Nuggets fire coach Malone and won’t extend GM Booth in stunning move as postseason looms

The Nuggets are 47-32 this season with three games left but have dropped four consecutive games and are in a logjam of teams fighting for home-court advantage in Round 1 of the playoffs. Denver won the title in 2023 and lost a Game 7 at home in the Western Conference semifinals a year ago to Minnesota.

Malone pointed the finger at himself after the most recent loss, a 125-120 defeat to Indiana on Sunday.

“I’ll start with me: We’ve lost four games in a row and I’m never going to this-guy, that-guy. How about me, as a head coach, not doing my job to the best of my ability,” Malone said. “We haven’t lost four in a row in a long time. It’s really easy to be together and say ‘family’ when you win, but when you’re losing games, can you stay together?”

The four-game slide comes despite Nuggets star Nikola Jokic — a winner of three of the last four NBA MVP awards — having a historic season, averaging 30 points, 12.8 rebounds and 10.2 assists per game. But even that wasn’t good enough for Denver to enter the final week of the season certain of having home court in Round 1.

After that loss to the Pacers, Jokic was asked his biggest concern with the team right now.

“I don’t know. Maybe we just, maybe we just … I don’t know, actually,” Jokic said.

The Nuggets are hoping a shakeup might provide the answer.

Malone had the fourth-longest tenure of any active NBA coach, behind San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich, Miami’s Erik Spoelstra and Golden State’s Steve Kerr.

Malone won 471 regular-season games in Denver, 39 more than Doug Moe for the franchise’s all-time coaching lead.

“While the timing of this decision is unfortunate, as Coach Malone helped build the foundation of our now championship level program, it is a necessary step to allow us to compete at the highest level right now. Championship level standards and expectations remain in place for the current season, and as we look to the future, we look forward to building on the foundations laid by Coach Malone over his record-breaking 10-year career in Denver,” Kroenke said.

Malone had consistent success in Denver. The Nuggets finished with losing records in his first two seasons and posted winning records in his next eight years with the club.

This season’s postseason appearance will be the team’s seventh in a row; it has not clinched a playoff berth yet this season but is assured of finishing no worse than in the play-in tournament.

Starting with the first playoff appearance under Malone in 2019, the Nuggets got out of the first round six times in seven chances. They made the Western Conference finals in the Walt Disney World bubble in 2020 and then rolled to the championship by winning 16 of 20 playoff games in 2023.

It is the second time a postseason-bound team has fired a coach in the last two weeks. Memphis parted ways with Taylor Jenkins late last month, replacing him with Tuomas Iisalo on an interim basis.

Booth came to the Nuggets in 2017 as an assistant general manager and was promoted to GM in July 2020. He signed his most recent contract with the club in 2022.

Kroenke credited Booth “for helping put the final pieces in place for the roster that delivered Denver and our fans their first NBA championship.”

“Calvin’s knowledge of the game, his passion for scouting, and his long history as a player and executive in the NBA helped lift our organization to new heights which we will continue moving forward,” Kroenke said.

The Nuggets play Wednesday at Sacramento.

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba

Tim Reynolds, The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

Nuggets fire coach Malone and won’t extend GM Booth in stunning move as postseason looms

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