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Nuggets’ Michael Malone Firing Has Instant Impact on Doc Rivers’ Bucks Future

Denver has fired former head coach Michael Malone just days before the playoffs. This has an instant impact on Doc Rivers' Milwaukee fate.

Alex Kirschenbaum

Feb 27, 2025; Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA: Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone and guard Jamal Murray (27) look on in the fourth quarter against the Milwaukee Bucks at Fiserv Forum. Mandatory Credit: Benny Sieu-Imagn Images
Feb 27, 2025; Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA: Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone and guard Jamal Murray (27) look on in the fourth quarter against the Milwaukee Bucks at Fiserv Forum. Mandatory Credit: Benny Sieu-Imagn Images / Benny Sieu-Imagn Images
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In yet another league-rocking move during this exceptionally turbulent 2024-25 NBA season (there've been a lot of those), the 47-31 Denver Nuggets have fired former head coach Michael Malone less than two years after he led the franchise to its first-ever NBA championship, sources inform ESPN's Shams Charania.

Denver has also canned recently-extended general manager Calvin Booth. Although Booth held that role when the Nuggets won it all in 2023, he was overseeing a roster mostly comprised of players acquired by departed general manager Tim Connelly, who by that point was with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Charania adds that lead assistant coach David Adelman has been promoted to serve as Denver's interim head coach for the rest of the season.

Firing a head coach so quickly after he led his league franchise to the promised land has been a troubling trend of late across the NBA.

Of the head coaches who have led their teams to titles since 2015, only two are still with their respective winning franchises: Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr and Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla.

Kerr has won four titles and been to four NBA Finals with Golden State since 2015, while Mazzulla just won it all literally last season.

Beyond Malone, former Milwaukee Bucks champion head coach Mike Budenholzer was let go in the summer of 2023, just two years removed from winning it all in 2021. Frank Vogel, who brought the Lakers to a championship during his first season in 2019-20, was let go in 2022, largely as the scapegoat for L.A. posting a 33-49 record with a horrifically constructed roster.

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Nick Nurse was let go four years after guiding the Toronto Raptors to the 2019 title. Tyronn Lue brought the Cleveland Cavaliers to three straight NBA Finals, including the 2016 championship, and was fired just six games into the 2018-19 season.

Canning good coaches in general has been a bizarre trend around the league, too. Just 11 days ago, the postseason-bound Memphis Grizzlies canned longtime head coach Taylor Jenkins after six largely successful seasons.

The Bucks are already on their second coach post-Budenholzer in as many seasons, with Doc Rivers. He has guided Milwaukee to a thoroughly mediocre 62-53 regular season record and a first-round playoff exit across his one-season-and-change in charge. The team has often looked like less than the sum of its parts this season, despite another MVP-caliber run from All-NBA superstar power forward Giannis Antetokounmpo.

If Rivers can't lead the Bucks past the first round of the playoffs for a second straight season, will the former 2008 champ be long for this franchise? Antetokounmpo, 30, may soon lose patience, as this will mark the third consecutive season he hasn't been at least to the conference semifinals, and he's only getting older.

The Bucks may have their health odds stacked against them heading into the postseason. Nine-time All-Star point guard Damian Lillard, 34, has struggled with various ailments during the home stretches of several recent seasons, and this year a right calf blood clot may keep him shelved throughout the playoffs.

Since 2022, the Bucks have ditched their entire championship infrastructure around Antetokounmpo — aside from starting center Brook Lopez, sixth man big Bobby Portis, and shooting guard Pat Connaughton, all of the other key contributors from that 2021 squad are gone. Rivers has been able to galvanize the team's defense a bit this year, but its play on the other end has often looked uninspired.

Now, with Malone and Jenkins (and, let's be real, likely Budenholzer) hitting the open market this summer, the Bucks find themselves with a unique opportunity. They could swap out Malone for Rivers.

Malone finishes his 10-year Nuggets career with an impressive 510-394 (.564) win-loss regular season record and a 44-36 playoff record. He's led Denver to the playoffs for the last six seasons, including two Western Conference Finals appearances and the 2023 championship.

Malone is known as a taskmaster who isn't afraid to push veteran players, but he has gotten results in a way Rivers has not. In fact, Malone infamously walloped Rivers' starrier L.A. Clippers squad during the second round of the 2020 playoffs, despite the Clippers holding a 3-1 series advantage. Rivers is infamous for blowing 3-1 playoff series leads. He's the only player in NBA history to have done so three different times.

If Milwaukee opts to go in a different direction from Rivers this offseason, Michael Malone is the way to go — unless Erik Spoelstra or Steve Kerr become available.

More Milwaukee Bucks:

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Longtime Bucks Executive Leaves to Join LSU as GM

Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Recent Two-Game Stretch Puts Him in Elite Company

How Bobby Portis can Replace Damian Lillard in Bucks Lineup

For more news and notes on the Milwaukee Bucks, visit Milwaukee Bucks on SI.

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Alex Kirschenbaum
ALEX KIRSCHENBAUM

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