David Adelman, son of former Trailblazer head coach Rick Adelman, led the Denver Nuggets to a road win over the Sacramento Kings last night to break a four game losing streak for the Nuggets. The win keeps the Nuggets in the hunt for the No. 3 seed in the West, which of course is what they covet so as to avoid the OKC Thunder in a possible second round matchup.
The video above is after the Nuggets closed out the Lakers in the second round last April in a game in which I was fortunate enough to sit on the first row on the floor on the baseline opposite Jamal’s game winner.
A memory I will forever cherish with my son sitting next to me. And, of course, Jamal hit the game winner over Austin Reaves, who I have loved since his OU days.
I was sitting next to a couple of Wichita State fans the other night at Pay.Com and we started talking about Austin and how he ended up at OU. I did not know the reason Austin had to leave Wichita State was the fact he was dating head coach Greg Marshall’s daughter behind the coach’s back. Oops. Hellow…Coach Lon Kruger and Boomer Sooner, baby!.
Of course, the rest is history for the Lakers current third best player who amazingly went undrafted after being 1st team All-Big 12 his senior season in Norman. Sam Presti missed that one and instead took O State’s Lindy Waters who is now with his third NBA team sitting on a bench.
But back to Coach Malone…he leaves Denver as the only Denver Nugget coach to win an NBA Championship and he leaves with a string of eight straight winning seasons as well.
Coach Malone will have no problem securing a good NBA head coaching job if he wants one. He was the 4th longest tenured coach in the NBA prior to his dismal by Josh Kroenke. Coach Malone and GM Calvin Booth were both fired…which I thought was somewhat weak because Calvin Booth didn’t build the Nuggets into an NBA champiohsip team. That person was Tim Connelly, who is the current President of Operations for the Minnesota Timberwolves.
I will be somewhat surprised if Calvin Booth is anybody’s GM next season in the NBA. But we’ll see.
It would appear after the horrific double overtime loss to the very same Timberwolves…the situation with Coach Malone and Calvin Booth became untenable moving forward.
Coach Malone wanted to stick with the veteran Russell Westbrook, and Calvin Booth wanted to move forward with a heavier role for rookie Jalen Pickett.
The two mental errors by Russell at the end of the Minnesota game were indeed unacceptable, but Coach Malone is old school and sticks with his guys.
I actually like Jalen Pickett and we’ll see how that goes. But here’s the bottom line with the Nuggets, unless Jamal can stay healthy it’s not going to matter how many minutes Jalen plays or what role Russell has moving forward.
Because for the Nuggets to be a serious contender of any sort in the West, all three youngsters, those being Jalen, Peyton Watson, and Julian Strawther have to grow up in big time hurry and become solid No. 8, No. 9, and No. 10 players in interim coach David Adelman’s rotation.
I seriously doubt a coach like Mike Malone could ever coach for a GM like Sam Presti though. Coach Malone has a very strong, direct personality and I could never see a coach like Mike Malone fitting the Scott Brooks, Billy Donovan, Coach Mark template.
Good luck, Mike Malone.
Mike J