Adelman did not have the respect of the voters this season.
David Adelman did not receive a single Coach of the Year vote.
No first-place nods, no second-place mentions, not even a third-place courtesy check from the 100-member media panel that selects the winner each year.
For a first-year head coach who took the Denver Nuggets to 54-28 and a third seed in the Western Conference, getting completely shut out feels strange.
Adelman Had a Real Case
Adelman inherited this job last May after Michael Malone was fired with a week left before the 2025 playoffs, and then got promoted to the full-time role after pushing Oklahoma City to seven games in the second round.
He came into this season with a revamped roster and almost no track record, and what he dealt with from there was rough.
Nikola Jokic missed about four weeks with a left knee injury in late December, and Aaron Gordon, Christian Braun, Cam Johnson, Peyton Watson, and Jonas Valanciunas all dealt with injuries at different points throughout the year.
Denver was never whole.
What he got out of the offense was hard to argue with.
Denver finished first in the league in efficiency at 121.7 points per 100 possessions and first in three-point percentage at 39.3 percent.
Jamal Murray had maybe the best season of his career with 25.4 points, 7.1 assists, and 43.5 percent shooting from deep, while Jokic averaged 28.0 points, 12.9 rebounds, and 10.9 assists in another ridiculous year.
The Nuggets rattled off 12 straight wins to close the regular season and seemed to be peaking right when it counted.
Twelve of the league's 30 coaches received at least one top-three vote. Adelman was not one of them.
Tyronn Lue, JJ Redick, Jordan Ott, and Tiago Splitter all picked up votes while finishing with worse records in the same conference.
Joe Mazzulla of the Celtics won the award after Boston went 56-26, with JB Bickerstaff and Mitch Johnson rounding out the top three.
Fair enough on those picks, but how Adelman got completely left off the ballot is a tough one to explain.
Voters Still Got It Right
There is another way to read into this, though.
The voting panel probably saw things through a lens that the regular season record alone does not capture.
Denver's first-round exit against the Timberwolves confirmed a lot of the concerns that trailed this team all season.
Chris Finch outcoached Adelman in a series where Denver failed to crack 100 points three separate times, and the defense that was shaky all year fell apart once the intensity went up.
Voters likely viewed Adelman the same way a lot of people did when the Kroenkes promoted him instead of running a full coaching search.
The perception was that Denver gave him the job because it was convenient, not because he was the best option.
Fifty-four wins are hard to dismiss, but with Jokic playing at an MVP level and Murray having a breakout year, voters may have credited the roster's talent over the coaching.
Adelman has one way to change that next season, and it runs through the postseason.
