Nuggets bringing back Mike Malone for a second interview

Ex-Kings coach Mike Malone will be brought back for second interview with Nuggets

The NBA’s coaching carousel is moving along quickly and without much drama this offseason. The Pelicans and Bulls have already filled their vacancies, and the Denver Nuggets‘ coaching search is moving right along, as the team seems to be narrowing down its options to be the next head coach.

Among those options will be former Sacramento Kings head coach Mike Malone. According to ESPN’s Marc Stein, Malone will be coming back to Denver for a second interview with the team:

ESPN sources say former Sacramento Kings coach Mike Malone has secured a second interview with the Denver Nuggets for their coaching vacancy
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) June 7, 2015

Stein added information about the other known candidates for the job, interim coach Melvin Hunt and ex-Suns coach Mike D’Antoni:

I would expect similar for Mike D'Antoni and, of course, Nuggets interim coach Melvin Hunt remains firmly in the mix to keep job full-time
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) June 7, 2015

After one and a half years, the Nuggets fired head coach Brian Shaw in March after a tumultuous run in which he went 56-85 with what was formerly a playoff team. Shaw also had trouble relating to young players; he read books about millenials and once rapped a scouting report to the team, as you can see here:

So basically, the Nuggets’ coaching search probably just boils down to someone who won’t do that.

Malone appears to be a leading candidate. A former Cavaliers assistant during the glory years of LeBron James (the first time around), Malone took over the Kings in 2013, and was notably the only head coach to really get through to mercurial star DeMarcus Cousins. It’s probably safe to say that he won’t need to rap any scouting reports.

Malone was fired by the Kings in December, but the Nuggets shouldn’t hold that against him; the Kings fire everybody. They had three coaches and two GMs this year alone.

As for the other candidates, D’Antoni was of course wildly successful with his “seven seconds or less” offense with the Phoenix Suns in the mid-2000s, one of the best teams never to win a championship. However, D’Antoni is also coming off two lackluster stints with the Knicks and the Lakers. He was actually the head coach of the Nuggets for one year, during the weird lockout season of 1998-99.

Hunt is a longtime assistant coach with many teams who went 10-13 with the Nuggets down the stretch this year.

Any of these coaches will be good options, but oddly, the Nuggets don’t seem to be going after this summer’s biggest fish in the coaching free agent waters: Tom Thibodeau. While their current candidates are fine choices, it does seem odd that there has been nothing connecting them with the league’s most brilliant defensive mind.

Anyway, Malone seems to be the current front-runner for the job, and if the Nuggets look more at D’Antoni’s time with the Knicks and Lakers and less at his Suns stint, Malone may end up with the job.

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