Nikola Jokic confesses to knowing Josh Kroenke’s decision to fire Michael Malone, Calvin Booth beforehand

Nikola Jokic discloses how Denver Nuggets owner Josh Kroenke told him about his decision to fire Michael Malone and Calvin Booth.

Nikola Jokic confesses to knowing Josh Kroenke’s decision to fire Michael Malone, Calvin Booth beforehand

Nikola Jokic

The Denver Nuggets are in a state of upheaval at the current moment, to say the least. The franchise has handicapped its preparation for this year’s NBA playoffs by becoming the latest team in league history to fire its incumbent head coach and GM. Nikola Jokic and co will now play the postseason under the stewardship of interim head coach David Adelman. The team can bank on familiarity under Adelman.

The news of Michael Malone and Calvin Booth getting fired was undoubtedly deflating for the Nuggets fanbase. While Denver has been in free fall for seven weeks, coaching changes are almost never made before the playoffs. Stability is nearly always more important for success than changes of pace and strategy. Nuggets owner Josh Kroenke can, however, at least check off one box that he could’ve been critiqued for.

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Jokic made it known during the post-game press conference after Nuggets vs Kings that the owner had spoken to him about Booth and Malone’s firings.

I’m not gonna say what Josh (Kroenke) told me. I mean, I knew a little bit before everybody and he told me ‘We’ve made a decision’, so it was never a discussion, it was a decision and he told me why. So I listened and accepted it. I’m not gonna tell y’all what he told me, I’ll keep that private.

Nikola Jokic on Josh Kroenke’s decision to fire Calvin Booth and Michael Malone

Jokic also spoke about the need for his Nuggets teammates to ‘wake up’ during his post-game presser with TV media.

I think that they woke us up. We needed to be woken up a little bit before playoffs, and I think when we are in there we can have some things up. We can and play with everybody. Where I’m coming from, it’s (the firings) a part of the sport. People come and go, but it was 10 years of a relationship with the coach, and we went through everything, we were bad and then we won a championship.

Nikola Jokic sums up his feelings on Michael Malone’s firing after beating Sacramento

Nikola Jokic will be under heavy pressure during the NBA playoffs

While losing the head coach ahead of crucial games is never good, having the world’s most intelligent basketball player who is also the world’s best player by a country mile can offset a lot of that disadvantage. Jokic will always be a triple-double threat, whoever he goes up against during the playoffs.

The biggest problems the Nuggets will face during the playoffs will likely be against OKC and the Lakers. The Lakers have two offensive hubs who can change playoff games, in addition to Austin Reaves. OKC has a mean perimeter defense that stifles teams’ creativity and renders pick-and-roll offenses ineffective. The Western Conference also has other threats for them, like the young, long, and energetic Houston Rockets.

Jokic will be under pressure to be both the team’s strategist as well as its most productive player. Without Jokic playing at 110%, the Nuggets seem to have no shot of winning a playoff series as currently constructed. They could hope for Aaron Gordon to return healthy and for Michael Porter Jr and Jamal Murray to be efficient, but these things are not possible without Jokic shouldering the lion’s share of their offensive burden.