Nuggets' Michael Malone Fired Ahead of 2025 NBA Playoffs, GM Calvin Booth Won't Return
The Denver Nuggets fired head coach Michael Malone on Tuesday with just three games left in the regular season. Denver also announced that general manager Calvin Booth will not return to the team next season.
ESPN's Shams Charania first reported the news. Charania described the moves as a "full clean out" and said players were "surprised" by Malone's dismissal. David Adelman will serve as the interim head coach in Malone's absence, according to the team.
The decisions come with Denver riding a four-game losing streak but still sitting fourth in the Western Conference at 47-32.
Fans were already floored when the Memphis Grizzlies dismissed head coach Taylor Jenkins in late March with the team on track to make the playoffs. This is a step beyond even that.
Malone leaves with more wins (471) than any other Nuggets coach, and he was responsible for guiding the franchise to its first NBA championship in 2023. Unlike Jenkins, he had proven he could take the Nuggets to the mountaintop.
Booth, meanwhile, helped to put the finishing touches on the 2023 title squad. The arrivals of Nikola Jokić, Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. predated his promotion to general manager in 2020, but he oversaw the additions of Aaron Gordon, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Jeff Green.
Absent an inciting incident, it's difficult to see the logic in jettisoning both your coach and general manager this close to the postseason.
Jokić hasn't been a frequent topic of trade speculation like a lot of other stars around the NBA, but the Nuggets are clearly feeling some pressure with the three-time MVP eligible for free agency in 2027.
Maybe he would've started to think long and hard about his future if Denver suffered an early playoff exit with Malone at the helm.
The thing is, the optics are probably worse if the Nuggets don't advance to the Western Conference Finals with Adelman on the sideline. The scrutiny will now go beyond asking whether the roster is good enough and extend into whether this is a functional organization.
Adelman is in a tough position, too, because there's so little time for an evaluation process if he's considered a candidate to permanently succeed Malone.
Imagine Denver does get bounced earlier than expected. Adelman will still be viewed as a relatively inexperienced coach yet one who also oversaw an underwhelming postseason run.
For a long time, rival fans had some reason to envy the Nuggets. They had a transcendent talent in Jokić and a lot of continuity within the coaching staff and front office.
In one fell swoop, the outside perception of the franchise may have shifted in a big way.
