All but one from last season back on Nuggets staff
*By Chris Tomasson, Rocky Mountain News*
*July 4, 2005*
Meet the new staff, same as the old staff.
Well, almost.
Denver Nuggets coach George Karl spent nearly two months pondering the
makeup of his coaching staff. The only change should be John Welch being
hired as a player development assistant to replace Rex Kalamian, who
left for the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Welch arrived in Denver on Saturday. He expects to sign a two-year
contract Tuesday, with the Nuggets having a third-year option, and then
travel with the team to Las Vegas for summer league.
“This is an exciting opportunity, getting to work with coach Karl,”
Welch said. “I feel Denver is a team with a huge upside.”
Welch, 42, spent the past three seasons as a player development
assistant with the Memphis Grizzlies. He has known Karl for 12 years,
beginning when he was a Long Beach State assistant and traveled to
Seattle to watch Karl coach the SuperSonics in training camp.
“I’ve been in gyms with (Karl) a lot,” said Welch, a Fresno State
assistant under Jerry Tarkanian for seven seasons before joining the
Grizzlies.
Welch should sit behind the bench along with holdover player development
assistant Chip Engelland. Holdover assistants on the bench are Doug Moe,
Scott Brooks and Adrian Dantley.
“I’m looking forward to coming back,” said Dantley, who is ready to
re-sign after he, Brooks and Engelland had two-year deals expire
Thursday. “We should have a really good team.”
Moe, a former Nuggets head coach, has been expected to return since the
end of the season but had held back from calling it a certainty. But he
said Sunday he’s “100 percent on board” for next season.
“I had no problems last year, so I should be fine for next year,” said
Moe, who had a heart attack last summer.
Moe, who has signed one-year contracts since being named a consultant in
2002, expects to sign another one. With Karl suspended for the first
three games of next season, Moe said there “has been no discussion”
about who will take over.