DENVER -- When Denver's collapse last season had become official, Adrian Dantley was to some the fall guy. The Nuggets had dropped seven of their final 13 regular-season games to lose their grip on the No. 2 seed in the West and fall to No. 4. Then they were stunned 4-2 in the first round of the playoffs by No. 5 Utah, which was without two injured starters.
Dantley had gone from being an assistant to replacing George Karl as Denver's head coach when Karl missed the final 1 ½ months of the season due to a form of throat cancer. The move on the bench was just a few feet, but it might as well have been measured in miles.
"I think A.D. psychologically had to bounce back, and I think he has,'' Karl, who is back on the Nuggets' bench, said of Dantley having returned to his assistant's role. "When you lose, people take shots. People say nasty things and assassinate in a very vicious way at times. I think he's over that. Now, move on to have a good year.''
Dantley doesn't agree he had to mentally recover from last spring. Then again, the Hall of Fame forward never claimed during his playing career to have been bothered by anything he might have heard or read.
"I don't think nothing of it,'' Dantley said of the criticism he got regarding how Denver's season ended. "I don't know how much negative stuff was said. I heard a couple of things. I heard some positive things. I heard some negative things. I didn't read newspapers. ... I was disappointed that we lost. I can say that. As far as (having to) psychologically bounce back, (Dantley doesn't agree with Karl)."I thought we should have won over Utah. ... They outplayed us. They outworked us. They played better than us. Whether it was the coach or whether it was the players, it's on me."
-- Adrian Dantley, on last year's playoff loss to the Jazz "I used to catch criticism when people didn't think I played as well as I should have played. I had high standards. It's the same thing (with coaching). ... I've had criticism as a player. It didn't bother me.''
Dantley, an NBA star forward from 1976-91, including having won two scoring titles with Utah during a 1979-86 stint there, is his own toughest critic. He certainly was bothered by the loss to the Jazz, a series the Nuggets were heavily favored to win after starting small forward Andrei Kirilenko was lost just before the beginning with a calf injury and starting center Mehmet Okur was lost for the season when he suffered a torn Achilles tendon in the first half of Game 1.
"I thought we should have won over Utah,'' Dantley said. "We didn't win. They had two players gone down. We should have won. They outplayed us. They outworked us. They played better than us. Whether it was the coach or whether it was the players, it's on me.''
Critics said Dantley was outcoached by Utah's Jerry Sloan. But that was hardly unexpected.
Sloan, with 1,190 regular-season NBA wins, is a coaching legend. Dantley, prior to Karl's illness, never had been an NBA boss with the exception of having twice in previous seasons filled in for Karl.
"A.D. stepped up and took the reins ... of being a head coach in desperate times, and I think he did really well,'' said Nuggets center Chris Andersen. "It was his first time so you can't expect someone to be the greatest their first time.''
Denver players say it's unfair to throw blame at Dantley for how last season ended. The Nuggets had injuries of their own, with Andersen and forward Kenyon Martin playing on ailing knees that would require offseason surgery and center Nene missing Game 6 after going down with a knee injury in Game 5.
"He (was) put in a tough situation,'' Martin said of Dantley. "Doing it as a player was something different. He was learning how to respond to adversity (as a coach). ... Of course, it wasn't his fault. I'm hurting. Nene hurt. (Andersen) hurt. That was a tough spot.''But Dantley doesn't want to make excuses. Asked if he wished he would have done anything different against the Jazz, he said, "I don't know. Play Joey Graham.''
After using Graham for just five minutes in the first five games combined, Dantley rolled the forward out for Game 6 at Utah. Graham scored 21 points in 25 minutes, although the Nuggets lost 112-104 to end their season.
Filling in for Karl, Dantley went 11-8 during the regular season as the Nuggets finished 53-29. Dantley's biggest problem was beating winning teams. He went 3-7 against such outfits in the regular season before faltering against Utah.
Through it all, Dantley, 54, still hopes to be a head coach one day in the NBA. He believes his stint last season overall helped his cause.
"I thought I did well,'' Dantley said. "Everybody kept telling me it was a tough situation, but I thought we did all right. But I'm just disappointed we didn't beat Utah.
"You learn you got to be on your toes at all times to be a head coach. You got to make quick decisions. You got to try to keep everybody happy and get to know everybody's personalities. It's a lot different being a head coach as opposed to being an assistant. ... It helped me in the sense that it was on the fly. But I got better each week. I got more confident.''
Like Andersen and Martin, Nuggets guard Anthony Carter believes Dantley did the best he could considering the circumstances. But Carter also believes the low-key Dantley needs to be more vocal if he ever is to be hired as an NBA head man.
"I think so,'' Carter said. "I think he's kind of laid back and quiet. And I think you just got to put it out there, whatever's on your mind as a head coach. ... It was a good learning experience last year for the playoffs, and hopefully he can learn from that and get it right.''
Dantley sees validity in what Carter said. But he said being a fill-in for Karl made it difficult to be too vocal.
"I wasn't the head coach,'' Dantley said. "If I was the head coach, I'd be different. I agree with that. Yeah, I would say that, if I ever was to be a (head) coach, I would be more vocal. But it ain't my job to come in here and scream at players. ... I was a substitute teacher.''
Class is now back in session with the regular teacher. Karl returned for the first day of training camp and will be on the bench for Wednesday's opener at the Pepsi Center, his first regular-season game since March 16.
It would figure Karl's return is against Utah, the foe that led to Dantley receiving so much criticism. Considering the situation, Karl said Dantley coached a "pretty good, a decent playoff series,'' but said that taking shots comes with being an NBA head coach.
"They're par for the course,'' Karl said. "Your compliments are probably magnified and your scrutiny is probably unfair.''
Whether Dantley needed time to bounce back during the offseason from all that scrutiny is a matter of debate. But it's pretty certain Dantley won't getting much now that he has moved a few miles, er, feet, back to his role as an assistant.
Chris Tomasson can be reached at tomasson@fanhouse.com or on Twitter @christomasson
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