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Less than two years ago, Michael Malone was at the top of the NBA world.
After led Denver Nuggets At their first championship in the history of the franchise in June 2023, he was presented at the Parade of the Championship as “Dad Lakers”, nicknamed he took over after eliminating Los Angeles in the Western Conference final. While thousands of fans screamed, he told them he was not satisfied. “We don’t want one (championship),” Malone said. “We want two.”
Fast forward to Tuesday, with the Nuggets in the fourth place in the Western Conference and only three games that remained in the regular part of the season, the team made a shocking move, dismissing Malone and Calvin Booth CEO.
Malone was at the helm of Nuggets for 10 years and was a winning franchise coach (510-394). Assistant coach David Adelman will serve as a temporary coach. Booth, who was on the expiration contract, was the general director of 2020.
The decision of Nuggets is surprised for many reasons. Most of them? Time.
The Nuggets are considered to be candidates for the championship, and the main shaking at such a critical moment is to raise the eyebrows. Interestingly, another Western Conference candidate did the same thing just over a week ago, and Memphis Grizzlies released coach Taylor Jenkins.
For Nuggets, is it a question, will it disrupt the continuity of the team? In the west, only two games separate the third lakers seeds from the eighth seed, which means that the Nuggets are among the six teams threatening to fall for the game tournament.
Or, as the front office of Nuggets clearly hopes whether this move will break through a team that lost four games in a row in the middle Jamal Murray Five matches missing due to knee injury, helping them turn things up?
“This decision was not made lightly and was evaluated very carefully, and we only do it with the 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 Josh Croenke, Vice President of Koenke Sports and Entertainment, he said in a statement. “Although the time of this decision is unhappy, since Malone coach helped build the foundations of our champion level, it takes a step that will allow us to just compete at the highest level.”
It is known that there was a crack between Malone and the cabin, and they disagree around Malone’s desire to re -sign Kentaviouous Caldwell-papa And his tendency to have approaches to win, priority proven veterans. Caldwell-Pope, which was an important part of the Nuggets Championship team, left last summer at a free agency as well as Bruce Brown.
This season, the Nuggets have fought with injuries, changes to the lineup and 20th place in a defensive assessment.
Malone recently called for the efforts of his team after losing 12 seeds of Portland Trail Blazers on March 21, persuading their players to look in the mirror and to be more proud of the minutes. He added that he “embarrassed him that game and our approach.”
The Nuggets also recently lost at home with 13th seed San Antonio Spurs April 2.
But with Jokic in a two -horse race with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander For the MVP and Nuggets Award ready for another playoffs after six direct post -season performances, the cracking of Malone was completely unexpected.
The fear was, with the way things went, the Nuggets would stay this year, they would miss expectations. In 2024, they lost to Minnesota Timberwolves in the second round of playoffs in a seven -game series.
During the little decade of his term with the Nuggets, he transformed the franchise.
He monitored Jokic’s increase in the selection of Denver as 41. The total selection in the 2014 design, to become a triple MVP. He also stood by Jamal Murray after suffering a torn ACL and missed the entire 2021-22 season. At the time, Murray was worried that he would trade. Malone said to him, “Hell no. You are ours.”
Murray is at 47.3 percent of the shooting at 47.3 percent, 5.7 rebounds and 7.1 assists during running in the championship. “My team has always had a belief in me,” Murray said Fox Sports at that time.
The cracking of Malone is ironic, given that he was one of the loudest critics that the coach’s seat became a torrential door, with anyone who is at the helm that he is fascinated by the team’s question.
Three of the four coaches who won the championship between 2020 and 2023 were discharged, including Malone, Frank Vogel and Mike Budenholzer. And from the beginning of the pandemic, 27 of the 30 NBA teams changed coaches, and lonely exceptions are San Antonio (Gregg Popovich), Miami (Erik Spoelstra) and Golden State (Steve Kerr).
Less than four months ago, Malone did not hide disgust over the decision of Sacramento Kings to release Mike Brown, who was the unanimous winner of coach of the year 2023. The kings, who also traveled Malone in 2014, conveyed the news to Brown over the phone.
“No class, no balls.” Said Malone in December.
Now she’s a little at the receiving end of shocking news.
Just a little bit ago, Malone enjoyed his drinks and embraced his players as he stood on stage in front of thousands of fans.
But in the blink of an eye he became part of the statistics he despised.
Melissa Rohlin is NBA writer for Fox Sports. Earlier covered the league for Sports Illustrated, Los Angeles Times, News Group for Bay Area and San Antonio Express-nws. Follow her on Twitter @Melisarohlin.
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