As in, Available For Sale.

At least, that’s what Kroenke said Monday when I asked him about a report claiming the owners of the Nuggets were unwilling to move their talented but mercurial forward — supposedly because Josh and Michael Porter Jr. both happened to hoop it up at the University of Missouri.

M-I-Z, Tigers For Life. Keep the colors flying skyward and all that.

“You know, I did see that somewhere,” Kroenke, the Nuggets’ president, said of the MPJ kerfuffle. “And if it wasn’t such a serious accusation, I would probably laugh a little harder.”

Yeah, but that max deal …

“I think that any kind of report saying that we’re not open to trading everybody, you know, possible to improve the team,” Kroenke continued, “is a complete falsehood.”

Great, so what would it take to …

“And the other thing that I’ll say is, I don’t know where that person got their sources from,” Kroenke said. “But I’m surely not going to be greenlighting any trades around here when I don’t see complete organizational cohesion and we’re not maximizing the group we got.”

There it is!

Not to rain on social media’s parade, but I’ll believe the Kroenkes are “quitting” MPJ when I see it. They love the dude. They love the shot. They love the narrative.

“Let’s talk about him on a human level and what he’s been through,” Kroenke stressed. “I mean, several back surgeries, being told he was never going to play again … slipping in the NBA draft to a place where we were privileged enough to take a player that talented, then working through the setbacks that he’s had, not only on the court with his back, but off the court in his personal life as well.”

On a strictly personal level, MPJ has a good soul. He’s also had some tough, tough stuff land on his plate. On the occasions when the young man decides to get inside his own head, he’s prone to vanishing spells. Porter’s at his best when he’s not busy being his own worst enemy.

The ex-Mizzou standout’s also played an average of 16 more regular-season games over the last two years (158) than Jamal Murray (126) has. Even if you had no idea what kind of stat line MPJ had coming on a given night, when the Nuggets needed him at the startling line, he’s usually been there.

And by golly, whether you like it or not, they need him. Right here. Right now. When MPJ’s put up 17 points or more over the last two postseason runs, the Nuggets are 8-3. When he’s held to single digits, they’re 5-4. A playoff coin flip.

The Lakers last spring were so preoccupied with not getting a Blue Arrow through the heart again, they were happy to let MPJ try and beat them. He obliged, averaging 22.8 points and 8.4 boards and draining 48.8% of his treys. Porter looked very much like a max contract player doing max things at max moments.

Unfortunately for — well, for all of us — Minnesota saw the tape from the first round. The Timberwolves got in Porter’s face from the jump to see how he liked a change in temperature. The results were decidedly lukewarm: 10.7 points and 5.7 rebounds per game, 32.5% from beyond the arc, and a whopping 25 points, combined, in Games 4-7

The Nuggets blew the largest Game 7 lead in franchise history, the Wolves stole their mojo the way Gollum stole Frodo Baggins’ ring, and things around Chopper Circle have felt a little disjointed ever since.

“I think we have to be open-minded toward everything,” Kroenke continued. “(That’s) player trades, seeing value in the draft where others might not, or perhaps finding a skill set that fits with our roster in a way that other people might not see. And so we’ve got to be open-minded on all fronts.”

They can start with the frontcourt. Porter’s carrying a cap hit of $35.86 million. It goes up to $38.33 million next season, then to $40.806 million in ’26-27.  “Open-minded” isn’t going to be any easier nine months from now.

“So I need to be aware of what’s out there, how to make this team better in all facets,” Kroenke said. “And so back to my main message: (This) season’s not over yet. But once the season is over, I think we’re going to be as open-minded as we’ve ever been about everything.”

Alas, the NBA isn’t just a business. It’s a cruel one, as cutthroat as they come.

Kroenke was a millionaire willingly falling on several swords Monday, a rare trait for the owner class. But at the same time, Josh fessed up to maybe his greatest weakness as a pro sports CEO: letting relationships and friendships cloud his judgment.

That last part is why he said he didn’t have the heart to can either coach Michael Malone or Calvin Booth last fall, even though everybody in a 50-mile radius knew that relationship had turned toxic. And also why he didn’t do it at the All-Star break, even though the Nuggets were getting fat off the dregs of the league while routinely getting their teeth kicked in by the likes of the Thunder and Cavaliers.

And it’s why Kroenke still wants to “maximize” the “group he’s got,” even though that already happened two years ago — and there’s no getting that same mojo back with the pieces you’ve surrounded Nikola Jokic with. Penuriousness may land David Adelman Malone’s old job on a full-time basis, whether the Nuggets’ performances warrant it or not. The affection for MPJ is as much about sentiment as anything else.

That’s not how you build a dynasty. It’s how you build the Rockies.

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Sean Keeler: Never seen a dead cat bounce quite that high before. Maybe the Nuggets had stopped listening to Michael Malone, but they heard Josh Kroenke loud and clear, didn’t they?  My head says it’s the Nuggets, but my head also told me that Malone would win the “Cold War” with Calvin Booth and the front office. So going with the heart on this one. And that heart’s wearing a burgundy-and-blue sweater right now. It could be the Gabe feels. It could be the sunshine. But I’m leaning Avs.

Renck: It is a juxtaposition with the way they finished their season, getting their coach and general manager fired. But the Nuggets boast a better chance of advancing. The Clippers have won eight straight, and Kawhi Leonard is averaging 25.7 points over his last 19 games. So, it comes down to this: Can Aaron Gordon cool Leonard, keeping him around 20 points? Nikola Jokic has given Ivica Zubac fits in the past, though Zubac is positioned to push Christian Braun for the league’s Most Improved Player award this season. There are many X factors. But it comes down to Gordon taming Leonard.

Keeler: Every NBA fan base deserves an Aaron Gordon in their lives — an unselfish superstar with mad skills and a moderate ego, a plugger who’ll do whatever a team needs at that moment. Take 25 shots? Can do. Be a defensive stopper? He’s your man. The only worry I’ve got isn’t AG’s heart — it’s his wonky right calf. The spirit is always willing. But what if No. 32’s body won’t cooperate? The only way the Clip Show sails on is if Kawhi goes crazy, and it’s not fair to expect Peyton Watson and Christian Braun to slow Leonard alone.

Renck: The Avs finished on cruise control, using the final few weeks to get healthy and work on line combinations. They will be juiced to face former teammate Mikko Rantanen and the endless agitator Jamie Benn. Can the Avs avenge last season’s playoff loss to the Stars? Of course. But it comes with the uneasy questions: Will untested goalie Mackenzie Blackwood meet the moment? And can Gabe Landeskog be a factor? Neither the Nuggets nor the Avs has margin for error (which is why Russell Westbrook playing hero ball is so dangerous). Based on the home court and the remaining bump from interim coach Rick Adelman, the Nuggets have a better chance of moving on.

Keeler: I didn’t believe in miracles until I saw Landy skate with the Eagles on Friday and Saturday. I didn’t believe in the Avs, either. Peter DeBoer and Jamie Benn have some kind of hex on the Mile High City right now that defies logic, let alone explanation. But this time? This time could be different. For one, the Avalanche will have almost a week of rest before Game 1 in Dallas, marking the first time Colorado’s had more days off heading into their first-round Stanley Cup matchup since all the way back in 2006. Fun fact: That opponent 19 years ago? Dallas. In a series, get this, that also started in Texas. A series the Avs went on to win, 4-1. Sometimes, history rhymes.

“Neither of them deserved it,” Kroenke told reporters at Ball Arena, “and for that I apologize.”

But as their working relationship deteriorated, Kroenke admitted, he began to hesitate about their futures in Denver, eventually deciding the dynamic was untenable. The Nuggets fired Malone and Booth last Tuesday during a four-game losing streak, sending shock waves through the NBA community because of the dramatic timing as much as the changes themselves.

“Trust me, I went through all that,” Kroenke said. “I’m like, ‘Am I crazy?’ So I fully understand what you guys were probably thinking in the moment.”

His first moment of doubt occurred around last Thanksgiving, when the Nuggets were struggling to gain traction in the early portion of the season. The second moment was around the All-Star break in February — but Kroenke acknowledged the optics would have been awkward then. Denver won eight consecutive games going into the break.

“What would be crazier?” he said. “Me doing what I did last week or doing it on an eight-game win streak?”

Instead, it happened on an off-day when Denver was in jeopardy of falling into seventh place in the Western Conference. Friction between Malone and Booth about the direction of the team had spilled into the Nuggets’ day-to-day operations, creating a divided and paranoid culture, as sources detailed to The Denver Post last week.

“I saw it was reported that I would sit in with meetings with Calvin and Coach at times, which I did. We had great conversations in those meetings,” Kroenke said. “But I need more when I’m not around. My role is not to necessarily be there on a daily basis. I need people that are policing the culture and pushing it forward for me on a daily basis.”

Case in point: Nuggets and Avalanche owner Stan Kroenke also owns Arsenal F.C. of the British Premier League, with Josh serving as an executive for the London-based soccer team. On the same day he delivered the harsh news to Malone and Booth in Denver, Arsenal was playing a Champions League quarterfinal match against Real Madrid overseas, demonstrating the extent to which he’s stretched geographically thin. “On a human level,” he said, “that was a rough Tuesday for me.”

Kroenke described his meetings with Malone and Booth that day as being “as positive of a bad conversation as I could have with each of them. … Coach Malone was wonderful. Calvin was wonderful. I’m sure they had a wide range of emotions afterward.”

The team announced Monday that Ben Tenzer will take over as interim general manager until the end of this season, when the Kroenke family will conduct a full search for both full-time positions. In addition to his Nuggets front office role as a salary cap expert, Tenzer has been general manager of their G League affiliate, the Grand Rapids Gold, since the 2023 offseason.

Kroenke was also asked whether he will be more hands-on with his role in basketball operations moving forward.

“I don’t know if I’ll be any more or less. I think from my perspective, I’ve always been pretty hands-on in a way, maybe more so than some people realize. … I think with my background, it’s natural for me to kind of think about it some,” he said, referring to his past as a Division I college player at Missouri. “I live and breathe this stuff. This is what I do. This is what I’ve done for the last 15 years. And so if anybody has a good read on the group, hopefully it’s relatively me, at my level. But I’m never gonna be somebody that’s saying what player to pick or anything like that. I’ve moved way past that in my career, and in my roles and my responsibilities.

“That doesn’t mean my basketball instincts won’t kick in. … When Calvin is wanting to trade up in the draft and take a guy like Peyton Watson, and we’re gonna use a future asset, in that moment, you’d better believe my basketball instincts kick in, and I know all of the data around one-year former McDonald’s All-Americans and their success level in the NBA. So in that moment, our minds will come together in a way.”

As for interim coach David Adelman, who finished the regular season with three straight wins after taking over, Kroenke didn’t address the likelihood of a full-time promotion but said that “while he hasn’t been in that chair, that exact head coaching chair before, he’s more than ready for it.”

Kroenke encountered a Nuggets locker room that felt flat to him after their home loss to Indiana two Sundays ago, which turned out to be Malone’s last game on the sideline. As the 44-year-old team president and governor reached his final, franchise-altering decisions in the ensuing 24 hours, he also reached an understanding to look inward at his own role in the situation.

“I failed both Cal and (Malone) as a leader because I let certain things slip to a place that they never should have been,” he said. “And to be honest, we wound up making a decision last week that, like I said, I hesitated on twice. And I needed to be better for the group, checking some personal feelings, my respect for both of them, to be a better person for the overall group. … I apologize to both Calvin and Coach.”

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It would have been the sensible thing to do. They were already locked in as the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference before hosting Denver on the final afternoon of the regular season. This game meant nothing to them and everything to the Nuggets.

Instead, Ime Udoka went for the kill, and the Nuggets squashed their competition anyway in a 126-111 regular-season finale Sunday at Houston. They led by 31 points after Peyton Watson’s corner 3-pointer beat the third-quarter buzzer. By then, Udoka was finally starting to call off the dogs.

The Nuggets (50-32) secured the No. 4 seed in the West with the win, and the only suspense remaining as they played out garbage time was who they would host in Game 1 of a first-round playoff series next week. It hinged on a dramatic fourth quarter — and eventually overtime — in San Francisco.

When the dust settled, it was the Los Angeles Clippers waiting for them as the fifth seed after a 124-119 win over the Warriors. If Golden State had prevailed, it would have been Nuggets vs. Timberwolves instead.

Denver went 2-2 against the Clippers (50-32) this season and will be the home team in the series because the league scheduled an extra game between the two teams in December, after both had been eliminated from the NBA Cup. That allowed the Nuggets to even the head-to-head record and eventually win the tiebreaker process, which extends to records against Western Conference opponents.

This will be the first playoff series between the Nuggets and Clippers since the 2020 bubble, when Denver erased a 3-1 series deficit in the second round.

The Nuggets completed their third consecutive 50-win season Sunday despite firing head coach Michael Malone and general manager Calvin Booth in the final week of play. They are now 3-0 under interim coach David Adelman. If they had lost in Houston, they would have ended up falling to the No. 6 seed and facing the Lakers.

Nikola Jokic finished the season at 29.6 points, 12.7 rebounds and 10.2 assists per game. He is the third player in NBA history and the first center to average a triple-double for a full season, joining Russell Westbrook and Oscar Robertson.

Nuggets point guard Jamal Murray wrapped up with a 16-point performance to average 21.4 per game, a career-high.

NBA playoff bracket

Western Conference

1) Oklahoma City Thunder vs. 8) TBD

4) Denver Nuggets vs. 5) Los Angeles Clippers

3) Los Angeles Lakers vs. 6) Minnesota Timberwolves

2) Houston Rockets vs. 7) Golden State Warriors or Memphis Grizzlies

Eastern Conference

1) Cleveland Cavaliers vs. 8) TBD

4) Indiana Pacers vs. 5) Milwaukee Bucks

3) New York Knicks vs. 6) Detroit Pistons

2) Boston Celtics vs. 7) Orlando Magic or Atlanta Hawks

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They smile. They laugh. They talk.

With Michael Malone’s paranoia gone and Calvin Booth’s pettiness absent, the Nuggets are enjoying basketball again.

The Nuggets divorced from their two highest-profile employees and were awarded custody of Rocky.

Everyone is taking ownership. Except ownership. Discarding Malone and Booth without a press conference was unprofessional, but Josh Kroenke cared more about future results than showing respect.

To his credit, the Nuggets are 2-0 since the seismic shift.

Malone’s exit cast David Adelman as a Disneyland dad. Have a blast, kids. Who wants cotton candy and a Lightning Pass to Space Mountain?

When Kroenke made the move, Adelman, to me, was simply keeping the seat warm. The general rule is to never hire the interim because rebound relationships cloud judgment, leading to misguided decisions.

But watching him this week on the sidelines, in huddles and during press conferences, I decided Adelman deserves serious consideration. In fact, if he wins a playoff series, Adelman should get the job.

And here is a novel concept if that happens: All assistants’ contracts match the length of Adelman’s.

The issue for Adelman is simple: Can he prove he is not the right man at the wrong time?

His resume is worthy, but his first reference is the guy who just got canned. Doesn’t that leave him guilty, or at least compromised, by association?

Not necessarily.

Adelman and Malone share similar traits. They are basketball lifers, sons of former NBA head coaches, detail-oriented. But Adelman does not run hot like Malone. Holding players accountable with brutal honesty, while “preaching sacrifice, and showing a lot of humility,” as Jamal Murray explained Friday, helped Malone lead the Nuggets to their only NBA championship.

But even with a massive contract extension, he did not feel comfortable, his distrust of Booth a guiding force in his daily life. And when a marriage goes bad, the parents often don’t realize the tension it creates for those around them.

Adelman, the team’s former offensive boss, was always careful to credit Malone even as he was his own man. The coaches were left with no choice but to take his side as they were working on expiring contracts. Whether Malone signed off on this or the Kroenkes forced his hand when giving him a new deal, it was bad business, undermining trust.

Adelman found himself caught in this drama. But let’s be clear, he worked for Malone. He is not Malone. They offer two distinctly different personalities.

The modern NBA demands coaches pick a lane. In a players league, it is impossible to give pats on the head and kicks in the butt. It is an either-or proposition, as Malone discovered at the end of his tenure.

Adelman is a good vibes guy. Positive affirmation. This leaves him vulnerable to being taken advantage of by players, but this has not yet surfaced.

“I want a competitive spirit. If you want to have fun, you have to win. I have been around teams where we lost a lot and I liked everybody but it sure as (heck) wasn’t fun,” said Adelman, inadvertently describing the Rockies’ business model. “How hard you play and how connected you are is what fun means.”

Adelman is not your average substitute teacher. He has interviewed for multiple head coaching vacancies, with the buzz around the league that Portland will try to bring him back where his father coached if they fire Chauncey Billups.

Plus, he appears to have a strong working relationship with Nikola Jokic. The unspoken purpose of last week was not to get rid of the feuding Malone and Booth, but to keep Jokic happy. Adelman gives Jokic freedom to be more of everything on any given night — scorer, rebounder, passer, vocal leader.

“He is talking more. He makes us talk more and wants us to communicate,” Jokic said of Adelman. “He is giving me quick tips.”

Unburdened by the lineup and rotation politics involving Malone and Booth, Adelman has demonstrated meritocracy with minutes. Whoever plays the best plays the most. And plays last. So one night Russell Westbrook was on the bench. The next night he was in the mix.

Do we know if can do this over 82 games? No. That is why the next few weeks are so important.

“We talked about that a lot as a group. Write all the articles you want. We are good,” said Adelman, showing the type of edge needed to transition from riding shotgun to driving the car. “We are going to play the guys to win the game.”

It is clear that if the Nuggets don’t hire Adelman, they want someone like him. Minnesota’s Micah Nori, a former Denver assistant, fits. But what makes Nori a better candidate than Adelman?

David — don’t call him Dave — Adelman checks all the boxes. If this team advances to the second round of the playoffs, call off the search. There is no reason to bring in a big name. And based on history, there is no reason to think the Nuggets would pay for one anyway.

It all hinges on the postseason. If he crushes the audition, Coach Interim becomes Coach Adelman.

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And hey, the muckrakers up in the Grading The Week offices get it. You blow up the spine of your organization in one fell swoop, the calendar tends to get booked. Meetings. Flights. More meetings. More flights. Clandestine staff discussions. The usual.

But you dismiss the winningest coach in Nuggets history (Michael Malone) and then not-so-quiet quit your general manager (Calvin Booth) on the same Tuesday, and there’s no news conference? No franchise leaders to face questions from the local press? No erudition added to five paragraphs of very carefully worded, almost mollifying, explanation?

Oh, the legal eagles up at the GTW offices get that, too. Lawyers. Contracts. More lawyers. More contracts. Clandestine separation agreements.

And to be clear, Josh and his father Stan don’t “owe” GTW, The Denver Post, or any local reporters anything. It’s their team. Their toy.

But you know who they do owe? Nuggets fans.

The Front Range faithful who two summers ago lined the streets of downtown Denver, giddy to the last. The diehards whose dedication made all those decades of passion and pain worth it.

Josh Kroenke dodging non-KSE media — D.

Curious, though, isn’t it?

Words on Malone: 207, all from a statement released to the media.

Words on Malone to anybody but Vic Lombardi: Zero.

Words on Booth: 105, also via a statement.

Words on Booth to anybody but Vic: Still zero.

And take it from us: Local reporters have tried. Now, none of this is a knock on Lombardi, a local media icon and still a favorite GTW listen.

But would it kill Josh to offer up a little juice outside of Kroenke Sports & Entertainment platforms? It wasn’t as if the Nuggets were out making national headlines or anything.

And speaking of headlines, is it right that Nuggets fans heard more from Nikola Jokic, Best Dang Player On The Planet, on Malone than they did from the guy who, you know, actually made the decision to can The Joker’s coach?

Sure enough, in the days following Black Tuesday, unnamed sources abounded. But as of early Saturday morning? Still no Josh. Still no Stan. Just the same 207 and 105 words on Malone and Booth, respectively.

So many questions, too. Including one of the biggest, still unanswered: Why … now? Other than “(allowing) us to compete at the highest level right now,” as the statement read? What moment finally broke the camel’s back?

The “Cold War” stuff allegedly going on behind the scenes between Malone and Booth was among the Front Range’s worst-kept secrets for more than a year. So how come those disagreements were waved away by Josh, Malone and Booth during an end-of-season news conference last May? And side-stepped by Malone and Booth during the team’s annual preseason media day this past fall?

Everybody who heard Nuggets pressers could tell, in hindsight, just how starkly the tone had changed compared to, say, 2019-2024. For years, the Nuggets were the anti-NBA team, a locker room’s tone set by an unselfish star in Jokic who never cared about the credit — or the spotlight. Players who didn’t fit the team-first/family-first mantra — Bones Hyland comes to mind — were phased out. Finger-pointing and drama were kept largely in-house. Whenever neutrals or reporters levied criticism in public forums, Malone defended the guys in his locker room as if they were loved ones.

This season, the blast shields didn’t just come down — Malone sometimes found himself turning the lasers on his own guys, usually in exasperation after a run of inexplicable defeats. Something was broken. Everyone knew it. But until Josh clears the air on the Nuggets’ three-sided power triangle more anonymous beans will be spilled to fill gaps in the narrative. And we’ll promise you this: None of it’s going to have any side smelling like roses.

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The entire league is set to play Sunday afternoon, and the Nuggets still haven’t clinched a top-six seed yet as the 15 teams in the West prepare to tip off their finales simultaneously at 1:30 p.m. MT.

When the dust settles, Denver could be in any of four spots in the standings — including a Play-In Tournament scenario.

Here’s a guide to every seeding scenario and the possible first-round playoff matchups.

Nuggets’ relevant games for playoff seeding

• Nuggets at Rockets, 1:30 p.m.
• Clippers at Warriors, 1:30 p.m.
• Jazz at Timberwolves, 1:30 p.m.

There are eight possible combinations of outcomes in these three games. Five combinations result in the Nuggets facing the Clippers in the first round.

But in the other three combinations, Denver could find itself matched up with the Timberwolves, Lakers, Rockets or Thunder in a series.

Nuggets are No. 4 seed if …

This is the easy part. If the Nuggets win in Houston, they are locked in at the No. 4 seed no matter what else happens, clinching home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

The other games would merely determine the opponent. Here are the possible outcomes.

• Nuggets win + Clippers win OR Nuggets win + Warriors win + Timberwolves loss = Nuggets (4) vs. Clippers (5)

• Nuggets win + Warriors win + Timberwolves win = Nuggets (4) vs. Timberwolves (5)

Nuggets are No. 5 seed if …

There’s one scenario in which the Nuggets still face the Clippers, but as the visiting team in the series. It would involve an unlikely result in another game, but Minnesota star guard Anthony Edwards happens to be suspended for that game after picking up his 18th technical foul of the season on Friday.

• Nuggets loss + Timberwolves loss = Nuggets (5) vs. Clippers (4)

Nuggets are No. 6 seed if …

It should be noted that the Rockets are incentivized to rest their key players on Sunday and avoid potentially harmful injuries, as they have already clinched the No. 2 seed. Houston cannot move up or down in the standings anymore. In theory, this should support Denver’s chances of earning a win and the No. 4 seed.

Then again, the Nuggets visited Houston without their own superstar last month and won shorthanded. Moral of the story: Anything is possible in the NBA. And that’s why every scenario must be presented, including the one where Luka Doncic and LeBron James enter the picture.

• Nuggets loss + Clippers win + Timberwolves win = Nuggets (6) vs. Lakers (3)

The Nuggets could still technically finish with the same record as the Lakers, but Los Angeles would win a two-way or three-way tiebreaker. Nobody can catch the Lakers for third place anymore.

Nuggets fall to Play-In Tournament as No. 7 seed if …

This is why the Nuggets cannot officially claim they’ve clinched a playoff spot yet. There is one scenario that lands them in the Play-In Tournament via a four-way tiebreaker, and once you’re in the Play-In Tournament, you’re a two-game losing streak away from being eliminated without a series.

• Nuggets loss + Warriors win + Timberwolves win = Nuggets (7) vs. Grizzlies (8) single game; Winner vs. Rockets (2)

If this happens, the Nuggets, Clippers, Warriors and Wolves will all finish with 49 wins. Denver would sink to the bottom of the pecking order due to its 0-4 record against Minnesota this season. The Timberwolves would snatch the No. 4 seed and play the No. 5 seed Clippers in this outcome. Golden State would be the No. 6.

If the Nuggets do fall to the Play-In Tournament and then lose at home to Memphis, they’ll host either Sacramento or Dallas in an elimination game. The winner of that would advance to the playoffs as the No. 8 seed to face Oklahoma City.

NBA Cup scheduling gave Nuggets a tiebreaker

On the original NBA schedule that was unveiled in August, the Nuggets and Clippers were slated to play three games against each other — two of them in Denver, one in Los Angeles.

The Nuggets lost the first two meetings, seemingly clinching a hypothetical head-to-head tiebreaker for the Clippers. But the league threw in a plot twist.

When teams are eliminated from the NBA’s in-season tournament before the knockout stage, they are assigned newly scheduled games in December against other eliminated teams. This happened to the Nuggets. One of the new games added to their schedule: Dec. 13, 2024, against the Clippers at Ball Arena.

Not only did Denver suddenly have two games remaining to even the season series instead of one, but thanks to the NBA’s brilliant scheduling, three of the four meetings were to be played in Denver, rather than a split of two games in each city.

The Nuggets won at Ball Arena on Dec. 13, and they won at Ball Arena again on Jan. 8. The head-to-head tiebreaker was rendered moot by the 2-2 split. The next applicable tiebreaker: record against the Western Conference. Denver has the edge there by a comfortable margin.

And as a result, if the Nuggets and Clippers both win Sunday to finish in a fourth-place tie, Game 1 between the teams will be played in Denver, not in Los Angeles. Stan Kroenke will owe the NBA a thank you note.

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Murray felt it appropriate to return the favor at the end of an unthinkable week in Malone’s coaching career.

“Coach always has had my back, from a young kid coming up in this league up until now. He’s always rooted for me,” the 28-year-old said Friday after Denver’s second game without Malone on the sideline. “Like I said, he always had my back and always kept me in good spirits. So I want to give that kind of same energy to him, the same kind of respect. We don’t get here without him.”

The Nuggets fired Malone on Tuesday after losing four consecutive games for the first time in two seasons. Murray, who has been outstanding for Denver since early December, was out for all four of those games. He made his return from a hamstring injury in a 117-109 win over the Grizzlies.

Malone was the only head coach Murray had ever played for in his nine years in the NBA.

“I think he’s done a great job of also setting the example for the group behind us — not just us but for the group behind us,” Murray said. “He always preached a lot of sacrifice and playing for one another and stuff, but I thought Coach always showed a lot of humility in himself. Always taking control of the room. Always hating to lose. He was always setting the tone in that regard.

“So it sucks to kind of see him go like that, especially the way it happened this late (in the season). But we’re still gonna remain in contact and stuff like that.”

On Jan. 14 in Dallas, Malone stood up for Murray when he told reporters that “the microscope on Jamal is a little intense” and that “everybody’s just gotta kind of let the kid breathe a little bit.” Denver’s point guard had started the season slow, but he had scored 45 points in a win that day.

From then to the end of the Malone era this week, Murray averaged 24.2 points and 6.1 assists per game, shooting 51.1% from the field, 41.6% from 3-point range and 92.5% from the foul line.

Malone grew to be fiercely loyal to Murray, especially after the guard tore his ACL in 2021, causing him to miss two postseasons. In his first season back on the court, Murray averaged 26 points and seven assists during Denver’s 20-game run to the championship.

“I remember being in the bus with him, going to the airport after (the injury), and the next day he has tears in his eyes,” Malone recalled during that 2023 playoff run. “… His first thought was, ‘Man, are you guys gonna trade me?’ Really, that was his (mindset): ‘I’m damaged goods. Are you guys can trade me now?’ And I hugged him. I said, ‘Hell no.’ Like, you’re ours. We love you. We’re going to help you get back to maybe a better player for it.”

Playing backyard basketball with Nikola Jokic, Murray had just nonchalantly flipped a pass behind his back to the reigning MVP center, whose floater gave the Nuggets a late 112-108 lead. Denver’s signature two-man game was providing a refreshing reminder of its potency, and Murray was talking his trash on the way back to the bench. It was the emotional apex of a 14-1 closing run to secure a 117-109 comeback win over the Grizzlies in both teams’ most important game of the season.

“I’d buy a ticket to watch that,” David Adelman said afterward, in awe of the firepower of Jokic and Murray.

With one game remaining in the regular season and other Western Conference games still in progress late Friday night, the Nuggets (49-32) were on the verge of clinching a playoff spot that was in danger of eluding them earlier this week amid sweeping personnel changes.

A win at Houston on Sunday will be enough to secure a top-six seed without any help from other games around the league.

“The records are so close, there’s no manipulation going on here,” said Adelman, two games into his interim head coaching tenure. “Like, I have no idea who’s going to win tomorrow, who’s going to win Sunday. Playing at the same time, all that kind of stuff. … I don’t think you can dictate your matchup and all that right now. It’s just so crazy with the records.”

Murray was back in the lineup after missing six games with a hamstring injury. He missed a lot. As the Nuggets struggled through a four-game losing streak without him, Michael Malone couldn’t say with certainty that the star guard would be available for the start of the postseason. Malone ended up losing his job two days later, and Denver snapped out of its funk with a season-saving win in Adelman’s debut at Sacramento.

Whether it would be enough to fully save the Nuggets would depend on what happened next, though. They entered play on Friday night only one game safe from the Play-In Tournament still. And then Memphis showed up looking fresh for a  team that played at home the previous night.

Ja Morant and company used an 11-for-25 start from the 3-point line to build a 15-point lead, while Denver missed 12 of its first 13 outside attempts.

Then Adelman adjusted the Nuggets’ pick-and-roll defense to a drop coverage, instead of playing Jokic at the level of the screen. Memphis went 3-for-12 from 3-point range in the second half.

“We tried to do what we do. We were up (the floor). Once they made 3s … it was almost like, we have to drop,” Adelman said. “We’ve gotta put Nikola down the floor. So some of the shots probably looked like easy shots because they were floaters, 10-footers, 12-footers. We decided, let’s just live with that. Stay out of the drive-and-kick.”

The 43-year-old coach was faced with his first tough rotation decision with Murray back. Jalen Pickett was coming off one of his best games of the season as a replacement starter, whereas Russell Westbrook has struggled lately. But as Friday’s game took shape, Westbrook was making a two-way impact and playing relatively mistake-free offensively. He played 26 minutes and provided back-to-back vital defensive plays in the closing lineup — a steal to set up Murray’s dime to Jokic, followed by a block of 7-footer Zach Edey at the rim as the Grizzlies’ shot clock expired.

“I said it before the game: We’re gonna finish with the five guys that are playing well. Mistakenly, people said I didn’t play Russ in Sacramento. That wasn’t the case,” Adelman said. “I played the five people I thought could win the game. And what do you know? Russ played pretty well tonight. So who finished the game? Russ. You’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do to win games. And this is not about one individual person, or trying to make a narrative about one person, or this guy or that guy. Thats not what this is. This is about just trying to win the game.”

The Nuggets went on an 11-2 run to end the first half and kept pace throughout the third quarter of a game that lacked rhythm. The one constant was Aaron Gordon on the baseline. He compiled 33 points despite a lesser 3-point shooting night, getting free in the dunker spot or bullying his way to the rim.

Five Nuggets finished in double figures. Michael Porter Jr. was held to seven points and struggled at the defensive end, ending up on the bench in crunch time while Westbrook closed.

Murray finished with 15 points, five boards and seven assists, finally finding some swagger toward the end of the game — as he does.

It was Jan. 6 at Ball Arena. Malone and team president Josh Kroenke were having a chat on the far sideline. When Booth reached them, he revealed what was inside — a custom jersey on a velvet mat, commemorating Malone’s recent milestone.

Malone’s 433rd regular-season win for Denver six weeks earlier had made him the winningest coach in franchise history. The jersey number was 433. Malone admired the new office decor, then dapped up Booth.

“I guess I’ll have to get another one made when I’m done,” he told the reporters, “that says, like, ‘1,273.’”

By then, perhaps the worst-kept secret in Ball Arena and around the NBA was that any such display of togetherness for public consumption between Malone and Booth was merely that — a facade.

The Denver Post spoke to multiple sources connected to the Nuggets for this report to understand the tensions behind a difficult season for one of Denver’s key sports franchises. Almost all of them spoke under the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the topic and their ongoing relationships with the team.

Behind the scenes, those sources told The Post that the head coach and general manager seldom engaged with each other outside of occasional meetings with Kroenke, an unwilling intermediary in their frayed relationship who also happened to be their boss. Meanwhile, factions had quietly formed within the organization, with the coaching staff and front office feeling obligated to take sides.

This divided culture smoldered and stretched into the locker room until April 8, when the Kroenke family dropped a bombshell by firing Malone and Booth with three games left in a tumultuous regular season still likely to result in a playoff berth. It was a radical play for a small-market NBA franchise that won its first championship less than two years earlier under the stewardship of Malone and Booth.

“There was an ‘us vs. them’ type of thing,” one team source said. “‘Us vs. them’ is like the worst mentality you can have. And it certainly became that way.”

Nikola Jokic says Josh Kroenke didn’t consult him before firing Michael Malone, but decision “woke up” Nuggets

"We weren't having fun"

On March 14, Nuggets and Avalanche owner Stan Kroenke — father of Josh — watched his NBA team host the Los Angeles Lakers from an unusual vantage point. Wearing a brown buttoned-up jacket, he ventured out of the owner's suite and downstairs to survey a game from the end of the bench.

There were a few components to the eventual decision to fire Malone. The Kroenkes made a point to closely observe basketball operations in recent weeks, essentially auditing the state of the team. In a results-based business that forgets victory faster than defeat, the Nuggets weren't playing up to standard. In particular, their defensive regression from eighth to 21st this season indicated a more troubling theme.

The "fly-around mentality" required to execute their base coverage behind the initial pass would show itself for a quarter at a time, but never for a full game. On some nights, Nikola Jokic seemed uncommitted to his role at the level of the screen. Rotations and close-outs often appeared apathetic or simply nonexistent.

Malone runs hot and doesn't hide it. He publicly and privately took his team to task for poor defensive effort on several occasions throughout the season. But players grew tired of that explosive coaching style, finding his outbursts a stale method of getting through to them, according to multiple sources familiar with their thinking. Malone's intensity had the wrong effect on a large portion of the locker room. Yelling didn't resonate. Jokic was aware of the increasing frustration and harbored some of his own.

The night Stan Kroenke watched from the end of the bench, Denver needed an 8-0 run in the last 50 seconds to beat the Lakers, even with superstars Luka Doncic and LeBron James sitting out. Malone entered his postgame news conference minutes later, crumpled up a copy of the box score and discarded it in the nearest trash can. The Nuggets lost the next night to the Washington Wizards, who had the worst record in the league.

Malone seemed to realize his players were tuning him out, but his own exasperation peaked on March 21 after a loss to the Portland Trail Blazers. “It's not my job to evaluate how they take things; it's my job to be honest and sometimes brutally honest,” he said, calling out players for not studying film. "Tonight, it was a brutally honest message. The guys that are full of (crap) won't hear it. They'll say 'coach is tripping.'"

The Kroenkes were also aware that Jokic was losing patience with the general direction of the season, which had sputtered in contrast to his magnificent individual year. There have been concerning examples of Jokic's angst, such as last Friday at Golden State, when the MVP center was seen on the bench gesturing wildly and vociferating at Denver's poor play.

That was the third loss of a four-game streak that accelerated Josh Kroenke's urge to make a change. He and his father had already decided to move on from Malone and Booth after the season. But by cutting ties with three games left to salvage the vibe, they could also leave time for Nuggets lead assistant David Adelman to show off his coaching chops. Adelman interviewed with the Hornets, Cavaliers and Lakers last offseason, sources told The Post, and he's widely expected to receive interest from teams with openings again this year.

Josh Kroenke notified Jokic of the changes first. Team sources insist that Jokic isn't the type of superstar to make personnel demands and that he wasn't behind the decision to fire Malone and Booth. But ownership is mindful of his perspective nonetheless. Jokic said it best himself on Wednesday night in Sacramento: "I listened, and I accept it."

Then, Kroenke addressed the shocking move in meetings with the players and team staff.

"It's a crazy day. None of us expected it," Michael Porter Jr. said Wednesday night. "None of us really know how to handle something like that. But I think Josh was amazing, as the leader of the organization. ... He said that he saw that we weren't having fun, and he saw that we weren't playing as hard as we could. So he wanted to come in here and reestablish that as the basis of our culture."

Booth, Malone and a lack of trust

The rift between Malone and Booth wasn't necessarily characterized by explosive confrontations. The two of them often complained behind each other’s backs, according to team and league sources, which established a paranoid environment at Ball Arena.

"It was contentious," one source said. "Things could have been done, things could have been fixed, a lot earlier. It was awful.”

Philosophical differences between them dated back to Booth's first days as the front office's top decision-maker in 2022, when president of basketball operations Tim Connelly left Denver for the same job in Minnesota. Connelly and Malone got along and worked well together. Booth was more independently minded and reluctant to collaborate with Malone on roster moves. But winning made it easy to manage. The Nuggets made their NBA championship run in Booth's first year at the helm, aided by his additions to the roster such as Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Bruce Brown and Christian Braun.

After the title, his draft-and-develop ideology took center stage. He gave guaranteed rookie contracts to second-round picks Jalen Pickett and Hunter Tyson. He signed Zeke Nnaji (the No. 22 pick in 2020) to a four-year, $32 million extension, even though Nnaji had started only seven games in his first three seasons.

Whether they wanted to or not, Nnaji and Pickett became key characters in the deteriorating relationship between their coach and GM. Booth preached the importance of positional size and wanted Nnaji playing at the four, sources said. Malone emphasized positional versatility instead, often using Nnaji as a backup center. "I think that's a bunch of malarkey, 'Are you a four or are you a five?'" Malone said this season. "In today's NBA, you're a big; you're a small. ... This is not 1980s where it's three-out, two-in. Zeke's a big."

Nnaji appeared in Malone's rotation as a power forward for a handful of successful games leading up to the trade deadline this February, while Denver was looking to use his salary in a trade. After no such deal materialized, Booth told reporters, "Zeke obviously has shown recently something that I've known for a while, that he probably should just be best at the four."

Pickett was the 32nd overall pick out of Penn State, Booth's alma mater. During his rookie season, starting point guard Jamal Murray missed 23 games, but Malone often played playoff-ineligible Collin Gillespie ahead of Pickett on the depth chart. Other times, he used bench lineups without a point guard.

These are fairly normal disputes for a coach and executive to encounter. What differentiated Denver's situation was a lack of trust that either was operating in good faith. Accusations of ego and malice festered behind the scenes. Booth believed Malone was holding back Pickett and using Nnaji out of position to spite Booth, league sources said. Malone believed Booth made roster moves to force him into playing Booth's unseasoned draft picks.

When Booth hired Mike Penberthy to join the organization as a shooting coach, Malone saw it as an attempt to over-extend into his territory, a league source said. Penberthy operated separately from the coaching staff. Nnaji and Pickett worked out with him in Los Angeles last August instead of training at the team facility in Denver — another point of contention.

Booth was livid at Malone for not playing second-year wing Peyton Watson in Game 7 against the Timberwolves last season when the Nuggets blew a 20-point lead in a stunning season-ending loss, sources said. Subsequently, Malone wanted Watson to play on Denver's Summer League team going into his third NBA season, accentuating the massive disconnect in their evaluations of young players.

Malone grew increasingly frustrated with roster construction after the Nuggets forsook their right to match contract offers for Caldwell-Pope, sources said. The veteran guard ultimately signed with the Orlando Magic for three years and $66 million. Booth believed the sacrifice of KCP and other, more significant pivots could be necessary to win a second championship. He even explored trades involving Jamal Murray last offseason and Porter during this season, league sources told The Post. But the Nuggets have only made marginal moves since the departure of KCP, including a $10.6 million signing of Dario Saric that has failed spectacularly.

As this season stalled, the pertinent question started to become who the Kroenkes might choose to keep between Malone and Booth. The general manager's decision-making autonomy started to dwindle after he sought more money on a contract extension and the Kroenkes took their offer off the table, according to sources. Ownership decided well before the deadline that Porter was not to be traded. Meanwhile, Malone had two years left on his contract and would be owed more than $20 million if fired.

In the end, Josh Kroenke preferred not to take a side. Fed up with the lack of alignment, he wiped the slate clean.

"I'm not about to sit here and say it was because Coach Malone that the vibe wasn't right. It was top to bottom," Porter said. "That's all the way down to the new guys. We weren't playing how we were supposed to play. We weren't picking each other up how we were supposed to pick each other up. It wasn't one guy. It wasn't Calvin or Coach Malone. It was top to bottom."

Adelman shared a similar sentiment when he addressed the dysfunction before his debut as interim head coach, saying everyone in the building was at fault. He also made a point to credit Malone and Booth for their contributions to a franchise that previously didn't know what it felt like to win a championship.

For Malone in particular, Adelman didn't want the awkward ending to eclipse "a hell of a run." Malone didn't just win in Denver. He endeared himself to the fan base and city with the same personality that ultimately jeopardized his own job security.

“Best coach in (Nuggets) history,” Adelman said. “Can’t argue it."

Statistically, he's right, even if Malone didn't fulfill his proclamation from January. The coach from Queens raised a family in Denver and always had dreams of leading the Nuggets as long as he could. Maybe 1,273 was an arbitrary number of wins to throw out half-jokingly, but he couldn't have predicted his historic run would end just three months later.

Fair or not, it stopped at 471.

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