Nuggets add J.J. Barea, Rodney Billups to coaching staff

David Adelman is remaking his Denver Nuggets coaching staff and he’s added two big names basketball fans in Colorado will know.

On Tuesday, Denver hired both J.J. Barea and Rodney Billups to their coaching staff, according to separate reports. Barea will take on the bigger job for Adelman, an assistant coach on the front of Denver’s bench. Billups’ role as an assistant has not yet been reported.

Barea turned 41 last week and played in the NBA as recently as 2019, when his 14-year on-court career wrapped up. He spent 11 of those years in Dallas, and he joined their organization as a player development coach after he hung up his sneakers. But it was in his three years away from the Mavericks, playing for the Timberwolves, that may have helped get this job. David’s father, Rick Adelman, coached Minnesota back then, and David was on staff.

Barea’s biggest moment came in the NBA Finals, as he helped stop peak LeBron James and the Miami Heat for a title in Texas. A speedy and rugged point guard, Barea has transitioned into a post-playing career nicely. He has worked as both a coach and GM in his native Puerto Rico in the Baloncesto Superior Nacional.

Billups was also a great player; he remains all over the University of Denver’s record books and went on to hoop overseas before coming home to work under Tad Boyle for the Colorado Buffaloes. Billups then became the head coach at his alma mater, but left a few years later to join his brother, Chauncey Billups, as an assistant on his Blazers staff.

The Nuggets are also sniffing around Mavericks assistant Jared Dudley for Adelman’s staff.

The rookie head coach, Adelman, is building out his first staff. He chose not to retain Ryan Saunders, Popeye Jones, Charles Klask and Stephen Graham, who all worked with him last year as assistants under Michael Malone.

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