Denver is in the money to claim a qualified coach

Newest hire won’t be near top of NBA’s pay scale but won’t be hurting

Talent extends from the court to the sideline. But how much is any team willing to pay for it?

It’s as taboo a subject as there is in the NBA. Coaches’ contract figures usually aren’t trumpeted, or even known in some cases. But labels can be created in the blink of an eye, and they can stick.

The Nuggets are in search of their second coach since 2013. Popular opinion says they’re very worried about the bottom line, that they’ll skimp on the coach’s salary and place most of the monetary resources in player salaries. Yet, those close to the Nuggets say price will not be an issue during their search. And that takes into account the fact that the Nuggets still owe Brian Shaw, who was fired March 3, $2 million.

So if money is no object — or at least not an obstacle — the Nuggets should be in good shape financially in their search for a coach, which, last week, general manager Tim Connelly said had started.

“We don’t want to put any unnecessary internal time frames on it. There’s no deadline. I think the deadline is we want to have a coach as we head into the draft,” Connelly said of the June 25 event. “It’s a pretty pivotal pick for us, and a pretty pivotal moment. Not just with the draft itself and the chance to make trades, and free agency happens soon thereafter. So if we have to wait, we can wait. But we want to make sure that we talk to all of the quality candidates and pick the best guy.”

Conventional wisdom says the highestpriced candidates would be the coaching veterans, Mike D’Antoni and Alvin Gentry. But people close to them say they would not be in search of a king’s ransom to coach Denver, that the opportunity to coach again supersedes haggling over a high-dollar contract.

Still, the ballpark figure for them is likely to be in the $3 million to $4 million range. When D’Antoni resigned under pressure as the Los Angeles Lakers coach in 2014, he was working under a three-year, $12 million contract. So, $4 million per season.

That contract was a step down from the $6 million annual contract he signed in 2008 with the New York Knicks, which at the time made him one of the NBA’s highest-paid coaches.

Gentry, meanwhile is currently the NBA’s highest-paid assistant, making $800,000 with the Warriors, working under coach Steve Kerr, who was the general manager in Phoenix when Gentry became head coach of the Suns in 2009.

For all of the grief the Nuggets have taken about their willingness, or unwillingness, to pay head coaches, George Karl’s salary grew from $3 million annually to more than $4 million by the time he was fired in 2013. In Karl’s recent return to Denver as coach of the Sacramento Kings, he admitted he was “paid well” by the Nuggets organization.

If University of Florida coach Billy Donovan was the choice, it stands to reason the Nuggets would have to get above his current deal, which will pay him an average of $3.7 million over the final six years of the deal. There is a $500,000 buyout clause as well. Donovan just signed the extension last month that takes it out to six more years.

In the NBA, Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers is by far the league’s highestpaid at a whopping $10 million per year. He was already the league’s highest-paid coach before he landed in Los Angeles, making $7 million annually with the Boston Celtics.

But that’s rarified air. And, if the Nuggets move quickly enough so there isn’t additional competition, they’re sitting in a nice position as one of just two teams — Orlando is the other — in need of a head coach. So an intense bidding war over a particular candidate is an unlikely scenario.

And with one coaching search already under his belt, Connelly says he’s ready for this one in all areas.

“This time we’ll certainly have the ability to be a little more pragmatic,” he said. “We have a staff in place. I know the team, I know the personnel. I know the guys that are going to work and some of the guys we probably have to think about moving on. I just think I’m more prepared and have a better overall feel for the lay of the land.”