The Denver Nuggets Have Shockingly Decided To Clean House By Firing Both Michael Malone And Their GM Just Days Ahead Of The Playoffs
Justin Edmonds. Getty Images.Uhhhhhhh what the hell is going on in the Western Conference?????
A few weeks ago, we had the Grizzlies decide out of nowhere to fire Taylor Jenkins right before the playoffs as the Grizzlies were in a bit of a slide down the standings. Now, here we are just days away from the NBA playoffs, and the Nuggets have decided to do the exact same thing. Much like Jenkins, Malone is the winningest coach in franchise history who JUST won a title in 2023. Sure, the Nuggets are currently in a 4 game slide and in the 4 seed, with a possibility of sliding into the Play In if they don't get their shit together, but it's not like they had a horrific season.
Considering the Nuggets are still flirting with 50 wins, have had brutal injury luck all season, and a roster that has failed their franchise player, I'm not sure how the answer here is firing Michael Malone. Is he perfect? No. No coaches are (minus Joe Mazzulla), but I'm not sure how the Nuggets' current situation is a Michael Malone problem. What exactly does this accomplish?
Now, you fire the coach in hopes of what? This lights a fire under everyone and gets them to magically be different players than we saw all season? Just ask the Grizzlies how that's going for them after firing their coach (3-7 over their last 10, dropped to 8th). It's technically still possible that the Nuggets get into a top 3 seed!
I guess the fact that they are cleaning house and the GM is out as well tells us that ownership wanted a completely new fresh start, and frankly, I have no real objections when it comes to Calvin Booth. Everything he's done since 2023 has been a disaster. Letting guys walk and not replacing them with ample players, deadline decisions, drafting decisions etc, all have been less than ideal.
If the front office felt like the players were tuning out Malone, well, that sounds to me like a player problem not a coaching problem. Maybe don't have those guys in your locker room, considering this team JUST WON THE TITLE. Perhaps the coaching staff knows what it takes. It wasn't Malone who gave Jamal Murray that $200M extension. Whenever Malone ripped into his team for playing like dickheads, it was warranted. He didn't lie once. At some point, the players have to live up to their end of the bargain.
As a Nuggets fan, how does this give you any confidence that the organization knows what it's doing? Unless this move came as a result of a demand by Nikola Jokic, how do we think he feels about this? Does he look around and see that this is a championship organization? The roster building, the decision making, firing your coach a week before the playoffs start, does this sound like a functional organization to anyone?
The Western Conference playoffs were already going to be incredible, so adding this fuel to the fire only enhances the chaos. Do the Nuggets now slide to the Play In? Are they punting on the season despite still very much being alive in the playoff race? When was the last time we've seen this from a recent champion who might win 50 games?
There has to be more to the story here, and maybe we'll never know the true details. But what I do know is the Nuggets may very well have put the Nikola Jokic Era in jeopardy, and that might be something they never recover from.
