List of Denver Nuggets head coaches
The Denver Nuggets are an American professional basketball team based in Denver, Colorado. They play in the Northwest Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association (NBA).[1] The Nuggets were founded as the Denver Rockets of the American Basketball Association (ABA) in 1967.[1] In 1974, in anticipation of moving to the NBA, the franchise held a contest to choose a new trademarked name for the team, as Rockets was already in use by the Houston Rockets and the name Nuggets won.[1] In 1976, the ABA folded, and the NBA decided to admit four ABA teams into the league, including the Nuggets, the San Antonio Spurs, the Indiana Pacers and the New York Nets.[1]
There have been 20 head coaches for the Nuggets franchise. The franchise's first head coach was Bob Bass, who led the team to the division semifinals, losing to the New Orleans Buccaneers.[1] Doug Moe won the NBA Coach of the Year Award for the 1987–88 season.[2] Moe is the franchise's all-time leader in both regular season and playoff games coached and wins.[3] Larry Brown is the only Nuggets coach to be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, although John McLendon was inducted as a contributor, but not a coach.[4] In 1976, Brown coached the Nuggets to the team's only ABA championship game.[1] John McLendon, Joe Belmont, Donnie Walsh, Dan Issel, Bill Hanzlik, Mike Evans, Jeff Bzdelik, Michael Cooper, and Brian Shaw spent their entire NBA coaching careers with the Nuggets.[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]George Karl coached the Nuggets [13] until he was fired by GM Masai Ujiri on June 2013. After the 2013 NBA Finals, Brian Shaw was hired by Denver Nuggets to be their head coach.[14]
Key
GC | Games coached |
W | Wins |
L | Losses |
Win% | Winning percentage |
# | Number of coaches[a] |
* | Spent entire NBA head coaching career with the Nuggets |
† | Elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach |
Coaches
Note: Statistics are correct through the end of the 2018–19 season.
# | Name | Term[b] | GC | W | L | Win% | GC | W | L | Win% | Achievements | Reference | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Regular season | Playoffs | ||||||||||||||
Denver Rockets | |||||||||||||||
1 | Bob Bass | 1967–1969 | 156 | 89 | 67 | .571 | 12 | 5 | 7 | .417 | [15] | ||||
2 | John McLendon* | 1969 | 28 | 9 | 19 | .321 | — | — | — | — | [5] | ||||
3 | Joe Belmont* | 1969–1970 | 69 | 45 | 24 | .652 | 12 | 5 | 7 | .417 | [6] | ||||
4 | Stan Albeck | 1970–1971 | 71 | 27 | 44 | .380 | — | — | — | — | [16] | ||||
5 | Alex Hannum | 1971–1974 | 252 | 118 | 134 | .468 | 12 | 4 | 8 | .333 | [17] | ||||
Denver Nuggets | |||||||||||||||
6 | Larry Brown† | 1974–1979 | 385 | 251 | 134 | .652 | 45 | 21 | 24 | .467 | Led team to and lost 1975–76 ABA Finals[1] | [4] | |||
7 | Donnie Walsh* | 1979–1980 | 142 | 60 | 82 | .423 | 3 | 1 | 2 | .333 | [7] | ||||
8 | Doug Moe | 1980–1990 | 789 | 432 | 357 | .548 | 61 | 24 | 37 | .393 | 1987–88 NBA Coach of the Year[2] | [3] | |||
9 | Paul Westhead | 1990–1992 | 164 | 44 | 120 | .268 | — | — | — | — | [18] | ||||
10 | Dan Issel* | 1992–1995 | 198 | 96 | 102 | .485 | 12 | 6 | 6 | .500 | [8] | ||||
11 | Gene Littles | 1995 | 16 | 3 | 13 | .188 | — | — | — | — | [19] | ||||
12 | Bernie Bickerstaff | 1995–1996 | 127 | 59 | 68 | .465 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | [20] | ||||
13 | Dick Motta | 1996–1997 | 69 | 17 | 52 | .246 | — | — | — | — | [21] | ||||
14 | Bill Hanzlik* | 1997–1998 | 82 | 11 | 71 | .134 | — | — | — | — | [9] | ||||
15 | Mike D'Antoni | 1998–1999 | 50 | 14 | 36 | .280 | — | — | — | — | [22] | ||||
— | Dan Issel* | 1999–2001 | 190 | 84 | 106 | .442 | — | — | — | — | [8] | ||||
16 | Mike Evans* | 2001–2002 | 56 | 18 | 38 | .321 | — | — | — | — | [10] | ||||
17 | Jeff Bzdelik* | 2002–2004 | 192 | 73 | 119 | .380 | 5 | 1 | 4 | .200 | [11] | ||||
18 | Michael Cooper* | 2004 | 14 | 4 | 10 | .286 | — | — | — | — | [12] | ||||
19 | George Karl | 2004–2013 | 680 | 423 | 257 | .622 | 59 | 21 | 38 | .356 | 2012–13 NBA Coach of the Year | [23] | |||
20 | Brian Shaw* | 2013–2015 | 141 | 56 | 85 | .397 | — | — | — | — | |||||
21 | Melvin Hunt* | 2015 | 23 | 10 | 13 | .435 | — | — | — | — | [24] | ||||
22 | Michael Malone | 2015–present | 328 | 173 | 155 | .527 | 14 | 7 | 7 | .500 | [25] |
-
Mike D'Antoni coached the Denver Nuggets for 50 games during the 1998–99 NBA season.
-
George Karl was the 2004–2013 Denver Nuggets head coach.
-
Brian Shaw was the 2013–2015 Denver Nuggets head coach.
-
Michael Malone has been the Denver Nuggets head coach since 2015.
Notes
- a A running total of the number of coaches of the Nuggets. Thus any coach who has two or more separate terms as head coach is only counted once.
- b Each year is linked to an article about that particular NBA season, except for the seasons spent in the ABA.
References
- General
- "Denver Nuggets Coach Register". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
- Specific
- ^ a b c d e f g "Nuggets: 1967 to 1979". NBA.com. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. Archived from the original on October 12, 2008. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
- ^ a b "Coach of the Year". NBA.com. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. Archived from the original on September 15, 2010. Retrieved June 12, 2008.
- ^ a b "Doug Moe Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
- ^ a b "Larry Brown Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved June 11, 2008.
- ^ a b "John McLendon Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
- ^ a b "Joe Belmont Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
- ^ a b "Donnie Walsh Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
- ^ a b c "Dan Issel Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
- ^ a b "Bill Hanzlik's Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
- ^ a b "Mike Evans Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
- ^ a b "Jeff Bzdelik Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
- ^ a b "Michael Cooper Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
- ^ "Nuggets: 1999 to present". NBA.com. Turner Sport Interactive, Inc. Archived from the original on December 25, 2008. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
- ^ "Brian Shaw confirms he's the new head coach of the Denver Nuggets". CBSSports.com. CBS Interactive. Retrieved June 24, 2013.
- ^ "Bob Bass Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
- ^ "Stan Albeck Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
- ^ "Alex Hannum Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
- ^ "Paul Westhead Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
- ^ "Gene Littles Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
- ^ "Bernie Bickerstaff Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
- ^ "Dick Motta Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
- ^ "Mike D'Antoni Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
- ^ "George Karl Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved May 14, 2010.
- ^ "Brian Shaw Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved April 17, 2014.
- ^ "Nuggets name Michael Malone new head coach". NBA.com. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. June 15, 2015. Archived from the original on October 25, 2015. Retrieved June 15, 2015.