{"id":965836,"date":"2026-07-29T02:19:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T02:19:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/965836\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T02:19:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T02:19:27","slug":"nuggets-dave-joerger-could-be-good-for-nikola-jokic-bad-for-david-adelman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/965836\/","title":{"rendered":"Nuggets’ Dave Joerger could be good for Nikola Jokic, bad for David Adelman"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Nuggets are betting that two Daves will be better than one,<\/a> and let\u2019s hope.<\/p>\n

Because if this was David Adelman\u2019s idea, the man\u2019s got some serious crown jewels.\u00a0Nikola Jokic\u2019s coaching staff<\/a> got a little bit better this week. Although it\u2019s not hrd to imagine that David Adelman\u2019s<\/a> job security as head coach just got a little bit worse.<\/p>\n

Per ESPN\u2019s Shams Charania<\/a>, the Nuggets<\/a> have landed Dave Joerger to be David Adelman\u2019s \u201ccoach-in-waiting.\u201d Sorry. To be Adelman\u2019s \u201cco-coach.\u201d Dang it! I meant \u201clead assistant coach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whatever. If you\u2019ve been pining for a veteran NBA voice with playoff experience to start whispering in Adelman\u2019s ear, Joerger\u2019s your man.<\/p>\n

New Dave has served as a head coach or assistant with five NBA franchises since 2007. The 52-year-old Joerger had a fairly successful run as the head man in Memphis from 2013-16 (147-99, three playoff berths) followed by a less successful run right after that in Sacramento (99-148, no playoff appearances), before he hooked onto Doc Rivers\u2019 staffs in Philly and Milwaukee.<\/p>\n

Josh Kroenke gave Adelman the dreaded public vote of confidence<\/a> a few months back after a team built to win it all couldn\u2019t win four games out of seven against a Minnesota roster that was missing Anthony Edwards.<\/p>\n

At first blush, hiring Joerger now feels an awful lot like hedging bets with your head coach \u2014 and right after a massively disappointing playoff series during which said coach got schooled on about eight different levels by Chris Finch.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Nuggets will put on their best Chip Diller face<\/a> for David and Dave, of course, the same one they wore for years in front of the cameras while Michael Malone and Calvin Booth were snarling at one another behind the scenes.<\/p>\n

All is not well when you\u2019re the only NBA franchise swimming in the second apron of the salary cap. Although, on paper, this is the type of tweak that could actually work.<\/p>\n

The presumption is that Joerger is boarding the S.S. Kroenke to serve as Adelman\u2019s Vic Fangio, his Vance Joseph. New Dave is regarded as something of a defensive mastermind in hoops circles, although his units\u2019 statistical results over the last decade have been, shall we say, more inconclusive on that assumption.<\/p>\n

Joerger\u2019s Grizzlies ranked among the NBA\u2019s top 10 in defensive rating in 2013-14 (103.8 points given up per 100 possessions) and 2014-15 (101.2), only to slip to 20th (107.1) in Year 3, his last in Bluff City. His defenses over three seasons as the head coach in Sacramento checked in at 26th, 27th and 21st, giving up between 110-111 points per 100 possessions.<\/p>\n

As an NBA assistant the last three seasons, the defensive variance has largely continued. While working with Rivers, the Bucks ranked No. 12 in defensive rating (112.7) in \u201924-25 but dipped to 26th (118.3) this past season.<\/p>\n

Considering that the Nuggets have posted a bottom-10 defensive rating each of the last two regular seasons, finishing 21st in \u201924-25 and in \u201925-26,<\/a> a fresh set of eyeballs certainly couldn\u2019t hurt. Especially after Minnesota forward Jaden McDaniels so gleefully stuck his fingers in them this past April.<\/p>\n

\u201cGo after Jokic, Jamal (Murray), all the bad defenders,\u201d McDaniels infamously offered after his Timberwolves snatched a soul-crushing 119-111 victory at Ball Arena in Game 2 of Denver\u2019s first-round capitulation. \u201cTim Hardaway (Jr.), Cam Johnson, Aaron Gordon, the whole team. Just go at them. Yeah, they\u2019re all bad defenders.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t (have) people that can defend the rim. And if (Jokic) is there, we\u2019re still more athletic than them. And (we\u2019ve) just got to be able to finish when we do (get to the rim).\u201d<\/p>\n

Did they ever. During a first-round series loss that rattled the Rockies, the Nuggets allowed 29.8 shot attempts in the restricted area \u2014 the most of any Western Conference postseason participant, according to NBA.com tracking data. Their 20.5 field goals given up in the restricted area against the Wolves were also rock-bottom in the West bracket.<\/p>\n

History says Joerger should help on that front. And help Jokic, Lord willing.<\/p>\n

Fun fact: The new Nuggets assistant\u2019s Memphis teams allowed the fewest field-goal tries in the restricted area of any NBA defense (24.9) during the regular season in \u201915-16, and ranked second in fewest allowed in \u201914-15 (24.4) and \u201913-14 (23.9). Joerger\u2019s first two Kings squads as a head coach allowed the fourth-fewest attempts among NBA defenses in the restricted area in \u201916-17 (23.9) and the fifth-fewest in \u201917-18 (25.1).<\/p>\n

Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph then, Jokic and Aaron Gordon now. Hopefully. If New Dave can somehow get Jamal Murray on board with the whole \u201cgrit and grind\u201d part of the equation, don\u2019t just give that man an extension. Hand him a Nobel Prize.<\/p>\n

Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver\u2019s teams.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Nuggets are betting that two Daves will be better than one, and let\u2019s hope. Because if this…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":965837,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[17654,8613,32524,50917,7194,37810,8605,3134,5723,3373,37811,1370,142646,52488,3663,17660,1260,3369,63290,7198,194387,88628,62,2632,42782,67,132,68,32536,64228,7184],"class_list":["post-965836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-aaron-gordon","tag-anthony-edwards","tag-ball-arena","tag-calvin-booth","tag-cam-johnson","tag-david-adelman","tag-denver","tag-denver-nuggets","tag-espn","tag-jamal-murray","tag-josh-kroenke","tag-latest-headlines","tag-marc-gasol","tag-michael-malone","tag-minnesota","tag-more-nuggets-news","tag-nba","tag-nikola-jokic","tag-nobel-prize","tag-nuggets","tag-nuggets-takes","tag-sean-keeler","tag-sports","tag-sports-columnists","tag-tim-hardaway","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-vance-joseph","tag-vic-fangio","tag-western-conference"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117000874500004087","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=965836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/965837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=965836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=965836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=965836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}