In shocking move, Nuggets fire head coach Malone, GM Calvin Booth as playoffs loom

Michael Malone, who coached the Denver Nuggets to the NBA title in 2023 and has led the team to eight consecutive winning seasons, was fired Tuesday in a stunning move that comes with less than a week in the regular season.

Also out: general manager Calvin Booth, whose contract will not be renewed. The Nuggets said David Adelman will become the coach for the remainder of the season.

Josh Kroenke, the vice chairman of Kroenke Sports and Entertainment, said "it is with no pleasure" that the Nuggets made the change at coach.

"This decision was not made lightly and was evaluated very carefully, and we do it only with the intention of giving our group the best chance at competing for the 2025 NBA Championship and delivering another title to Denver and our fans everywhere," Kroenke said.

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.

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 even having home court in Round 1.

After the most recent loss, a 125-120 defeat to Indiana on Sunday, 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