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Another Wolves rival, possible playoff opponent fires head coach

Michael Malone joins Taylor Jenkins in being fired just weeks before the start of the NBA postseason.
Will Ragatz|
Mar 12, 2025; Denver, Colorado, USA; Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone during the second quarter against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Ball Arena.
Mar 12, 2025; Denver, Colorado, USA; Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone during the second quarter against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Ball Arena. | Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images

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Minnesota Timberwolves

The NBA is simply unmatched in its drama and unpredictability.

For the second time in less than two weeks, a Western Conference playoff team and Timberwolves rival has fired its head coach just weeks before the start of the postseason. ESPN's Shams Charania broke the stunning news on Tuesday afternoon that the Denver Nuggets are firing Michael Malone just before the completion of his tenth season with the franchise. General manager Calvin Booth has also been let go.

This comes after the Memphis Grizzlies shocked the league by firing sixth-year head coach Taylor Jenkins on March 29.

The Memphis move was hard to believe. This one is on another level. Malone, the winningest coach in Nuggets history, helped lead Denver to the 2023 NBA championship. That was less than two years ago. The Nuggets have made it to at least the second round in five of the last six postseasons and are headed back to the playoffs this year.

According to The Athletic's Jon Krawczynski, it was "an open secret in the NBA going back to before the start of the season that the Nuggets front office and coaching staff didn’t see eye to eye." An apparent power struggle helps provide some context to these moves, but it doesn't make it less stunning that the team's ownership has decided to fire both head coach and GM with less than a week remaining in the regular season.

Per Charania, it's tied for the latest head coach firing in NBA history, matching Hubie Brown's dismissal from the Atlanta Hawks in 1981.

The Grizzlies are one of three teams tied with the Wolves at 46-32 entering play on Tuesday night. The 47-32 Nuggets, having lost four games in a row, are just a half-game ahead of that four-team pack. There are still so many possibilities for how seeds 3-8 will shake out in the West, which include Minnesota facing off against either Denver or Memphis in a first-round series. If that happens, they'll be going against a team with an interim head coach.

Former Wolves assistant coach David Adelman (2011-16) is the interim HC in Denver. Ex-Wolves head coach Ryan Saunders is also on that coaching staff.

These are crazy times in a crazy league.

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Will Ragatz
WILL RAGATZ

Will Ragatz is a senior writer for Vikings On SI, who also covers the Twins, Timberwolves, Gophers, and other Minnesota teams. He is a credentialed Minnesota Vikings beat reporter, covering the team extensively at practices, games and throughout the NFL draft and free agency period. Ragatz attended Northwestern University, where he studied at the prestigious Medill School of Journalism. During his time as a student, he covered Northwestern Wildcats football and basketball for SB Nation’s Inside NU, eventually serving as co-editor-in-chief in his junior year. In the fall of 2018, Will interned in Sports Illustrated’s newsroom in New York City, where he wrote articles on Major League Baseball, college football, and college basketball for SI.com.

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