It’s nearly impossible to stun NBA diehards in a post–Luka trade universe, but on Tuesday afternoon, the Denver Nuggets did, firing head coach Michael Malone and general manager Calvin Booth with just three games left in the 2025 season.
At 47-32, the Nuggets are fourth in the West, but their hold on home-court advantage in Round 1 is tenuous. Denver has dropped four games in a row and watched the Clippers, Timberwolves, and Warriors go on impressive runs; the play-in tournament has gone from unthinkable to borderline probable for the Nuggets. Adding injury to insult, Jamal Murray’s hamstring is a massive question mark, and it’s unclear when he’ll step back on the court.
Recent on-court struggles can’t explain the decision to fire two prominent figures this late in the season, though. No team has made a coaching change this late since 1981, and even then, the general manager wasn’t simultaneously let go! There has to be more to it. 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.
A year after Bruce Brown and Jeff Green left Denver’s championship team, Booth used draft capital to dump Reggie Jackson’s contract on the Charlotte Hornets and watched Kentavious Caldwell-Pope walk to the Orlando Magic in free agency. Since then, it hasn’t been the smoothest ride.
After a loss against the Oklahoma City Thunder in Denver’s season opener, Malone wasted no time subtweeting Nuggets management for letting KCP go and essentially gambling with a roster that was all in and had a decently sized championship window. Thanks to various injuries and a general search for stability, Malone’s rotation has been in flux for chunks of the season.
Russell Westbrook and Aaron Gordon have been in and out of the starting lineup. The defense has been bad. 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—one of the greatest basketball players in league history currently enjoying one of the most impressive individual seasons of all time. The fact that a team whose center is averaging an absurdly efficient 30-point triple-double could fall into the play-in is a kind of disaster.
And when you consider this roster’s cost and how few runs this core has left—Jokic is 30, and Murray’s knees are 39—none of this is ideal. The Nuggets have no All-Stars beyond Jokic. Murray just signed a four-year, $208 million extension, and Gordon just signed a three-year, $104 million extension that limits what’s financially possible through the rest of Jokic’s current deal—which he can opt out of in 2027. The Nuggets will likely be over the first apron for most of that stretch.
Improving via the draft won’t be easy. Denver is very good and doesn’t have any first-round picks in this year’s draft, and it owes a protected first to the Thunder (lol) in 2027 and (lol again) 2029. Flexibility, all around, is limited. It raises the question: Who will be hired, both on the sidelines and in the front office, to get Denver back on track?
David Adelman will reportedly step in as Denver’s interim head coach. Hiring him on a permanent basis wouldn’t be a bad idea. He is bright and young, has a great rapport with Jokic, and has been with Denver since 2017, where he’s helped oversee one of the greatest offenses in NBA history.
But what about Booth’s replacement? Would Tim Connelly, who can opt out of his contract with the Minnesota Timberwolves after this season ends, go back to Denver? Is Josh Kroenke on the phone with Bob Myers or attempting to poach someone like Daryl Morey from a true dumpster fire in Philadelphia? What about former Jazz general manager Dennis Lindsey, who’s helped the Detroit Pistons turn their fortunes around in historic fashion (after leaving the Dallas Mavericks and watching them head in the exact opposite direction)? Um, Masai Ujiri? Another former Nuggets general manager who knows Kroenke well and is currently overseeing one of the strangest situations in the league? Come on down!
All of this is speculation, but only because nothing here makes sense. In 10 seasons with Denver, Malone won 515 games and the first title in franchise history. Under normal circumstances, one would think his job security would include the benefit of the doubt that comes with so much success as the only NBA coach Jokic has ever known. These clearly weren’t normal circumstances, though, for an expensive team that’s expected to contend for a championship every year.
It’s 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.
