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
	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
7000100000000000000♠1	Bass, BobBob Bass	1967–1969	156	89	67	.571	12	5	7	.417		[15]
7000200000000000000♠2	McLendon, JohnJohn McLendon*	1969	28	9	19	.321	—	—	—	—		[5]
7000300000000000000♠3	Belmont, JoeJoe Belmont*	1969–1970	69	45	24	.652	12	5	7	.417		[6]
7000400000000000000♠4	Albeck, StanStan Albeck	1970–1971	71	27	44	.380	—	—	—	—		[16]
7000500000000000000♠5	Hannum, AlexAlex Hannum	1971–1974	252	118	134	.468	12	4	8	.333		[17]
Denver Nuggets
7000600000000000000♠6	Brown, LarryLarry Brown	1974–1979	385	251	134	.652	45	21	24	.467	Led team to and lost 1975–76 ABA Finals[1]	[4]
7000700000000000000♠7	Walsh, DonnieDonnie Walsh*	1979–1980	142	60	82	.423	3	1	2	.333		[7]
7000800000000000000♠8	Moe, DougDoug Moe	1980–1990	789	432	357	.548	61	24	37	.393	1987–88 NBA Coach of the Year[2]	[3]
7000900000000000000♠9	Westhead, PaulPaul Westhead	1990–1992	164	44	120	.268	—	—	—	—		[18]
7001100000000000000♠10	Issel, DanDan Issel*	1992–1995	198	96	102	.485	12	6	6	.500		[8]
7001110000000000000♠11	Littles, GeneGene Littles	1995	16	3	13	.188	—	—	—	—		[19]
7001120000000000000♠12	Bickerstaff, BernieBernie Bickerstaff	1995–1996	127	59	68	.465	3	0	3	0		[20]
7001130000000000000♠13	Motta, DickDick Motta	1996–1997	81	36	45	.444	—	—	—	—		[21]
7001140000000000000♠14	Hanzlik, BillBill Hanzlik*	1997–1998	82	11	71	.134	—	—	—	—		[9]
7001150000000000000♠15	D'Antoni, MikeMike D'Antoni	1998–1999	50	14	36	.280	—	—	—	—		[22]
7001160000000000000♠—	Issel, DanDan Issel*	1999–2001	190	84	106	.442	—	—	—	—		[8]
7001170000000000000♠16	Evans, MikeMike Evans*	2001–2002	56	18	38	.321	—	—	—	—		[10]
7001180000000000000♠17	Bzdelik, JeffJeff Bzdelik*	2002–2004	192	73	119	.380	5	1	4	.200		[11]
7001190000000000000♠18	Cooper, MichaelMichael Cooper*	2004	14	4	10	.286	—	—	—	—		[12]
7001200000000000000♠19	Karl, GeorgeGeorge Karl	2004–2013	680	423	257	.622	59	21	38	.356	2012–13 NBA Coach of the Year	[23]
7001210000000000000♠20	Shaw, BrianBrian Shaw*	2013–2015	141	56	85	.397	—	—	—	—
7001220000000000000♠21	Hunt, MelvinMelvin Hunt*	2015	23	10	13	.435	—	—	—	—		[24]
7001230000000000000♠22	Malone, MichaelMichael Malone	2015–present	82	33	49	.402	—	—	—	—		[25]

• 
  Mike D'Antoni coached the Denver Nuggets for 50 games during the 1998–99 NBA season.
• 
  George Karl was the 2004–2013 Denver Nuggets head coach.
• 
  Brian Shaw was the 2013–2015 Denver Nuggets head coach.
• 
  Michael Malone was the 2016 Denver Nuggets head coach.

Notes

• ^a A running total of the number of coaches of the Nuggets. Thus any coach who has two or more separate terms as head coach is only counted once.
• ^b Each year is linked to an article about that particular NBA season, except for the seasons spent in the ABA.

References

General

Specific