The Nuggets Are Trying To Restore Glory With Familiar Tools

Why hiring Adelman first was a mistake.

Photo by Green Liu on Unsplash

Josh Kroenke knows more about pro sports than we do.

You can’t say that about a lot of owners. A lot of owners like basketball, or found value in it as an investment with great perks. Some even know a lot about basketball, having played at a higher level than most of us. Very few of them really understand professional sports in the way that J. Kroenke does.

It is a fan’s right to complain about ownership, a virtuous tradition integral to the experience of fandom.

But Josh Kroenke as an acting governor, owner, or key decision maker has been part of the leadership group that has earned a Super Bowl, Stanley Cup, NBA Championship, an FA Cup and an FA Community Shield¹ and an NLL championship in the last five years.

The breadth of his knowledge across sports in running these teams is something he’s aware of. When Tim Connelly left in 2022, his press conference was pretty much “You’re not seriously questioning me here, right?²

The point is not to blow smoke but to recognize that Kroenke is not an absentee owner or an amateur who likes to cosplay. He’s involved, day to day, in the business of professional sports, and he’s been incredibly successful.

The problem is that because he manages so many teams (on top of KSE’s various business interests), there’s no way for him to be the full-time manager for the Nuggets. He knows basketball, maybe best; he played in college at Mizzou.³

Owners who interfere do not have a good track record. JKroenke has never been an interfering owner, but his press conference this week made it clear that he feels a need to be more present.

How do you be more present without getting in the way? How do you oversee the Jokic era while letting people do their jobs?

You try and set more of the structure.

And if the problem was that some staff and players were “Malone people” or “Booth people” then you realign things to where everyone needs to be a KSE person.

The problem, as always, is alignment.

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The Nuggets hired David Adelman as head coach this week.⁴

Adelman’s a great hire. If the Blazers had moved on from Chauncey Billups, they were expected to be heavily interested in Adelman.

Adelman has a great relationship with the team. In the handful of times he appeared in Malone’s stead, the outcomes were good, and the players always spoke highly of him. There’s no doubt that they listen to him. He’s the right mix of continuity for a team that won 50 games or more three years in a row and some level of reinvention.

Not a single person has expressed concern over the hiring of Adelman. It is worthy of universal praise if not excessive celebration.

The problem, however, is who hired him.

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The Nuggets are still exploring who will take over as head of basketball operations.

There was widespread speculation that Ben Tenzer would ascend to that role as a kind of parallel of Adelman: someone who had worked for years in the organization, had relationships with the players and staff, a sharp mind, and a good reputation.

I’m still expecting Tenzer to be involved in the organization in some role in some capacity, maybe as general manager under an outside hire of President of Basketball Operations (POBO). But there are some whispers outside of Denver about the choice.