Less than two full seasons after winning their first NBA championship, the Denver Nuggets fired head coach Michael Malone and general manager Calvin Booth, cleaning house in a move that surprised players and staff with three games remaining before the 2025 playoffs.
Team president Josh Kroenke informed Malone and Booth of the decision on Tuesday morning, sources with knowledge of the situation told The Denver Post under condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
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But Kroenke and his father, team owner Stan Kroenke, had already decided days earlier to make changes to both positions at the end of the season. That process was accelerated by a season-worst four-game losing streak that has jeopardized Denver’s chances of making the playoffs for a seventh consecutive year.
Malone, 53, was the fourth-longest tenured head coach in the league and the winningest coach in franchise history with a regular-season record of 471-324 in 10 years at the helm, plus 44 playoff wins. He is the only head coach Nikola Jokic has ever played for in the NBA.
Nuggets lead assistant David Adelman, who joined Malone’s staff in 2017, will take over as interim head coach for the remainder of the season. Denver faces the Sacramento Kings in a road game Wednesday (8 p.m. MT).
“This decision was not made lightly and was evaluated very carefully,” Josh Kroenke said in a statement, “and we do it only with the intention of giving our group the best chance at competing for the 2025 NBA championship.”
Jokic did not approach Nuggets ownership to request changes, a source told The Post, but he was notified of the moves in advance. His agent, Misko Raznatovic, visited Denver from Serbia last week.
Booth, 48, was in the final year of his contract as general manager. He has worked in Denver’s front office since 2017 and held the GM title since July 2020, when former president of basketball operations Tim Connelly promoted him to replace Arturas Karnisovas.
Booth took the reins as Denver’s top decision-maker after Connelly left for a job with the Timberwolves in May 2022. Connelly was responsible for assembling the core that brought Denver a championship — Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, Michael Porter Jr. and Aaron Gordon — but Booth put the finishing touches on the roster by signing Bruce Brown, trading for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and drafting Christian Braun and Peyton Watson.
Since the championship season in 2022-23, Malone and Booth have clashed over the direction of the team, sources told The Post, leading to a culture in which “coaches don’t trust the front office and front office (employees) don’t trust the coaches,” one source described.
Disagreements between Malone and Booth stemmed from both Malone’s lineup decisions and Booth’s roster-building philosophy. In Booth’s view, the path to more championships required strong investment in young players through the draft, especially to navigate a new collective bargaining agreement that placed punitive restrictions on teams with expensive payrolls.
Malone grew frustrated with Booth’s reliance on those young players to form a rotation in the middle of a championship window, often preferring to play veterans instead. Six players on Denver’s 15-man roster this season were drafted in the last three years using the 21st overall pick or later.
Booth wanted Malone to prioritize 2023 second-round pick Jalen Pickett over the last two years, sources told The Post, especially in cases when starting point guard Jamal Murray was injured. Instead, Malone often played Collin Gillespie last season despite Gillespie being ineligible to play in the playoffs because he was on a two-way contract. Malone also leaned heavily on 17-year veteran Russell Westbrook for minutes at point guard this season over Pickett, despite Westbrook’s struggles with turnovers.
“Russ has been around the block,” Malone said last Sunday when asked why he feels it’s important to stick with the 36-year-old. “He knows what big games are about. And we’re playing a lot of guys that have no idea what big games are about.”
Multiple key players lost confidence in Malone’s messaging by the time the Kroenkes made their decision, sources said. Malone seemed to sense it himself. After a recent loss in Portland, he delivered what he described as “brutally honest” remarks to the locker room.
“They’re not going to go back and watch their minutes, because nobody watches their minutes,” Malone said. “Nobody watches film. So we’ll have to show them the film.”
The Malone Years: A decade-long timeline of Michael Malone’s tenure in Denver
The working relationship between Malone and Booth grew more tense as they butted heads over offseason decisions and inaction at the trade deadline the last two years.
When Caldwell-Pope became a free agent last July, the Nuggets didn't match a contract offer from the Orlando Magic, choosing instead to place their faith in Braun as a lead defensive guard. Braun has had an excellent third season in the NBA, but the team's defensive rating has fallen from eighth-best in the league to 20th. That regression was a major source of frustration for Malone throughout this season, but it also was a factor in the organization's growing impatience with him.
Meanwhile, the Nuggets and Booth discussed a contract extension early this season, sources said. The two sides were "at the 1-yard line," according to one source, but negotiations stalled after Booth didn't agree to the Kroenkes' offer.
Denver's assistant coaches also have contracts that are set to expire after this season, which has caused a "lot of anxiety," one source said. No other coaches or front office officials were fired Tuesday.
"It wasn't fun to be around that environment," another source told The Post. "Everyone was waiting for an endpoint."
The Nuggets didn't name an acting general manager, but Booth's assistant GM, Tommy Balcetis, remains with the organization.
Josh Kroenke said in an interview with team-owned Altitude Sports that he intends to conduct a full search to fill both positions permanently after the season ends.
Michael Malone by the numbers
Michael Malone was fired as Nuggets head coach on Tuesday after a 10-year tenure that was the longest and most successful in franchise history. Here's a look at his time in Denver by the numbers:
471: Nuggets regular-season wins under Malone, the most for any head coach in franchise history. Doug Moe is second with 432.
44: Nuggets playoff wins under Malone, which is nearly double the number of postseason victories of the No. 2 coach in franchise history (Doug Moe, 24).
.590: Malone's regular-season winning percentage in Denver. Before his arrival, the Nuggets had a losing record (1,943-1,951) over their first 48 seasons.
8: Winning seasons under Malone, which is tied with George Karl for the most for any Nuggets head coach. That includes this season (currently 47-32).
6: Consecutive playoff appearances under Malone since 2018-19. The Nuggets advanced past the first round in all but one of those postseason trips.
9: Playoff series won by the Nuggets under Malone, which matches the number of series won by the franchise over the 40 seasons before he arrived in Denver.
1: Number of times the Nuggets have reached the NBA Finals and won a league championship. Both happened with Malone on the bench in 2023.
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