Post Malone: Nuggets shock NBA, fire Denver’s winningest coach

The Denver Nuggets have fired the winningest coach in their franchise history, Michael Malone.

Malone became the winningest coach in Nuggets history this season and is the lone basketball bench boss to win a title in Denver. He led the Nuggets for 10 seasons to a 471-327 record. Malone, 53, had led the Nuggets to eight-straight winning seasons. He’s the only coach franchise icon Nikola Jokic has ever known, and Denver’s gritty style will resonate with the franchise long past Malone’s days on the sideline.

“It is with no pleasure that we announce that we have relieved Michael Malone of his head coaching duties, effectively immediately. David Adelman will assume our head coaching role for the remainder of the 2024-25 season. 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, “Nuggets owner Josh Kroenke said in a statement.”While the timing of this decision is unfortunate, as Coach Malone helped build the foundation of our now championship-level program, it is a necessary step to allow us to compete at the highest level right now. Championship-level standards and expectations remain in place for the current season, and as we look to the future, we look forward to building on the foundations laid by Coach Malone over his record-breaking 10-year career in Denver. There is no amount of gratitude that we can properly convey to his contributions since he joined our franchise in 2015. It is with our utmost respect that we would like to thank Coach Malone for the most successful decade in Nuggets history, setting the all-time wins record and helping deliver Denver our first championship.”

The Nuggets are currently on a four-game losing streak with just three games left in the season and may drop out of the playoffs entirely and into the Play-In Tournament.

David Adelman will be the Nuggtes’ interim head coach for the end of the season and into the playoffs. His first game is against Sacramento on Wednesday. The rest of the Nuggets staff will remain with the team, according to the Action Network. The move is tied for the latest coaching change in NBA history, with the 1981 Hubie Brown firing.

Malone’s firing follows a recent trend around the NBA where all of Toronto, Milwaukee, Phoenix and Los Angeles’ coaches have been fired two years after a trip to the NBA Finals. The Nuggets jaunt to the Finals and win in 2023, while Malone gets fired just before the 2025 season finishes. It also follows a shocking trend around the league, where Memphis fired Taylor Jenkins deep into the season a few weeks back after they entered a tailspin.

Malone passed Doug Moe’s mark of 432 franchise-leading mark earlier this season. Moe coached the team from 1980 through 1990, defining what the golden era of Denver hoops was before Malone’s tenure. Moe’s up-and-down teams captained by Alex English in rainbow jerseys is a lasting image.

Moe led the franchise to the conference finals in 1984-1985, where the team lost to the Lakers. A story all too familiar in Nuggets history where the franchise’s high water mark was losing to Los Angeles in the West Finals. They did that in 2008-09 when George Karl’s best team flamed out against the Lakers there. Karl coached the Nuggets to 423 wins during his nine years at the helm. Malone was the first to break through that barrier, though the Nuggets lost in their first conference finals to the Lakers during his time. They came back a few years later and swept the Lakers en route to the 2023 championship then they topped Los Angeles again a year later in the 2024 postseason.

Malone has another 44 wins in Denver during the postseason, which is by far the most by any coach.

Malone will be known as the whistle next to Jokic’s brilliance, the bench boss for all the amazing Jamal Murray moments and all the times the Nuggets have pulled off improbable things—the seven-person win in Utah, the multiple 3-1 comebacks, and the never-say-die attitude that has carried. Aside from Malone, who knows if Jokic ever starts in the NBA or how he develops. Same could be said for Murray and Michael Porter Jr—the trio of which are already some of the greatest players in team history.

The coach was under contract through the 2026-27 season. His ultimate undoing was that never-say-die fight dissipating in recent months. It went so far that the coach admitted players weren’t watching film.

Malone was hired after two years leading the Kings where he was fired. A long-time assistant around the NBA before, and his father was a lifelong coach. The son will be remembered in Denver sports history for as long as they play basketball. But the Jokic era will now continue without Malone.