{"id":704332,"date":"2026-04-08T01:14:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T01:14:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/704332\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T01:14:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T01:14:22","slug":"are-nuggets-nikola-jokic-jamal-murray-better-off-without-michael-malone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/704332\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray better off without Michael Malone?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Happy Purge Day, David Adelman!<\/a> You\u2019ve got seven weeks to change what\u2019s left of Xwitter\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n

Which is a shame, really, because Adelman\u2019s done a better job in his first season as Nuggets coach than social media would ever let on.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve devoted a lot of bandwidth to the games Adelman has let slip away this regular season.<\/p>\n

Ask yourself this: What would\u2019ve happened in those 17 tilts the Nuggets played earlier this season without Nikola Jokic if Michael Malone was still coaching this team?<\/a><\/p>\n

They wouldn\u2019t have gone 11-6. I\u2019ll promise you that.<\/p>\n

Adelman won 11 of the 17 games he coached this season when the Joker was inactive or didn\u2019t dress. Context: Malone went 11-16 from 2022-2025 in non-Jokic games. More context: Malone was 2-6 in the eight non-Joker games prior to that.<\/p>\n

Say what you will about DA, the motivational speaker, DA the wordsmith, DA in the locker room, or DA at the postgame podium. The man can coach.<\/p>\n

We mention this because of the calendar. The Great Nuggets Purge celebrates its first birthday on Wednesday. On April 8, 2025, Josh Kroenke dismissed Malone as coach and Calvin Booth as general manager, ending years of awkward, often conflicting news conferences and months of behind-the-curtain tensions.<\/p>\n

Yes, Malone, the winningest coach in franchise history, was done dirty in the deal<\/a>. But the move hasn\u2019t exactly aged poorly so far, has it?<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Malone was officially introduced as the new men\u2019s hoops coach at North Carolina<\/a>. Tar Heels brass celebrated Purge Day by handing Malone a $50-million gift card. Pretty nice parachute, if you can get it.<\/p>\n

The Nuggets (51-28), meanwhile, entertain the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday night at Ball Arena, having won nine in a row and vaulted the LOLakers into the third spot in the Western Conference playoff bracket in the process.<\/p>\n

The Grizz (25-54) are the last team to beat Denver, notching a 125-118 stunner in Bluff City on March 18 in the second half of a Nuggets back-to-back.<\/p>\n

On this day last April, the Nuggets\u2019 record was 47-32. They\u2019d gone 3-7 since St. Patrick\u2019s Day, had lost four straight, and were fading fast. They were 17.5 games back of conference-leading Oklahoma City.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, after a wild OT win over Portland<\/a>, the Nuggets had won 51 games and were 11.5 games back of OKC. They\u2019re 9-0 since March 19.<\/p>\n

So: Did Josh make the right call?<\/p>\n

From a chemistry standpoint, there\u2019s no doubt. The organizational \u201cvibe\u201d is better, by all accounts. And, sure, Adelman has a deeper, better, more modular, more veteran roster than Malone got in either of the previous two campaigns.<\/p>\n

Would Booth have gotten the green light to trade Michael Porter Jr.? It\u2019s tough to say. But what his replacements, Jon Wallace and Ben Tenzer, pulled off by swapping MPJ to the Nets opened up desperately-needed cap space. Which, in turn, allowed the Nuggets to turn one very good player (Porter) into four pretty good veteran ones (Cam Johnson, Bruce Brown, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Jonas Valanciunas). Which, in hindsight, helped Denver to weather its non-Jokic month, too.<\/p>\n

But be careful with revisionist history.<\/p>\n

DA Ball at Ball can be an acquired taste. The defense continues to go as far as Aaron Gordon and Peyton Watson can carry it, and the two have rarely played together since Christmas. Denver rallied Monday night against Portland, but gave up a whopping 25 3-pointers along the way. It feels as if at least 15 different players have put up career shooting nights against this bunch.<\/p>\n

But if the Nuggets win Wednesday, it\u2019ll be 10 straight victories \u2014 something no Denver team has done in the Jokic Era.<\/p>\n

Shouldn\u2019t Adelman be getting some flowers for that, at least? His 51 wins are the most ever by a first-year Nuggets coach in the NBA era during a full initial season. Larry Brown still holds the first-year record overall, with a 65-19 ABA mark in 1974-75.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, the world keeps turning. Malone held his inaugural UNC news conference on Tuesday. His first collegiate head-coaching job is one of the bluest of blue bloods \u2014 and hottest seats in the sport. Since Dean Smith hung up his gilded whistle in 1997, the three coaches who\u2019ve followed (Bill Gutheridge, Matt Doherty, Hubert Davis) who weren\u2019t Roy Williams averaged just 3.7 seasons each at the helm.<\/p>\n

Note to Triangle media: Michael can be as cuddly as a New York cabbie, with the patience and vocabulary to match. He suffers fools ungladly, although often with humor. To wit, when a local reporter on Tuesday mentioned the coach\u2019s \u201ctenacious\u201d defense<\/a> with the Nuggets, Malone replied, \u201cIt wasn\u2019t always tenacious.\u201d<\/p>\n

Laughed at that one.<\/p>\n

Still, deep down, Michael\u2019s a family guy. Malone\u2019s daughter, Bridget,<\/a> is in her second season with the UNC volleyball team after a stellar run at Mountain Vista High School. Chapel Hill is one of the premier college towns in America. Wish him well. Wish him luck. With that fan base, he\u2019ll need it.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe belongs in coaching,\u201d Adelman said of Malone on Monday. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what he should be doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

A month earlier, funny enough, Booth also went the college route. The former Nuggets GM, whose son Carey is sticking with CSU hoops, was reportedly hired by Penn State, his alma mater, as a consultant for the men\u2019s basketball program<\/a>. The Lions finished 12-20 a year ago and have reached the Big Dance just once since 2010. Happy Valley is gorgeous (significantly less so in the winter), but it\u2019s also a wrestling school the way DU is a hockey one. Wish him luck, too.<\/p>\n

Ain\u2019t it funny how time flies when everybody\u2019s pulling in the same direction?<\/a> A year after Purge Day, Malone\u2019s a Tar Heel. Booth\u2019s a Nittany Lion. And the Nuggets, in spite of themselves, might be better off.<\/p>\n

Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver\u2019s teams.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Happy Purge Day, David Adelman! You\u2019ve got seven weeks to change what\u2019s left of Xwitter\u2019s mind. Which is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":704333,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3781],"tags":[877,2276,7,7552,6850,4187,1828,250,301,187,3943,24313,6890,3787,3379,165,4231,764,252,88251,88252,6,1136,253,1773,302,4097,310,8548,1146,687,4098,66,198,88253,759,574],"class_list":{"0":"post-704332","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-denver-nuggets","8":"tag-aaron-gordon","9":"tag-ball-arena","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-ben-tenzer","12":"tag-bruce-brown","13":"tag-calvin-booth","14":"tag-cam-johnson","15":"tag-david-adelman","16":"tag-denver","17":"tag-denver-nuggets","18":"tag-denvernuggets","19":"tag-jon-wallace","20":"tag-jonas-valanciunas","21":"tag-josh-kroenke","22":"tag-larry-brown","23":"tag-latest-headlines","24":"tag-michael-malone","25":"tag-michael-porter","26":"tag-more-nuggets-news","27":"tag-mountain-vista","28":"tag-mountain-vista-high-school","29":"tag-nba","30":"tag-new-york","31":"tag-nikola-jokic","32":"tag-north-carolina","33":"tag-nuggets","34":"tag-nuggets-takes","35":"tag-oklahoma","36":"tag-penn-state","37":"tag-peyton-watson","38":"tag-portland","39":"tag-sean-keeler","40":"tag-sports","41":"tag-sports-columnists","42":"tag-st-patricks-day","43":"tag-tim-hardaway","44":"tag-western-conference"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=704332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/704333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=704332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=704332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=704332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}