With just one game left to go before the playoffs, the Denver Nuggets are in turmoil. After a four-game losing streak in early April, the tea, shockingly fired both head coach Michael Malone and general manager Calvin Booth.
Since then, as is usually the case, all of the Nuggets’ dirty laundry is being aired out. Details of the frosty relationship between Malone and Booth, one of the worst-kept secrets in Denver, continued to emerge, as well as their varying philosophies on how to build the team’s roster.
After a disappointing Game 7 loss to the Minnesotas Timberwolves in the second round of the playoffs last season, the Nuggets let starting wing Kentavious Caldwell-Pope walk in free agency, leading Malone to be annoyed at the way the roster was built.
Booth also tried to make even more shakeups and shopped around about a potential Jamal Murray trade during the offseason, according to Bennett Durando of The Denver Post.
“Malone grew increasingly frustrated with roster construction after the Nuggets forsook their right to match contract offers for Caldwell-Pope, sources said,” Durando wrote. “The veteran guard ultimately signed with the Orlando Magic for three years and $66 million. Booth believed the sacrifice of KCP and other, more significant pivots could be necessary to win a second championship. He even explored trades involving Jamal Murray last offseason and Porter during this season, league sources told The Post. But the Nuggets have only made marginal moves since the departure of KCP, including a $10.6 million signing of Dario Saric that has failed spectacularly.”
That move to acquire Saric, along with other marginal fringe moves such as the Russell Westbrook addition and the Zeke Nnaji contract extension, are all reasons why this Nuggets team isn’t the same juggernaut that it has been in years past.
Denver will have a chance to make a playoff run, but more changes could be on the horizon if they flame out early in the first or second round, or even in the play-in. If that does happen, maybe Murray or Michael Porter Jr. will be on the market again.
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