The Denver Nuggets are officially eliminated from the 2026 NBA Playoffs after falling to a 110-98 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 6. The Nikola Jokic-led Nuggets couldn’t overcome a Timberwolves team that was without star Anthony Edwards and core role-players like Donte DiVincenzo and Ayo Dosunmu. Still, the Nuggets just didn’t have enough to beat a Jaden McDaniels-led Timberwolves squad.
Nuggets head coach David Adelman took over the role in April 2025 after 2023 title-winning head coach Michael Malone was unexpectedly fired days before the NBA Playoffs. Forcing the eventual champions OKC Thunder to seven games in the 2025 NBA Playoffs’ second round secured Adelman the role as head coach permanently, but the unproven Adelman was thoroughly out-strategized by the veteran Chris Finch on the Wolves in 2026.
Given how depleted the Wolves were, many are pointing fingers at coach Adelman’s inability to have a system that could exploit these advantages. Jokic defended his head coach after the game to reporters and said he didn’t believe his coach deserves to get fired over the season’s outcome.
“It’s not his fault we couldn’t rebound. It’s not his fault we couldn’t catch the ball very well. There is nothing to blame David Adelman. It’s all us.”
Regardless of what Jokic says right now, the Nuggets front office has a crucial summer ahead of them, which could decide the future of the Jokic era in Denver. But if they were to fire Adelman, who are good options to step into a role with immediate championship expectations?
It’s a small crop of coaches, but here are five names that could step into the opportunity if the front office decides to make a change.
1. Micah Nori
The only team that has proven that they’re clearly better than the Nuggets in the Jokic era is the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Wolves came back from a 3-2 series deficit in their 2024 second-round matchup to advance to the conference finals and now have an even more impressive elimination of the Nuggets, doing it with multiple rotational players absent. One of the key reasons for the Timberwolves’ recent success has been assistant coach Micah Nori, who’s been tipped for potential head coaching roles for a few seasons now.
Nori has a history with the Nuggets, serving as an assistant under coach Malone from 2015 to 2018. While he left for a bigger role on the Detroit Pistons‘ coaching bench after that, he is familiar with coaching Jokic and Jamal Murray. He has also served as lead assistant on a Timberwolves team that dismantled Denver’s league-leading offense in two separate Playoff matchups with different roster cores and situations.
Not only can hiring Nori boost the Nuggets next season, as his resume as an assistant is already better than Adelman’s when he took over the role, but this move can also be a blow to their biggest rivals. It might be challenging to get Nori to leave his role with the Timberwolves, but the allure of a head coaching role on a championship contender might be too much to pass on. With the franchise also being familiar with Nori due to his past stint as an assistant, this might be the best head coaching opportunity that the in-demand Nori receives.
2. Tom Thibodeau
Tom Thibodeau proved that the 2024 Boston Celtics‘ title-winning offense can be dismantled after beating them with the New York Knicks in the 2025 NBA Playoffs. However, that career highlight was followed by a one-sided series loss to the Indiana Pacers, prompting the Knicks to fire Thibodeau and hire coach Mike Brown instead. Thibodeau has been on the shelf for the 2025-26 season, but an opportunity like coaching the Nuggets might be one even the 68-year-old coaching veteran can’t pass on.
Thibodeau is a defense-oriented coach who has been criticized for years over his inability to adjust to the needs of modern NBA teams, especially on offense. Thankfully, Thibodeau has the greatest passing center of all time and well-rooted offensive chemistry on this team already. He can help shore up their biggest weakness, which is their defense. This might lead to a more effective use of players like Aaron Gordon and Peyton Watson, with coach Thibodeau likely being a good choice to shepherd a revival for Christian Braun.
It would be a risk to match Thibodeau with Jokic, given that Thibs is notorious for wearing his players down with heavy minutes and heavy practice. Jokic already has the heavy minutes bit covered. Still, compromises will have to be made between player and coach to ensure their synergies can match perfectly and help the Nuggets return to championship contention.
3. Jared Dudley
The likely leading candidate if Adelman is fired will be his lead assistant, Jared Dudley. Dudley is an NBA veteran who spent four years on Jason Kidd’s coaching staff on the Dallas Mavericks before leaving the franchise to join Adelman in Denver last season. Dudley has been a name on the radar of many franchises as a potential future head coach, but there are real questions over his ability to step in and lead a franchise, especially to an NBA title.
The biggest advantage of hiring Dudley is that he has already spent one season with the franchise in the locker room. While it’s less familiar than what Adelman was over his eight years as an assistant on the Nuggets before stepping in as head coach, it’s something that gives Dudley an edge over other external options.
If the Nuggets think that Dudley can be a JJ Redick-level coaching prospect, it might be worth it to give him a shot. However, the franchise likely will look at external options before potentially promoting another assistant coach, before they’re ready for the top job.
4. Sean Sweeney
Sean Sweeney has been one of the most talked about assistant coaches in the NBA, who is expected to inevitably step up into an open NBA head coaching opportunity.
Sweeney has cut his teeth with stints across multiple winning franchises, spending four seasons with the Dallas Mavericks from 2021 to 2025, playing a key role in their runs to the 2022 Western Conference Finals and 2024 NBA Finals. His tenure as an assistant coach started under coach Jason Kidd on the Brooklyn Nets in 2013, following him to the Milwaukee Bucks, and staying with the Bucks until 2018, even after Kidd was fired.
He’s on the Spurs bench this season as one of coach Mitch Johnson’s lead assistants, playing a huge role in the 28-win turnaround the Spurs have had since last season. Sweeney also spent three years alongside coach Nori on the Pistons from 2018 to 2021 as part of Dwayne Casey’s coaching staff. While the biggest coaching influence on Sweeney has been Mavericks coach Kidd, he’s shown flashes of bringing more modern ideas to the table while emphasizing defensive stability.
Sweeney has the credentials and the skill set to be the perfect next coach for the Nuggets, although this does involve considerable risk as Sweeney would be a rookie head coach in the middle of a win-now window.
5. Tiago Splitter
Portland Trail Blazers interim head coach Tiago Splitter defied the odds by leading the franchise to the No. 7 seed in the West with a 42-40 record despite taking over a losing franchise in turmoil because their head coach had been arrested as part of a federal investigation. However, after years of losing under coach Chauncey Billups, coach Splitter injected life into the franchise and led them to their first Playoff appearance in five years.
There has been speculation over the new owners of the Trail Blazers not wanting to pay their head coach a competitive salary based on what other coaches receive around the NBA. While Splitter might be inclined to accept a discount to continue being the head coach of a Playoff-caliber roster, a competitive offer from the Nuggets would make the NBA veteran switch teams in a heartbeat. The Nuggets are a better team with immediate winning expectations, something that coach Splitter showed he can deliver on a much smaller scale with the Blazers.
Regardless, both the Blazers and Nuggets will go down as first-round exits in the 2026 NBA Playoffs. It might be a risky lateral move for the Nuggets to pick up Splitter right now, but his impressive first year as an NBA head coach did show more promise than what we saw from Adelman this season.
