Nuggets coach knows why Thunder’s future is ‘scary’ for rest of NBA

DENVER — Denver Nuggets coach David Adelman revealed similarities he sees in Oklahoma City Thunder All-Stars Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams and Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray. Despite a poor shooting performance in Game 3, Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault believes Gilgeous-Alexander will bounce back, and Adelman thinks the same.

Adelman sees the same hunger in the young, talented, and inexperienced Thunder All-Star duo he saw in Jokic and Murray in pursuit of their 2023 NBA championship. Therefore, he’s overlooking the fact that Gilgeous-Alexander and Williams are in only their second postseason run together.

“We were young once. We handled it pretty well, and they do too. That’s why they won so many games, and the reason why they haven’t played a lot of close games is because they have completely blown the doors off people the whole season,” Adelman said. “And if I was coaching a team, I would rather do that than play 55 four-point games. So, yes, the experience helps, but the scary part is, the more experience they get in those games, the better they’re gonna be at them. Just like we were with Nikola and Jamal all those years ago.”

Nuggets coach David Adelman reflected on Jokic and Murray’s younger years.

“That was the most surprising thing about the first-round series we ever played here against San Antonio, and then, Portland, in the second round, was how comfortable those two guys were at the end of the game. Immediately,” Adelman added. “There was no, oh, they’re learning how to play in these games, no. They were ready to go, and I see that in those two guys over there.”

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