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 ABA coaching careers with the Nuggets.[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] As of September 2008, the coach of the Nuggets is George Karl [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
dagger Elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach

Coaches

Note: Statistics are correct through the end of the 2015–16 season.

# Name Term[b] GC W L Win% GC W L Win% Achievements Reference
Regular season Playoffs
Denver Rockets
1 Bass, BobBob Bass 1967–1969 156 89 67 .571 12 5 7 .417 [15]
2 McLendon, JohnJohn McLendon* 1969 28 9 19 .321 — — — — [5]
3 Belmont, JoeJoe Belmont* 1969–1970 69 45 24 .652 12 5 7 .417 [6]
4 Albeck, StanStan Albeck 1970–1971 71 27 44 .380 — — — — [16]
5 Hannum, AlexAlex Hannum 1971–1974 252 118 134 .468 12 4 8 .333 [17]
Denver Nuggets
6 Brown, LarryLarry Browndagger 1974–1979 385 251 134 .652 45 21 24 .467 Led team to and lost 1975–76 ABA Finals[1] [4]
7 Walsh, DonnieDonnie Walsh* 1979–1980 142 60 82 .423 3 1 2 .333 [7]
8 Moe, DougDoug Moe 1980–1990 789 432 357 .548 61 24 37 .393 1987–88 NBA Coach of the Year[2] [3]
9 Westhead, PaulPaul Westhead 1990–1992 164 44 120 .268 — — — — [18]
10 Issel, DanDan Issel* 1992–1995 198 96 102 .485 12 6 6 .500 [8]
11 Littles, GeneGene Littles 1995 16 3 13 .188 — — — — [19]
12 Bickerstaff, BernieBernie Bickerstaff 1995–1996 127 59 68 .465 3 0 3 0 [20]
13 Motta, DickDick Motta 1996–1997 81 36 45 .444 — — — — [21]
14 Hanzlik, BillBill Hanzlik* 1997–1998 82 11 71 .134 — — — — [9]
15 D'Antoni, MikeMike D'Antoni 1998–1999 50 14 36 .280 — — — — [22]
— Issel, DanDan Issel* 1999–2001 190 84 106 .442 — — — — [8]
16 Evans, MikeMike Evans* 2001–2002 56 18 38 .321 — — — — [10]
17 Bzdelik, JeffJeff Bzdelik* 2002–2004 192 73 119 .380 5 1 4 .200 [11]
18 Cooper, MichaelMichael Cooper* 2004 14 4 10 .286 — — — — [12]
19 Karl, GeorgeGeorge Karl 2004–2013 680 423 257 .622 59 21 38 .356 2012–13 NBA Coach of the Year [23]
20 Shaw, BrianBrian Shaw* 2013–2015 141 56 85 .397 — — — —
21 Hunt, MelvinMelvin Hunt* 2015 23 10 13 .435 — — — — [24]
22 Malone, MichaelMichael Malone 2015–present 82 33 49 .402 — — — — [25]

Notes

References

General
Specific
  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Nuggets: 1967 to 1979". NBA.com. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
  2. 1 2 "Coach of the Year". NBA.com. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. Retrieved June 12, 2008.
  3. 1 2 "Doug Moe Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
  4. 1 2 "Larry Brown Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved June 11, 2008.
  5. 1 2 "John McLendon Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
  6. 1 2 "Joe Belmont Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
  7. 1 2 "Donnie Walsh Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
  8. 1 2 3 "Dan Issel Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
  9. 1 2 "Bill Hanzlik's Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
  10. 1 2 "Mike Evans Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
  11. 1 2 "Jeff Bzdelik Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
  12. 1 2 "Michael Cooper Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
  13. ↑ "Nuggets: 1999 to present". NBA.com. Turner Sport Interactive, Inc. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
  14. ↑ "Brian Shaw confirms he's the new head coach of the Denver Nuggets". CBSSports.com. CBS Interactive. Retrieved June 24, 2013.
  15. ↑ "Bob Bass Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
  16. ↑ "Stan Albeck Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
  17. ↑ "Alex Hannum Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
  18. ↑ "Paul Westhead Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
  19. ↑ "Gene Littles Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
  20. ↑ "Bernie Bickerstaff Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
  21. ↑ "Dick Motta Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
  22. ↑ "Mike D'Antoni Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
  23. ↑ "George Karl Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved May 14, 2010.
  24. ↑ "Brian Shaw Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved April 17, 2014.
  25. ↑ "Nuggets name Michael Malone new head coach". NBA.com. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. June 15, 2015. Retrieved June 15, 2015.

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