And the Nuggets new coach is...

Nuggets name George Karl coach

DENVER (Ticker) - George Karl will be called upon to rescue the struggling Denver Nuggets.

On Thursday, the Nuggets named Karl, who is 13th on the all-time list with 708 career victories, as their coach. He has become the permanent replacement for Jeff Bzdelik, who was fired on December 28 and replaced by Michael Cooper on an interim basis.

Terms were not disclosed, but Karl reportedly received a six-year deal.

"We are very excited to be adding a coach of George's stature to our organization," Nuggets general manager Kiki Vandeweghe said. "He has won everywhere he has been and his track record speaks for itself."

A veteran of 16 NBA seasons as coach, Karl will serve as a sharp contrast to the inexperienced Cooper, who led the Nuggets to a 4-10 mark in his first crack at coaching at the NBA level. Cooper had joined Denver as an assistant in July after posting a 116-31 record with two championships in four-plus seasons as coach of the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks.

Karl, who led the Seattle SuperSonics to the 1996 NBA Finals, most recently coached the Milwaukee Bucks from 1998 to 2003. On Friday, the Nuggets are scheduled to face Milwaukee, where he was fired after leading the team to a 42-40 mark and a playoff berth in 2002-03.

The 53-year-old Karl made his NBA coaching debut with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 1984 but did not log his first winning season until 1986-87, when he led the Golden State Warriors to a 42-40 record. Fired after managing just 16 wins the next season, however, Karl did not re-emerge until the 1991-92 season, when he took over the 20-20 SuperSonics and led them to a 27-15 mark the rest of the way.

In his seven seasons with Seattle, Karl recorded three 60-win seasons, including a 64-18 campaign in 1995-96. That year, Karl led the SuperSonics to a Western Conference championship before falling to the Chicago Bulls in six games in the NBA Finals.

Teams coached by Karl have won five division titles and reached the playoffs 13 times. Only the 2001-02 Bucks, who went 41-41, missed the playoffs in Karl's last 12 years at the helm.

The Nuggets have only advanced to the postseason three times during that span.

Last season, Bzdelik engineered one of the biggest turnarounds in NBA history, leading the Nuggets to 43 wins and their first playoff appearance since 1995. The 26-game improvement was the sixth best in NBA history and the most for a team that had won fewer than 20 games the previous season. Following a July trade that brought in power forward Kenyon Martin from the New Jersey Nets, Denver was expected to be even better this season.

But the team lost six straight to fall to 13-15, prompting Vandeweghe to fire Bzdelik last month. Although Cooper professed to make defense his top priority, the Nuggets have allowed over 100 points six times in losing 10 of their last 13 games, falling to 17-25 overall - third in the Northwest Division.

-Rotoworld