The old adage for head coaches in sports is that they’re hired to be fired.
The latter result could unfortunately be in the cards for Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone if the Nuggets don’t finish the second half of the season better than they finished the previous 40 games.
Malone’s been given quality talent over the years by general manager Tim Connelly in blossoming players like Gary Harris, Jamal Murray, Nikola Jokic and free-agent Paul Millsap. But the team too often makes the same mistakes in games; mistakes that serious playoff contenders don’t make. Just ask Malone.
“We’re going to stop using the words ‘playoffs’ for a while,” Malone said after a devastating loss to the at-the-time, NBA-worst Atlanta Hawks at home on January 10th.
“We’re not a playoff team. The team you’ve seen as of late? ‘Playoffs’ should not be in our vocabulary.”
Millsap’s injury should absolutely be factored into the equation, but home losses to the worst team in the league should never happen, regardless of Millsap’s health. There’s simply too much talent on the roster for that kind of effort to be a regular problem.
Frustration from a fan base that expected a playoff performer is beginning to boil over. A mixture of inconsistent play-calling, a failure use the hammer of minutes to insist on solid defensive effort, and a series of questionable lineup choices continually repeat over and over like a Nikola Jokic TV commercial.
To his credit, Malone took over a Nuggets team that was left in shambles by former head coach Brian Shaw, and tackled enormous challenges after the previous regime’s disaster. Bringing the team back to relevancy was a major step forward, but taking it to the next level is something Malone has struggled to achieve, and he’s yet to finish a season .500 or better.
Malone is well-liked by many of his players, as well as much of the media. He’s accommodating and well-respected. But success is the bottom line, and the Nuggets are stuck spinning their wheels under Malone.
After an all-to-familiar loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night — a team that’s jostling with the Nuggets for playoff contention — the Nuggets fell to 23-22 and into ninth place in the Western Conference. On the outside and looking in for the playoffs.
The loss dropped Malone to 96-113 as head coach for the Nuggets, with a winning percentage of .459. Those equivalent numbers in any other league?
74 wins in Major League Baseball.
7-9 in the NFL.
Those are underwhelming numbers for a coach who’s approaching the tail-end of his third year. Could the Nuggets be excelling with someone else calling the shots? Would someone else get more out of this roster? Firing a coach mid-season rarely makes much sense, as it’s highly unlikely that a better option is immediately available, so it’s only fitting and fair that Malone’s given the chance to take this team to that next level.
But finishing near .500, or worse than that — or outside of the playoffs entirely — will simply be unacceptable.
As the page turns for the final half of the season, if Malone wants to ensure more chapters in his book he’s authoring in Denver, he must deliver a winner down the stretch.