Booth vs. Malone: Inside the cold war that broke the Nuggets

Calvin Booth battled Michael Malone, and both lost the fight — but it’s the Denver Nuggets and Nikola Jokic who lost the war.

The longtime Nuggets executive and the team’s winningest head coach of all time ultimately couldn’t agree on what was the best way to support their three-time MVP, and it resulted in a shocking firing that left both without jobs on the eve of the NBA playoffs. This cold civil war between sides had impacted the entire organization, including the locker room, where frustrations from players boiled in the past few weeks. The dysfunction off the floor eventually bled onto the hardwood, with the Nuggets collapsing in the second half — and the stench from it was unlike anything smelled thus far in Jokic’s era.

Where Malone’s teams were known for fight, this one has a certain malaise.

A club once known for resolve, solutions and calm has become one where tensions run high and there’s no response to adversity.

What has been a mostly happy group of guys for years has now been reduced to the owner imploring his unit to just try hard and have fun the rest of the way.

“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.”

While there’s a heavy hint there that Malone has lost the locker room in recent months — the bigger question is if this team had the juice the chance a ring to begin with. A question that’s closely connected to Kroenke’s decision to offer Kentavious Caldwell-Pope an insulting deal this past summer, according to a league source. It requires a look at Booth’s roster-building failures — and his eagerness to take credit for getting the Nuggets over the top. There’s a thousand little things and some big things that went into but the result is Malone out of answers and driving the Nuggets straight for an early playoff exit. So now it’s David Adelman and the unknown that comes with installing him in the season’s final week that represents more hope for a second title than staying the course.

Maybe the biggest issue for the Nuggets since winning the title were the ones Booth and Malone had with each other, over credit, process, playing time and just about anything else a general manager and coach could fight about. The two had flashpoints with both Zeke Nnaji and Jalen Pickett, where Booth believed each should get more playing time. When they didn’t, he was upset. When they did, they struggled, which Booth chalked up to not enough room to make mistakes. The struggle led Malone to not play them, and the cycle started again. But to say Malone was unwilling to play young players is untrue. He played and developed Christian Braun into a real-deal shooting guard during the title window. Peyton Watson has become an NBA rotation player despite Justin Holiday being a bit more reliable. Yet Booth went out of his way to kneecap Malone by removing Holiday from the roster. In his spot: Russell Westbrook, whom Malone preferred to Pickett — and thus, the cycle began again. Maybe these players could have popped better if they weren’t in the crossfire; we’ll find out soon.

While it’s a far less extreme version of Golden State’s “two-timeline” approach, Booth believed the Nuggets were better off backfilling the roster and adding a few rotation players to the roster via the draft instead of finding veterans, which was Malone’s preference.

It’s this very fight and the unwillingness to compromise that had the Nuggets split into sides. Some players and staffers were Booth guys the others were Malone guys. Very few collaborated with the other side, and it became less about winning and more about who was right.

Maybe this fight wouldn’t have happened if Booth were a better communicator. Besides his mess-ups in media availabilities, he took back quotes to some national outlets where he seemingly wanted credit while at the same time he sourced stories to other outlets where he set up the blame to be on Malone. Booth’s communication issues got so bad that former Denver Post Nuggets reporter Mike Singer was brought in to help him. Together, maybe they could break free of the fight and the increasingly insular Nuggets who didn’t make a roster-impacting trade at either of the last two deadlines.

Booth called out Michael Porter Jr. and Nnaji publically, took a way-too-soon victory lap on Julain Strawther, Braun and Watson and also insulted half the roster by saying the team had only nine real players.

Malone, on the other hand, seemed to take more responsibility — facing the issues head-on. While Booth may have been warring both in front of and behind the scenes, at the very least, Malone was trying to meet him some part of the way in public. But the two couldn’t even agree on if the team needed more shooting or how they would get it.

And it’s these disagreements in roster-building that left the Denver defense in shambles. Just a season ago, the Nuggets defensive rating was fifth-best in the NBA after the All-Star Break; right now, it’s all the way down to 22nd. There’s no doubt that this team is less equipped to play defense, but it’s not as if the two units are that radically different, which points back to Malone’s defensive-first message getting lost. This has been ever-present in the second half, where the coach just started openly talking to the media about how the team doesn’t guard anyone. It got so bad that the coach admitted no one on the team had even been watching film as recently as a month ago. Malone, a master of the microphone, seemed to be using the media less to get his message across to his team and more just a resignation of his lot in life.

The players have been extremely frustrated with all of it this season, as we’ve seen a new side to Jokic and more upset guys than in recent memory. In the team’s 20th game against the Cavaliers, Jamal Murray on the court wouldn’t even meet Aaron Gordon for a huddle before free throws. Two nights later, the team lost to a Wizards team, who are 15-61 against everyone but Denver. In Washington, Jokic scored a then-career-high 56 points and called out his teammates for the first time ever.

“In my country, where I’m coming from, after this kind of stretch, you’re gonna get a paycheck that is a little bit less than you are worth,” he said on Dec. 7. “So maybe that’s what we need to do. Maybe a little motivation in that way.”

The Nuggets seemed to turn it around from that point but where there were a lot of wins there was still some underlying issues.

After a March MVP battle between Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jokic, he said, “This is my third or fourth year in a row (as a contender), so I can’t control (the vote). I will say I think I’m playing the best basketball of my life, so if that’s enough, it’s enough. If not, the guy deserves it. He’s really amazing.”

It’s the first time Jokic had outwardly made any sort of case for any MVP, admitting that it’s the best basketball he’s ever played. And he’s on the verge of averaging a 30-point triple-double for the entire season. Jokic’s masterclass has put more pressure on everyone to perform.

This all bubbled in the last week with Jokic’s best career game, a 61-point triple-double, getting spoiled by another loss to the Wolves, this time in double overtime. The heartbreaking loss pivoted on a wildly bad sequence from Westbrook, where he missed a game-sealing layup and committed a game-losing foul. That started the Nuggets on their current four-game skid, which has come with Murray sidelined due to his latest leg injury. On Friday, the Nuggets lost in Golden State, and a broadcast camera caught a rare sight — an absolutely ticked-off Jokic. Two nights later, in what is now Malone’s last game, the Nuggets blew a lead to the Pacers, all while Gordon and Watson had a heated exchange on the bench.

The season now seemed like a death march with a pending quick first-round exit if the team was lucky enough to not lose nine-straight games and go home before the playoffs even began.

So enter the nuclear option of the latest coach-firing ever — opening the door for the Nuggets to evaluate Adelman quickly and leave Denver as the underdog with zero expectations. Does any of it happen if Westbrook makes that layup — or an even easier one the next night? Heck, it might not even happen if DaRon Holmes II stays healthy. There’s a million what-ifs. It’s a thousand small moments that led the Nuggets into a corner, firing their best coach ever in the middle of a championship window just before the postseason. But that’s how desperate things have gotten in trying to make the most of Jokić — and doing right by him.

While there’s no indication Jokic called for these decisions, the Nuggets also would not have made these moves without his approval if they asked him. The conversation now shifts to what’s best and next for Jokic. How can Denver keep its best player ever happy, a low-maintenance one at that? Will things become heated? It’s the great unknown, but one thing is known: Kroenke made an extremely proactive move on Tuesday. It’s one that stunned the NBA and likely didn’t do right by Malone. Yet it’s all about Jokic, not the coach—that’s this era of basketball, and the first-ever separation of the two names now marks the start of this post-Malone future.

While the writing may have been on the wall for Booth this summer for quite a while, Malone’s inability to find solutions for the executive’s inadequate roster and, subsequently, his voice being lost on the team meant he was gone too.

The messed up part for Booth is that if Malone had his wish and more veterans were on the roster, the rift between the two sides might never have happened. It was all rosy in Denver when Jeff Green, Ish Smith, Reggie Jackson and Bruce Brown were in the locker room, it’s been not that with DeAndre Jordan being that lone leader.

Booth had his guys and his vision. It delayed the extension of Murray per Mile High Sports as the general manager shopped him this summer until ownership shut it down. Booth got off Jackon’s contract by sending out an absurd three second-round picks, in a move that blindsided many in the organization. It’s these moves and how they happened that will have lasting impacts on the Nuggets. They have limited resources and the vibes are atrocious.

Tim Connelly battled for his guys a bit too much and did right by just about everyone in his not-skipping-steps approach. Strangely enough, the former player in Booth saw these players more like commodities.

It was inevitable that KSE would have to choose Booth or Malone. Leaning toward Malone meant a new GM would come in over top of him and somehow reign him in where Booth couldn’t. In reality, KSE likely realized they had to pick Booth or neither. And they nearly picked Booth, offering him an extension before the season per the Denver Post, but it was the executive who said no, looking for more money.

On that thought, when Tim left, it gave a bigger voice to Malone. Jokic also gained a bit of power in that vacuum as well. Now, with Booth and Malone gone and a vacuum atop the Nuggets, how much does Jokić get involved — despite his intent to just play hoops?

Denver won’t just have to deal with what’s next for Jokic and keeping him happy but what the heck to do with the now maxed-out Murray. His biggest supporter — Malone — is now gone. And that’s worth a mention, while everything around the edges seemed to be going poorly, Booth did get Murray and Gordon signed long-term — though those are moves that ownership likely makes no matter who is the GM.

So with limited assets, a tight pocketbook, big questions and some ticked-off players that are locked in, the Nuggets will enter the offseason searching for a new executive and head coach. They’ll likely have one of two paths in hunting for Jokic’s first All-Star teammate or trying to replicate the 2023 championship formula of size, shooting and defense around the big fella.

Before the Nuggets address any of the looming themes this summer, they still hold the sixth-best odds to win a second championship in 2025. It would be one of the wildest stories in sports history — but Kroenke had enough faith in the group to make this bold move, so maybe we should still take the Nuggets seriously until proven otherwise.

I mean, it was all good just one parade ago.