Bowen more prepared for second year with Gold

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I think, in general, coaching is all about relationships, how you build those relationships. I’ve always felt I’ve had good relationships with players”

Ryan Bowen, Head Coach Grand Rapids Gold

DENVER - Ryan Bowen spent 14 seasons as an NBA assistant coach before taking a head coaching job in the NBA’s G League last season.
The Fort Madison native is back for his second season coaching the Grand Rapids Gold, having learned from the view from the head coach’s chair.
“I think just having been through it, knowing what to expect a little more, is going to make a big difference,” Bowen said on Thursday. “Obviously I’ve been around the game for a long time, but it was my first time as a head coach. I just think now there’s a familiarity with it, being more comfortable.
“I feel like I’m going to be prepared. That’s all part of the learning process. Until you’ve actually done it, you don’t know what it’s like. Overall, it was a tremendous experience for me, and I’m really looking forward to having another crack at it this year.”
The Gold, an affiliate of the Denver Nuggets, went 11-25 last season. For Bowen, who was on the Nuggets’ coaching staff when the team won the NBA title in 2023, there was plenty to learn, on and off the court.
“The biggest thing that I dealt with was all the off-the-court stuff, all the decisions you have to make that have nothing to do with basketball,” he said. “The games were great, the practices were great. It’s just all the day-to-day stuff — the practice times, the bus times, when are we flying. When we get into the city, what are we going to do, where are we going to eat? We have a great staff that deals with those things, but ultimately it’s up to the head coach. All those things, I feel like I’m going to definitely be prepared for.”
Bowen also had to deal with occasional roster movement. Teams can have 10 G League players on their roster, as well as up to three players with two-way contracts with NBA teams, plus any injured players on rehab assignments.
“Just because of where we’re at, the distance from Denver, most of the time we’ll have the 10 guys plus one ‘two-way,’” Bowen said. “But, if we don’t have any two-ways or any assignments, and a couple of guys get hurt, you’re going into games with seven or eight guys.”
Bowen, a 1994 graduate of Fort Madison High School, was a four-year starter at Iowa during his college career, then played 12 professional seasons — 10 in the NBA and two in international leagues. After his playing career ended, he spent one season as Iowa’s video coordinator under head coach Fran McCaffery before heading to the NBA as an assistant coach, working two different stints with the Nuggets sandwiched around two seasons with the Sacramento Kings.
All of that experience helped him in the getting-to-know-you process with an entire roster.
“I think, in general, coaching is all about relationships, how you build those relationships,” he said. “I’ve always felt I’ve had good relationships with players. As an (NBA) assistant coach, you’re always assigned two or three guys to deal with. Obviously you get to know everybody, but when it’s broken down, it’s, ‘Hey, these are my three guys.’ When you’re the head coach, you have to know everybody. Overall, I felt like I had a good relationship with the guys. I still feel like a player at times, so I feel like I’m a players’ coach.
“The one thing I was not ready for was when the season went on, when those guys didn’t get the call-up they wanted, whether it was from (the Nuggets) or some other team, how that would change the dynamic of the team. Or guys would realize they weren’t going to get that call-up, so they would go to Europe and I would lose a couple of guys that way. Next thing you know, you’d have a couple of guys hurt, and then I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, how am I going to have enough players for tonight?’”
Much of the offense and defense the Gold runs is patterned after the Nuggets.
“For the most part, we try to keep things similar, in terms of schemes, play calls, vocabulary, so when guys go up and down, it’s easy for them,” Bowen said. “You’re not teaching guys a whole new system. Now, obviously, we didn’t have Nikola (Jokic) or Jamal (Murray), we can’t run everything exactly the same way. But we try to stress terminology, that sort of thing, whether it’s calling out a pick-and-roll coverage, or a play call, there’s that instant familiarity. Obviously, as we go along, I can make some tweaks here or there. But for the most part I keep it the same system.”
Bowen, who lives with his wife, Wendy, in Denver, will be with the Nuggets during training camp before heading to Grand Rapids — the Gold’s season begins November 7. He is ready for the new season to begin.
“You learn a lot about yourself — having patience with players, your staff, even my own self,” Bowen said. “I’m probably my biggest critic after every game, trying to figure out what to do differently. I’ve been around the game so long, but never in that seat. And things are just a little different. You have a lot of suggestions when you’re sitting behind the bench, but when it comes right down to it, you realize, ‘Oh, maybe that’s why we did it this way.’ I think all of those decisions, on and off the court, will come a lot easily.”