At the time, it seemed like borderline insanity when the Nuggets decided to fire their GM and head coach with just a week remaining in the regular season last April. Michael Malone was the winningest coach in franchise history, and Calvin Booth was one of the main architects of the 2023 title team.
But the Kroenkes decided the internal war between Malone and Booth had become toxic, and rather than waiting for the offseason, they opted to relieve both men of their duties with only a handful of games left in the season and the playoffs about to start.
The move was a major eyebrow-raiser and completely unconventional, but just a few months later, it appears to have been a stroke of genius. They brought in a new front office led by Ben Tenzer and Jon Wallace and promoted David Adelman to the head coaching position, and the organization has hit the ground running.
They revamped the bench and bolstered the depth in the offseason, and now, they appear to be a completely cohesive unit, all moving in the same direction. The vibes are immaculate, and this team has been performing at a high level, regardless of which players are in and out of the lineup on any given night.
Unconventional firings have quickly proven to be right moves
The moves were unconventional and controversial, especially considering the timing, but things couldn’t have worked out much better so far. The front office made all the right moves in the offseason, and Adelman has shown he’s not afraid to play the young players and try new things.
The result has been a team that looks to be in total lockstep from the top of the organization to the two-way players. The players attack games with a new vigor, and everyone who has gotten a chance has gone into the game and taken advantage.
The energy is contagious, and in some ways, it probably goes to show how bad things actually were in the past few seasons behind closed doors. But it’s a good lesson for any team (or any business, really) that is stuck in its ways and hesitant to make major changes.
The Nuggets chose to rip the band-aid off completely, all at once. And while the moves were met with much consternation and skepticism, not even halfway into the next season, they have clearly proven to be exactly what this franchise needed.