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In a shocking turn of events with just three games left in the regular season, the Denver Nuggets have fired both head coach Michael Malone and general manager Calvin Booth. […]
In a shocking turn of events with just three games left in the regular season, the Denver Nuggets have fired both head coach Michael Malone and general manager Calvin Booth.
The Nuggets are 11-12 in their last 23 games, struggling both when Nikola Jokic isn’t available and even when he’s putting up historic numbers.
For instance, Jokic put up a career-high 61 points against the Minnesota Timberwolves on April 1: setting the new mark for most points in a triple double in NBA history. But the Nuggets lost that game.
Denver held a double digit lead their next game on the road against the Golden State Warriors: lost that one too. Jokic scored 33 points and added 12 rebounds, and 9 assists.
And then on Sunday night, desperate for a win against the Indiana Pacers, Jokic put up a heroic 41 points, 15 rebounds, and 13 assists. Denver led most of the game, but fell 125-120 late.
Jokic is averaging 45.0 points, 12.3 rebounds, and 10.7 assists per game in April, as the Denver Nuggets have the best player in the world in their roster.
But it’s translated to an 0-3 record.
Obviously, Micheal Malone and Calvin Booth aren’t missing shots on the court or committing turnovers. You can place some of the blame on sloppy play, poor shooting, and lack of defensive effort.
Russell Westbrook and Michael Porter Jr. have particularly received scrutiny over the Nuggets recent cold spell.
But the Nuggets recent woes have been exasturbated by having a head coach that simply doesn’t elevate his team anymore.
If the Nuggets were getting blown out, it would be easier to point the finger at the players on the court. But Denver is blowing close games, and squandering leads, which comes down to coaching at some level.
Malone has failed to figure out how to get solid production out of his players when Jokic isn’t on the court for seasons now, and the problem is getting worse: the Nuggets are the best offensive team in NBA history this season when Jokic is on the court, and the worst in NBA history when he’s not.
Malone is far from the only issue with this struggling Nuggets team right now, but if he’s not elevating the team anymore, what purpose does he serve in Denver?
The blame obviously goes higher, with Calvin Booth getting the boot as well. Not getting enough talent around your generational superstar isn’t a situation unique to the Nuggets, but Booth hasn’t exactly handled his cards well.
Jokic has never played with a current fellow All-Star, and Russell Westbrook is the first All-Star Jokic has ever played with.
Still, Michael Porter Jr., Jamal Murray, and Aaron Gordon all commanded max contracts from Booth and the Nuggets’ front office.
I don’t want to personally blame Booth here either, as letting any of these players walk early would have been controversial as well. So Booth has been stuck between a rock and a hard place: a position I don’t envy at all.
Still, the Nuggets failure to sign a serviceable backup center for Jokic has been noticeable, and the bench has only gotten weaker each year since Denver’s 2023 championship run. Dario Saric ended up being almost a non-signing for the Nuggets, as the big man barely touched the court and is reportedly nearing the end of his NBA career.
Speaking of the 2023 NBA Championship, Malone and Booth deserve a lot of credit for that, taking a unique, mostly homegrown team all the way to the NBA’s highest title, for the first time in franchise history. Nikola Jokic, Michael Porter Jr., and Jamal Murray, the homegrown talent, along with Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Aaron Gordon, both acquired by Booth, made for an all-time great Nuggets starting lineup.
But as the NBA evolves rapidly in to a “what have you done for me lately” league, the Nuggets parted ways with both Malone and Booth, not even two years after hoisting the Larry O’Brien trophy.
The decision may seem rash, and by historic NBA standards, it is. This is the latest a head coach has ever been fired in-season in NBA history.
But the results have been disappointing for the Nuggets since their 2023 NBA Championship run: last year, they faced a second-round exit against the Timberwolves, despite coming back and holding a 3-2 series lead.
This year, the Nuggets can’t close out big games, and could finish as low as the eighth seed with just three games left.
Where do the Nuggets go from here? It’s anyone’s guess, but I see the move as low-risk, high-reward. By all accounts, the Nuggets were trending towards an early playoff exit based on their last two months of on-court play. If they still face an early exit, under interim head coach David Adelman, it might feel “expected.”
And if the major shake up lights a fire under this Nuggets team? Who knows how far this team could go: there’s still a lot of talent as well as the best player in the world.
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