It didn’t take long for Mike Malone to get a second chance as an NBA head coach. On Monday, the Nuggets came to an agreement to make Malone their new head coach, according to an NBA source.
Fired by the Sacramento Kings in December after an 11-13 start, Malone landed on his feet with the Nuggets just six months later. He was 39-67 overall with Sacramento.
Malone’s star rose while with Golden State from 2011-13. As the lead assistant under then-head coach Mark Jackson, the Warriors flourished, particularly at the defensive end. During the 2012-13 season, the Warriors’ opponents field goal percentage went from 20th to third, and three-point percentage from 28th to seventh.
In the playoffs after that season, the Warriors upended the heavily favored Nuggets. Malone parlayed that success to landing the Kings job. The loss by the Nuggets led to the eventual firing of coach George Karl, who is now coaching Sacramento. The Nuggets fired Karl’s replacement, Brian Shaw, in March. Melvin Hunt served as interim Nuggets head coach to finish out the season and was a finalist for the job.
In Sacramento Malone built a foundation of discipline and defense. He has been a defensive specialist coach in many of his coaching stops. He’ll get the chance to prove he can keep the offensive pace high as well, something Nuggets management said would be a focal point for the franchise.
Malone, in two interviews with the Nuggets, was able to convince management that he’d effectively use playing at altitude to the team’s advantage while also establishing many of the same defensive principles that made teams at his previous stops successful.
In that respect, the Nuggets aren’t completely letting go of the philosophy that led them to hire Shaw. They wanted a coach to implement a system that could not just get them through a regular season, but would thrive in the playoffs. Under Shaw, however, the Nuggets never came close to making the playoffs.
Nuggets forward Danilo Gallinari declined comment on the hire, citing a lack of knowledge of Malone “as a coach or as a person.”
“I hope to talk to him soon,” Gallinari said.
Malone was fired 24 games into the 2014-15 season amid reports that his defense-first style clashed with what Kings executives wanted, which was a more offensive-minded system.
Malone has also been as assistant in New Orleans, Cleveland and New York.
