Former Hawks and Knicks coach Mike Woodson “could” be the next candidate to interview for the Nuggets coaching vacancy, as Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe hears (Twitter link). It’s not clear what’s at the root of any uncertainty about whether Woodson will speak with Denver officials, but it nonetheless doesn’t appear as though Washburn is just speculating. Magic GM Rob Hennigan last month reportedly interviewed Woodson, now a Clippers assistant coach, for the Orlando job that instead went to Scott Skiles.
The Nuggets would like to hire a coach prior to the June 25th draft, GM Tim Connelly said at the beginning of the team’s coaching search, as Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post notes. Interim coach and player favorite Melvin Hunt is reportedly the front-runner to keep the job, though Marc Stein of ESPN.com wrote a couple of weeks ago that Mike D’Antoni remained in the mix. Michael Malone and Blazers assistant David Vanterpool were other contenders that Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports identified in April, though there hasn’t been much connecting either of them to the Nuggets since. The Nuggets are “not an option” for Tom Thibodeau, sources told Ken Berger of CBSSports.com a couple of weeks ago.
Bleacher Report’s Jared Zwerling wrote last week that D’Antoni had yet to interview for the Nuggets job when he reported the news that Hunt is the favorite. Woodson, a year removed from his time as Knicks coach, is the first identified candidate other than Hunt who appears to be in line for an interview with Denver.