Michael Malone, who led the Denver Nuggets to the NBA title in 2023 and has coached the team for eight consecutive winning seasons, was fired on Tuesday in a surprising move less than a week before the end of the regular season.
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General manager Calvin Booth was also left out, and his contract will not be renewed.
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The Nuggets said that David Adelman will be the interim coach for the rest of the season.
Why the Nuggets fired their coach?
Josh Kroenke, the vice president of Kroenke Sports and Entertainment (who also own the Los Angeles Rams of the NFL and Arsenal of English football), said that it was not done with pleasure that the Nuggets made the coaching change.
“This decision was not taken lightly and was evaluated very carefully, and we make it with the sole intention of giving our group the best chance to compete for the 2025 NBA Championship and deliver another title to Denver and our fans everywhere”, said Kroenke.
The Nuggets have a record of 47-32 this season with three games remaining in the regular season, but they have lost four consecutive games and are in a logjam of teams fighting to make the playoffs without going through the play-in.
Denver’s last defeat was on Sunday, 125-120 against the Pacers.
At the close of this note, the Nuggets were in fourth place in the Western Conference, but only separated by one game from the Timberwolves, currently in eighth place. In between them are the Grizzlies, Clippers, and Warriors.
According to the competition format of recent years in the NBA, the top six teams in each conference directly qualify for the playoffs, while teams ranked 7th to 10th compete in a mini-tournament for the final two spots in the postseason.
Denver won the title in 2023 and lost Game 7 at home in the Western Conference semifinals a year ago against Minnesota.
Malone was the fourth longest-tenured active NBA coach with his team, behind only Gregg Popovich of San Antonio, Erik Spoelstra of Miami, and Steve Kerr of Golden State.
Was Nikola Jokic a factor in Malone’s departure?
According to an article from The Athletic, there was discontent among the players regarding the performance of the Nuggets, especially on defense.
One of those who was not satisfied was the team’s star and one of the best NBA players, the Serbian Nikola Jokic, who was frustrated with the lack of defensive commitment from some of his teammates.
“I believe that this group has much more to offer than what has been achieved so far,” said Josh Kroenke in an interview published on the Nuggets’ official website.
It was also revealed that there was an internal struggle between Malone and general manager Calvin Booth, so Kroenke made the decision to remove both at a critical moment for the team.
Denver’s next game is this Wednesday against Sacramento.