Shams: Nuggets Fire Malone & Booth

[dennythedino]

Every fan of every team wants to fire their coach, including Warriors/Spurs/Heat fans. The worst source for whether a coach should be fired is the fanbase.

Plenty of nuggets fans in this thread have put forth exstensive posts that shows why they're happy Malone is out. I'd much rather trust that than - He won a title how do you fire him?

Doc Rivers won a title too..

for years he was stacking up bottom feeding seasons one after another, then KG, Pierce and Rondo happened and suddenly he was seen nationally as "winner" and coach with "championship pedigree". he's still getting jobs to this day and he's completely clueless and shouldn't be an NBA HC

yeah, when he was a lead assistant for the Warriors back in the day, Dray and Steph gave him some credit but as a HC?
his only headcoaching job before the Nuggets was for the Kings, in his first season they went 28-54, despite having a pretty decent roster and he lasted only a month or two into his second season, with an 11-13 record

then Denver hired him

his first season was Jokic's rookie season, Malone the genius played Nikola just 21 mins per game. per 36 numbers of 20 years old rookie Jokic?
16.5\11.5\4 (almost 4 offensive rebounds!) on 51\33\81 with 1 block per 36 and 1.6 steals. that's on just 12 FGA per 36..

conversely, Towns won a unanimous ROTY that season avging per 36: 20.6\11.8\2.2 on 54\34\81 but worth mentioning he took 15.8 FGA per 36

had Malone recognized Jokic's greatness from the jump, Jokic might have given Towns a run for his money. probably still would have finished 2nd in ROTY but that's something. more importantly, the Nuggets won just 33 games in Malone's first season. had he featured Jokic more heavily and not play him 20 mpg - that team would have won more games for sure

jumping to his 2nd season, Malone still only started Jokic 59 games out of 73, only setted on him being a full time starter mid-season (great coaching) and the Nuggets went 40-42

in his 3rd season, Jokic was 22 and already a star impact player - the Nuggets finish 9th with 46-36 and miss the playoffs. it's unclear how Malone still has a job but I guess the Kroenkes are patient

in his 4th season, Jokic is a superstar. they go 54-28, finish 2nd in the West. you think the difference in this season was Malone's coaching?
Jokic played 80 games, averaged 20\11\7.5 on great splits and finished 4th in MVP voting

Malone has a career because of Jokic and the Nuggets have a banner because of Jokic. Malone would have been canned at the end of Jokic's rookie season (or the next, at worst) had the Nuggets not drafted Jokic.

I'm thinking Malone had to play Nurkic or risk an unhappy locker room.

[MarcusBrody]

Does anyone know what this means for Vlatko Cancar now that Booth is gone?

I bet the Pistons could pry him away from Denver for only Ausar and a second. Better act while they have leverage due to uncertainty.

[MrBigShot]

Potentially cost them a championship. If 2023 murray shows up they have/had a chance against anyone.

They managed to eclipse Memphis for worst firing ever, in like a week.

[durden_tyler]

i've said it before (Grizzlies) and saying it again, there is no perfect timing for a necessary break-up. Adding the GM along with this is just gravy and adding to the cruelty but also both a necessity. Good job Nuggets!

[JDR720]

Booth got canned because he put together an awful team and waisted assets.

Malone got canned because he could never put together a functional offense without Jokic on the court.

[badpotato]

Malone had a privilege of coaching best player in NBA, he's a decent coach but unreasonably headstrong and the way he clashed with Booth(whether his decisions were good or bad) was over the line.

Let's be real here, his constant passive-agressive comments aimed at FO is how we knew about this conflict in the first place and from the looks of it Malone was the driving force behind it.

I get not being happy with the roster, but to the point of refusing to play "Booth young guys" to prove a point? He had to go, today's as good as any day.
If anything with how rotten the atmosphere around the team was their playoff chances might've improved.

Booth vision for the team sucked, but he had very little to work with as far as making improvements go- having said that giving Jamal this extension was a crime and Denver will be paying for this mistake for years to come.

[ChiTownHero1992]

Come to the Bulls we have cookies (Giddey/Matas)...not much else though....

[MarcusBrody]

I mean, some of Jokic's defensive efforts have been pretty bad. He doesn't contest shots, doesn't close out on shooters. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the teammates were frustrated being constantly lambasted by Malone and Jokic not getting any blame for putting the defense in bad positions.

Yeah, but what teammates would be mad at Jokic? Porter sucks at defense, Gordon regressed defensively as well this year, Russ just wants to have fun, DeAndre is happy to be in the NBA, the rest of this roster is group of some complete randoms. The story is cap, if you are Julian Strawther, you are afraid to even tell your mom that you're mad at Jokic's effort, because she may call you dumb straight into your face.

I don't mind these moves in general, Nuggets have been regressing since their championship, so you have to do something - it's classless to do that against Malone though right now, it's not like his assistant coach 10 days before the playoffs will change anything besides some minor rotations. I guess one of the consequences of players' league is that owners don't give a damn anymore as well, so you can fire the most accomplished coach in the history of your organization just for sake of shock value. Trading Towns after the best season in the history of Wolves organization, trading Doncic, now firing Jenkins and Malone at this point of the season. These are moves that are very difficult to find comparisons for from the past.

I haven't looked but i wonder how absurd Jokic on/off is with Denver.

I wonder how much the drop off is on offense when Jokic isn't out there.

Broussard is the one who broke the news. Broussard is usually full of crap. Jokic makes life easier for everyone.

According to Cleaning the Glass (which removes garbage minutes from their on/off calculations), it's about a net of 20.7 points (21.9 on offense), which equates to an expected win differential of +45.

[liquidswords]

Malone is so similar to Coach Bud for me. Yes they won a title but were they absolutely carried by the generational performance of their stars? yes.

[zimpy27]

Read on Twitter

With that narrative I like the move.

We've all dealt with bickering people in the workplace, if you could expel both sides than any of us would pull that trigger.

[D.Brasco]

Jokic needs to leave this clown car.

[Jedi32]

Why would they fire both? I know the GM and coach have issues in terms of philosophy. Fire one of them. The GM tbh. He hasn't surrounded Jokic with talent.

Do people really believe jokic isn't surrounded with talent?

[LAvision]

Read on Twitter

With that narrative I like the move.

We've all dealt with bickering people in the workplace, if you could expel both sides than any of us would pull that trigger.

Coaches like Malone always flame out, you can only be an ***hole for so long until it blacklashes. I understand the move.

[LakersLegacy]

Jokic averages 30/11/10 shooting better than Curry in 3pt %
He has only ever had 1 career coach
Play-offs start next week
Home court advantage and their 2nd best player returning from injury
They had won a championship

why would a business do something so unprofessional

It takes Towns and Gobert or Davis and Howard to stop Jokic, Wolves got rid of Towns and the Nuggets were Contenders

[Ssj16]

He was a top 5 coach in the NBA wtf. Yet Nurse and Lue still have jobs.

Malone is a 100 percent not a top 5 coach in the NBA.

Udoka, Mazulla, Atkinson, Kerr, Spo, Daigneault, Carlisle and probably even Reddick at this point are all better than Malone.

Malone was an ok coach but failed to develop his players.

Not sure you could come with a worst list of the top coaches.

Regardless of where you place those coaches, they are all better than Malone.

[SweetTouch]

Damn now Joker is a coach killer

Or does it only go for the king

[ryguy613]

It's not like that at all. Creating upheaval with a team before the playoffs is basically punting the playoffs in front of the team and fanbase. You're basically saying "well, we were gonna lose anyway."

yes, exactly. youre basically conceding that this season is over for you and its time to move on to the next... which is an INSANE thing to do 3 games away from the playoffs when you're the 4 seed and have probably the best player in basketball on your team. it just doesnt make sense. even if you HATE Malone, and youre SURE hes not gonna be there next season, youd be crazy to think nuking the coaching staff right before the playoffs makes winning a title MORE likely. so youre just punting the season. its all very bizarre.

Murray is out. What chance does Denver really have?

is he out for the playoffs? i thought dude was basically day to day

[RRFB]

Read on Twitter

With that narrative I like the move.

We've all dealt with bickering people in the workplace, if you could expel both sides than any of us would pull that trigger.

I think this is ultimately what it was. The stories coming out today, it sounds like both guys had lost the plot. Neither was able to put their ego aside to make it work, and it eventually seeped into the locker room. I get the impression that this has been going on for a while, but the team kept winning juuust enough to keep this from happening sooner.

Sad ending for a team that really epitomized culture and togetherness for most of Malone’s tenure.

[Optms]

I don't have a problem with him at all. I've been watching the NBA for a long time and I have never seen a player get the benefit of the doubt in every aspect. I am simply using small examples that other players have dealt with (not just LeBron) to see how people react. And so far it has been great

No sense in talking sense. They will defend Joker until judgement day. We know better. And we also know who really was responsible for these firings.

So based on a 6 second clip of Jokic erring his frustration (which, if you'll recall, you yourself have said he's got an issue with his temper - see Payne, Morris, etc - so a non-issue), he's responsible for the coach being fired 4 games before the end of the season?

Make it make sense fam.

Why else would they fire a coach 5 games before the playoffs even begin? They really couldn't wait till the off season? Come on. Really now.

[Mr Puddles]

Who's the best Serbian coach available?

Pesic? I believe Kokoskov is an assistant with the Hawks now, maybe they can pry him away?