And then there were two.
Or maybe three.
Oh phooey. What do we really know anyway? Does anyone know who will be the next head coach of the Denver Nuggets? Are there two or three – or maybe zero – potential candidates remaining for the job? The search, or so we presume, has been quieter than a church mouse.
We now know this for sure: The Nuggets are now the only team in the NBA without a head coach.
That’s right, the only one.
Later today, the Chicago Bulls will introduce Iowa State’s Fred Hoiberg as their newest head coach. Yesterday, the Bulls and Nuggets were the only teams still looking. Today, only Denver is a ship without a captain. Other than executive vice president and general manager Tim Connelly, and president and governor Josh Kroenke, it’s fair to say that nobody – at least publicly – has a handle on who may or may not be the team’s next head coach.
Officially “off the market” is a litany of coaching candidates who were – at one time or another – mentioned alongside the Nuggets job search.
Hoiberg, who was clearly the choice in Chicago all along (after all, it was just last Thursday when the organization parted ways with Tom Thibodeau), may not have ever been a realistic candidate in Denver anyway. Nonetheless, he’s been scooped up.
On Saturday it was reported that Golden State assistant Alvin Gentry, another candidate who was loosely tied (perhaps very loosely) to the Nuggets job, would be headed to New Orleans to coach the Pelicans. His name, if it were ever on the list, can be scratched off.
Back on May 20, the basketball world learned that former Nuggets assistant Scott Brooks wasn’t interested in returning to the bench in Denver, nor would he choose to interview for the Pelicans job. Many believed that Brooks was the Nuggets top choice, but the man who had taken Oklahoma City to the playoffs in five of his seven years as head coach essentially told Denver, “Thanks… but no thanks.”
Florida Gators coach Billy Donovan had occasionally been mentioned as a possible fit in Denver, but that speculation ended in April when Oklahoma City lured him out of Gainesville.
And on Friday, when longtime NBA writer Peter Vecsey tweeted “Tom Thibodeau has no interest, I’m told, in coaching Pelicans (feels Davis will leave when pact permits), Magic ([Scott] Skiles on tap) or Nuggets,” the notion that the ex-Bulls coach might be headed West was covered up by yet another wet blanket.
“It’s beneficial for us on some level to be patient,” Kroenke told Chris Dempsey of the Denver Post on May 21.
And patient they’ve certainly been. It would appear that the only two names remaining on the Nuggets “most speculated” list of candidates are former Nuggets, Suns, Knicks and Lakers head coach Mike D’Antoni, and current Nuggets interim coach Melvin Hunt.
If D’Antoni has been the choice all along, why hasn’t he been hired? It’s not as if his name has been actively linked to most – if any – of the other job openings in the Association. Sure, as Kroenke has suggested several times, patience, and the interview process itself, is good.
But now that Denver is the only team still searching? Guess there’s no rush – no competition – at this point.
Is Denver such a lowly destination that none of the aforementioned candidates – plus a coach who won just 10 more games with the Lakers over 154 games than Brian Shaw won with the Nuggets in 141 games – would even consider it? Has the current roster been deemed “untouchable” amongst NBA coaches?
And if Hunt ends up being the guy, won’t it appear that he’s the last kid picked from the playground? Had Hunt been enthusiastically given the job in April, the “look” is that he’s being rewarded for a job well done under tough circumstances. But if he’s introduced as the head coach any time in the future, the appearance is that the Nuggets were backed into a corner.
“ESPN, how may I help you?”
“Yes, is Mark Jackson available?”
“I’m sorry, sir. He’ll be away from his desk until the NBA Finals conclude…”
Nobody knows where the Nuggets are going with their next hire – perhaps not even the Nuggets.
But here’s the truth: No matter how the team ended up at this point, Melvin Hunt should be Denver’s next head coach.
Give Hunt the job he earned before management started “resting” top players down the (lottery) stretch. He’s the perfect candidate at this point; he’s the 2015 version of Jeff Bzdelik – a low risk investment that can be told goodbye if and when the next Carmelo Anthony comes to town.
Or, maybe he becomes the next Steve Kerr.
Either way, there’s nothing to lose by hiring Hunt. The only thing the Nuggets are losing now is time. Print up one of those gold nameplates and get an intern busy assembling a mostly-leather executive chair from Office Depot. At this point in time, Melvin Hunt should be in the office working.
That’s what NBA head coaches do in June.
