David Adelman goes 2-0 in his first shot as an NBA head coach
David Adelman (right) confers with Nuggets guard Jamal Murray (courtesy Bart Young/Nuggets/Getty Images)
David Adelman has had a few “pinch me” moments through a career as an NBA coach that is now in its 11th campaign.
Atop the list for the Denver Nuggets assistant coach has to be serving as head coach in a 122-113 victory over the Trail Blazers on Tuesday night at Ball Arena. Adelman was filling in for Michael Malone, who is temporarily idled with Covid-19.
Adelman, 41, is the son of Hall of Fame coach Rick Adelman, a Portland resident who coached the Trail Blazers for 5 1/2 seasons (1989-94) and led them to two appearances in the NBA Finals.
David was a youngster then, and served several seasons as ball boy for his father’s Blazer teams. He spent most of his formative years in Portland, graduated from Jesuit High, spent time studying at both University of Portland and Portland State and got his first head coaching job at Lincoln High. The irony of beating the hometown team for his first head coaching win hit Adelman late.
“After the game was over, that’s when I realized it was special,” Adelman says from his home in Denver. “Up to it, I was so into the preparation, I didn’t think of it that way.”
Adelman, in his second season as Malone’s lead assistant, had coached the Nuggets through parts of games after Malone was ejected, but never had been head coach for an entire game. There was a little extra pressure on Adelman when he learned Monday that Malone would miss the Blazers game. Denver (32-13) leads the Western Conference and had won seven games in a row.
“It was great to win, but it was also kind of a relief, because we have been playing so well,” says Adelman, in his sixth season on Malone’s staff in Denver. “When you change something, you don’t want to be the reason the streak stopped. We tried to keep the same routines through game day. Once we got into the game, I would coach the team. I told the guys, ‘It’s like a player being hurt; the next person steps up and does the job.’
“I was nervous up to tip-off, but once we got out there, (being head coach) felt like second nature. You just do the job.”
As he headed into the Nuggets’ locker room to deliver a short post-game address, Adelman was ambushed with a “Gatorade shower” from all of his players. After he good-naturedly took it in stride, he was presented with the game ball.
“I was not ready for that,” he says with a laugh. “The water was so cold. DeAndre Jordan had a full ice bucket and came up from behind and got me. But it was great. Our guys are so tight. We have a really good connection between the coaches and players. It was a cool moment, one I’ll never forget.”
Adelman found out the next day that his name was making the rounds in his hometown.
“I guess a lot of kids I coached at Jesuit and Lincoln were sending each other text messages during the game,” he says. “It was great that it was on TV in Portland and my family and friends who don’t have the NBA package could see it. It’s cool that it connected a lot of people in different worlds who used to know each other really well.”
The next day, David had a phone conversation with his dad.
“He said he was proud of me,” David says. “I told him, ‘I owe you a lot.’ As a kid, I looked up to the way he handled himself as a head coach, and I used that as a No. 1 thought process going into that game (Tuesday).”
Adelman made it 2-0 when the Nuggets edged the Timberwolves 122-118 at Minneapolis on Wednesday night.
“I told myself, ‘maintain your temperament,’ ” David says. “Watching my dad be so consistent emotionally through his career really did help me in those two games. Managing the game and not losing your cool — that’s a big deal.”
Adelman started his coaching career while still in college, working under his high school coach, Gene Potter, for five years. Adelman was at Lincoln from 2006-11, winning three PIL titles in five years and reaching the 2009 6A state championship game.
David joined his father’s staff at Minnesota in player development for one season (2011-12) before spending four years as a full-fledged assistant under Adelman, Flip Saunders and Sam Mitchell. David had one season as an assistant to Frank Vogel in Orlando before joining Malone’s staff in Denver in 2017.
Adelman’s son, LJ, is 9 years old. He has not yet been a ball boy for the Nuggets. Many of them now working for NBA teams are in their 20s.
““He said he was proud of me,” David says. “I told him, ‘I owe you a lot.”
“It has changed so much since I was a kid,” says Adelman, who recalls working the 1991 Western Conference finals between the Blazers and L.A. Lakers at Memorial Coliseum.
“I’m working the Laker bench,” he says. “Magic Johnson is out there at mid-court before a game, stretching. And he looks over at me and says, ‘Hey young fella, come over here. Lay on my knee.’ And all of a sudden I’m using my weight to stretch him out. I was 10. Man, the league has changed a lot.”
David says he has a similar relationship with L.J. as he had with his father.
“It’s not just about basketball,” David says. “My dad was really good at that. He made us a part of his job, but there was no pressure. If you like it, cool. If you don’t, that’s fine. He gave me opportunities to be around it, and if I want to be involved, great. Of course, I was drawn to it.”
David’s wife, Jenny, L.J. and daughter Lennan, 7, go to all the Nuggets’ home games.
“They really enjoy it,” Adelman says. “You want them to be part of your life, but you also want them to have all their own interests.”
Heading into Friday’s date with Indiana, the Nuggets are rolling.
“It’s been fun,” Adelman says. “Winning makes things easier. I told the guys, we lost 65 games one year in Minnesota (actually 66, Saunders’ first season in 2014-15). That one year felt like 10.
“It is so joyous to come to work with this group. I love working with Coach Malone and these players. It’s been cool.”
Especially Nikola Jokic, the Serbian wonder who has been the NBA’s Most Valuable Player the past two seasons. The 6-11 “Joker” recently became the Nuggets’ career assists leader — surely the only center leading a franchise in that category.
“Sometimes I find myself just sitting there on the bench watching in wonderment,” Adelman says. “I get to be in the front row, watching it all.”
Jokic led the 2019-20 Nuggets to the Western Conference finals.
“This team is the most consistent of all of our teams since I have been here,” Adelman says. “The last two years, Nikola has been incredible, but we have had so many injuries.
“This year, we have so many consistent role players. Bruce Brown has been great. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope has been absolutely as advertised. Aaron Gordon is having his best season. Michael Porter has really improved, especially on defense. He has thrived in our system.
“That’s not to mention Jamal (Murray) and Nikola. A lot of guys are playing their role at a high level. If you do that night after night, you’re going to win. We are talented, and we have a two-time MVP. We will be a tough out in the playoffs.”
Denver is No. 1 in the NBA in offensive rating but only 18th in defensive rating.
“In the last 10 games or so, we’re in the top five,” Adelman says. “As of late, we’ve played better defense. We were scoring a ton and winning. The guys started to realize, if we want to win in the playoffs, start flying around defensively.”
It would make sense that Adelman will soon be on the radar of some NBA teams as a potential head coach. There have been five father-son head coach combinations in NBA history. Bill and Eric Musselman, Bernie and J.B. Bickerstaff and Paul and Stephen Silas are three. And also two father/son pairs closely connected with the Nuggets — Malone and his father Brendan and current Denver assistant Ryan Saunders and his father Flip.
David Adelman was 2-0 after his first two games as Denver’s acting head coach (courtesy Bart Young/Nuggets/Getty Images)
Would Adelman — who has never interviewed for an NBA head job — like to make it six?
“It would be a great opportunity,” he says. “It’s one of those things you think about it, but you’re very happy you have a job in the NBA to begin with — especially the one I have.
“I think about that all the time. I’m one of 30 guys in the NBA at this position (lead assistant). A lot of men I respect like John Wetzel and Elston Turner — they were lead assistants, and they were great at it. You’ll never find me complaining about where I am. I’m very fortunate.”
The two-time MVP just could be one of Adelman’s leading advocate.
“David is the guy who is going to be the next head coach, because he has the head for a head coach,” Jokic says. “He is thinking in front, he knows answers, and he reads and reacts.”
When we talked Thursday, Adelman knew he would be in the first seat again Friday night against the Pacers. Beyond that, who knows? Perhaps soon enough he will get the chance to run his own team full-time.
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