Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images
The news of the Denver Nuggets firing their head coach Mike Malone, has shocked the entire Nuggets’ fanbase. Just two years ago, the Nuggets won the NBA Championship (2023) and they looked like they would be the next dynasty in the NBA. However that has not happened yet, and unless something changes drastically for them, the Nuggets will continue to struggle to win games. So how did the Nuggets go from winning a championship in 2023, to firing their head coach now?
The answer is quite simple. The Nuggets have no depth in their roster, and former GM Calvin Booth, who was also fired from the Nuggets alongside Malone, did not do the best job when it came to replacing key role players that helped them win the championship in 2023. The Nuggets traded away Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to the Orlando Magic last summer, who was an essential piece to their roster as he provided floor spacing with his three-point shooting and had no problems playing defense either. The Nuggets also lost players such as Bruce Brown and Jeff Green in the free agency after winning the championship, and Booth never really found the right replacement.
This season the Nuggets have looked horrible at times when it comes to their defense and shooting. For context, they lost to the Wizards twice this season, and the Portland Trail Blazers quite recently. Both these teams are one of the worst teams in the NBA this season, and for the Nuggets to lose against them was quite disappointing.
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After the Loss Against the Trail Blazers, Coach Malone Blasted Some of the Players for Not Watching Film
The Denver Nuggets are currently sitting at the 5th seed in the West and if they continue to lose, they could be competing in the Play-In Tournament despite having one of the best players in the world in Nikola Jokic. They have a 47-32 record, which is tied with the Warriors, Clippers, and the Grizzlies.
Even though the Nuggets decided to fire away coach Malone, we believe that the Nuggets’ woes this season does not exactly fall on him. If you’ve seen coach Malone on the court with his team, we know that he’s one of the most competitive coaches in the NBA today, and any organization would be lucky to have him. In our opinion, the Nuggets had more of a roster problem than a coaching problem, and if you take a look at their role players, we can safely say that it is not the best.
Coach Malone was not afraid to talk about his team’s struggles and he would praise players when they deserved it or call out players if they played subpar. Less than a month ago, when the Nuggets lost against the Blazers, coach Malone called out some players for not watching films and believed some players were “full of sh*t.” He said;
“I didn’t think we played with any pride tonight… My job is to evaluate how they take things, my job is to be honest. And sometimes brutally honest. Tonight it was a brutally honest message and the guys that are full of sh*t, won’t hear it. They’ll say coach is tripping. The guys that do really care will… cause they’re not gonna go back and watch their minutes, cause nobody watches their minutes, nobody watches their film. So we’ll have to show them the film and I said ‘If somebody disagrees with me please speak up,’ and nobody said a word. So I’m not really concerned with how they took that message, my thing is being honest with how we just played.”
Coach Malone is the only coach Nikola Jokic has played under, and we wonder who will be their next hire for the head coaching position. This season has been a rollercoaster of a ride for the Nuggets, and there are lingering questions about their playoff chances as many predict that they could be bounced out of the playoffs in the first or the second round.