David Adelman has been known to throw on “The X-Files” at home to take the edge off during a playoff run as interim coach. He’s well-versed in the zombie-apocalypse vernacular of his son’s favorite “Call of Duty” video game, which they played during the Thanksgiving holiday.
He’s a man of many entertainment tastes in his free time. But, yeah, of course he sometimes prefers to just turn on NBA League Pass.
“When I have a casual night and time on my hands, it’s fun to watch those games as a fan,” the first-year coach of the Nuggets said Wednesday, while Denver was in the midst of a seven-day stretch with only one game. “And sometimes you pick things up when you’re less technical and you’re more watching the flow of how games are going. I do think we can overdo it a little bit as coaches.”
The topic stemmed from an offhand comment Adelman made to reporters earlier in the week about having watched a game between the Spurs and Pelicans. Adelman was impressed by New Orleans rookie Derik Queen, who joined LeBron James, Luka Doncic, De’Aaron Fox and Victor Wembanyama as the only players in NBA history with a 30-point triple-double before their 21st birthday. Queen also scored 30 against the Nuggets two weeks earlier.
“I just enjoyed watching that game and watching the young kid Queen, how skilled he is,” Adelman said.
More broadly, most of the regular-season action he gets to watch is via film of Denver’s upcoming opponents, provided by the team’s support staff. (Ben Potts joined the Nuggets over the summer as their new head video coordinator.) After all, in an 82-game season, the focus is constantly shifting to the next matchup.
But when Adelman tries to find time to watch “as a fan,” it’s usually a nationally televised Western Conference game with a late start.
He recognizes the irony. He complained multiple times early this season about how brutal it feels to tip off at 8 p.m. MT or later, especially when there’s a back-to-back in another city the next night. As one of the league’s marquee teams, the Nuggets have already played several late games.
“With (us living in) Mountain time, those late-night games are fun to watch,” he admitted. “I try to catch the East, but sometimes real life is happening during those games. But at night, the streaming stuff, when you’re in those games and you start at 9 p.m. or 8:30, it sucks. But when they start (at those times) and you have a night off, they are great, man. I love the 8 p.m. game when I’m at home. So yeah, I enjoy watching the Western Conference.”
His players concur. Nuggets guard Christian Braun has openly discussed his fondness for watching other games around the league when Denver isn’t playing, and will even check out the ending of a close one on his phone in a postgame locker room.
Nikola Jokic, despite a public persona that often conveys indifference, has been known to text Braun or other teammates about another game, or team, or player. Starting small forward Cam Johnson is such an avowed hoops junkie that he recently took over as host of the popular “Old Man and the Three” podcast, founded by JJ Redick before he coached the Lakers.
As for Adelman, his basketball curiosity has extended far beyond the NBA over the years. He told The Denver Post last season that he has searched for inspiration in the French women’s national team when designing offensive concepts for Jokic in the past.
On Wednesday, he gave a shoutout to the Phoenix Suns and fellow rookie head coach Jordan Ott when asked for his favorite teams to watch on NBA League Pass.
But even before that, Adelman answered the question with a joke that — for most neutral fans who simply appreciate an exciting offense — isn’t one.
“Us,” the Nuggets coach said.
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