The Denver Nuggets (48-32) host the Memphis Grizzlies (47-33) in a critical game Friday night with massive Western Conference playoff seeding implications. It’ll be both teams’ penultimate contest of the regular season, as they desperately fight to clinch a top six spot and thus avoid the Play-In Tournament.
The teams are also still getting used to playing under new head coaches, as Memphis and Denver both stunningly let go of their leaders in late March and early April, respectively.
In the Nuggets’ case, details continue to emerge into what led to the dismissal of 2023 NBA champion Michael Malone.
ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne and Tim MacMahon reported on what preceded the shocking move in an article posted on Friday morning.
Nuggets GM Reportedly Felt ‘Change Needed to Happen’
Through interviews with “more than a dozen team and league insiders,” MacMahon and Shelburne wrote that a “theme quickly emerged: Not only was this war between Malone and (general manager Calvin Booth) toxic for the two men, but it had infected the entire organization.”
Per the report, there had been more “infighting on the bench and the court” than team president Josh Kroenke “had ever seen,” prior to his decision to let go of Malone and Booth.
“Moreso, the cold war between Malone and general manager Calvin Booth had become toxic for everyone in the organization,” the ESPN insiders revealed. “Coaches, front office staffers and support staff felt compelled to choose sides, multiple team sources said. Instead of focusing on how to get the most out of a team with a three-time MVP having arguably his best season as a professional, energy was being spent on determining which side people were on — and whether they could be trusted.”
Misery and bad vibes followed the team, according to the report, as Denver has gone just 12-13 since the All-Star break, despite having arguably the best player in the NBA on their roster in Nikola Jokic.
“Everybody in the organization was miserable,” a team source said, per the report. “That’s what Josh felt. It’s a bad vibe. You can’t operate like that. He felt that if he removed those two people, everybody could just focus on doing their job. Change needed to happen.”
Nuggets Could End Regular Season in 5-Way Tie in Standings
Unlike the Eastern Conference playoff picture, the Western Conference standings are largely clustered. Behind the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder (66-14) and second-seeded Houston Rockets (52-28), the third-seeded Los Angeles Lakers (49-31) and a trio of teams at 47-33 are separated by just two games with two contests remaining for everyone.
Denver (currently tied with the Los Angeles Clippers for fourth place) needs to defeat Memphis on Friday, according to Tim Kawakami of The San Francisco Standard, to “likely” avoid the Play-In field.
Kawakami explained in a series of posts on Bluesky that entering play Friday, the Nuggets have an outside chance of ending the regular season in a five-way tie.
“Just confirmed this with the league office. If it’s a 3-way tie for 5-6-7 between Warriors, Clippers and Timberwolves at 49-33, seedings would be:
5. Minnesota
6. Warriors
7. Clippers
Now what if DEN is in the tie, too? I’ll let the league update that one if DEN loses tonight,” Kawakami wrote.
“To get to a 5-way tie, there would have to be some other things happening by everybody else, but yes, it’s possible. And I’m thankfully not going to figure that one out on the fly. Will let the league do that,” he added. “I believe there will be a thorough breakdown tomorrow, after tonight’s results.”
Explaining why Jokic and company probably have to defeat the Grizzlies on Friday to avoid the Play-In Tournament, Kawakami wrote that after doing a “quick look” at teams’ head-to-head records this season, the Nuggets would “probably be in some trouble in a multi-team tie that involves MIN because it went 0-4 vs. the Timberwolves and that would mess up the Nuggets’ cumulative record among tied teams.”
Nuggets’ Misery, ‘Bad Vibe’ Led to Michael Malone Firing, According to Bombshell Report