GRAND RAPIDS GOLD NAMES RYAN BOWEN AS HEAD COACH

Gold also adds Chad Iske, Nihal Kolur and Matthew Tynes to Front Office Positions

GRAND RAPIDS, MI (Aug. 6, 2025) –– The Denver Nuggets’ G League affiliate Grand Rapids Gold have announced they are naming Ryan Bowen as the franchise’s next Head Coach. The Gold have also added Chad Iske as General Manager, Nihal Kolur as Assistant General Manager and Matthew Tynes as Director of G League Operations and Scouting.

Ryan Bowen will begin his Head Coaching tenure with the Gold after serving as an assistant coach for the Nuggets for the past 10 seasons. In all, Bowen has been a member of the Denver Nuggets organization for 17 years, five as a player and 12 total as an assistant coach. Bowen enjoyed a 10-year NBA playing career, appearing in 507 games (86 starts) for Denver, Houston, New Orleans and Oklahoma City. Bowen was drafted by the Nuggets in the second round (55th overall) of the 1998 NBA Draft and spent one year playing overseas in the Turkish Basketball League before beginning his NBA career in 1999.

Bowen, an Iowan native, played four years at the University of Iowa, finishing his career there in the top-10 all-time for blocks and rebounds and still ranks first in career steals. After retiring from the NBA in 2010, Bowen returned to the University of Iowa where he spent one season as the video coordinator before joining the Nuggets for his first stint as assistant coach (2011-2013). Bowen then joined the Sacramento Kings for two seasons (2013-2015) as assistant coach/assistant director of player development before rejoining the Nuggets organization.

“Ryan brings a championship mindset, years of experience, and a deep connection to the Nuggets system,” said Gold President Steve Jbara. “We’re thrilled to welcome him to Grand Rapids and can’t wait to see the impact he’ll make on our players and our community.”

Chad Iske will serve as General Manager for the Grand Rapids Gold while also being named Vice President of Pro Personnel for the Nuggets. The Denver native is another longtime fixture of the Nuggets organization, originally joining in 1999 as scouting intern and working his way to scouting coordinator, video coordinator and advance scout before being named assistant coach (2007-2013). Iske continued his NBA coaching career after leaving Denver in 2013, serving as assistant coach with the Philadelphia 76ers (2013-2015), Associate Head Coach for the Sacramento Kings (2015-16), assistant coach with the Washington Wizards (2016-18) and four years as assistant coach for the Charlotte Hornets (2018-2022). He then returned to Denver and served as Pro Scout for the past three seasons.

Nihal Kolur has been named Assistant General Manager for the Grand Rapids Gold and will serve as Director of Strategy with the Nuggets. Kolur joined Denver as a basketball operations associate in 2022 where he specialized in the CBA, salary cap and roster building strategy. He came to Denver after spending a year with the NBA’s Basketball Operations and being selected to the inaugural class of the NBA’s Future Basketball Operations Stars. He spent the three years prior to that as a strategy analyst for Major League Soccer (2019-22) and one year (2018-2019) as a financial analyst for Morningstar. Kolur graduated from Northwestern University in 2018 where he was on the Dean’s List in 2015.

Matthew Tynes has been named Director of G League Operations and Scouting for the Grand Rapids Gold. Tynes attended Harvard University where he was a member of the football team and he then began his career as manager of Harvard’s women’s basketball team during the 2022-23 season. He then went on to serve as a corporate partnerships and youth basketball intern with the Boston Celtics before joining the Nuggets’ G League affiliate Grand Rapids Gold. The Delaware native worked as the Gold’s Basketball Operations Assistant and Player Programs during the 2023-24 season before joining the Nuggets in the same role during the 2024-25 season. While with the Gold and Nuggets, Tynes supported the front office on team logistics, analytics, scouting, and player support.