Inside Nuggets’ ‘cold war’ that led to firing both Michael Malone, Calvin Booth

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Calvin Booth was done with Michael Malone.

It was Monday afternoon in Denver, and the Nuggets’ general manager had reached his breaking point with the franchise’s longtime coach whose team was on a four-game slide. The Nuggets’ locker room was a mess, with team and league sources indicating that the franchise’s most important players, including three-time league MVP Nikola Jokić, had grown frustrated and fatigued by Malone’s fiery ways.

The strained relationship between Booth and Malone, who had been at odds for most of their previous five years together, was making matters even worse for everyone underneath them. Jokić’s brilliance had been dimmed by these dynamics for far too long, with some of his most magnificent performances coming during this recent stretch of misery in which the team lost 13 of 23 games. So Booth, according to league and team sources, told people close to him that it was time for Malone to go. This wasn’t the first time Booth had felt this way, either, as team sources say Booth considered firing Malone heading into the 2023 championship run.

Even with the friction that had festered more than ever this season, this was an extraordinary stance to take. The Nuggets were two years removed from the franchise’s first title, and two years away from the end of Malone’s contract that, per league sources, averaged more than $10 million annually. Still, Booth, the 48-year-old former NBA player who had nearly secured a contract extension of his own months before, had reached the conclusion that a coaching change was the most logical solution. But there was a serious problem with his plan: Booth, in the last year of his deal and well aware that his own Nuggets future was now in peril without that extension, no longer had the authority to make that sort of monumental move. He would have to wait it out and see what the postseason ahead might hold — or so he thought.

Just as Booth was deliberating about his dysfunctional dilemma, Nuggets team president Josh Kroenke — the son of owner Stan Kroenke — was secretly finalizing the family’s choice that was years in the making. After all the attempts that had been made to repair this Booth-Malone relationship, including sitdown meetings with Josh Kroenke early this season and a mandate to make it work in a more healthy manner, he was about to fly in from the top rope on Tuesday.

The Kroenkes would fire them both. And in the end, with the goal of preserving the 30-year-old Jokić’s precious prime at the forefront of the decision, there would be no winner in this Nuggets “cold war,” as team sources described it.

“The stuff off the court was even worse than the stuff on the court,” one Nuggets source said. “Everyone felt the weight of it.”

The choice to fire the general manager and the coach at the same time is a rare one in the NBA. But it was the timing of it all — with just three games left in the regular season — that made it so much more stunning.

The rationale was two-fold: In making this move, they would eliminate much of the negativity that team officials had struggled to navigate all season long, an emotional roller coaster that appeared to be bothering Jokić, in particular, more than ever. What’s more, this approach would also give Malone’s replacement, longtime assistant David Adelman, a chance to audition for the job heading into this offseason.

Like all of Malone’s assistant coaches, Adelman — who joined the Nuggets in 2017 and is likely to be in the running for other head-coaching jobs this summer — is in the last year of his contract. League sources say the Portland Trail Blazers, for one, are likely to have interest in Adelman if they eventually decide to part ways with Chauncey Billups. Adelman’s father, Rick, was at the helm during Portland’s late 1980s-early 1990s run that included two trips to the NBA Finals.

Team sources say David Adelman, whose steadiness and calm demeanor is in stark contrast to Malone’s manner, has a tremendous amount of support from the most important players. And if the Nuggets wanted to get a good look at what Adelman might be able to do before deciding how to proceed on the coaching front, the time was now.

The Kroenkes, league sources say, were also influenced by the Memphis Grizzlies’ recent choice to fire head coach Taylor Jenkins. There was a shared belief in the logic there, this notion that resetting with less problematic leaders right before the playoffs might spark something special in the weeks, and perhaps months, to come.

As for the front office, Josh Kroenke has made it clear since Tuesday’s firings that there will be a search for Booth’s replacement. League sources expect there to be discussions about a possible reunion with Tim Connelly, the former Nuggets general manager who drafted Jokić and whose departure to the Minnesota Timberwolves in May 2022 led to Booth’s promotion from his assistant general manager role.

While Connelly has an opt-out in his contract for this summer, it’s widely believed that Timberwolves owners Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore will do what it takes to retain him. League sources say Connelly’s right-hand man in Minnesota, general manager Matt Lloyd, is expected to receive consideration for the Nuggets job as well.

If only Booth and Malone had found a way to make it work, none of this would be necessary. Instead, with the Kroenkes opting for the preemptive detox approach, this rift that caused so much organizational wreckage is finally behind them.

When Connelly hired Malone in June 2015 — six months after his surprising firing by the Sacramento Kings — it didn’t take long for their Nuggets co-workers to see how well they clicked. Malone’s intensity is legendary in league circles, the kind that can both inspire or demoralize his team depending on the day. But Connelly, who had come from the New Orleans Pelicans’ front office to replace Masai Ujiri as the Nuggets’ top executive two years before, had a calm and inclusive style that served as the perfect balance. The collaborative nature of their pairing, team sources say, was a key factor in why it worked so well.

Yet when Connelly left for Minnesota, with Booth the natural replacement after his three previous years in the front office, everything changed. Booth had strong views about how to turn this perennially good team into a great one, and was more inclined to follow his own instincts rather than lean on Malone to the same degree. Malone, who was clear-eyed about his own visions for the roster, suddenly found himself with less of a voice on personnel matters than before. Much to Malone’s chagrin, the decision-making process was indisputably different.

Those difficult dynamics were more manageable in recent years, never more so than the 2023 title run in which two of Booth’s best moves — the trade that brought Kentavious Caldwell-Pope from Washington in July 2022 and the drafting of guard Christian Braun in that same summer — played a pivotal part in the franchise winning its first championship.

Booth’s roster construction philosophy differed significantly from Connelly as time progressed. Connelly put skilled and cerebral players around Jokić and Jamal Murray, with the occasional defensive stopper. And that proved successful. Denver’s run to the Western Conference finals in 2020 was predicated on skill and toughness.

Booth, however, wanted length and athleticism around his two stars. He sought to put his stamp on the roster, which led to Caldwell-Pope, Bruce Brown and Jeff Green becoming important pieces on the 2023 title team. He then sought to merge two timelines, with the idea of maximizing the championship window around Jokić.

And that’s how the relationship between Booth and Malone truly soured. Booth wanted Malone to play the younger guys that he drafted, as he believed he had rotation worthy pieces, particularly in Jalen Pickett and Peyton Watson. Booth wanted Malone to expand his rotation, especially in 2024, when Denver was defending its title. But Malone is a coach that latches on to players that he trusts, especially when winning is at stake, which is not all that different from many coaches.

The irony of the 2023 team was that Booth and Malone gave each other the best of both worlds. Booth supplied Malone with Brown and Green, and those two provided quality depth, along with Braun. Malone recognized that he had veterans he could trust, and adjusted his rotations accordingly. In that year, the Booth/Malone working relationship thrived, and largely because of it, the Nuggets were able to win a championship.

On some levels, Booth and Malone blamed each other for Denver’s second-round playoff demise in 2024, when the Nuggets physically tired in the second half of Game 7 against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Booth thought Malone should have used more players during the regular season, which could have led to a fresher team. Malone thought Booth could have given him a stronger roster with which to work.

It didn’t help that some of Booth’s moves on the margins since the championship season didn’t work out. Arguably the biggest mistake was giving Zeke Nnaji a four-year contract, and he’s currently not in Denver’s rotation. Booth signed Dario Šarić last offseason, and he quickly fell out of favor with Malone after starting the year as Jokić’s primary backup. Even with Booth’s success, those moves worsened an already strained relationship between coach and General Manager.

Russell Westbrook might have been the biggest lightning rod. On one hand, Westbrook has been largely productive this season, and has provided some energy on the floor to a team that needed it. Booth took a big chance on Westbrook, in acquiring him last summer off the free agent scrap heap. The front office sought and received the blessing of Jokić before making the move.

But the Westbrook experience has turned erratic lately, as his play on the floor has tailed off. The fact that Pickett has emerged recently with his ability to make shots and provide a calming presence on the floor, has provided a significant contrast to Westbrook’s style of play.

In Wednesday night’s 124-116 win over the Sacramento Kings, Adelman benched Westbrook down the stretch of the fourth quarter, choosing instead to close with Pickett. Westbrook has a player option worth $3.4 million to return to the Nuggets next season, but league sources say his future with the organization is uncertain nonetheless.

When the Nuggets’ regular season began in late October, there were strong indications that Booth and Malone would be forging ahead as imperfect partners for years to come. League sources say Booth had extensive talks with the Kroenkes about an extension, and was convinced that the completion of the deal was a matter of when, not if. The Nuggets are widely known to pay front office executives below market value, and Booth — buoyed by the belief that the championship meant he deserved more — made a final push to increase the salary that still would have paled in comparison to Malone’s. But then came the on-court struggles.

On opening night, a one-sided home loss to the Thunder — who have since become the class of the West — was followed by a Jokić news conference that raised the eyebrows of many reporters in the room.

“We are not a good shooting team,” he said so plainly.

Six weeks later, as the Nuggets hovered around .500 (11-10) and the doubts about the team’s direction grew internally, the extension that Booth had believed was a mere formality was nowhere to be found. The Kroenkes, league sources say, had pulled it. And just like that, with the February trade deadline looming and Booth’s freedom to make moves declining more by the day, the uncertainty that surrounded their situation was there to stay.

It was clear that Denver’s roster this season wasn’t the same as it had been in 2023, or even 2024. The Nuggets have sorely missed Caldwell-Pope. He was their best perimeter defender, but also a terrific fifth option. The Nuggets were often listless defensively. And there were alarming signs throughout the season of major things being amiss. There were two losses to the rebuilding Washington Wizards. There was a loss to the New Orleans Pelicans. There were efforts, win or lose, that led to exasperated Malone news conferences, where he seemed to be pleading with his team through his media obligations.

Denver’s vibe was off, something the Nuggets talked about extensively when addressing the firings on Wednesday night. Things change on the floor plenty. But the locker room wasn’t solid. And because of that, it was clear that changes needed to be made.

When it came to Malone and his level of support in the locker room, team and league sources say the bottom started to fall out in mid-March. The home loss against Washington was a new low, with the tanking Wizards scoring at will in a 126-123 win that left Jokić fuming afterward. The defense, which was eighth in the league last season and top 16 in each of the previous six seasons, had fallen to 22nd at that time (it’s currently 21st). At the time, league sources say, rival teams began to hear that Jokić’s patience was wearing thin with the sad state of affairs.

It got even worse six days later, when a Nuggets loss at Portland (128-109) sparked a postgame news conference from Malone in which he held nothing back on his players.

“My job is to be honest, and sometimes brutally honest,” Malone said. “And tonight, it was a brutally honest message (after the game). And the guys who are full of s— won’t hear it. They’ll say, ‘Coach is trippin’.’

“They’re not going to go back and watch 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.’ Nobody said a word.”

All the while, Malone’s choice to continue supporting Westbrook — despite the frustration he was causing on and off the floor — ultimately led to a loss of credibility among the team’s key players. It was one thing when Malone handled Jokić and Murray with more leniency than the rest of their group, but affording Westbrook that sort of treatment, even with his Hall of Fame resume, wasn’t received well by some.

That dynamic intensified recently, starting with Westbrook’s meltdown against Minnesota on April 1 in which his late-game blunders cost Denver the win and spoiled Jokić’s 60-point triple-double. After a brutal Jokić turnover late in a loss to Indiana on Sunday, when he and Westbrook miscommunicated up top and the big man’s pass flew out of bounds, Malone defended his veteran point guard in a way that was seen by some as a shot at the team’s young talents.

Michael Malone on Russell Westbrook:

“He knows what big games are about, and we’re playing a lot of guys that have no idea what big games are about.”

“Having a veteran that’s been there and done that can also be reassuring for some of those guys.” pic.twitter.com/pzIJajl9YI

— DNVR Nuggets (@DNVR_Nuggets) April 6, 2025

By the time they fell at Golden State on April 4 — an eighth loss in 12 games — Jokić’s angst was there for all the world to see during an early fourth-quarter moment that was captured by the cameras.

On Wednesday night, a resolute Adelman took the podium for the first time as Denver’s interim head coach. He was steely faced, but ready. He was in the same city that his father had become a local legend two decades ago as coach of the Chris Webber-led Kings. When father and son talked on the phone Wednesday afternoon, the message was to embrace the moment for what it was.

“The bottom line is that we have to stay unified,” David Adelman said. “It’s been a moment. You have to deal with it. For all of us moving to different roles, we have to remember that we are in the mix here. We still have a chance to do something special.”

Throughout Tuesday afternoon, into the night and Wednesday morning, that was the message from the Nuggets organization to their players. The season isn’t over. The chance to accomplish something significant is at hand, especially with Murray — according to team sources — likely to return from his six-game absence (hamstring injury) on Friday at Memphis. While the 28-year-old started slow this season after signing a four-year, $208 million max extension last summer, he had returned to peak form in mid-December en route to averaging a career-high 21.6 points per game (along with six assists and 3.8 rebounds). For all of the spotty play, the Nuggets (48-32) as of Thursday morning are still in the fourth spot in the Western Conference, which would yield home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

But as they all know, it’s on the players, more than anyone else, to turn this around. Adelman, in addressing his team, made it clear that the vibe needed to change, for the better, and that the effort on the floor needed to increase.

The Nuggets indeed played with an urgency and energy not always seen through the course of the season. Adelman’s rotations weren’t all that different from Malone’s, but there were some tweaks. There was more rest for Jokić at the start of the second quarter. Jokić had less overall usage when he was on the floor. When Westbrook had a mini-meltdown early in the second quarter, and again in the fourth quarter,  Adelman quickly subbed him out for Pickett.

The players know they are now in the crosshairs of criticism. Their coach has been fired. Their general manager has been fired. It’s largely on them to make something of whatever is remaining of the season.

“In my country, if someone gets fired, probably you’re next,” Jokić said, meaning the players. “I think it definitely changed something.”

As Jokić shared after the win over the Kings, he spoke with Josh Kroenke about the Booth-Malone decision before it was revealed publicly.

“I’m not gonna say what Josh told me,” Jokić said. “(But) I mean, I knew a little bit before everybody and he … told me, ‘We made a decision.’ So it was not a discussion. It was (their) decision. And, you know … he told me why (it was done). And so I listen and I accept it.”

In the win over the Kings, the Nuggets looked more attentive, more connected with each other on the floor and on the bench, and played with a sense of intent that hasn’t been seen in previous games.

It obviously isn’t a cure-all for what this group has been through this week. But it was an important victory. And coupled with the Golden State unexpectedly losing at home to the San Antonio Spurs, it was a victory that put the Nuggets one step closer to clinching a top-six spot in the Western Conference and avoiding the Play-In tournament.

Denver’s locker room after the game was mostly quiet. The very top of the Nuggets’ braintrust, Kroenke included, milled around. Adelman accepted sporadic handshakes for his first win in his new role. But there was a sense of relief for getting the first game without Malone out of the way.

The positive vibes, which had been lacking for so much of the season, were back.

“I’ve been talking to the team for eight years, and so I didn’t feel like there was a big difference,” Adelman said. “They’ve heard my voice forever, especially Nikola, Jamal and Michael (Porter Jr.). So to me, it was different responsibilities and delegation and in-game (duties). But behind closed doors, I didn’t really feel any difference. Outside of the stress of what had gone on, I don’t think they heard me any different than they heard me before. So it felt pretty natural, in that sense, to step into it. … It felt pretty comfortable.”

(Illustration: Will Tullos / The Athletic; Aaron Ontiveroz / Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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