The Denver Nuggets' decision to fire coach Michael Malone and general manager Calvin Booth with just three games remaining in the regular season is an absolute stunner, but that doesn't mean there weren't some very clear hints that things were not going well for the 2023 NBA champions.
The Nuggets have lost four straight games and have struggled since the All-Star break. One just has to go back to March 21, after a 128–109 loss at the depleted Portland Trail Blazers, to hear from Malone himself just how dire things seemed for Denver of late.
During his very brief postgame press conference, Malone ripped the team's effort, citing Portland's 51 total points off of offensive rebounds and turnovers in the game.
“Yeah, that was embarrassing. That was just a joke. Who are we kidding?” Malone said.
“Eleven games to go and that's the effort we put forth. I'm embarrassed by that game, and our approach and how we played. 26 points on the offensive glass. Rebounding is effort, rebounding is toughness, rebounding is desire. And they just kicked our butts on the offensive glass."
While Denver clings to the fourth-seed in the Western Conference on Tuesday, he warned the team that they could fall into the play-in tournament, something that remains in play. As of Monday, the Nuggets can still finish anywhere from third to eighth in the Western Conference.
“I don't know what our guys are thinking with 11 [games] to go. I challenge them to look at the standings, look at our remaining schedule, and if we continue to play the way we're playing, we will be in the play-in tournament,” said Malone. “Very simple. It's just the way it is, and I think every guy has got to look themselves in the mirror and start coming to each respective game with the proper mindset and have some pride. I didn't think we played with any pride tonight.”
Asked whether he was worried about how his team will react to his candor, Malone said he was not, and then was quite frank about how players on the team either tune him out or fail to watch film on their own to address the concerns he's flagged.
"I don't really care. It's not my job to evaluate how they take things. My job is to be honest, and sometimes brutally honest. And tonight, it was a brutally honest message, and the guys that are full of s--- won't hear it," Malone said. "You know, they'll say, 'Coach is trippin'.' And the guys that maybe do really care—they're not going to go back and what their minutes, because nobody watches their minutes, nobody watches film. So we'll have to show them the film, and I said if somebody disagrees with me, please speak up. And nobody said a word. So again, I'm not really concerned with how they took that message. My thing is being honest with how we just played. Just got blown out in L.A., come here against a team that's down three, four, five starters, and you mess around with the game and that's what happens.”
Malone's own comments from just a few weeks ago may help shed some light on why Denver made the decision it did with just three games remaining before the playoffs. Even so, firing a coach less than two seasons removed from the franchise's first NBA championship just days before the start of the playoffs is difficult to grasp.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Michael Malone's March Quote About Nuggets' Effort Resurfaces After His Firing.
