Spotlighting Michael Malone
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In a world where social media seems to be incorrectly targeting the Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone as the main culprit behind the Nuggets issues this season, I wanted to take the time to review his resume and give the man credit for being one of the best coaches the Nuggets have ever had.
Early Years
Before his time as the Nuggets head coach, Michael Malone coached LeBron James in Cleveland, Chris Paul in New Orleans, Steph Curry in Golden State, and Demarcus Cousins in Sacramento… He has had his hands on more than one of the best players of the last 10+ years. He received the praise from all of those players as a great coach, a dedicated hard worker, a players coach, and a person with high basketball IQ.
He had a rough start to his head coaching career starting out on one of the most dysfunctional organizations in the NBA the Sacramento Kings. He did however, coach Boogie Cousins to a few of his best seasons individually, and developed a strong relationship with him despite the fact that their teams were bad talent wise, and they lost a lot of basketball games over his 1.5 seasons.
Insert Michael Malone into Denver, following Brian Shaw who was literally the victim of team mutiny… Malone took over a roster that visibly quit on the floor, and was intentionally playing badly to get a coach fired… that was what he was working with.
In his first season, there was some decisions that needed to be made about the personnel, players were traded and assets were acquired to drain the swamp of the mutineers. The team would go on to finish eight games under .500, but had direction and some young players to build around. Michael Malone would also have the opportunity to pair with new GM Tim Connelly to attempt to get the ship pointed in the right direction and they did so incredibly fast.
In his second season, the Nuggets would finish one game under .500, but would show incredibly improvement and fans could really see the talent that we were working with. Nikola Jokic really gets an opportunity to shine and take center stage. Jamal Murray’s rookie season would be a success, and the chemistry between Jokic and Murray would start to blossom.
The next season, Malone’s third as the head coach, the Nuggets would finish five games over .500 and would be forced to play the infamous tie-breaker playoff game against the Timberwolves. The team would lose that game in overtime 106-112… Nikola Jokic would finish with 34-10-3, Jamal Murray would have 20-6-6, and the team would fail to make the playoffs in the 83rd game of the regular season.
First Playoff Years
The Nuggets would basically learn from that 2017-18 season, what it takes to be a playoff team and the amount of heartbreak that goes into being so close, but missing it by a single game. The 2018-19 season, Malone’s fourth as head coach, the squad would finish 13 games over .500. Demonstrating four straight seasons of growth and player development that earned the team the second seed in the Western Conference behind only the Golden State Warriors dynasty roster that just added Kevin Durant. The team would go on to win a playoff series versus the San Antonio Spurs and Greg Popovich, winning a Game 7 versus one of the best coaches of all time. In the second round of the playoffs, the Nuggets would fall to the Portland Trailblazers in seven games, losing Game 7 by four points.
The next season, the Nuggets would play in a Western Conference Finals, in the NBA bubble since the Covid-19 pandemic would shut down the season half way through. They would successfully come back from two separate 3-1 deficits in the playoffs and fall to the eventual NBA Champion Los Angeles Lakers in the Conference Finals in six games. This would tie the Nuggets deepest playoff run in the franchise history, as members of the NBA. This season would prove to be Nikola and Jamal Murray’s biggest seasons, where they received national attention in the Bubble, and would announce the Nuggets on a national scale.
The next year, the Nuggets would have an NBA MVP in Nikola Jokic, Malone would successfully develop the young, chubby, second-round pick, Serbian, kid into the Denver Nuggets first ever Most Valuable Player. This season would also be the yeah that Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr would step up and propel the Nuggets to legitimate NBA Championship contenders. The Nuggets also make a blockbuster trade for small forward Aaron Gordon at the trade deadline, cementing their status as buyers at the trade deadline and active participants in their own futures. One of the biggest “What-ifs” in Nuggets history happened with seven games left in the regular season, Jamal Murray would tear his ACL missing the playoff push. The Nuggets would advance to the second round of the playoffs beating the Portland Trailblazers, eventually getting swept in the second round by the NBA Finals participant Phoenix Suns. What if Jamal had been healthy, what if Jamal got to play against his little brother Devin Booker, who he frequently elevated to play against?
Current Season – Injuries
2021-22, this current season, The Nuggets are still waiting for Jamal Murray to return from his ACL injury. Michael Porter Jr would need his 4th back surgery after starting the season off incredibly poorly. The Nuggets would lose sixth man PJ Dozier. Nikola would miss five games with suspension and injury. The Nuggets would lose Will Barton a handful of games due to injury. Vlatko Cancar would break his foot missing an extended period of time. JaMycal Green would miss time with Covid and injury. Aaron Gordon would miss time with injury and hamstring soreness. Monte Morris would miss a handful of games with injury.
Spotrac shows that the Nuggets have missed 186 total games from players, totaling $23,963,579 dollars in missed salary by games missed. This value makes the Denver Nuggets the fourth most injured team in the NBA by missed games converted to contract dollars missed. Meaning the Nuggets have a ton of missed games, and more importantly those missed games are by their highly paid players.
Nuggets Injuries – https://www.spotrac.com/nba/injured-reserve/denver-nuggets/
NBA by team, by salary missed by injury – https://www.spotrac.com/nba/injured-reserve/cumulative-team/
Through all of that, the Denver Nuggets are a single game over .500. The team is sitting in a playoff spot. Nikola Jokic is putting up numbers that are better than his MVP numbers from a season ago, in fewer minutes. The team has communicated that they hope to get Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr back by the end of the season, to make a serious playoff push. Michael Malone has done a phenomenal job with the roster at his disposal, and given the circumstances.
Current Season – Bench Unit
The team is playing 36-year old Jeff Green significant minutes, rookie Bones Hyland has come in and taken over as the sixth man. NBA G-League signee Davon Reed has stepped in and been forced to play significant minutes. The Nuggets have played Marcus Howard, Bol Bol, Tyler Ennis, Rayjon Tucker, Vlatko Cancar, Petr Cornelie and Carlik Jones all more than a few games this season. If you don’t recognize any of those names, that was supposed to be my point.
The bench unit for the Denver Nuggets has been inconsistent at best and a complete crap-shoot at worst. Michael Malone is literally leading one of the best starting units in the NBA, promptly followed by the worst bench in the NBA. In an attempt to keep the starters healthy, you cannot play all five starters 40+ minutes a game without risking injury or burnout. The bench has to come on to the floor, they have to, at the very least, be able to compete with other rosters benches, and that is simply not what we are seeing as fans. When the bench does perform well, we win those games at a 95% rate… I believe I read that when Bones Hyland scores more than 10 points the Nuggets are 10-2, problem is the bench is simply not talented enough with all the injuries and the players Malone is forced to play.
In a world where the roster is healthy, we would see Jamal Murray, Will Barton, MPJ, Aaron Gordon and Nikola Jokic as the starting five, one of, if not the best unit in the NBA. This starting five would have an incredibly deep bench of players like PJ Dozier, JaMycal Green, Jeff Green, Facu Campazo, Monte Morris, Bones Hyland and on bench clearing nights we would see players like Austin Rivers, Zeke Nnaji, Marcus Howard and Davon Reed… that isn’t the world we live in, and all the deep bench players are playing first off the bench minutes, the guys who would touch the court in blowouts only, are in the rotation, and the injuries have had their finger prints all over the season. Malone is doing the best he can with the players available.
As long as this roster stays in the playoff hunt, and waits for their reinforcements to arrive, Malone has done a magnificent job. This team, when healthy, is a roster that no other NBA franchise wants to meet in the playoffs regardless of seeding. The Nuggets are in survival mode. The Nuggets are in “let the league MVP carry us” mode. The are getting invaluable minutes and developmental time for players like Zeke Nnaji and Bones Hyland, which is great for the long term. When this roster is healthy at the end of the year, the maturity of these players will help bolster the bench unit and help this roster compete for an NBA championship.
Conclusion
Michael Malone and Nikola Jokic are doing their best to drag this limp corpse of a team behind them and keep the end of the season and playoffs in their sights. A roster that is +15 when the starters are on the floor and -11 when they aren’t on the floor, that is indicative of a roster on life support. Malone has gotten this team this far, over coming adversity, and I believe he will again get this roster to the playoffs, and after that anything is possible. Michael Malone has the support of the GM, support of the players, and support of most of the fans. People who believe the teams issues right now are his fault, those people are simply choosing to point the finger at the wrong guy. Wide open shots not falling is indicative of the talent available not the coaching.
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