From Paris to Denver: France’s women’s squad inspires the Nuggets’ playbook

    5 min to read
    Gabby Williams and Marine Johannes of France are an inspiration for Denver's coach

    Denver coach David Adelman watches a lot of film while searching for ways to improve the Nuggets. One national side that has caught his eye is Les Bleues, the No. 3 team in the FIBA World Ranking Women.

    DENVER (USA) - The coach that is not open to other ideas, that is unwilling to study different approaches on the basketball court, that doesn't want to keep learning, is destined to fail.

    Denver Nuggets coach David Adelman stressed that after his team's 135-120 victory over the Indiana Pacers this week.

    "People are creative all over the world..." he said.

    We ran catch and shoot plays from the French Women's national team

    Nuggets coach David Adelman

    "So you kinda look for stuff everywhere. If you don’t, you stop learning, that’s when you lose.

    "Especially in the off-season, you get a chance to kind of take a deep breath and dive into film."

    It turns out that one team that Adelman, now in his first full season as head coach of the Nuggets, has drawn inspiration from is the France women's national side.

    "Like we ran catch and shoot plays from the French women’s national team," he said. "I watch everything. I watch high school summer league. You find things."

    France reached the Paris 2024 final and put up their fiercest battle against the USA but lost 66–67 to the star-loaded American team.

    This was a battle for the ages!

    Eight straight for USA after denying fearless France in Final thriller

    Foreign players in the league can also bring a fresh approach that helps clubs.

    Three-time league MVP Nikola Jokic of Serbia plays for the Nuggets.

    "The players that come into our league over these years have made the game so much better," Adelman said.

    "It's a different game because of it. It’s great. It's a very entertaining game and then what you saw in the Olympics, what you’re gonna see at the Olympics coming up, is as good as it gets in any sport in my opinion so yeah, it's a great time being a basketball fan."

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