Most Nuggets fans were happy with the hiring of David Adelman, and I count myself among them. DA was an assistant in Denver for many years and has more than earned his shot. His work down the stretch and in the playoffs as an interim coach only solidified that belief. Keeping him on board offers the perfect balance of change and continuity.
The part of this that I can’t get behind is the timing of it all and the fact that the team has hired a coach before a GM. We’ve seen this play out time and again around the NBA, and bringing in a GM or POBO to run the team without offering the freedom to handpick the coach rarely, if ever, works out.
The Nuggets just ended a brutal in-house Cold War between Michael Malone and Calvin Booth that sucked the life out of the building. Josh Kroenke has preached how everyone must be on the same page moving forward, but hiring Adelman without a GM flies right in the face of that sentiment.
It’s an odd situation, and one that could easily become uncomfortable at best and downright prohibitive at worst. Again, I was fully in favor of promoting Adelman to full-time head coach, but I would have loved to find a GM who was fully on board with the move first. The timing of the whole situation could mean a few different things are in play.
Kroenke may still promote interim GM Ben Tenzer
One possibility is that, much like with the Adelman hire, Kroenke will stay in-house and simply promote interim GM Ben Tenzer. Tenzer has been in the organization in some capacity all the way back to 2005 and was formally hired as Director of Team Operations in 2013.
Tenzer would represent more continuity and a familiarity with the current squad that would be unrivaled. This could also explain the hiring of Adelman, as he and Tenzer have worked together for years and should be more than familiar with each other. Promoting both interim hires as a package deal could make a lot of sense. The only question is why wasn’t the Tenzer promotion announced along with the Adelman move?
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