The Nuggets’ recent on-court struggles “can’t explain the decision to fire two prominent figures” in coach Michael Malone and GM Calvin Booth this late in the season, according to Michael Pina of THE RINGER. Tension has “been building in Denver for at least a couple of years,” with “several reporters hinting at a rift between Malone and Booth over the direction of the team.” That was “exacerbated by last summer’s cost-cutting measures and the front office’s sudden embrace of young, unproven, and significantly less expensive pieces.” The prospect of the Nuggets “putting it all together and making a title run is shaky at best, which is remarkable considering that they employ Nikola Jokic.” David Adelman will reportedly step in as Denver’s interim coach, and “hiring him on a permanent basis wouldn’t be a bad idea.” Pina: “But what about Booth’s replacement?” It is “never a great time to be a mess in the NBA, but the Nuggets could not have chosen a less sensible moment in their timeline to become one” (THE RINGER, 4/8).
EXIT MANEUVER: In Denver, Troy Renck writes the Nuggets “became the most embarrassing franchise in town” by firing Malone. He “deserved better” as the winningest coach in Nuggets history, who delivered the franchise’s only NBA championship. Regardless of the Nuggets’ “current spiral,” the move was “unprofessional and unnecessary.” Malone and Booth “did not get along,” and “everyone knew that if the Nuggets exited early in the playoffs, one or both were gone.” But team President Josh Kroenke “reached his flashpoint.” Malone “should have been allowed to leave with dignity, not in a news release” issued “minutes before the team boarded a charter to Sacramento.” The Kroenke family knows “how to run an organization,” but their “conduct in this instance is disturbing.” They should “hold a news conference ... explaining the decision” (DENVER POST, 4/8).
BAD TIMING: YAHOO SPORTS’ Vincent Goodwill wrote it is the “timing” of the firings “that has thrown everyone off.” Sources said that the tension “began to mount over the past week.” With three games remaining in the regular season, that is when “most teams are tightening up things as opposed to looking for a jolt.” But that was “apparently the call the Kroenke family made early” yesterday afternoon when it fired Malone and Booth. It is still perhaps the “most stunning firing in league history” given Malone’s standout tenure with the franchise and being two seasons removed from winning the Nuggets’ first and only NBA title in 2023. It was an “impulsive decision from ownership, which was fed up with the infighting.” Sources said in January that it “was likely” Malone would move on from the Nuggets after the season due to the “deteriorating relationship with Booth.” Booth, meanwhile, could not “come to an agreement” on a contract extension with the franchise before the season began (YAHOO SPORTS, 4/8). Kroenke said that the decision to fire Malone “wasn’t made as a reaction to any one thing” (ESPN.com, 4/8).
FINDING A SOLUTION: In Denver, Sean Keeler wrote all he wants is to see Jokic “play with an All-Star” and a GM with “the guts and the chutzpah to make it happen.” The Nuggets “owe Joker an All-Star.” They also “owe him a power structure with one vision, one voice.” Malone had “a down (and puzzling) year by his standards.” He also “deserved a classier exit than the latest NBA pink slip in 44 years.” Kroenke “was wrong” to eschew a news conference yesterday, but “right on this front: Malone and Calvin Booth couldn’t go on working under the same roof.” The Kroenkes, though, should not “fool themselves into thinking that simply removing Malone and Booth will solve whatever ails this franchise” (DENVER POST, 4/9). In Colorado, Mark Kiszla wrote maybe the “real shock” is not that Malone and Booth were unceremoniously dismissed yesterday with the playoffs only 11 days away, but that Nuggets ownership “waited so long to end a dysfunctional relationship guilty of wasting the prime” of Jokic’s career (Colorado Springs GAZETTE, 4/8).
NEW ERA? THE ATHLETIC’s Hollinger, Katz, Aldridge, & Vorkunov in a column discussed the firings of Malone and Booth yesterday afternoon. Hollinger wrote he does not think teams will be firing championship-winning coaches in the final week of the season on the regular, but there is a “through line of impulsiveness that connects a lot of these events.” Katz wrote firings like this “could become a trend.” Aldridge wrote what is different here is not a late-season firing, but a “late-season firing of very good coaches from very good/borderline great teams.” Aldridge: “I don’t know that we’ll see a lot of these going forward.” Vorkunov wrote there was “a reason this happens so infrequently.” The upside for these moves “are low,” but the “potential for embarrassment is high” (THE ATHLETIC, 4/8).
COACHES CHIME IN: Warriors coach Steve Kerr said yesterday, “Mike has obviously been a great, great coach, championship coach.” He added, “And, again like with [former Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins], you don’t expect anything like this, this late in the season.” Kerr: “Most teams are now owned by billionaires, by big corporations, and so we’re all more expendable” (S.F. CHRONICLE, 4/8). Thunder coach Mark Daigneault on Malone’s dismissal said he is “surprised just like everybody else.” Lakers coach JJ Redick said he was “shocked” (OKLAHOMAN, 4/8).
