Nuggets are hiring 1 notable former NBA head coach

The Denver Nuggets are bringing in Dave to support David.

Denver is hiring former NBA head coach Dave Joerger as an assistant coach, Shams Charania of ESPN reported on Monday. Joerger will now be serving as the team’s lead assistant under head coach David Adelman.

The 52-year-old Joerger is best known for his time as the head coach for both the Memphis Grizzlies and the Sacramento Kings. He served as Memphis head coach from 2013-16, producing two 50-win seasons and three playoff berths during his tenure there.

But Joerger was ultimately fired by the Grizzlies after a 2016 first-round playoff exit and then went on to become head coach of the Kings from 2016-19, failing there to earn a single playoff appearance or even a single winning season. Overall, Joerger holds a career head coaching record of 245-247 (.498).

Joerger then transitioned back to assistant coaching and has since had stints with the Philadelphia 76ers and with the Milwaukee Bucks (working under head coach Doc Rivers at both stops). He also had a cancer scare in 2021 that required a leave of absence from coaching but has since recovered fully and returned to a normal workload as an assistant coach.

For Denver, they won 54 games last season but lost in the first round of the playoffs to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Their head coach Adelman, 45, was inexperienced when he took over as Nuggets head coach following the 2025 firing of Michael Malone, and that inexperience showed at times down the stretch of last season. Now Adelman will be getting an experienced new right-hand man in the form of Joerger.