Off court drama, poor record lead to Malone and Booth firings
The Denver Nuggets cleaned house Tuesday. The team fired head coach Michael Malone and chose not to extend general manager Calvin Booth’s contract. With just days from the start of the NBA playoffs, why did the Nuggets make this decision?
Since the All-Star break, Denver have gone 11-13 and lost four straight games with danger of falling into the play-in tournament. Entering the 2024-25 season, sources had told ESPN that there was a growing tension between Malone and Booth.
Since the Nuggets won the chip in 2023, they have gone with younger role players in Christian Braun and Peyton Watson, skipping out on high tier free agents and avoiding the luxury tax. Of the championship roster, they’ve most notably lost Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Bruce Brown and Jeff Green. That loss of talent strained the relationship between Malone and the front office.
“There was this urge to compete, especially from the players and the coaches and even myself," Booth said according to ESPN. “You want to win, especially coming off the heels of winning the championship. And that's probably where the tension started.”
“I think everybody had the best intent going in. There was buy-in,” Booth continued. . “But I think competition and the focus on that can distract you from the buy-in.”
Malone’s firing was less about the bad stretch of games and more about the unraveling relationship with management. But then why was Booth fired?
Booth wasn’t technically fired, the Nuggets chose not to extend his current contract, a polite way of showing him the door. While Malone is taking the fall for the on-court performance, Booth has been responsible for the roster, which has gotten notably worse after the championship. His choice to go young has failed to deliver depth in the non-Nikola Jokic minutes.
The championship window of the Nuggets has been damaged. With Jokic still in his prime, wasting that window is unacceptable. If ownership felt Booth’s decisions put winning another championship at risk, then moving on makes sense.
A championship contending team needs cohesion between players, coaches and the front office. After 2023 it seems like the Nuggets lost that cohesion. Ownership has decided they need a clean slate from top to bottom. Owner Josh Kronke released a statement highlighting why he fired Malone.
“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,” Kronke said. “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.”
Kronke was less direct when it came to Booth, and thanked him for his contributions to the team.
This is a developing story and will be updated on mountaintimesports.com