Shams: Nuggets Fire Malone & Booth

[EArl]

The Nuggets basically gave up on the season with this move.

[marson]

Welcome to the modern NBA, where players hold the power. Once Malone lost control of the locker room, they fired him immediately.

The Heat and Spurs are the only top-tier organizations left that don’t bow to the players, and I respect that.

[Synciere]

Man, nothing I hate more than coaches being the scapegoat

Particularly when they won you a f*cking championship, very recently.

Players win organizations chips and are traded away ALL THE TIME.

[levon]

The Nuggets basically gave up on the season with this move.

Eh. Ownership is betting it lights a fire under them and Adelman is basically running the same system. I don't think it changes the outcome either way, but I doubt the players are just gonna hang their heads and quit. This is a core that won the title.

[Synciere]

Okay so with the reports that Malone and Booth hated each other and didnt talk. There kind of goes any idea that Malone and Booth were making these bad roster construction decisions together.

So I guess the question is. Did Malone hate Booth because Booth put him in this situation with this horrible cap and roster management? Or did Booth hate Malone because he felt like Malone was going over him to the owner and stuff to make sure his guys like Murray and MPJ stayed in Denver and got paid?

To me whoever made the decision to give half your salary cap to MPJ/Murray shouldve been fired a long time ago. Again if Booth is the one that made these decisions and Malone got stuck trying to coach this roster to being contenders, I have a hard time blaming Malone here. That roster outside of Jokic is laughably bad.

The first reports of strife I can remember was right after they won the chip and had to let Brown and Caldwell-Pope go in consecutive offseasons. Booth wanted Malone to use the young guys drafted while Malone, like most coaches, wanted veterans. The problem of course was that they couldn’t keep the vets given MOJs deal and Murrays deal pending.

[Ssj16]

The Nuggets basically gave up on the season with this move.

Eh. Ownership is betting it lights a fire under them and Adelman is basically running the same system. I don't think it changes the outcome either way, but I doubt the players are just gonna hang their heads and quit. This is a core that won the title.

I've been watching the NBA for almost 30 years now and in my experience the way Denver played throughout the season and more specifically, the last 10 games has been pretty underwhelming, even when you account for injuries.

When a team is in this type of funk so late in the season combined with signs of inconsistency throughout the season, there is probably less than a 5 percent chance they could win it all-and that chance is all because of Jokic.

Imo, when you have the clear best player in the NBA and there is clear dysfunction with management, I feel the owners have nothing to lose with this move and small potential to galvanize the troops.

Drastic times call for drastic measures as they say and both Booth and Malone have to share the blame as they both have underperformed at their jobs, given the results.

[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?

Kokoskov hasnt accomplished anything and Pesic is not suited for NBA. He might make NBA players cry and quite the team.

Kokoskov wasn't exactly given the best situation during his stint as an NBA head coach.

In terms of headcoaching options apparently Greg Popovich's dad is Serbian so there's that...

[cpower]

Mike Brown fired
Jenkins fired
Michael Malone fired
and Chauncey Billups still has a job?

James Jone still has a job

[Synciere]

I agree, I think there's no reason not to at least let Malone coach the playoffs.

And he should bristle. They should've have let KCP go - I think that was a bigger loss than some think - and they didn't adequately replace his role(3&D), signing Westbrook instead. And they didn't bolster their bench enough. Last offseason was just bad for them.

Also, people seem to be criticizing the Murray/MPJ contracts...I find it difficult to criticize when both guys helped win a title, and if those contracts were their market-value...so be it.

Agree, agree, and yeah, makes sense.

I think the Murray/Porter contracts haven't worked out well, but it's hard to say that they were utterly incompetent for them. Literally both players played up to the level of those contract BEFORE they ever signed them, they've just not been able to be consistently on that level after. Sometimes that's how it goes.

The thing is though, while it absolutely makes sense with the cap to decide on your core guys - in this case Jokic/Murray/Porter/Gordon - and not letting the rest of your team get bloated with bigger contracts, if 2 of those 4 core guys aren't working out like they were supposed to, you're really not in a position where you can sacrifice depth and remain competitive.

Further, while no matter how rich the owner is I respect frugality, when you recognize that you now have not just a clear cut franchise player, but by far the best player you'll ever have on this franchise until you die, this isn't the time to cut corners. Maybe you recognize that KCP isn't what you need as your 5th guy going forward and you wan to give Braun a shot, but that doesn't mean you just let talent walk out the door in free agency. When you let a guy go, you want depth in return.

When did MPJ ever live up to his contract before he signed it? In his 2nd year he was 19/7/1 and was horrendous defensively. There is no way that level of play was worth the 25% max and as we’ve seen post-contract signing he’s not been worth that either.

If MPJ were a free agent that year he would’ve easily gotten that contract based on his age and production. Letting him go wouldn’t have made the Nuggets any better, so they almost had to resign him. Same situation with Murray.

[tamaraw08]

Mike Brown fired
Jenkins fired
Michael Malone fired
and Chauncey Billups still has a job?

James Jone still has a job

because Ishbia, the owner who made those bad trades still own the team?

[Synciere]

This reeks of desperately trying to appease Jokic so he doesn't ask out this summer.

I don't think this will help at all.

Even if it doesn’t necessarily work, there’s nothing wrong with catering to your MVP winning franchise player who’s a Hall of Fame lock. There’s no way I’d make this move as an owner without talking to Joker.

[B-easy]

How could Malone not have even an average bench over the years. He has been terrible. Lucked out on Jokic.

[-Luke-]

This is a crazy season. I guess nothing should really surprise us anymore.

I thought there would be some major changes in Denver in the off-season. Didn't expect it right now.

[doogie_hauser]

I have a sneaky feeling this move will move in Denver's favour and they will get a second wind right before the playoffs start

The more I think about it, the more I like these moves tbh.

Maybe a fresh voice is exactly what Joker and the Nuggets need. Time will tell, it always does

[NyKnicks1714]

I’m so tired of hearing “lost the locker room” lol.

Just for once I want it to be literal. A coach gets fired after he misplaces the entire locker room and no one can find it.

[zero rings]

Best Nuggets news in ages. The 2023 championship fooled everyone into thinking this was a competent organization, when really, we're just Wizards West with the luckiest draft pick of all time. Malone has been coaching the worst bench in the NBA for half a decade now, and Booth has done nothing but massively overpay our "stars" and squander all of our draft picks. He should have never gotten the job when Connelly walked.

It'll be difficult to undo the damage Booth has done, but this is a start. At least we know ownership isn't drinking the copium anymore. Now to revamp the roster in the offseason. Hopefully I can actually enjoy watching the team next year.

[trickshot]

This is a crazy season. I guess nothing should really surprise us anymore.

I thought there would be some major changes in Denver in the off-season. Didn't expect it right now.

Way up there with the most random, most unorthodox regular seasons ever.

Personally think some decisions are being made at high seed teams because front offices don't yet realize this is just what parity looks like. No top team is really superior enough to lay belt every week.

[pepe1991]

Man, nothing I hate more than coaches being the scapegoat

Particularly when they won you a f*cking championship, very recently.

Players win organizations chips and are traded away ALL THE TIME.

They overpaid Porter, Gordon and Murray and burned out all the money for giving Jokić better supporting cast.

I'm Magic fan, i had to suffer through "championship pedigree of KCP" this year. That guy is as best as good as Kevon Ellise but makes $22M a year. Ellise makes x10 less.
I'm Magic fan, i had to watch Aaron Gordon pretending to be more than dunker at dunker's spot for 6 years. He is 14 ppg, 6 rpg, average efficiency, good defense guy. Nothing less, nothing more.
I'm Magic fan, i had to cry every time Gary Harris tries to do anything on offense but catch and shoot. That was Nuggets developing peace for years, who had 1 good season before they overpaid him as he turned back in pumpkin.

Michael Porter Jr is one of most frustrating players to watch, elite scorer/shooter, equally incapable of defending chair let alone something that moves.

Jamal Murray, at times brilliant scorer on offense. But much like Porter, often you ask yourself how somebody can be so incompetent on defense.

Those guys are so one-dimensional and you burn down $95M of cap space on them.

By BPM, that isn't even that good of a data, Jokić has 13,3 BPM, nobody else on entire roster has even 1,0.
Win share per 48 min, Jokić .308, second highest 0,141 ( Braun out of all people).

You can't even make serious case for second best player, whoever he is, being top 8-10 at his position.

Murray for sure isn't top 10 PG
Porter isn't top 10 SF
Gordon isn't top 10 PF
Braun isn't top 10 SG

If you swap Porter with Kuminga or Hunter, who aren't even starters on other two contenders, i highly doubt anybody would notice difference.

During entire career of Jokić those are his 3 best teammates ,as overall players:
1) Jamal Murray, 0 times allstar, 0 times anything
2) Paul Millsap- 4 times all star , was bit over a hill when joined Nuggets (32)
3) Westbrook. Million times allstar, 36 when he joined Nuggets.

Fact that team with best player in the world somehow won a title, despite fact they never could find even respectable bench or supporting cast tells you more about greatness of Jokić than anything positive about Nuggets FO.

This Denver Nuggets team has net rating of -9.39 without Jokic on the floor ranking them second to last (Washington Wizards with -11.2) while when Jokic is on the floor the rating bumps all the way up to 11.94 a 21.33 net rating swing.

At one point they had offensive rating of 86 without him, that would literally be worst offense in basketball history.

And people talk about "splitting championship roster". Jokić is their championship roster.

[Los_29]

Booth has done a poor job of constructing a team around Jokic. Jokic should have won a lot more championships at this point. The fact he hasn’t is a reflection of management.

[nomansland]

The Nuggets basically gave up on the season with this move.

Eh. Ownership is betting it lights a fire under them and Adelman is basically running the same system. I don't think it changes the outcome either way, but I doubt the players are just gonna hang their heads and quit. This is a core that won the title.

Some of the young guys are probably going to play harder and Jokic for sure isn't going to quit, but this is a pretty big psychological blow. Anyone in the FO saying this move was to get them a better shot in the playoffs is either delusional or lying.

I do think a big part of this though is to evaluate Adelman.