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Michael Malone is an excellent NBA coach. A career .564 winning percentage in the regular season, with .550 in the playoffs over 12 seasons (2 SAC, 10 DEN). He has shown the ability to get his generally average talent rosters to compete hard, play adequate defense, and win close games.He is not exactly a tactician, but has shown some ability to make adjustments in a 7 game series.

But what I like the most is his New York attitude. A straight shooting, honest, critical, intelligent, no bulls$%t coach. He is going to demand a lot from this roster, and I think he immediately makes us a top 6 team in the East.

We are uniquely positioned to move on from our development coach, and commit to a guy that could produce a steady winner for the next decade.

DarrylFlicking wrote:Michael Malone is an excellent NBA coach. A career .564 winning percentage in the regular season, with .550 in the playoffs over 12 seasons (2 SAC, 10 DEN). He has shown the ability to get his generally average talent rosters to compete hard, play adequate defense, and win close games.He is not exactly a tactician, but has shown some ability to make adjustments in a 7 game series.

But what I like the most is his New York attitude. A straight shooting, honest, critical, intelligent, no bulls$%t coach. He is going to demand a lot from this roster, and I think he immediately makes us a top 6 team in the East.

We are uniquely positioned to move on from our development coach, and commit to a guy that could produce a steady winner for the next decade.

I mean Darko has done a good job keeping guys accountable and playing hard despite the tanking mandate. Maybe we can have him drive a NY taxi this summer to further develop his New York attitude

Where'd that New York attitude get him in Denver? At the end of the day, being a coach is as much as about leadership characteristics as it is about strategy. It's what drove Nurse's rizz down.

Malone deserves credit for developing Jokic but if the rumours are to be believed, he did not conduct a melodious locker-room. Of course, this is a big IF. Personally I think that the pendulum is swinging to front office/ownership for making pivotal decisions. Gone are the days of franchises being beholden to their stars.

Such a pointless thread considering we just picked up Darko's option.

I don’t think we need a coach that beefs with the front office and calls out his players constantly. Let Darko keep the good vibes going until he proves himself a poor in-game coach in actual high stakes situations.

Darko has earned an opportunity to try and win games next year by developing kids and keeping the team engaged while losing.

Yes we are trying to win next year but we are far from done developing. Hell Malone didn't want to play youth in Denver, that's not who we want coaching our kids +our top 10 pick rookie.

Not a good look to pick up the coach's option only to subsequently fire him. And we are not ready yet for a win-now coach like Malone. For all we know, we might have to blow this thing up sooner than later depending on how next season goes.

If we were looking to win a championship, I'd agree with you. It would just be horrible topics to fire Darko even if I wished we could get Malone too.

Sadly it's going to take Darko being incompetent, which is very much a possibility next year, before we start officially looking for a new coach.

PhilBlackson wrote:Such a pointless thread considering we just picked up Darko's option.

It's a pointless thread but picking up Darko's option wouldn't stop them from moving on if they wanted to.

kalel123 wrote:Not a good look to pick up the coach's option only to subsequently fire him. And we are not ready yet for a win-now coach like Malone. For all we know, we might have to blow this thing up sooner than later depending on how next season goes.

Considering what we have seen this season, I don't think teams care about optics anymore.

Malone just caused a ton of issues in Denver and never played his young players. Not exactly the guy we need. lol.

Darko is both a development coach, and a long term coach.

Do you really not see it?

Take the record out of the thought process.

Los_29 wrote:Malone just caused a ton of issues in Denver and never played his young players. Not exactly the guy we need. lol.

Another thibs type coach

We prolly won't get rid of Darko but once this team is actually ready to compete i feel Darko will be replaceable....But Masai will give him a shot for a little bit.

He engaged in terrible management practices by lacking transparency and accountability, no thank you.

popovich is a better coach than malone and his teams have sucked in the last few years when he was still coaching.
talent is 90-95% reason why teams win. lets fix that problem first; darko should have his chance to prove himself too. we'll see how he does next season.

Getting rid of darko would be doing him dirty. He probably fits better for most of the players in the league.

Dont forget the rugged NY attitude will not work with the current and next gen of players. They are texters not talkers for most of their lives.

Before January, I was very skeptical & would have instantly jumped on the Malone bandwagon.

Since January, Darko has shown that he can get these guys to play defense & adopt winning habits. He has earned the right to prove himself.

Malone's reputation for not trusting young guys makes him not the coach for this right now. We have a lot of young guys that just need the reps.

I think he is a good coach but not the coach for this group.

I'm interested in seeing what Taylor Jenkins would do for this roster though.

All that said...Darko has these guys developing and growing so he is fine for now I guess.

Lots of people question Malone’s X’s & O’s come playoff time but having Jokic hides some of those concerns.