It’s rare for an NBA team to fire their coach a few games before the playoffs, but the Denver Nuggets felt that they desperately needed a change in the locker room after losing their fourth straight game on Sunday. In the hours since his departure, more details have emerged on what went wrong, starting with preferential treatment toward the star players.
“Some players, he’s just rubbed them the wrong way because he’s a hard-nosed coach,” said Chris Broussard. “Not quite as hard on Jokic and Murray, still coaches them hard, but not quite as hard on them which rubbed some guys the wrong way.”
Malone was very old-fashioned with his approach, and it’s why he catered to his stars while favoring older, veteran players like Russell Westbrook. His attachment to Westbrook is what fed into his beef with GM Calvin Booth.
“Malone and Booth had been at odds over everything from roster construction to the way players were used, creating tension that started to bleed into the rest of the organization. Booth wanted Malone to use younger players that he drafted and wanted Malone to stray away from using veterans for so many minutes,” wrote The Athletic. “Jalen Pickett is a good example of this, according to league sources. Booth was dismayed that Malone went with Russell Westbrook over Pickett down the stretch of multiple games last week.”
The problems can be traced back to the summer of 2023 after they let Bruce Brown walk in free agency. One by one, the Nuggets lost pieces of their championship core, hoping to replace them with young and unproven talent.
Malone didn’t agree with that direction and continued to lean on more established veterans like Russell Westbrook and DeAndre Jordan. The lack of results and difference in ideologies, created a rift between Malone and Calvin Booth, who engaged in a brutal cold war behind the scenes. It tore the team apart and jeopardized their future.
In the end, the Nuggets management chose to fire both parties instead of picking one side or the other. Together, they created a toxic environment that was causing some cracks from the inside out. With Nikola Jokic’s future on the line, the Nuggets didn’t want to take any chances and they knew tough calls had to be made.
The final straw was their recent losing streak, which now has them fighting to avoid the play-in tournament. At fourth in the West (47-32), the Nuggets have been reeling lately and now they are only 0.5 games up from the eighth seed.
To save their season, and bring the whole team together, the Nuggets opted for a clean slate and now they will forge a whole new identity. The problem is that the NBA playoffs are right around the corner and the Nuggets are facing a tough road ahead.
Even if they manage to avoid the play-in tournament, Denver will face overwhelming odds to make the NBA Finals. Only with the play of Nikola Jokic, and the right coaching voice in the locker room can the Nuggets hope to make a run.
