Denver is seen as an increasingly likely landing spot for former Grizzlies and Kings coach Dave Joerger.

The Stein Line first reported in late June that Joerger had interviewed with the Nuggets in their search for a more experienced top assistant to head coach David Adelman.

Paris Basketball, whose front office is headed by former Timberwolves lead executive David Kahn, was seen as the top threat to Denver after so openly chasing Joerger to be its next head coach, but a BasketNews report from Europe suggested that the French club has struggled in its bid to lure Joerger away from the NBA.

I’m told that Paris Basketball has also pursued former Raptors and Suns coach Jay Triano for its head coaching vacancy after notable recent stints there for Memphis’ Tuomas Iisalo and Chicago’s Tiago Splitter. Triano, though, committed instead to join Portland as the top assistant to new Trail Blazers coach Micah Nori.

https://open.substack.com/pub/marcstein/p/more-late-night-nba-free-agency-trade?r=1m9zg&utm_medium=ios&shareImageVariant=solid

Obi_Wan_KeBogi | Kings

66 | 14 hours ago

Joerger’s a great coach.

Only got fired because he didn’t hide that he thought Vlade was an idiot for passing on Luka. I was so pissed when we extended Vlade after Joerger overachieved with our shit roster and then let him fire him

Coll_MindElectric | Nuggets

28 | 12 hours ago

A former King’s coach who got fired for stupid reasons?

That is a championship caliber piece in the making. Sign that man immediately!

thedrcubed | Grizzlies

2 | 4 hours ago

He wasn’t bad for us either. I liked him a lot

EnderTheTrender | Thunder

1 | 4 hours ago

Didn’t Ja not like his gameplan?

thedrcubed | Grizzlies

2 | 2 hours ago

Joerger was there before Ja got drafted. You’re either thinking of our current coach or LaRoche who was an assistant with us 2 years ago that went to the heat. He didn’t like our current coach’s offense because it’s European style with the scoring more spread out amongst the team and he didn’t like LaRoche’s offense because there are no screens and it really didn’t fit him or the team honestly

_Jetto_ | NBA

2 | 4 hours ago

Look at my posts back when he got fired. He’s a good coach and was doing great but behind the scenes I heard players didn’t care for him and what’s more and rightfully so he was fighting with the FO

Fit_Property_5803

-6 | 11 hours ago

luka is fat. vlade was right

DotMiserable8512

12 | 11 hours ago

that marvin bagley pick sure did hit

Wootytooty

56 | 14 hours ago

As a Kings fan, I wish we didn’t fire him as soon as we did.

Associ8tedRuffians | Timberwolves

10 | 14 hours ago

As a Wolves fan, I wish that Memphis had let us hire him away. Maybe he would’ve convinced Flip to trade Rubio for Memphis Mike. Career trajectory of Wiggins and KAT might have gone a little differently.

GotMoFans | Grizzlies

4 | 10 hours ago

Why do you think the Grizz would have traded Conley for Rubio?

Associ8tedRuffians | Timberwolves

1 | 7 hours ago

I don’t. Just fun “what if” speculation for me.

freshprince44

3 | 6 hours ago

booo, rubio was not the problem (still the only player i’ve seen KAT have a 2man game with, even if it all came from Rubio lol)

trading wiggins early would have really been the move, but nobody was ready for that except thibs

Associ8tedRuffians | Timberwolves

2 | 3 hours ago

Rubio shot a dismal .374, and Conley was coming off a strong offensive and defensive year.

I love Rubio, but he just never had enough offensive bag.

freshprince44

0 | 3 hours ago

basketball isn’t just shooting….. and you can’t just get conley for free lol

rubio was plenty successful as soon as he left the wolves too, elite defender and passer/playmaker and made his teammates better on offense, which has plenty of value. he was better than teague even though teague shot better…

Associ8tedRuffians | Timberwolves

1 | 3 hours ago

Oh he was miles better than Teague, don’t get me wrong. But Rubio’s inability to shoot when we had such a young team was a problem, IMO. Sometimes they needed him to be the guy to take the shot. And he just couldn’t

freshprince44

1 | 2 hours ago

eh, i really disagree, we had 3 players that all needed those shots, Rubio was the perfect set-up guy and defender and leader

there is only 1 basketball, not all 5 guys need to take tough shots

drjisftw | Pacers

2 | 7 hours ago

Went for Puke Walton instead too

Associ8tedRuffians | Timberwolves

12 | 14 hours ago

In 2014 or 15, Flip Saunders (who was GM of the Wolves at the time) tried to poach Joerger from the Grizzlies, but Memphis wouldn’t let him talk to Dave.

So the funny thing about this, is Adelman and Ryan Saunders were Wolves assistant coaches at the time, and Adelman would’ve been an assistant to Joerger if he’d been hired.

And if Adelman hires him, well, well, well, that’s how the turntables.

michaelscottturntables.gif

EDIT: Dave turned Flip down during the interview process, apparently, and I misremembered it as Memphis not letting us talk to him. https://www.twincities.com/2014/05/24/timberwolves-still-looking-for-a-coach-as-dave-joerger-opts-to-remain-in-memphis/

ItsSquee | NBA

5 | 11 hours ago

And Ryan Saunders is now an assistant coach on the Grizzlies!

GotMoFans | Grizzlies

-1 | 10 hours ago

In 2014 or 15, Flip Saunders (who was GM of the Wolves at the time) tried to poach Joerger from the Grizzlies, but Memphis wouldn’t let him talk to Dave.

Joerger became Grizz head coach in 2013. It would be weird for a team to let another team steal their successful head coach in their second season, don’t you think?

Joerger was basically hired as an assistant to be a coach in waiting in 2007 when the Grizzlies hired Marc Iavaroni. He had had success in the CBA. When Iavaroni was fired a year and a half into his tenure, the then owner brought in Lionel Hollins to be head coach to finish out the year and a half that was on Iavaroni’s contract. If it had been on the GM Chris Wallace, it’s likely Joerger would have been made head coach then.

Hollins’s hire was blasted in the local media as a cheap move and embarrassing, but Hollins worked.

Ownership changed and a new basketball operations guy took over and after taking the team to the Western Conference Finals, Hollins wasn’t given a new contract in 2013.

Part of it was the ownership and leadership were probably pissed Hollins publicly commented on the org’s cost cutting trades. Hollins also had a prickly personality that probably would have had contempt from the non-basketball experienced people then running basketball operations. Part of it was probably because Dave Joerger was sitting right there on the staff.

He was an assistant coach for seven seasons so that would have been plenty of time for another team to poach him before he actually became head coach in 2013.

Edit: I misremembered. The TWolves did interview Joerger. There was bad blood with Joerger and the owner & front office. He was fired and immediately hired by the Kings.

Associ8tedRuffians | Timberwolves

1 | 7 hours ago

You wrote all that to then realize that Joerger was interviewed? Lol.

And yes, apparently I misremembered it, and Dave basically decided to stay in Memphis. https://www.twincities.com/2014/05/24/timberwolves-still-looking-for-a-coach-as-dave-joerger-opts-to-remain-in-memphis/

WeBelieveIn4 | Raptors

8 | 14 hours ago

I want to see Joerger as a head coach again. Maybe if Adelman gets fired

charlton11 | Timberwolves

17 | 14 hours ago

Probably be smart for him to go there for this reason. I was a bit surprised Adelman survived last season. Expectations are high.

drjisftw | Pacers

2 | 7 hours ago

IIRC, he had a cancer scare a few years ago. Maybe he’s been keeping a lower profile because of that?

chris-dempsey |

0 | 13 hours ago

Hopefully Adelman gets fired. He is part of shitcoach Malone’s shit coaching tree.

holdenfords | Nuggets

1 | 6 hours ago

adelman is absolute buns. he’s gotten exposed in the playoffs twice

Dazzling-Attorney891 | Nuggets

2 | 6 hours ago

You mean the season where we were looking dead in the water with Malone until Adelman took over?

holdenfords | Nuggets

3 | 5 hours ago

yes. he blew multiple games late in the okc series (one of which would have put us up 3-1) and then took both murray and jokic off the floor in the first half of game 7 which allowed them to blow the doors off and take a 30 point lead.

rattatatouille | SAS

6 | 14 hours ago

Continuing a trend of experienced coaches getting top assistant spots alongside younger head coaches (e.g. Billy Donovan to Mitch Johnson at San Antonio)

mas1108 | Lakers

3 | 13 hours ago

Brooks and McMillan to JJ

fuzzythinker | Nuggets

6 | 13 hours ago

Hope Nuggets aren’t not firing Adelman due to being cheap. Losing to hospital Wolves in 6 games and no adjustment losing after being up 19 in game 2 is just inexcusable.

Not sure if Joerger is the answer, but Adelman is not a winning coach. I’d normally give coaches a 2nd chance, but I’d be extremely surprised if Adelman can become a coach that can win a title unless the team is too good.

IllegitimateRisk

2 | 14 hours ago

grizzlies

Hmm

kings

Oh please no

Soup-dan | Kings

28 | 14 hours ago

Dave Joerger is a fantastic coach. He got fired for saying the obvious truth about Luka vs Bagley, and for overachieving simultaneously. Vivek didn’t like either so he replace him with Puke Walton

dulesajla | SAS

-6 | 13 hours ago

So now they hire him to talk shit on Denver’s FO for not signing LBJ on minimum but Bagley instead

Coll_MindElectric | Nuggets

2 | 12 hours ago

Lets be real, LBJ was never going to Denver. Can you really imagine him wearing a Nuggets jersey?

LBJ is great still but the image looks like Celtics Shaq or Bulls D-Wade.

dulesajla | SAS

1 | 5 hours ago

I was joking, if it wasn’t obvious

generally-mediocre | 76ers

1 | 7 hours ago

I guess he’s doing better bc in philly he was fighting cancer. good for him!

TookTheHit | Bucks

-2 | 14 hours ago

He was one of Doc’s top assistants in Milwaukee. Are you sure you still want him?

dood23 | Lakers

-2 | 10 hours ago

fyi its pronounced “joerger”

Crayondy | Timberwolves

3 | 5 hours ago

You mean Yay grr

[Stein] Denver is seen as an increasingly likely landing spot for former Grizzlies and Kings coach Dave Joerger in their search for a more experienced top assistant to head coach David Adelman.