Malone was the right coach to lead Nuggets
Michael Malone has become one of the most likable NBA figures in a matter of seven days. His Nuggets won their first championship, and the man once fired by the lowly Kings was behind Denver’s franchise resurrection.
Malone received redemption with the Nuggets’ dominant win over the Heat in the Finals, as he galvanized a bunch of players many considered not good enough to win it all. The Nuggets, without the injured Jamal Murray,
were thumped last year by the eventual champion Warriors in the first round. Two-time MVP Nikola Jokic was heavily criticized for his inability to push the team to success. Malone was considered a good coach with a fiery style, but not astute enough to turn the Nuggets into real contenders.
Even this season, while the Nuggets spent most the year with the best record in the Western Conference, they received little respect. The Suns, when healthy, should beat the Nuggets. The Lakers, with an engaged LeBron James and Anthony Davis, are better than the Nuggets. The Grizzlies are good enough to knock off the Nuggets. Those were the predictions before the playoffs.
“Pat Riley said something many years ago. I used to have it up on my board when I was a head coach in Sacramento, and it talked about the evolution in this game and how you go from a nobody to an upstart, and you go from an upstart to a winner, and a winner to a contender, and a contender to a champion, and the last step after a champion is to be a dynasty,” Malone said after the clinching Game 5 against the Heat. “So, we’re not satisfied. We accomplished something this franchise has never done before, but we have a lot of young, talented players in that locker room, and I think we just showed through 16 playoff wins what we’re capable of on the biggest stage in the world.”
Malone, the 51-year-old son of former NBA coach Brendan Malone ,wasa longtime assistant before getting his first shot with the Kings, and then he was removed after 106 games, despite a close relationship with franchise center
DeMarcus Cousins.
“These moments are surreal,” Malone said. “I got in the league 22, 23 years ago, and I dreamed of becoming a head coach, not knowing if I’d ever be given that opportunity. It doesn’t come easy, and my father was a head coach once, and he’s the best coach I know.
“To get to this point, to win a championship is just, as you reflect upon all the people who helped you get here. This is like a many, many years-long process, and you don’t do it by yourself.”
Malone could receive the most credit for helping Jokic blossom into the best player in the world, with Malone being his biggest defender.
“I seen a picture of Jok and [Joel] Embiid running for MVP, and Jok keeps running,” Malone said. “I think that just speaks so much to what his mind-set is. I got mad at him today in the game because he kept passing the ball. I hit him in the pocket, he has a floater and he’d pass it. Out of bounds, turnover. I’m like, ‘Bro, just shoot it.’
“But that’s just part of him. That’s just his game. That’s what makes us so good is, even if he’s open and guys are late, you still have to guard him and guard everybody else. We’re just an allaround team. You’ve got to guard every single person on the court, whether they can shoot or not, finish or not. Everybody is a threat. We play so unselfish giving each other spacing, giving each other different looks, knowing that the ball has energy and it will find you when the time is right.”
Jokic and Murray were paired as basically teenagers. It took seven years, but the plan of them becoming the league’s most productive 1-2 punch finally came to fruition, with Malone’s tutelage.
“I came here when I was 20. Jamal came here when he was 21? Or 20?” Jokic said. “Yes, the core, but if you want to be a success, you need a couple years. You need to be bad, then you need to be good, then when you’re good you need to fail, and then when you fail, you’re going to figure it out. I think experience is something that is not what happened to you. It’s what you’re going to do with what happened to you.
“Yes, Jamal was injured. Yes, we lose the first round or second round in the playoffs, I don’t even remember. Who remembers? But there is a process that you need to — there is steps that you need to fill, and there is no shortcuts. It’s a journey, and I’m glad that I’m part of the journey.”