David Adelman passed his high-stakes audition to be the Nuggets’ next coach.

Six weeks ago, Nuggets’ team president Josh Kroenke sat down with Adelman, his new interim head coach, after firing Michael Malone and general manager Calvin Booth with three games left in the regular season. The move came with unprecedented timing for a playoff team.

“It was such a rough morning for me (because of) the amount of respect I have for coach Malone and Calvin,” Kroenke said at a press conference Thursday after removing the interim tag from Adelman’s title

“Then, he and I had to meet in a whole new context. … We both kind of looked at each other across the table. We just kind of smiled and said ‘Here we go.’”

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Kroenke said he was initially very open to making an outside hire to replace the winningest coach in franchise history. Then, Adelman led the Nuggets to a 3-0 close to the regular season to avoid the play-in portion of the postseason. That’s where Kroenke feared the season would end if he stuck with the previous leadership.

“I think that plane would’ve landed in the play in and probably gone right out then,” Kroenke said.

“David went above and beyond where I thought that he would be. I knew he would be a great communicator in some of the ways that we needed a different message hitting some of the players in the locker room. … I appreciated how candid he was in his ability to communicate, because I think that is a key element of today’s world in professional sports in general. I thought that he was able to thread the needle between challenging people with direct communication while also encouraging them almost at the same time. Accountability was a key message of our last six weeks.”

Adelman impressed with his ability to lead the Nuggets past the Clippers in seven games and get Denver to the second round for a third consecutive season. The longtime assistant declined the opportunity to campaign for the job after Denver’s season ended Sunday in Oklahoma City.

“Obviously, I’m blessed to have this opportunity to take the helm and lead this team,” Adelman said. “If I’m not back next year, I’ll obviously never forget this. It’s been an incredible experience. To have the buy-in from the guys was really special.”

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The buy-in was evident to Kroenke, who was in the postgame locker room after the Nuggets lost Game 7 to the Thunder. He and his new coach met again soon after Denver’s season ended.

“I said, ‘Look, man, there’s one thing that I sure as heck am not going to overthink is the incredible job that you just did with this group.’ We had a good exchange after that,” Kroenke said.

“He’s more than ready for the job. That’s for sure.”

Adelman interviewed with the Hornets, Cavaliers, Lakers and Raptors over the last couple of years. Now, he’s staying in Denver, the place he’s called home since joining the Nuggets as an assistant in 2017.

“He’s grown with the group,” Kroenke said. “He understand their tendencies as players, but I think equally as important right now with where we are in our organization cycle is he knows them as people, what makes them tick.”

The 44-year-old started his coaching career at the high school level in his native Oregon. He got his start in the NBA as a player development coach for the Timberwolves in 2011, while his father Rick was the head coach. After five years in Minnesota, Adelman spent one season as an assistant to Frank Vogel in Orlando before joining Malone’s staff in Denver.

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Denver’s new coach had opportunities to prove he was ready when Malone missed games due to illness, personal reasons or an early ejection in recent seasons, but he never had much of an opportunity to put his own touches on the team, including his short stint as an interim coach. That’s no longer the case.

“The way the group really rallied around him and not only a different voice but a different style of communication, was fantastic to see,” Kroenke said. “We’re really excited about him, both what he’s shown over the last six weeks and then having a full summer, a full training camp and a full year to get things under his belt before we go back at it again this time next year.”