Trades are going to be difficult, so finding a coach that can help Denver’s current group become the best it can be will be of paramount importance going forward. Adelman is expected to be someone that can get as much as possible out of young rotation players like Christian Braun, Peyton Watson, and Julian Strawther, as well as those trying to crack the rotation like Zeke Nnaji, Jalen Pickett, and Hunter Tyson.

As for Nikola Jokic, he likes what Adelman brings and isn’t extensively worried about anything beyond that. He just wants to play basketball, and Adelman certainly won’t preclude him from playing his style or imparting his style onto the rest of the roster.

Speaking to some folks around the organization, the players were very happy to hear it would be Adelman. They like him and believe in him. Several players wanted this exact result for longer than just the last six weeks.

Perhaps that will be enough to help Denver get back to where they believe they’re supposed to be, at the top of the Western Conference.