With less than a week left in the regular season, the Denver Nuggets became the second Western Conference contender to fire their head coach mid-season. Late last month, the Grizzlies fired Taylor Jenkins while they were sitting No. 5 in the West. Today, the Denver Nuggets fired Mike Malone — and general manager Calvin Booth — while they were holding onto the No. 4 seed.
Winning teams firing their coaches this deep in the regular season is pretty bonkers, but it's especially unexpected in this case. Malone came into this season as the fourth-longest-tenured coach in the NBA, behind just Gregg Popovich, Erik Spoelstra and Steve Kerr. He'd already led the team to a title. They were still winning games and, from the outside, there were no obvious chemistry or strategic issues.
Clearly, ownership recognized that this was a team with flaws that could keep them from winning another title during Nikola Jokić's prime and didn't want to waste any time getting ready for changes. David Adelman will coach for the rest of the regular season and the playoffs and it's too late for the Nuggets to make trades. But presumably, this offseason they'll be looking for a long-term coaching replacement as well as making significant changes to the roster. All that could send some long-time Nuggets out the door after Malone and Booth.
Here are the players whose roster spots seem most immediately in jeopardy.
3. DeAndre Jordan
Jordan found a second-home in the back end of his career, providing size and veteran leadership to the Denver Nuggets since the 2022-23 season. He's appeared in 53 games this season, his highest since coming to Denver, but at this point he's probably more valuable in practice and in the locker room than he is on the court.
After signing a one-year deal last summer, the 36-year-old big man will be an unrestricted free agent again at the end of this season and retirement could certainly be on the table. He may like to continue in his current role, and maybe eventually transitioning into coaching or some sort of basketball operations responsibilities. But being able to do that with the Nuggets looks a lot less likely with Malone being fired, as well as GM Calvin Booth. New regime. New focus. New crop of veteran leaders?
2. Russell Westbrook
Westbrook has had his moments for the Nuggets this season, averaging 13.3 points, 6.2 assists and 5.0 rebounds per game and shooting 33.1 percent from beyond the arc — his highest mark since 2016-17. When he was signed by the Nuggets, he looked like a terrible fit on paper, someone he needed the ball in his hands to be effective and provided very little floor spacing or interest in off-ball movement around Nikola Jokić. But he's consistently brought energy and intensity, made plenty of positive plays, and probably raised the floor for the Nuggets this season.
The problem is he doesn't seem to be capable of raising the ceiling. His missed layup and inexcusable foul at the buzzer in double-overtime cost the Nuggets a win against the Timberwolves last season. His defense is still maddeningly inconsistent, his shot selection is still prone to wild swings and miscalculations, and his turnover rate is the highest of his career. Westbrook has made big strides, far more than ever seemed possible, in adapting to a different role than the one he played in Oklahoma City. But he's still not pulling it off enough to make it work for a legit contender.
Westbrook has a player option for next season and could decide his own fate. But he seems likely to be identified as a problem to be solved by a new regime, and could read the writing on the wall.
1. Michael Porter Jr.
As a third-wheel, the Nuggets could do a lot worse than Michael Porter Jr. He's not much of a defender, but his size and mobility make him somewhat positionally interchangeable with Aaron Gordon, with Porter taking the least threatening frontcourt matchup. He's an elite, hyperefficient shooter who can do a lot more than just hit jumpers off static spot-ups. He's made legit strides as a playmaker, is getting to the line and finishing inside the arc better than he ever has before.
But he's still firmly a complementary threat on offense, not really able to take a meaningful creation load off the shoulders of Nikola Jokić or Jamal Murray. Because of his combination of talent and constrained role, he's the most obvious leverage point for a new regime to make a big deal to reconfigure the pieces are Jokić and Murray.
Porter Jr. is also extension eligible this offseason with two years, and $78 million, remaining on the massive five-year, $180 million deal he signed back in 2021. To put that in context, he'll make more than players like De'Aaron Fox, LaMelo Ball and Jalen Brunson next season. Porter Jr. was already heavily featured in trade rumors this season. Assuming the Nuggets don't want to extend him at a similar percentage of the salary cap, those rumors are likely to intensify. And even though they have two more years of team control, if they know they're not keeping him long term, they might as well trade him now while.