Time flies when you’re reinventing yourself all the time. When the calendar flipped to Jan. 1, 2025, David Adelman was the lead assistant on Michael Malone’s staff. The Nuggets were 18-13 thanks to dueling triple-doubles from Nikola Jokic and Russell Westbrook in a 132-121 win over the Jazz on Dec. 30, 2024. The Nuggets enter the final day of 2025 with a 22-10 record under their new coach and the need for even more evolution after Nikola Jokic suffered a left knee hyperextension injury that will keep the franchise player out for at least four weeks in the middle of Adelman’s first season. Denver will play its final game of the year without four players who started the season opener Oct. 23. “You reinvent the best way you can as a coach, coaching staff and players,” Adelman said after his team lost Jokic and the game Monday in Miami. “We have to have belief in each other going forward, and I think we will.” On April 8, Adelman was back in charge for the first time since he was a high school coach in 2011. There were three regular-season games left to figure out how the Nuggets would attack the postseason. He was welcomed to the NBA Playoffs with a seven-game series against the Clippers. Then, he had to figure out how to hang with Oklahoma City, the No. 1 seed, despite Michael Porter Jr. playing the second-round series with one healthy shoulder and Aaron Gordon suffering a hamstring strain late in Denver’s Game 6 win. Denver’s season ended in Oklahoma City in Game 7 on May 18. The interim tag was removed from Adelman’s title May 22, and he spent the offseason restructuring his first coaching staff with five new faces –- Jared Dudley, JJ Barea, Mike Moser, Chase Buford and Rodney Billups. “When I just stop and breathe for a second, it’s crazy to think we’re at Christmas already in the season,” Adelman said prior to Jokic’s historic performance in an overtime win over the Timberwolves. “Just the idea of prepping for training camp for the first time in this role, and now, we’re here, going through what we’ve been through, you’re just going through things that you were always part of the support staff of trying to keep the players going and the head coach when you go through injuries and tough losses and all those things. This is a lot different, because you’re actually speaking about it and for it. That’s different for me, but it’s been a good journey.” *** Adelman’s basketball journey began back in Portland. It started with a stint as a Trail Blazers ball boy, while his father, Rick, was the head coach. The coaching journey started soon after college when he returned to Beaverton’s Jesuit High School, where he starred alongside Mike Dunleavy Jr., as an assistant to his high school coach, Gene Potter. He left Potter’s staff to coach Portland’s Lincoln High School for five seasons. Then, he jumped to the NBA, serving on his father’s Timberwolves staff as a player-development coach. After Rick retired, David remained on the staffs of Flip Saunders and Sam Mitchell. He also served as the franchise’s Summer League coach for a few seasons. Then came stints as an assistant with the Magic and Nuggets before he got his big break late last season. Prior to Denver’s game in Dallas on Dec. 23, Adelman credited former Magic coach and current Mavericks assistant Frank Vogel with a crucial assist. “I was a nobody, traveling (player development) guy. Then, he put me on his bench in Orlando,” Adelman said prior to the Nuggets Dec. 23 game in Dallas. “I was only there for one year, but that one year allowed me to get to Denver, and here I sit.” Denver Nuggets assistant coach David Adelman, right, calms head coach Michael Malone, center, left, who yells at referee Evan Scott (78) after a call in the second half of an NBA game against the Indiana Pacers, Jan. 14, 2024, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski) *** Now, Adelman is something in the coaching world. Some first-year coaches enter situations where rebuilding is more of a priority than winning. Adelman stepped into a role where contending for a championship is the expectation. That’s required a lot of reinvention. The Nuggets started the season with a reimagined roster. Cam Johnson was supposed to be a better fit with starting lineup without a noticeable drop-off from the shooting gravity Porter provided. Jonas Valanciunas, a starting center for much of his career, anchored the second unit to start the season. Key reserves Bruce Brown and Tim Hardaway Jr. signed minimum contracts to join or rejoin the Nuggets for what was expected to be a contending run despite a first-year coach. The last time Brown was a Nugget, Adelman was a lead assistant. “He just says ‘Next man up.’ We got a deep team, a really deep team. … We got a lot of guys that can come in and do a great job,” Brown told the Denver Gazette after Denver’s dramatic win over the Timberwolves. “Still the same guy –- great coach, straight to the point, but will encourage you when he knows you need it.” Christian Braun and Gordon got hurt in the first month of the season and won’t return before 2026. Peyton Watson and two-way rookie Spencer Jones were inserted into the starting lineup to replace some of the defense Denver lost on the wing, but the personnel change forced the Nuggets to play smaller and more aggressively on defense. “We all had to tinker with some of the things we came into the season saying we were going to be. We became something different, a little more aggressive, a little more apt to put two on the ball whether that be in the post, the isolations and pick and rolls just to bring more activity, because that’s the strength we have right now,” Adelman said prior to the Dec. 23 game in Dallas. “It’s the NBA, so you have to recreate yourself over and over and over again. I’ve been really proud of the guys on both ends. We’ve kind of recreated ourselves slowly over time.” Johnson and Jokic won’t be available for Denver’s 2025 finale after suffering knee injuries that are expected to keep them out for most if not all of January. Hardaway has joined the starting lineup in Johnson’s place, and Valanciunas is the safe bet to replace Jokic for Wednesday’s game against the Raptors. “He’s not scared of it. He’s embracing the moment. He’s embracing the opportunity. (It’s) not being scared to put the young guys in and put guys that probably won’t play a lot (of) big minutes (when we’re healthy) in the rotation.” Denver Nuggets forward Spencer Jones (21) talks with head coach David Adelman during the first half of an NBA game, Saturday, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux) *** Nearly midway through his first season in charge, Adelman is orchestrating the league’s best offense. Denver leads the league in offensive rating (123.9), points per game (125.7), field-goal percentage (51.3) and 3-point percentage (40.6). Jokic is one pace to again average a triple-double with a career-high 11 assists per game. Adelman previously coordinated Denver’s offense, but he’s also mixed in more actions his father used with Vlade Divac in Sacramento. Defensively, Adelman hasn’t been shy about utilizing a zone to maximize Denver’s defensive personnel. Denver’s defensive rating ranks 21st after an extended stretch without two of the team’s top defenders, but the Nuggets’ net rating, 7.2, ranks only behind the Thunder (13.8) and Rockets (8.6). “The fundamentals of the offense are, of course, largely the same, as any smart coach would do. You see some nuance tweaks particularly in their movement off-ball and their spacing,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said prior to the Christmas game. “Defensively, they’ve done some different things whether it’s playing more zone or flipping some matchups. I think they’ve been a little tighter defensively as a result. You can definitely see little nuances.” Keeping things afloat for as long as Denver is without the best player in franchise history and other starters will require more adjustment than ever, but that’s nothing new for Adelman after an eventful 2025. “You just keep reinventing yourself all the time. That’s what you do as a team,” Adelman said. “We’re going to have to be creative. We’re very thin right now. That’s just the way it is.” Denver Nuggets head coach David Adelman in the first half of an NBA game Dec. 18 in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski) ...read more read less