The morning after a 104-101 defeat to Golden State, Denver (13-15) has fired coach Jeff Bzdelik.
The Nuggest, losers of 6 straight, have promoted assistant Michael Cooper to the top spot on an interim basis. Cooper, a cog in the Lakers’ ’80’s dynasty and former coach of the WNBA’s L.A. Sparks (with whom he won two championships) might have a little more slack than Bzedlik. The latter was sacked despite having to make do without Carmelo Anthony for the past 5 games, as well as losing Voshon Lenard on opening night.
Bzedlik was a doomed man starting this season – could the writing have been more on the wall? I think Cooper got a contract extension while the head coach was a lame duck. If I can figure out the implication of that move here on Scharpling Island, it couldn’t have been lost on the players.
Kiki Vandeweghe was clearly trying to build a team that would gun it, but Bzedlik was playing slowball. Why get Kenyon Martin if you’re going to dump him into the half-court?
One good thing to come from this firing is one less impossible name to cut and paste whenever I want to talk about the Nuggets.