The Denver Nuggets were expected to advance to the second round of playoffs. They had home court advantage and were facing a depleted Utah Jazz squad missing two starters in Mehmet Okur and Andrei Kirilenko. Jerry Sloan, head coach of the Jazz, replaced his injured starters with Kyrylo Fesenko and C.J. Miles who averaged 8.3 and 23.8 minutes per game respectively during the regular season. While the Nuggets had their starting line-up intact, they were missing one key piece: head coach George Karl.
Karl was replaced by Adrian Dantley due to Karl’s battle with neck and throat cancer. Karl was 42-21 (.667 winning percentage), while Dantley was 11-8 (.579). This isn't to say that Dantley did not do a good job given the situation he was thrown into, but it makes one think about the value of a head coach. In his career, Karl has over 900 regular season wins and over 70 post season wins. He has been the head coach of the Nuggets since the 2004-2005 season, leading the team to the playoffs in each season. Needless to say, Karl has a lot of experience under his belt and was able to create a cohesive unit for a team that is often emotional and volatile. Playoffs is all about making adjustments, exploiting matchups, and getting the best out of personnel - a job that requires experience. Removing a team staple like George Karl toward the end of the season was detrimental to the success of the Nuggets.
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