Almost one year ago, with only three games remaining in the regular season, the Nuggets fired Michael Malone; making the shocking decision to part ways with the winningest head coach in franchise history.
At the moment, it felt like it might have been an overreaction, and that remains a fair question right now, as the David Adelman-led Nuggets have been in the midst of a painful stretch that shows no signs of getting better any time soon.
Denver earned enough free throws late to sneak past lowly Utah on Monday, ending a brief two-game losing streak. But struggling against a lottery team isn’t a good omen when what lies ahead is this daunting: The Los Angeles Lakers, Oklahoma City Thunder, New York Knicks, Houston Rockets and San Antonio Spurs are all on deck.
Gulp.
Things are not looking all that rosy for a team that was talking about a June parade at the start of the season.
That was then. Now, it’s reasonable to wonder if the Nuggets be doing better if Malone was still at the helm.
At the moment, Denver looks totally discombobulated. Even while they lead the NBA in scoring, they struggle to score in tight games down the stretch. The sheer number – and timing – of their recent glut of turnovers is alarming. Their “two-man game” that’s based on a series of high pick-and-roll plays looks predictable and tired. There’s far too much dribbling and an alarming absence of ball movement. Opponents are successful when they double-team Denver’s All-Stars Nikola Jokić and/or Jamal Murray late in games. Lazy passes that lead to opponents’ baskets are commonplace, as are desperation three-point misses with the shot clock expiring. Sometimes it looks like the five guys in Nuggets jerseys were just thrown together at the local rec center, using a helter-skelter offense that’s commonplace at the local Y.
There’s no rhythm to what Denver is doing at either end, just an over-reliance on their two stars to carry the load.
If we’re being honest, we all know that it’s highly unlikely that a veteran coach like Malone would have allowed things to reach this point. His demanding style may have needed tempering, but did management over-correct when they abruptly fired him?
Nuggets Nation was thrilled with the inexperienced, but un-Malone-like Adelman when he took over very late last season and Denver took eventual champion Oklahoma City to seven games in the Western Conference playoffs. Then this season began with a hot start that was only derailed by a series of key injuries. The rookie head coach was getting high praise for keeping the Nuggets in prime playoff position without the services of Aaron Gordon, Cam Johnson, three-time MVP Jokić, Christian Braun and backup center Jonas Valančiūnas. They won 10 of 16 contests while their best player sat out most of January.
Since Jokić – along with Valančiūnas, Braun and Johnson – returned to the lineup, Denver has struggled to fit all the pieces together at both ends of the floor. They’re just 6-8 since Joker’s return. Adelman’s answer has been to talk about how much better the team will be when Aaron Gordon and Peyton Watson return to the lineup. That hasn’t happened yet, and nothing on the floor has changed.
Ironically, Adelman was the beneficiary of a series of offseason, front-office moves that Malone would have killed to have. A veteran group of bench players, as opposed to the young and unproven reserves that former general manager Calvin Booth favored, was brought in. Perhaps if those moves had been made sooner, the 10-year head man may have been a little easier to be around?
Adelman is a good young coach, but this still looks very much like Malone’s team, absent the same competitive fire and disciplined approach. It’s the same offense, just lacking the sharpshooting of Michael Porter Jr. and, due to injury, Gordon roaming the baseline. If that was going to be the case, scheme-wise, then why not just keep Malone and get him the additional weapons he was asking for?
These Nuggets are currently closer to the play-in games than to any sort of home-court advantage for the upcoming postseason. If they continue to flounder, especially against the tougher teams on their schedule, and become a quick out in this year’s playoffs, tougher questions than, ‘Should they have kept Malone?’ will circle around their coaching situation.
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