The hardest part, for me at least, of a disappointing early playoff exit is the following couple of weeks. I just sit and stew in it for a while. This year, the Denver Nuggets fell woefully short of legitimate championship expectations. Their first round loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves ranks right up there with the likes of losing to the Golden State Warriors in 2013, Utah Jazz in 2010 & the Los Angeles Clippers in 2006. In fact, given that the Timberwolves were first playing with an incredibly hampered superstar before later losing him, and another starter, entirely, it can be argued that this was the most disappointing playoff exit in franchise history…and I just keep stewing on that second quarter of Game 2.
That is, for all intents and purposes, where the series was lost. It is the only game that was won by a road team and the Nuggets held a nineteen point lead early in the second quarter. From there it went entirely astray. Denver would not win another game until they were back at home for game five with the writing on the wall and the injured Wolves just waiting to get back home to eliminate the Nuggets in game six. What happened in that quarter was a microcosm of the entire series: injuries, apathy and coaching ultimately spelled doom for Denver.
It’s not hyperbole to call this loss the worst in franchise history if you want to. I’m not going to do the research, I don’t have to, I can tell you right now without looking it up (ok fine I did actually look it up) that this is the first time in franchise history the Denver Nuggets have lost a playoff series where they were favored to win every game. In fact, it’s pretty rare in general for Denver to lose a series they were favored to win at all. It reminds me of that Warriors series in ’13. Denver was favored to win all but one of those games and really never had a chance after game one while suffering three painful losses in a row. The difference there though is it was the Nuggets who were missing their star player in Danilo Gallinari, not the other way around.
That Jazz series in ’10 might be the closest simile we have. The Nuggets were coming off of a run to the Western Conference Finals and while they had slipped a bit in the standings, they still looked like a formidable team primed for a long playoff run. They came out of the gate in game one, took care of business on the back of a forty-two point night from Carmelo Anthony and that turned out to be the peak of the series. A terrible second quarter in game two doomed that team as well and they too lost three straight before winning game five in a series that already felt over. Yet still there’s a major piece of context to be considered. It was once again the Nuggets, and not their opponent, who were not healthy. This time they were missing head coach George Karl who was recovering from cancer treatment.
Lastly the 2006 series against the Los Angeles Clippers has similarities if for no other reason than as a fan you felt like the Nuggets were sure to win this first round series, even if that belief was mostly based in weird seeding rules and the stigma around the Clippers in the late 90s/early 00s. In that case the Nuggets were pretty much out classed from the jump, losing games one and two before returning to get their lone win of the series in game three. That set up an all important game four where Melo and company played a complete dud and lost the series thanks to a lousy second quarter (seems to be a theme). Once again though there’s some key differences. Primarily in this case it’s that the Clippers were actually a really good, and more importantly healthy, team. Despite the Nuggets being the higher seed, L.A. actually had the better record and was made up of a veteran group of players with some young talent sprinkled in. Denver was still fully in their baby Melo era and the player they had brought in to be the number two option, Kenyon Martin, was benched and tried to fight the coach.
It truly is hard to find a direct precedent for a playoff loss like this in Nuggets history. Yes, Denver was dealing with some injuries. Not having Peyton Watson and Aaron Gordon either not playing or trying to gut it out at 50% (which might have hurt Denver even more) absolutely had a detrimental effect on the Nuggets, particularly on their ability to defend dribble penetration. However, given the injuries to Minnesota and that Denver still had two all stars, including the best player on earth, there’s no way to spin the series loss as anything other than an abject failure. Such a failure, in the prime of the career of the best player on earth, must spur change.
For many, the first place to look for that change is through coaching. Indeed, the calls for David Adelman to be relieved of his duties as the head coach were loud and he was even booed by the home crowd during his introduction in game five. However, since then the Nuggets have re-affirmed their faith in their coach. While this is disappointing for some, including myself (I have been anti-Adelman since the game where Christian Braun got hurt and DA inexplicably left him on the court for over a minute while Christian limped, waved to the bench and watched the opponent go on a run), it should be wholly unsurprising. The Kroenke’s have owned the Nuggets since 2000 and David Adelman is just the sixth full time head coach in that period. Prior to Adelman, just three coaches served as the full (no interim) head coach of the Denver Nuggets since 2004. Only once in the history of their sports empire have the Kroenkes fired a coach after one full season. That person was Tony Granato who was dismissed from the Colorado Avalanche after an abysmal ’08/’09 season that resulted in just 32 wins in his second stint with the team.
Firing Adelman, no matter how much the fans think its deserved, would have been a deviation from almost everything we know about KSE who clearly value keeping coaches around when they are successful, even if only in the regular season (see: George Karl, Michael Malone, Jared Bednar, Bob Hartley, Sean McVay & Mikel Arteta). At the end of the day, we can debate whether or not the Nuggets ’25/’26 campaign was successful when considering the context of the talent on the team and their exit from the playoffs, but from a general KSE franchise coaching level, last year was a successful year. Additionally, firing DA means putting his contract onto the remaining portion of Malone’s contract not covered by his new deal at University of Northern Carolina and then you have to go hire a new coach so KSE would be paying three contracts for one coach… & thus, Adelman will be back.
This absolutely does not mean his seat isn’t white hot coming into the season. It should in fact be viewed as the hottest seat in the NBA coaching realm come opening night this fall. While it is true that KSE does not fire coaches after one season, it is also true that they are not likely to tolerate a second season coming short of expectations. Brian Shaw was a complete disaster in his year and a half in Denver and didn’t survive his second season. Neither did Unai Emery with Arsenal or Granato in his first stint with the Avs. If the Nuggets are not a top four seed in the West pretty much throughout the season and if they look like they are in danger of missing the postseason at any point, Adelman will be gone. Another disappointing 1st round exit could see his termination as well. If the Nuggets can’t be a top team in the West and make another deep playoff run major changes to the coaching staff should be anticipated.
Perhaps some more minor coaching changes could be in the works immediately though. Both Jared Dudley and J.J. Barea were highly touted as up and coming assistant coaches and their addition to Adelman’s staff as his top two lieutenants was widely regarded as a solid move, but it also brings up the question of experience. Coming into the 2025-2026 season the person on Denver’s bench with the most head coaching experience in the NBA was in fact Adelman with three regular season games. Last time Denver had such vast inexperience on the bench? You guessed it: Brian Shaw. Now, in fairness that’s largely due to the fact that Shaw is also the only coach since Jeff Bzdelik to be hired for his first head coach role by the Nuggets, but we have seen, both in Denver and around the league, the benefit of bringing in former head coaches to help guide the staff.
Doug Moe was my big brother. I am sad today. I will miss him.
— George Karl (@CoachKarl22) February 17, 2026
Love you forever Doug. ❤️🩹 pic.twitter.com/Emc8Iik8xD
When Karl took over in 2004 one of his first hires to his coaching staff was former Nuggets coaching great Doug Moe. Today we can see prime examples of highly successful former head coaches filling top assistant roles with guys like Jeff Van Gundy and Nate McMillan as the top assistants with the Los Angeles Clippers and Lakers respectively. Michael Malone had Ryan Saunders, a guy with at least some head coaching experience, as one of his top assistants. Adelman’s first season as a head coach in the NBA was a rocky one but there were also bright spots as well. DA struggled quite a bit in the playoffs. He did not handle the media well as the pressure increased and his in game coaching was rough whether that was with rotations (death by small ball), timeouts or simply inspiring his team to play better. However, there was definitely bright spots through the year where you could also see the genius with some of his ATO plays, or with his mixing and matching of lineups to be successful in the regular season despite the abysmal injury luck.
During those in-game moments, especially when the pressure ratchets up 10x in the playoffs, it would benefit DA to have a long in the tooth coach with some previous HC experience to help steady the boat. I also think in general it’s quite the positive to have someone who has been there and done that to help flesh out your ideas on the day to day Adelman served as an assistant for two former head coaches who could be available to be assistants: Sam Mitchell and Frank Vogel. The latter could very well be looking for a new job. He was the lead assistant for the Dallas Mavericks last season but Jason Kidd’s outing by new President of Basketball Operations Masai Ujiri has put Vogel in spot of potentially getting the head coach gig in Dallas, but also potentially being let go if the Mavs choose a different person to lead their bench and he decides Vogel is not going to be part of the staff. If nothing else, the Nuggets should probe the interest should Frank become available or should Sam want to get back into coaching (he was last an assistant to for Penny Hardaway’s University of Memphis Tigers in 2018).
All in all, the coaching changes will be minor. A new lead assistant, or even just an old head somewhere on the bench, would be a good start, but there won’t be headlines coming from Denver this summer regarding their staff. The Nuggets have made it clear that DA will be back and that is what it is, but to simply sit on their hands entirely in regard to coaching is a mistake. Like so often has been the case with the roster, Denver will need to make improvements in the margins when it comes to coaches. They are more likely to bring bigger change in the form of new players via trade…or they may choose to do nothing at all and run it back. We’ll explore those ideas in parts 2 & 3 of this series.
