Josh Kroenke didn't need to look far to find the next head coach of the Denver Nuggets. All he had to do was take a short stroll from his office.
The team's president and governor took the interim tag off David Adelman on Thursday, rewarding the 44-year-old hoops lifer for righting the discombobulated Nuggets on short notice and leading them to a Game 7 against the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder in the second round of the playoffs.
Adelman replaced Michael Malone last month and led the Nuggets to wins in their last three regular-season games to avoid the NBA's play-in, dispatched the Clippers in seven games and took the West's top seed to the brink before losing 125-93 on Sunday in Oklahoma City.
Kroenke said he needs more time to decide on a new general manager, but he wanted to name Adelman his head coach now so the organization could gear toward a return to the NBA pinnacle to capitalize on the prime years of superstar Nikola Jokic.
Kroenke stunned the league last month when he fired the winningest coach in franchise history along with general manager Calvin Booth, who connected the final pieces of the team's only championship puzzle two years ago. Ben Tenzer has been serving as interim GM.