Less than two full seasons after winning their first NBA championship, the Denver Nuggets have fired head coach Michael Malone and general manager Calvin Booth, cleaning house in a surprise move with three games remaining before the 2025 playoffs.
Both were informed of the decision by team president Josh Kroenke on Tuesday morning, sources with knowledge of the situation told The Denver Post. The Nuggets are in the midst of a season-worst four-game losing streak that has jeopardized their 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. 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 visits the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday.
“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.”
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, Malone and Booth have clashed over the direction of the team, sources told The Post, relating both to Malone’s in-game decisions and Booth’s roster-building philosophy. In Booth’s view, the path to more championships required investment in the development of 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 viable 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 pick or later.
Booth wanted Malone to prioritize 2023 second-round pick Jalen Pickett over the last two seasons, sources told The Post, especially in cases when starting point guard Jamal Murray was injured. Instead last season, Malone often played Collin Gillespie, who was on a two-way contract with Denver and was therefore ineligible to play in the playoffs. Malone had also leaned heavily on 17-year veteran Russell Westbrook for minutes at point guard this season despite Westbrook’s recent 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.”
The working relationship between Malone and Booth grew more tense as they butted heads over offseason moves and inaction at the trade deadline the last two years, sources said. 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 offered Booth a contract extension early this season, sources told The Post. The two sides were “at the 1-yard line” to reach an agreement, according to one source, but negotiations stalled after Booth didn’t agree to the terms.
Denver’s assistant coaches also have contracts that are set to expire after this season, sources said, but no other coaches or front office executives have been fired. The Nuggets didn’t name an acting general manager, but Booth’s assistant general manager, Tommy Balcetis, remains with the organization.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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