The Nuggets fired head coach Michael Malone on Tuesday, a stunning move that comes with less than a week in the regular season. Also out: general manager Calvin Booth, whose contract will not be renewed. The Nuggets said David Adelman will be the coach for the remainder of the season.
Josh Kroenke, the vice chairman of Kroenke Sports and Entertainment, which owns the Nuggets, said “it is with no pleasure” that the team made the change at coach.
“This decision was not made lightly and was evaluated very carefully, and we do it only with the intention of giving our group the best chance at competing for the 2025 NBA championship and delivering another title to Denver and our fans everywhere,” Kroenke said.
There’s never been an instance in NBA history of a team officially changing coaches with three games left and going to the postseason; the Nuggets aren’t in the playoffs yet but are assured of a Play-In berth at worst. The latest in-season change for a playoff team before now was in 1983, when Larry Brown left the New Jersey Nets with six games left to take over at the University of Kansas.
The Nuggets are 47-32 this season but are part of a logjam of teams fighting for home-court advantage in Round 1 of the playoffs. Denver won the title in 2023 and lost a Game 7 at home in the Western Conference semifinals a year ago to Minnesota.
Malone pointed the finger at himself after the most recent loss, a 125-120 defeat to Indiana on Sunday.
“I’ll start with me: We’ve lost four games in a row and I’m never going to this-guy, that-guy. How about me, as a head coach, not doing my job to the best of my ability,” Malone said. “We haven’t lost four in a row in a long time. It’s really easy to be together and say ‘family’ when you win, but when you’re losing games, can you stay together?”
The slide comes despite Nuggets star Nikola Jokić, a winner of three of the last four NBA MVP awards, having a historic season, averaging 30 points, 12.8 rebounds and 10.2 assists per game. However, even that wasn’t good enough for Denver to enter the final week of the season certain of having home court in Round 1.
After that loss to the Pacers, Jokic was asked his biggest concern with the team right now.
“I don’t know. Maybe we just, maybe we just … I don’t know, actually,” Jokic said.