Shams: Nuggets Fire Malone & Booth

[Jcool0]

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.

[LeBronSpaghetti]

For everyone here saying the Nuggets should’ve waited until after the playoffs to fire Malone… this is like waiting a month and a half to break up with your girlfriend because her birthday is coming up. If you already know you’re going to do it then just do it.

[THE J0KER]

To be honest, as a long-time critic of Coach Malone, and the passivity of Denver's front office in the Jokic era, I was a little uncomfortable being the moderator of the Nuggets subforum (not too uncomfortable, since 80% of the members had more negative than positive attitudes towards him and the FO all these years). What we really loved was the drafting while Arturas Karnisovas was in charge (that said, the main jewel Jokic was actually just crazy luck in the lottery).

To put it simply, the Warriors would have probably been champions once or twice in the last 10 years and consistently in the playoffs if they had remained coached by Mark Jackson all these years, but they would never have become a dynasty. In my opinion, Mike Malone is Mark Jackson who was not fired on time!

[OldSchoolNoBull]

I don't like this whole firing before the playoffs thing period.

I also don't like Malone getting fired, however given that Booth is getting fired too, I think I get it. Unless you're feeling good enough in the Malone relationship to have him effectively be the GM's boss - like Pop in SA - you want to bring in a GM who can choose he can stand behind. I also get the impression that ownership bristled at Malone not being enthusiastic about the Nuggets letting talent walk out the door.

Here's hoping that Malone gets courted for good positions next year.

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.

[G R E Y]

I really dont know what the next step here is.

Murray has 4 more years on his deal. MPJ has 2 more years on his deal. They really lack draft capital.

I get it, Nico Harris proved that there is always at least 1 idiot GM that is willing to make a deal that tanks his team and his career. But man is there really a team willing to go out and give assets for Jamal Murray? I feel like the only answer for MPJ is just to swallow that contract for one more year and hopefully offload him next year on an expiring deal. But again that is a year from now.

What's the fix? You dont make this kind of move without thinking there is another big move to make (obviously in the offseason). This is the kind of move signaling a big time shake up and overhaul. Denver is right back to the exact same point next year, no matter who the coach is.

I still cant get over how bad the cap situation and draft capital situation is. I feel like the only logical next move is Jokic asking out. Because he cant go to the front office and demand them to make a big move, they dont have any assets to do anything like that.

They should trade MPJ for 2-3 players to round out the team. They're too top heavy. What they should have done was traded him to Atlanta for something like Hunter and Bogdan. That gets you Murray, Hunter, Bogdan, Gordon, Jokic, Braun and Westbrook as your top 7.

Why do Hawks do that deal? I agree with trading MPJ for a collection of help, and even like that as a hypothetical, but realistically Nuggets have no picks or youngish talent that Atl got for both. So yeah... Booth **** them with these contracts.

[ryguy613]

So do we think something else is going on here? that theres some bad story bubbling under the surface that is soon to become public? If thats not the case, none of this makes any sense

[KGtabake]

4 game losing streak causes them to fire the dude who got them that banner hanging in Ball Arena.

Jokic wasn't fired.

+1000000

[Infinite Llamas]

Jokic just straight up QUIT on his team 3 games before the playoffs.

Are you serious?

Read on Twitter

Typical Jokic fan. Replies with stats.

If you fire a coach 3 games out of the playoffs you're basically waving the white flag.

Lmao Bucks fans were celebrating when Adrian Griffin got fired having, like the second best record in the league..and bringing in Doc of all people. No greater white flag in the history of sports than Doc.

Sometimes a coach has to go whether it’s game 3 or game 79. The team needs a jolt and it got one.

[Tor_Raps]

Should've paid to keep Tim Connelly.

Should have paid and shouldn't have paid is what has gotten the Nuggets in this situation that almost everyone saw coming

[Tomhomes33]

IMO this is irrelevant..Denver is play-inn bound and that can go either way.
Murray is injured..Jokic is dead tired and frustrated.
Denver management did nothing for Jokic..Westbrook? Give me a break..

[scrabbarista]

For everyone here saying the Nuggets should’ve waited until after the playoffs to fire Malone… this is like waiting a month and a half to break up with your girlfriend because her birthday is coming up. If you already know you’re going to do it then just do it.

If you do it three days before her b-day or Valentine's, it has more impact.

Not sure what the analogy is there, but I know it's true...

[sp6r=underrated]

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.

Ya looked it up right after I sent that because I was curious. And ya it looked like he had 2 full seasons with Ralph, the 1st one when he was still at a pretty high level. That 2nd year, Ralph still played a lot and was pretty good, but ya pretty clear the decline was starting. And that was basically it.

But ya even then, cool for Hakeem he got to play his rookie year with a stud. Then was kind of left on his own for the next decade.

The only situation I'm aware of that was worse was KG in Minnesota. They fumbled the ball real bad on not guaranteeing Billups in 02 and letting him walk to Detroit. He was showing real signs of improving and made the leap to All NBA level guard for that era shortly. The real catasthrophe was losing all those picks for trying to circumvent tampering rules.

But outside of KG in Minnesota I'm not aware of anything worse than Denver-Jokic. You can argue Lebron-CLE 1st go around was similar.

Nothing beats KG, but yeah its bad lol

The scary thing is as bad as Minnesota was they probably still end up okay if they offer Billups a real contract in 02. Billups play that final year was strong and as we all know he kept getting better until 06. They keep him they have a puncher's shot of building title team around KG.

[azcatz11]

2 years ago Malone was wasted at the parade and was the king of Denver. It’s amazing how fast things change.

[LeBronSpaghetti]

For everyone here saying the Nuggets should’ve waited until after the playoffs to fire Malone… this is like waiting a month and a half to break up with your girlfriend because her birthday is coming up. If you already know you’re going to do it then just do it.

If you do it three days before her b-day or Valentine's, it has more impact.

Not sure what the analogy is there, but I know it's true...

Haha that’s fine but the point is faking it and pretending the relationship is all good when in reality it’s already over is not the respectful thing to do in my opinion

[ITYSL]

Jokic as player-coach please.

[Chokic]

League trying to help the lakers or warriors get to the finals

[NYPiston]

they hung it in spite of him, he's a really bad coach. he's going to be to being an assistant coach in a few years. you'll see he want stick it out as a HC.

the man who got them that banner is Nikola Jokic and he did it almost in spite of Mike Malone, not because of him.

I don't buy that. Denver played real TEAM ball in their Championship run, the role players played their roles perfectly, so I'd think that some of that credit goes to the coach for piecing it together. Not saying that Malone is a great coach but he's not a really bad coach.

Just about every coach had a Hall of Fame player or two carry them to titles, it doesn't make them bad coaches because they had great players lead them to championships. The timing of this is stupid, just a few weeks before the playoffs because they had a losing skid with no Jamal Murray mind you. The only way this makes sense, just like with Memphis, is if Morant and Jokic demanded a change in which case you have to listen to your star player.

[Prince187]

So do we think something else is going on here? that theres some bad story bubbling under the surface that is soon to become public? If thats not the case, none of this makes any sense

This is just a smaller version of the luka trade. A team does something completely unprecedented and non sensical and we’re all trying to make sense of it when the real reason is that it’s done to help increase the chances of LeBron winning another ring.

Denver wasn’t going to win the championship this year and most people would have been fine with firing Malone in the off season. But at least they had a much better chance of knocking out LA with him than without him. This is the first time in the history of American pro sports that two playoff teams both fired their long time and successful coaches within a couple weeks of the playoffs starting

[jehosafats]

2 years ago Malone was wasted at the parade and was the king of Denver. It’s amazing how fast things change.

They gutted their team. What other result they expected I can't tell...

[Capn'O]

For everyone here saying the Nuggets should’ve waited until after the playoffs to fire Malone… this is like waiting a month and a half to break up with your girlfriend because her birthday is coming up. If you already know you’re going to do it then just do it.

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."