Denver Nuggets

As one might've surmised after the team's shocking decision to fire head coach Michael Malone, all was not well within the Denver Nuggets' locker room, according to The Athletic's Sam Amick and Tony Jones.

Amick and Jones provided some insight into the ouster of both Malone and general manager Calvin Booth. They reported the "franchise's most important players, including three-time league MVP Nikola Jokić, had grown frustrated and fatigued by Malone's fiery ways."

"When it came to Malone and his level of support in the locker room, team and league sources say the bottom started to fall out in mid-March," The Athletic report said. "The home loss against Washington was a new low, with the tanking Wizards scoring at will in a 126-123 win that left Jokić fuming afterward. The defense, which was eighth in the league last season and top 16 in each of the previous six seasons, had fallen to 22nd at that time (it's currently 21st). At the time, league sources say, rival teams began to hear that Jokić's patience was wearing thin with the sad state of affairs."

The Athletic report also detailed some internal frustration with Russell Westbrook, specifically as it related to Malone's treatment of the veteran point guard.

"All the while, Malone's choice to continue supporting Westbrook — despite the frustration he was causing on and off the floor — ultimately led to a loss of credibility among the team’s key players," Jones and Amick wrote. "It was one thing when Malone handled Jokić and Murray with more leniency than the rest of their group, but affording Westbrook that sort of treatment, even with his Hall of Fame resume, wasn't received well by some.

From the moment the Nuggets announced they were cleaning house, it seemed safe to assume Malone's relationship with his players had eroded.

Because of his laid-back demeanor, Jokić doesn't come off as a player who would agitate behind the scenes for a coaching change. But Denver presumably wouldn't fire a coach who maintained the full support of his biggest star.

Things may have trended this way regardless of whether the Nuggets added Westbrook or not.

Coaching one team for 10 seasons is a long time, and this is one way in which Denver's continuity may have been a downside. Malone is the only NBA head coach Jokić, Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. have had. Sometimes it's as simple as needing a new voice on the sideline.

But Westbrook's indirect role in this makes his signing a complete disaster.

Simply put, the nine-time All-Star isn't worth extending a kind of superstar treatment anymore. He turned 36 in November and nobody has any misapprehensions about the state of his game. He's also making just $3.3 million this season, so it's not as though the franchise has a sunk cost it needed to justify.

There was plenty of skepticism when the move first came together in the summer. Westbrook didn't address Denver's need for long-range shooting. He was coming off a playoff run in which he shot just 26 percent from the floor. And even in a lesser role, the 6'4" guard has a singular playing style that stands out for all of the wrong reasons when things are going poorly.

After the Los Angeles Lakers traded Westbrook midway through the 2022-23 season, ESPN's Dave McMenamin cited a source who described the 2016-17 MVP as "a vampire in the locker room." That's how bad things had gotten there.

Based on The Athletic's newest report, that dynamic could be repeating itself in the Mile High City.

Following the shocking firing of head coach Mike Malone earlier this week, the Denver Nuggets managed to bounce back and end their four-game losing streak with a 124-116 win over the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday night.

After the victory, Nuggets swingman Michael Porter Jr. was asked about the team's reaction to Malone's firing, and he admitted that the players were all caught off-guard by the decision and are still getting used to life without him.

"It's a big change, Coach Malone has been my head coach ever since I got to the NBA," Porter told reporters at the 0:28 mark. "Obviously, it was a crazy day, none of us expected it, none of us really know how to handle something like that."

Porter, who scored 21 points in Wednesday's win, added that Nuggets team president Josh Kroenke "was amazing as the leader of the organization" and revealed his message to the team after Malone was dismissed less than a week before the end of the regular season.

"Josh said to just get back to the principles of what makes the Nuggets the Nuggets, which is to have fun," Porter said. "He said that he saw that we weren't having fun and he saw that we weren't playing as hard as we could, so he wanted to come in here and re-establish that as the basis of our culture, along with a couple other things."

After improving to 48-32 in their first game under interim head coach David Adelman, the Nuggets are ranked fourth in the Western Conference but are still fighting for playoff positioning. Denver will try to keep the momentum going when it hosts the Memphis Grizzlies (47-32) on Friday in the penultimate game of the 2024-25 campaign.

Given the upheaval within the Denver Nuggets organization at the end of the regular season, their summer plans may not include bringing back Russell Westbrook.

Per The Athletic's Sam Amick and Tony Jones, Westbrook's future in Denver is "uncertain" even with him holding a $3.4 million player option for next season on his contract.

The Nuggets' entire offseason approach won't be shaped until they hire a new general manager and head coach.

Michael Malone, who had been coaching the team since June 2015, was fired on Tuesday with three games remaining in the regular season. The team also announced that general manager Calvin Booth won't return next season, as his contract isn't being renewed.

Jones, Amick and Zach Powell reported on Tuesday that Booth was "dismayed" that Malone had been playing Westbrook in crunch time recently instead of Jalen Pickett.

If Booth were keeping his post as general manager, that tidbit would seem to suggest Westbrook is definitely gone. He could still be on the outs with the organization amid growing frustration with his erratic performance.

This was never more evident than in Denver's 140-139 double-overtime loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on April 1. Westbrook attempted to disrupt Nickeil Alexander-Walker's three-point attempt as time expired, in the process running into the Wolves guard and being whistled for a foul.

Alexander-Walker made two free throws to give Minnesota a victory on a night Nikola Jokić recorded a triple-double with 61 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists.

Amick and Jones noted Malone's defense of Westbrook after the game "was seen by some as a shot at the team’s young talents." They also wrote Malone suffered a "loss of credibility among" his key players for granting Westbrook the same type of leniency given to Jokić and Jamal Murray.

It's perhaps notable that Westbrook only played 17 minutes on Wednesday night in David Adelman's first game as Nuggets interim head coach. That was his second-fewest minutes played in a game all season (16 minutes against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Dec. 5).

Relative to what Westbrook is being paid this season ($3.3 million), he has been a good signing for the Nuggets. The nine-time All-Star is averaging 13.2 points, 6.1 assists and 5.0 rebounds per game in 73 appearances.

Part of the Westbrook experience, though, is the volatility that he brings to the court. There are still moments when he can look like arguably the best player on the court, but then you get a situation like at the end of the T-Wolves game that costs his team a win.

If the Nuggets want to start getting young players like Pickett and Julian Strawther more game time next season, moving on from Westbrook would be an easy way to open up minutes for them.

Denver Nuggets players had "serious" conversations amongst themselves after the firing of head coach Michael Malone and general manager Calvin Booth in the words of veteran center DeAndre Jordan.

"We just had serious conversations with each other," Jordan told reporters after Wednesday's 124-116 win over the Sacramento Kings. "... Sometimes you go one way or you go another. It doesn't stay the same. We responded well, I thought, tonight. We just gotta build off this."

The 2016-17 All-Star said he and his teammates took notice of the Memphis Grizzlies getting rid of their head coach, Taylor Jenkins, so they weren't caught totally off guard when Malone was let go.

A new report from The Athletic's Sam Amick and Tony Jones laid out why the Nuggets made such a dramatic move with just three games left in the regular season. Star center Nikola Jokić and others "had grown frustrated and fatigued by Malone's fiery ways."

Malone's relationship with Booth was in an even worse state.

Maybe this is what galvanizes Nuggets players. The victory over Sacramento snapped a four-game losing skid, so the team's on-court results were trending in the wrong direction with the postseason rapidly approaching.

It sounds like Denver needed a new voice in the locker room, and a coaching change can help to generate some necessary introspection.

Whereas some saw Malone's dismissal at such a late juncture as a foreboding sign, maybe that's all it ultimately took for the Nuggets to snap out of their funk at the perfect time.

Denver Nuggets star Carmelo Anthony sounded off on the organization's decision to fire head coach Michael Malone and general manager Calvin Booth.

Speaking about the situation on 7 PM in Brooklyn, a Wave Original, Anthony questioned the timing of the moves with the NBA playoffs right around the corner. From his perspective as a former player, he said getting rid of the head coach and GM sends a message that this season is "a wash."

"Y'all looking at this as a wash," he said. "They're already believing we can't do nothing internally."

Anthony asserted that Nuggets star Nikola Jokić should've spoken up to say Malone's dismissal was "bulls--t" if his relationship with the coach was in a good place.

The Nuggets have lost four games in a row, and they rank ninth in net rating, per NBA.com. While the team is clearly a contender, few would consider Denver to be a championship favorite.

More context is bound to surface about the thought process behind this shakeup, too.

"Tension had been brewing between Malone and Booth for quite some time, so much so that sources described it as a 'cold war,'" ESPN's Ohm Youngmisuk reported Tuesday.

Yahoo Sports' Kevin O'Connor also reported the two "never liked each other, rarely spoke, and talked behind each other's backs."

Still, it's hard to see the logic in cleaning house now.

Interim coach David Adelman has three games to get comfortable in the role and experiment with any new ideas before the playoffs are here.

Anthony pointed out how players are also likely to digest this news.

Firing just the head coach might be one thing. That could be read as a belief that a new voice on the sideline is all that's needed. Ousting the GM in tandem with the coach looks like an indictment of the roster because you don't fire a general manager if you thought he assembled a strong squad.

Maybe Jokić could've prevented this by approaching ownership, but that doesn't seem like something he'd do given his laid-back demeanor. His relationship with Malone may even have started to sour, which is always the assumption about a star player and coach in these situations.

Whatever the case, it's on Nuggets ownership to manage the fallout because this could have a huge ripple effect on Jokić's future and whether Denver remains a perennial playoff threat.

Nikola Jokić typically manages to keep a level head on the court, but the Denver Nuggets star was reportedly "frustrated" with his team's defense this season leading up to Michael Malone's firing.

Per The Athletic's Tony Jones, Sam Amick and Zach Powell, the three-time MVP "has been frustrated" with Denver's "defensive commitment and performance this season."

The Nuggets have managed to stay near the top of the Western Conference standings all year, but their defense has been nothing to marvel at. Denver ranks 20th in defensive rating, per NBA.com. No other team in the bottom 10 in defensive rating is currently in playoff position.

The Nuggets' defensive flaws have been especially apparent in their last four games. Despite Jokić averaging 45 points, 12.3 rebounds and 10.7 assists this month, Denver is on a four-game losing skid at the most important time of the year.

The Nuggets are still in fourth place in the West, but they're just half a game ahead of the eight-seeded Memphis Grizzlies, meaning failure to come away with a few wins over the final three games of the season could result in a play-in tournament appearance and potentially a playoff absence.

Denver has not missed the postseason since 2018.

Whether firing Malone will help solve the Nuggets' issues moving forward remains to be seen, but Denver's defense during the regular season likely won't cut it against top teams in the playoffs.

The Nuggets fired Malone and general manager Calvin Booth with just three games left this season. The firing of Malone is tied for the latest coaching change in NBA history.

Malone, who took over as Denver's head coach ahead of the 2015-16 season, led the team to its first championship in franchise history just two years ago and is the Nuggets' all-time leader in wins.

Assistant coach David Adelman will take over as Denver's interim head coach for the remainder of the year.

The Denver Nuggets made seismic changes Tuesday, firing head coach Michael Malone and announcing that the team will not extend the contract of general manager Calvin Booth, whose deal expires after this season.

Now reports are emerging from the fallout, and The Athletic trio of Tony Jones, Sam Amick and Zach Powell revealed how Booth and Malone had multiple disagreements, including the head coach's decision to play veteran Russell Westbrook over third-year guard Jalen Pickett.

"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.

"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. On a macro level, Booth and Malone disagreed on several things."

The decisions to move on from Malone and Booth occurred despite the team sitting 47-32, good enough for fourth place in the Western Conference with three regular season games left.

However, Denver has been sliding of late, losing four straight and seven of its last 10. Injuries have certainly played a role, with Jamal Murray missing the last five games with a strained right hamstring.

Still, Denver is 8-13 in its last 21 games, including five losses in its last seven home matchups. One of them was a 126-123 defeat to a 17-61 Washington Wizards team that has the Eastern Conference's worst record.

So things clearly weren't going well in Denver, although the firings with just three games left were still shocking.

Ultimately, the Pickett-Westbrook debate between Booth and Malone was just one of a multitude of problems. And now Denver clearly felt the situation in town deteriorated so much that the leadership in the front office and on the court has been removed less than two years after the franchise won its first-ever championship.

The Denver Nuggets shocked the NBA world on Tuesday when they fired head coach Michael Malone with just three games left in the regular season, and the players were just as stunned as fans.

ESPN's Shams Charania reported the firing left players "shocked."

"Everyone was shocked by the timing of this," Charania said. "That included Michael Malone, Calvin Booth themselves. The players, I'm told, had a meeting where Josh Kroenke addressed them after the dismissal. He decided to flip the culture, didn't want to wait. He wanted to inject some life into this team going into the playoffs... Now that he's fired after 10 years, it's certainly stunning for the Nuggets, something this roster is now going to have to deal with and recover from."

The firing of Malone comes as the Nuggets sit in fourth place in the Western Conference at 47-32. While they've had success for most of the year, they've lost their last four games despite outstanding play from Nikola Jokić, who has averaged 45 points, 12.3 rebounds and 10.7 assists in his last three outings.

Though Denver is in fourth place in the West, it's just a half-game ahead of the eighth-placed Memphis Grizzlies, meaning the play-in tournament and a possible playoff absence is well within reason for the Nuggets.

Malone, who had been at the helm since the 2015-16 season, helped turn Denver into a perennial contender and coached the team to its first championship in franchise history in 2023. His 471 wins are the most of any coach in Nuggets history.

But Denver's success has been overshadowed by reported tensions between Malone and Booth, who the team announced will not have his contract extended after this season. ESPN's Ohm Youngmisuk reported after the firing that tensions were growing between the two sides at the start of the season and had turned into a "cold war."

Josh Kroenke, president of the Nuggets, said the "decision was not made lightly" and came "with the intention of giving our group the best chance at competing for the 2025 NBA Championship."

With Malone gone, lead assistant David Adelman will take over as interim head coach. Adelman has been with Denver since 2017 but has never held head coaching duties for the Nuggets or any other NBA teams.

While he's armed with a talented roster highlighted by an MVP candidate, Adelman has a tall task ahead of him following Tuesday's shocking firing of Malone.

In a season full of surprising moments, another one was added to the list on Tuesday when the Denver Nuggets fired head coach Michael Malone.

The Nuggets, who are ranked fourth in the Western Conference at 47-32 with less than a week before the regular season ends, announced that lead assistant David Adelman will serve as interim head coach for the remainder of the 2024-25 campaign. The team also announced that general manager Calvin Booth will not have his contract extended after it expires this year.

While Denver is currently riding a four-game losing streak, the team was viewed as one of the top contenders in the West. Firing Malone just a few days before the start of the playoffs raises significant questions about the behind-the-scenes turmoil within the franchise.

It was just two years ago that Malone led the Nuggets to their first NBA championship. He ends his tenure as the winningest coach in franchise history with a record of 471-327.

Fans on social media were understandably blown away by the Nuggets' decision to fire Malone this late in the season:

Malone joins former Memphis Grizzlies head coach Taylor Jenkins in getting fired in the midst of this season's playoff race. In addition to shocking trades involving players, it's clear that coaches are never completely safe, either.

If there's one thing we've learned throughout the 2024-25 season, it's to expect the unexpected. Malone is now one of the most coveted head coaching candidates on the market heading into this summer.

The Denver Nuggets fired head coach Michael Malone on Tuesday with just three games left in the regular season. Denver also announced that general manager Calvin Booth will not return to the team next season.

ESPN's Shams Charania first reported the news. Charania described the moves as a "full clean out" and said players were "surprised" by Malone's dismissal. David Adelman will serve as the interim head coach in Malone's absence, according to the team.

The decisions come with Denver riding a four-game losing streak but still sitting fourth in the Western Conference at 47-32.

Fans were already floored when the Memphis Grizzlies dismissed head coach Taylor Jenkins in late March with the team on track to make the playoffs. This is a step beyond even that.

Malone leaves with more wins (471) than any other Nuggets coach, and he was responsible for guiding the franchise to its first NBA championship in 2023. Unlike Jenkins, he had proven he could take the Nuggets to the mountaintop.

Booth, meanwhile, helped to put the finishing touches on the 2023 title squad. The arrivals of Nikola Jokić, Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. predated his promotion to general manager in 2020, but he oversaw the additions of Aaron Gordon, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Jeff Green.

Absent an inciting incident, it's difficult to see the logic in jettisoning both your coach and general manager this close to the postseason.

Jokić hasn't been a frequent topic of trade speculation like a lot of other stars around the NBA, but the Nuggets are clearly feeling some pressure with the three-time MVP eligible for free agency in 2027.

Maybe he would've started to think long and hard about his future if Denver suffered an early playoff exit with Malone at the helm.

The thing is, the optics are probably worse if the Nuggets don't advance to the Western Conference Finals with Adelman on the sideline. The scrutiny will now go beyond asking whether the roster is good enough and extend into whether this is a functional organization.

Adelman is in a tough position, too, because there's so little time for an evaluation process if he's considered a candidate to permanently succeed Malone.

Imagine Denver does get bounced earlier than expected. Adelman will still be viewed as a relatively inexperienced coach yet one who also oversaw an underwhelming postseason run.

For a long time, rival fans had some reason to envy the Nuggets. They had a transcendent talent in Jokić and a lot of continuity within the coaching staff and front office.

In one fell swoop, the outside perception of the franchise may have shifted in a big way.