Nuggets 2015-16 season tickets went on sale more than a month ago. If you’re a season-ticket holder, you already knew this because you have been asked to re-up. If not, well, you’re forgiven if you didn’t know they were available. The Nuggets haven’t exactly been saturating the market letting potential customers know.
Fan backlash played a role in the firing of coach Brian Shaw. The franchise felt it had to at least stem the tide against droves of supporters choosing not to show up to games or renew season tickets, or fresh customers opting against putting up the cash to become new season-ticket holders for next season.
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Just as it was one of the reasons Shaw was let go, for better or for worse it will also be one of the factors in which coach is hired next. It could be a bigger factor in who is hired than it was for the firing.
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The bet is, at least in the short term, you, the fan, will buy back in just because of the name.
Will you?
Fans have been heard in one aspect. It’s up to them as to whether they will continue to be heard.
Because it’s having an impact.
So who do you want?
The Nuggets will conduct a leave-no-stone-unturned search for their next coach, as well they should. Playing style will weed out some of the candidates. The philosophy is getting back to up-tempo basketball all the time. Any coach with designs on doing anything else will be scratched off the list of candidates.
So, then, it will come down to separating a group of candidates all professing to do the same thing. Don’t think that your vote won’t count if you’re casting it with your pocketbook.
Golden State assistant Alvin Gentry and former Los Angeles Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni are very interested in the upcoming Nuggets opening. Both would push the pace. Both guided Phoenix to the Western Conference finals as the coach there. Both are personable guys. Gentry has the added shine of coming from the NBA’s best team, both offensively and defensively, and would fashion the Nuggets in the Warriors’ image. There is nothing wrong with a fast pace combined with good defense.
The winner, then, is the guy the Nuggets would rather have. And the guy they’d rather have is the one they think would please the fan base most. Throw in interim coach Melvin Hunt too. We have seen what he’d do with the team, and that falls right in line with getting back to run-the-legs-off-the-opponent basketball. He has the added advantage of already knowing the organization and the players.
Money is going to be a factor, of course. The Nuggets still owe Shaw $2 million for next season and don’t want to stack a huge salary on top of that. But you can bet, if the Nuggets trot out a “name brand” coach, the money will quickly become a secondary issue.
The central issue is selling him to you. Well, his ability to win games of course is the central issue. But before he can do any of that starting in the fall, you have to like him enough to pick up the phone or log on and place your ticket order.
And that puts a good deal of power in the hands of those who may have thought they didn’t have a ton of it going into this process.
Christopher Dempsey: cdempsey@denverpost.com or
