Shams: Nuggets Fire Malone & Booth

[Beethoven]

oops .

[scrabbarista]

Just crazy to me with so many people saying what a great coach he was…

What exactly had he accomplished until the franchise lucked out into getting a generational all timer in the second round? This is a chicken and the egg scenario. We saw what kind of a coach he was without Jokic for ten minutes a game and it wasn’t pretty.

Jokic made him. It wasn’t the other way around.

Most of the people calling him a great coach were LeBron stans. You pay attention, you notice this stuff nonstop.

[-Sammy-]

Nobody's safe this season. Word on the street is that OKC is holding a presser later today during which they intend to set Mark Daigneault on fire.

[NyKnicks1714]

Wow. In some weird way, given the timing, this is more shocking news than the Luka trade. But that could be recency bias talking

[Tor_Raps]

This has gotta be the dumbest crap I've seen... aside from the Luka trade lol

Did the NBA make Denver fire their coach and GM to help the Lakers?

Oh... my...God. I didn't even think of that. The one team that would have the Lakers number with a healthy squad is being stripped down to allow them to win it all.

[doogie_hauser]

Half expecting Mikel Arteta to be fired next from Arsenal (who have the same owners as Denver)

[ConSarnit]

Was, and I definitely wanted this to happen. It was going to be inevitable because they weren't going to win this year and decided to cut bait early.

Malone became too dependent on Jokic in recent years and flat out refused to develop the younger players. He literally said that when Jokic goes to the bench to start the 2nd and 4th Q that he "prays."

Not to defend Malone but that bench is not good and their young players are not that promising. Coaches see these guys in camp and practices and form priors that fans never see.

Malone wanted the team to resign KCP, who is underperforming in Orlando. Some will say it's the "Jokic effect", but KCP took a noticeable step back last season and the writing was on the wall that he wasn't going to match his 2022-2023 productivity.

But that's the whole problem with Malone, he wants to win with veterans and the young players are all on a short leash. The roster construction was problematic, but Malone refused to give it a try.

The bigger reason why he was fired was his dependence on Jokic. When Jokic was off the floor, the team fell off a cliff. That's as much on him, as it is Booth.

It had to be done. He was there for 10 years.

How much of these bench issues are on Murray and MPJ? Both of these guys are getting the max and they can’t even lift an average bench for 10mpg? Not saying Malone is perfect but you’d hope your other max players could carry the load for a bit. And if they can’t carry the load why did you pay them the max?

[KyRo23]

Thread 1 - Jokic is frustrated
Thread 2, 2 days later- Nuggets fire GM and Coach

Jokic fans - "Jokic had nothing to do with this"

[Tracymcgoaty]

Was, and I definitely wanted this to happen. It was going to be inevitable because they weren't going to win this year and decided to cut bait early.

Malone became too dependent on Jokic in recent years and flat out refused to develop the younger players. He literally said that when Jokic goes to the bench to start the 2nd and 4th Q that he "prays."

Not to defend Malone but that bench is not good and their young players are not that promising. Coaches see these guys in camp and practices and form priors that fans never see.

Malone wanted the team to resign KCP, who is underperforming in Orlando. Some will say it's the "Jokic effect", but KCP took a noticeable step back last season and the writing was on the wall that he wasn't going to match his 2022-2023 productivity.

But that's the whole problem with Malone, he wants to win with veterans and the young players are all on a short leash. The roster construction was problematic, but Malone refused to give it a try.

The bigger reason why he was fired was his dependence on Jokic. When Jokic was off the floor, the team fell off a cliff. That's as much on him, as it is Booth.

It had to be done. He was there for 10 years.

You're a fan of the team you're being overly emotional. We cant trust you.

[CobraCommander]

jokic must have saw the owner in the halls and said..."coaching bad ~ roster sucks" with that accent.... and thats all it took.


but what the owner didn't know was that Jokic was talking about the wizards.


dallas Memphis and now Denver have made moves so bad that it seems to defy any rational.

I think doc rivers is the worse coach in the league and each of these moves make hiring doc rivers look brilliant

[HotRocks34]

This is fine, but unless the owners make good hires and spend money on talent, it won't matter IMO.

[KyRo23]

Just crazy to me with so many people saying what a great coach he was…

What exactly had he accomplished until the franchise lucked out into getting a generational all timer in the second round? This is a chicken and the egg scenario. We saw what kind of a coach he was without Jokic for ten minutes a game and it wasn’t pretty.

Jokic made him. It wasn’t the other way around.

Most of the people calling him a great coach were LeBron stans. You pay attention, you notice this stuff nonstop.

Not true

Go back to the Lakers/Nuggets playoff threads. Most were saying how much Malone was outcoaching LA and how good he was. Laker fans/LeBron fans were actually saying that we had Malone figured out. Seems to be the opposite of what you're saying

[UcanUwill]

Half expecting Mikel Arteta to be fired next from Arsenal (who have the same owners as Denver)

Seeing how Premier teams fire their coaches, I am actually amazed Arteta survived. Arsenal rebuild took some time, they weren't very good for years with Arteta there. But patience paid off at the end.

[f4p]

Just looking at the roster right now. This has to be the biggest whiff of all time, acquiring talent when having an all time great.

10 years in, Jokic has never played alongside a current All NBA player, let alone a single All Star. And not just that, but 10 years into his career, they have 50% of the cap tied up in Jamal Murray and MPJ.

"

Through Hakeems first 10 years, which included 1 title like jokic, he had 1 teammate who finished top 20 in either PER, WS48 or BPM. And it was Kenny smith, who finished exactly 20th in WS48 in 1991 (and wasn't top 30 in the others. )

Did Hakeem come in after Ralph Sampson started his big decline from injuries? I thought they overlapped for 2-3 years before. And they didnt bring in Clyde (who wasnt HOF level, but still made a couple all stars with HOU if I recall right), until pretty damn late right? He came in for that 2nd ring right? Because that 1st ring was like the Dirk ring correct? Too lazy to look it up. But ya even if Hakeem got only like 1 year with a healthy Sampson. Ya thats a good 10+ years of not bringing in legit level talent.

Sampson was drafted the year before Hakeem but his numbers declined literally every year of his career, he might have actually peaked as a rookie. And Clyde joined in year 11.

[CobraCommander]

This is fine, but unless the owners make good hires and spend money on talent, it won't matter IMO.

make this make sense with 5 games to go?

[CobraCommander]

Thread - Jokic is frustrated
Thread 2, 2 days later- Nuggets fire GM and Coach

Jokic fans - "Jokic had nothing to do with this"

you don't fire your gm and coach and not get buy in or sign off from the owner AND the best player on earth

[HotRocks34]

This is fine, but unless the owners make good hires and spend money on talent, it won't matter IMO.

make this make sense with 5 games to go?

IMO they're conceding the season and trying to get ahead of the backlash, before it hits, when the team flames out in the playoffs.

[Woodsanity]

Just crazy to me with so many people saying what a great coach he was…

What exactly had he accomplished until the franchise lucked out into getting a generational all timer in the second round? This is a chicken and the egg scenario. We saw what kind of a coach he was without Jokic for ten minutes a game and it wasn’t pretty.

Jokic made him. It wasn’t the other way around.

Most of the people calling him a great coach were LeBron stans. You pay attention, you notice this stuff nonstop.

Not true

Go back to the Lakers/Nuggets playoff threads. Most were saying how much Malone was outcoaching LA and how good he was. Laker fans/LeBron fans were actually saying that we had Malone figured out. Seems to be the opposite of what you're saying

Let's be honest. A bowl of rice could outcoach Darvin Ham. Its not some kind of noteworthy feat. I do think Malone is an okish coach overall. Not good not horrible.

Redick is much better than Ham and better than Malone however.

[Duke4life831]

Just looking at the roster right now. This has to be the biggest whiff of all time acquiring talent when having an all time great.

10 years in, Jokic has never played alongside a current All NBA player, let alone a single All Star. And not just that, but 10 years into his career, they have 50% of the cap tied up in Jamal Murray and MPJ.

Like what are we doing here? Look at the players KD has played with. Look at the players Curry has played with. Look at the players LeBron has played with. Look at the players Embiid has played with.

I want to give Jokic props for chilling with 1 team and not being a diva. But at some point I would get it if he says enough is enough. Get me legit talent or trade me.

This is truly embarrassing. Booth definitely deserved to get fired. And if Malone was hand in hand with these decisions, I can get him going (might as well let him finish out the season though). But ya just a complete waste of an all time great talent by the entire front office of this organization. I feel like Aaron Gordon really was the only move during this entire time where I thought to myself, "damn that was a perfect pickup". Outside of that, its been non stop thinking of "what exactly is Denver doing here?"

Well Jokic refuses to get hurt, so DEN never had a chance to acquire talent.

What kind of deal can the new GM even do? He would have to add draft picks to offload Murray and MPJ

Ya thats the thing. The contracts are so bad. Murray still has 4 years left on his deal and MPJ has 2 more. So youre still a year away from MPJ being an expiring and making it somewhat easier to get off of that deal.

And looking up their draft picks for the next few years. What the hell has Booth been doing? Zero incoming picks, but plenty of picks already traded away.

So they have only 1 all star, theyre in cap hell, and they're lacking draft capital.

This is crazy they let this go on for as long as they did. No GM will be able to come in and fix this, this summer.

[Wolfgang630]

We need Giannis and Jokic team up