David Adelman made a critical mistake in Game 7 for the Denver Nuggets, but he didn’t realize it at the time. Adelman went with a lineup that didn’t include Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, which had a -24 NET rating in the regular season, according to NBA analyst Carson Breber.

Employed by the Nuggets since 2017, Adelman took over as interim coach after the team fired Michael Malone in the last week of the regular season. Denver was in danger of falling to the Play-In Tournament when the dramatic change was made. Adelman shepherded the team back into fourth place then into the second round of the playoffs.

The Nuggets’ season ended with a thud — a 32-point Game 7 loss to the Thunder — but one of the first things Aaron Gordon wanted to talk about was who should lead them next.