Michael Malone led the Denver Nuggets to the playoffs. NBA The title was secured in 2023. For seven years running, he has guided them into the postseason. Despite losing four games consecutively, they remain well-placed to secure home-court advantage for the first round.
He has departed with three games remaining — an unprecedented step for a team destined for the playoffs.
On Wednesday, the Nuggets unexpectedly dismissed Malone just days before the start of the regular season. General Manager Calvin Booth is also leaving, as his contract won’t be extended. The team announced that David Adelman will take over as head coach for the rest of the season.
READ MORE: 'Thunder forming' as NRL team plots to seize control of MCG
READ MORE: "Need to recover": Red Bull respond following the pistol's first use
READ MORE: Gout's rapid progression was astonishing—but he’s ready for an early lead.
Josh Kroenke, the vice chairman of Kroenke Sports and Entertainment, which owns the Nuggets, stated "we approach this decision without joy" as the team announced the coaching change.
This decision wasn’t taken impulsively; rather, it underwent thorough scrutiny," Kroenke stated. "We’re doing this solely to enhance our team’s prospects of winning the 2025 NBA championship and bringing another trophy to Denver as well as delighting supporters nationwide.
In NBA history, there has never been a case where a team changed its coach just three games from the end of the season and still made it to the postseason. Although the Nuggets haven’t secured their spot in the playoffs yet, they’re guaranteed at least a place in the play-in tournament. Prior to this recent development, the most recent midseason coaching switch for a playoff-bound team occurred back in 1983 when Larry Brown departed from the New Jersey Nets with only six games remaining to assume his role at the University of Kansas.
This season, the Nuggets have a record of 47-32, placing them among several teams vying for home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. They claimed the championship in 2023 and last year they were defeated in Game 7 at their own arena during the Western Conference semifinals against Minnesota.
After the latest loss, which was a 125-120 defeat against Indiana on Monday, Malone took responsibility upon himself.
"I’ll begin with myself: we’ve had four consecutive losses, and I’m done with this guy, that guy approach. As the head coach, how am I failing to do my job properly?" asked Malone. "It’s been quite some time since we last experienced such a streak of defeats. Winning makes it simple to stick together and claim unity, but what happens during these tough times? Can we still remain united?”
The slide occurred even though Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic — who has won three out of the past four NBA MVP awards — had an exceptional season, putting up averages of 30 points, 12.8 rebounds, and 10.2 assists per game. However, this outstanding performance still didn’t secure Denver’s position to have home-court advantage heading into the first round as they entered the final week of the regular season uncertain about their status.
Following their defeat against the Pacers, when Jokic was questioned about his primary worry for the team at present, he addressed this issue.
"I'm not sure. Perhaps we simply, well, I honestly don't know," Jokic stated.
The Nuggets are pinning their hopes on a shake-up for a solution.
Malone was the fourth-longest tenured active NBA coach, following Gregg Popovich from San Antonio and Erik Spoelstra from Miami. Golden State’s Steve Kerr.
Malone secured 471 regular-season victories with the Denver team, which is 39 more wins than Doug Moe’s total, establishing Malone as the franchise leader in this category.
Although the timing of this decision is regrettable, since Coach Malone played an instrumental role in establishing the cornerstone of our now championship-caliber team, it has become essential to take this measure so we can strive for supremacy immediately. The benchmarks and high expectations characteristic of a champion still apply for the ongoing season. As we move ahead, we anticipate expanding upon the solid groundwork established by Coach Malone throughout his groundbreaking ten-year tenure with the Denver squad," stated Kroenke.
Malone enjoyed steady success in Denver. During his initial two seasons with the Nuggets, they ended up with losing records, but for the subsequent eight years, they achieved winning records under his tenure.
The team's streak of making it to the postseason continues with their seventh consecutive appearance this season. Although they haven't secured a playoff spot just yet, they can be certain of ending up at worst in the play-in tournament.
Beginning with their initial playoff run under Malone in 2019, the Nuggets advanced past the first round on five occasions out of seven opportunities. In 2020, they reached the Western Conference Finals during the season at Walt Disney World. The following year, 2023, saw them dominate the playoffs by securing victory in 16 out of 20 games en route to claiming the title.
For the second time within the past fortnight, a playoff-destined team has let go of their head coach. Just like Memphis—a squad guaranteed at least a play-in berth—opted to release Taylor Jenkins approximately a month ago as they had nine games remaining in the regular season. They replaced him with Tuomas Iisalo, who took over on an interim basis.
The Nets separated from Brown (formally he stepped down) when six matches remained in the 1982-83 season, and the Nets — who have since moved to Brooklyn — swapped Kenny Atkinson out for Jacque Vaughn during the last ten games of the NBA "bubble" campaign in 2019-20. Both the 1983 edition of the Nets and the 2020 squad ended up winless in their respective playoffs following these coaching switches; only time will reveal how things unfold between the Grizzlies and Nuggets this year.
In 2017, Booth moved to Denver as an assistant general manager and received a promotion to GM in July 2020. His latest agreement with the team was inked in 2022.
Kroenke acknowledged Booth "for assisting in putting the last touches on the lineup that brought Denver and their supporters their inaugural NBA title."
"Calvin’s understanding of the sport, his dedication to talent evaluation, and his extensive background as both a player and an official within the NBA have propelled our institution to unprecedented levels, and we will keep advancing with this momentum," stated Kroenke.
The Nuggets will be playing against Sacramento on Thursday.