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Denver Nuggets: In defense of head coach Michael Malone

By Max Carlin

MIAMI, FL - MARCH 19: Michael Malone of the Denver Nuggets during the first half of the game against the Miami Heat at American Airlines Arena on March 19, 2018 in Miami, Florida. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Rob Foldy/Getty Images)
MIAMI, FL - MARCH 19: Michael Malone of the Denver Nuggets during the first half of the game against the Miami Heat at American Airlines Arena on March 19, 2018 in Miami, Florida. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Rob Foldy/Getty Images) /
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While the Denver Nuggets’ shortcomings have many calling for head coach Michael Malone’s job, it would be dishonest to pin all the team’s problems on him.

The #FireMalone movement has taken Denver Nuggets Twitter by storm. It’s easy to see where disgruntled fans are coming from. The team is primed to miss the playoffs, inexcusable losses are piling up and head coach Michael Malone’s questionable rotations and in-game gaffes continue to doom the Nuggets.

The displeasure with Malone is fair, the calls for his job not entirely unreasonable. However, Nuggets fans must acknowledge that Malone is far from the team’s only, or even most serious problem. He has his flaws, but Malone is, more so than anything else, a convenient scapegoat, because it’s a lot easier to blame him than concede that the Nuggets’ roster is inherently flawed and the team’s star player is fundamentally limited.

Lineups

Malone has, justifiably, drawn a great deal of criticism for his penchant for playing Nikola Jokic next to another big man. This season, Jokic has logged 29 percent of his minutes at power forward. That number’s about 29 percent too high.

However, look at the Nuggets’ roster. Of the 12 players who have logged the most minutes this season, six are big men. It is next-to-impossible to divide those minutes up sensibly and avoid an overlap of big men. The alternative would be something along the lines of playing Malik Beasley 30 minutes per night while Mason Plumlee racks up DNP-CDs; it’s not viable.

Bench struggles

The roster’s fundamental flaws are evident in the bench’s struggles as well. While the Nuggets are outstanding with Jokic on the floor, outscoring opponents by 6.7 points per 100 possessions, a 57-win pace for a full season, they crater when the big Serb takes a breather.

With Jokic on the bench, the team is outscored by 6.4 points per 100 possessions, which would place in the bottom-four in the NBA for the season on the whole. The offense falls off a cliff, the defense gets even worse than with Jokic on.

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It’s easy to blame Malone for the team’s collapses when its star player takes to the bench, but consider the Nuggets’ roster.

Trey Lyles, Will Barton, Emmanuel Mudiay, Plumlee, Beasley, Torrey Craig, Devin Harris, Kenneth Faried, Juancho Hernangomez, Richard Jefferson and Darrell Arthur have logged at least 100 minutes off the bench for the Nuggets this year.

Only Lyles, Barton, Mudiay, Plumlee and Beasley have appeared in at least 38 of the Nuggets’ 72 games played. There is no permanence in the rotation, because there are so few players worthy of permanence. Therefore, it seems unfair to pin the second unit’s struggles on Malone.

The Nuggets’ bench is severely lacking for talent. Barton is the only consistent shot-creator, and I can’t spot a single positive defensive player for Malone to deploy. Anyone who regularly watches Nuggets games knows that the starting lineup is not to fault for the team’s frequent mid-game implosions. Well, neither is Malone.

Defense

The rank of the Nuggets’ defensive ratings in each of Malone’s three seasons as head coach: 25th, 30th, 21st. This is the most compelling argument for why Malone should be out of a job. He’s had three years to turn the defense around and has failed miserably.

This year, however, there is the mitigating factor of Paul Millsap’s injury. Millsap, a former member of the All-Defense team, is the team’s most valuable defensive player by far. Missing him for over half the season has hurt the Nuggets immeasurably.

Beyond that, though, there are structural issues for which it seems disingenuous to blame Malone. Barton and Jamal Murray have posted two of three highest minutes totals for the Nuggets this year. Both are champions of allowing dribble penetration, which is a problem when Jokic is the team’s star player.

Of the 41 players who have contested at least 250 shots at the rim, Jokic allows the highest opponent field goal percentage — higher than Enes Kanter, Kevin Love, even a geriatric Dirk Nowitzki! Jokic is a mind-bogglingly poor rim protector, and given that his team is reliant on guards who allow their men to get to the rim with ease, that’s a very serious problem.

It’s easy to blame Malone for the team’s defensive inadequacy, and he certainly deserves blame for not scheming Jokic away from the basket, lessening the load on a defensively-challenged player (regardless of what RPM says). However, we might just have to accept that there’s a serious cap on any defense featuring Jokic, and doing so will relieve some undue blame from Malone’s shoulders.

What should be done with Malone?

Let me be clear: I do not believe that Michael Malone is a great coach. If you were to power rank NBA coaches, he would assuredly check in somewhere near the bottom (a testament to how strong the current crop of coaches is). To make the leap to contender status, replacing Malone will surely be a necessary condition.

That being said, Malone is not to blame for all the Nuggets’ problems. Pretending that a coaching change would be a cure-all is dishonest and unreasonable. The Nuggets have far deeper issues: a flawed roster that must be revamped and a star player who is somewhat limiting.

Firing Malone just for the sake of firing him, just to pin this disappointing season on him could prove disastrous. Unless the perfect replacement presents himself, the Nuggets would wind up with another uninspiring retread. #FireMalone has a nice ring to it, but if doing so means the Nuggets are the team to hand Mark Jackson his next coaching gig, will anyone find the move worthwhile?

Next: 2017-18 Week 23 NBA Power Rankings

Hard as it may be, now is a time for patience. This season has been a let-down, but a reactionary firing, an unjust pinning of a flawed team’s failures on a scapegoat will solve none of the Nuggets’ long-term issues. The time to move on from Malone will come, but it’s not here yet.

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