David Adelman on Nuggets conditioning: ‘Come back in much better shape’
May 28, 2025, 1:03 PM
New Denver Nuggets head coach David Adelman didn’t mince words at his introductory press conference on Wednesday.
When asked if he was satisfied with the players conditioning at the start of last season, as well as they’re availability, Adelman gave a direct answer.
“No. I think we can come back better. I think we can come back more ready to start the season,” Adelman said. “I would love for us to come back more ready to go.”
The Nuggets started the season a very mediocre 11-10, including a loss to the lowly Washington Wizards on Dec. 7. That created an early hole to dig out of, and while Denver battled back, they still wound up as the No. 4 seed in a competitive Western Conference.
It meant a Game 7 on the road in Oklahoma City in Round 2, one the Nuggets got blown out in. David Adelman pointed to the championship season in 2023 when Denver was the No. 1 seed.
“The bottom line is we got off to a great start that year, and just crushed it throughout the season, which allowed us to be right for the playoffs. It’s hard to say we’re going to do that, because the Western Conference is really tough, but you have to give yourself every opportunity possible to have the best start,” Adelman said.
Jamal Murray had a very rough Olympics for Team Canada, then after bizarre contract extension drama, looked slow to start the season. It’s unclear if Adelman was talking directly about Murray, but the end of his quote is telling.
“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,” Adelman said. “That’ll be the expectation, to come back in much better shape.”
Meanwhile, David Adelman also spoke about taking every game seriously. The Nuggets lost to some bad teams on their way to a 50-32 record, and the new boss laid out guys can’t take nights off in the regular season.
David Adelman says the Nuggets were close to something special two years in a row and that their “professionalism has to be throughout the whole season” pic.twitter.com/UmaOgeEapu
— Jake Shapiro (@Shapalicious) May 28, 2025
“We have to understand if we want to have our ultimate goal, that our professionalism has to be throughout the whole season,” Adelman said.
It’s a strong message from the next head coach, basically telling the whole roster they must play hard every single night.
Whether or not David Adelman can ultimately get his guys to do that remains to be seen, but it was good to lay out the expectation on what was essentially day one of the permanent gig.
