David Adelman has shaken himself free of the “interim” label.
The Nuggets are hiring Adelman to replace Michael Malone full-time as their head coach, a team source told The Denver Post. Adelman, 44, has been on the coaching staff since 2017 and took over the interim position with three games left in the 2024-25 regular season after Malone was fired.
Denver won those last three games, prevailed in a first-round playoff series, then pushed the 68-win Oklahoma City Thunder to seven games under Adelman’s impromptu leadership. Multiple starters shared their hope that he would get the full-time job after the team’s season-ending loss.
“I don’t see this as an audition,” Adelman said after receiving the temporary promotion in April. “I see this as: This franchise, this organization already has given me a chance right here. I owe them that.”
Adelman previously was an assistant coach for the Orlando Magic and Minnesota Timberwolves. In his eight seasons under Malone, he was tasked with designing Denver’s offense around center Nikola Jokic, who has won three league MVP trophies and an NBA Finals MVP. As that offense thrived in recent years, Adelman received attention as a head coach candidate around the league, interviewing with the Hornets, Cavaliers and Lakers in 2024.
Before arriving in the NBA, he coached Lincoln High School in Portland, Oregon — his home state — from 2006 to 2011. He is the son of Naismith Hall of Famer Rick Adelman, who coached the Trail Blazers, Warriors, Kings, Rockets and Timberwolves between 1989 and 2014.
Adelman is the 23rd head coach of the Nuggets, succeeding the winningest coach in franchise history. Malone won 471 regular-season games and 44 more in the playoffs during a 10-year tenure that included the team’s first NBA championship.
Only six Nuggets coaches have won 100 games. As Adelman prepares for his first season at the helm, he’ll already have a head start thanks to his 3-0 record at the tail end of last season.
“Man, I think somebody else should answer that if they’re going to hire me,” he told reporters recently when asked why he feels well suited for the full-time role.
Then he tried to humbly make his pitch: “I imagine experience helps. Confidence comes from experience. And I’ve had a lot of it, even as a kid growing up in locker rooms and all those things. But in this situation, probably just the comfortable feeling between me and the players. We’ve known each other for a long time. Especially the core guys. And then having a solid relationship with some of the newer guys, because that was my job as the (lead) assistant coach.
“Leading them hasn’t felt any different. … Behind closed doors, I’ve ran a lot of the things in practice with Coach Malone’s blessing — pregame (walk-throughs) and all those things — so I would say 70% of what I’m doing, I already was doing. And the other 30%, I’m learning on the fly. So you can’t learn anything unless you actually go do it. So I’m doing the best I can. I’m trying to learn minute by minute.”
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