David Adelman said that he wants the Denver Nuggets to get off to a fast start next season by coming back in better shape.
“Teams that get off to great starts usually at the end of the year have the best chance of being healthy in these big games,” said Adelman on Wednesday at his introductory press conference. “But, yeah, that will be the expectation to come back in much better shape.”
Adelman added that one of his challenges is to return with new ideas for the team.
He also said that he’s looking for his current players to have a voice in the process.
“New ideas are good ideas,” Adelman said. “I have to give them something to come back to that excites them.”
Kroenke Sports & Entertainment vice chairman Josh Kroenke admitted that the Nuggets roster needs improvement over the offseason.
“Can they achieve that [championship goal] as currently constructed? I think the answer, as [Jokic] said after the playoffs, and it was obviously no,” Kroenke said. “So we need to take a hard look at how we can raise our ceiling going forward, whether that’s internally or externally.”
Kroenke then added that the next step for the team is to hire a permanent general manager.
Adelman concluded by saying that he wants to set the Nuggets up to win in the playoffs.
“We have to get back to being an execution-based team,” Adelman said. “If that takes away some of our pace numbers, or whatever the analytics want to say, I think that’s OK if it wins you a game in May, as opposed to playing a game in December. The majority of the time, if you want to win big, you’ve got to play slow. You’ve got to be efficient. You’ve got to be clean.”