SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Three Denver Nuggets were rapt with attention as a mastermind scribbled on the whiteboard, demonstrably explaining plays for the team huddle.
No, not interim head coach David Adelman. Nikola Jokic was taking his turn with the dry-erase marker.
“Whenever I see something,” Jokic said, “I’m gonna say it.”
“We were trying to give them a little more leeway to let them communicate and talk first,” Adelman said after a 124-116 win over the Kings. “Now, that doesn’t always go well. But it did tonight.”
Jokic, the face of the Nuggets and the consensus best player in the NBA, was hoarse by the time he said this in a postgame ESPN interview: “People say that we are vulnerable, but the beast is always the strongest or the most dangerous when they’re vulnerable. Maybe he woke up the beast.”
He is Josh Kroenke, the team president and governor who made the stunning decision to fire head coach Michael Malone and general manager Calvin Booth on Tuesday — three games before the end of the regular season. As for the identity of “the beast,” Jokic seemed to be referring to the Nuggets as a whole. But he might as well have been describing himself as an individual. The three-time MVP looked awakened on the sideline as he spoke up in huddles throughout the night.
“I mean, when someone wants to wake somebody up or change the energy, that’s probably what they do. In my country, if somebody gets fired … probably you’re the next (to go),” Jokic elaborated in the locker room. “So I think it definitely changed something, and they got the reaction that they wanted, probably.”
Nuggets beat Kings in first game after firing Michael Malone, Calvin Booth
The 30-year-old center says he wasn’t consulted for his opinion in advance of the decision, but Kroenke himself gave him the news early.
“I knew a little bit before everybody,” Jokic said. “And he told me, ‘We made a decision.’ So it was not a discussion. It was a decision, and he told me why. So I listened and I accept it.”
The Nuggets (48-32) snapped a four-game losing streak in the first night of the post-Malone era, standing their ground at fourth place in the Western Conference. Kroenke and other front-office employees were in attendance for the landmark game at Golden 1 Center. Jokic went for 20 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists. Afterward, he repeatedly expressed his stance that Denver’s personnel changes simply reflected the reality of the business. He stressed the need for players to process the change “really quick” with the playoffs approaching.
Even so, he did text Malone, who had coached the Nuggets for Jokic’s entire NBA career until Wednesday.
“It was a 10-year relationship,” Jokic said. “So it was just, it was a heavy day for everybody. Especially for him and his family.”
As for what’s next: Jokic has publicly endorsed Adelman’s head-coaching potential in the past. He lit up when asked about Adelman’s leadership style on Wednesday, describing the 43-year-old as a “smart-(aleck)” who will “tell you what he wants, in probably the simplest way possible. ‘Do this.'” Adelman has been on the staff since 2017.
“I’ve been talking to the team for eight years,” Adelman said. “So I didn’t feel like there was a big difference. I mean, I’m doing pregames, I’m doing walk-throughs, I’m doing film sessions, all of them, on one side of the ball. So they’ve heard my voice forever. Especially Nikola, Jamal (Murray), Michael (Porter Jr.). … Felt pretty comfortable.”
And so did Jokic when he decided the timing was appropriate to do some coaching himself.
Originally Published: April 10, 2025 at 9:07 AM MDT
