Malone Fired
- Thread starter SLAB
- Start date
While you and I tend to agree on a lot, I think it's unfair to say Mike Malone was "gifted" Jokic. It's not like he was hired by the Nuggets who then drafted a consensus #1 pick. Their front office took a flier in the second round on a slow-footed Serbian big man with a great feel for the game and then he blossomed into a future hall of famer.
Not to mention the fact that Jokic's talent, while apparent early on, didn't come with automatic MVP aspirations. He wasn't a self motivator. He was frequently out of shape. There was no guarantee he was going to find the next gear. From what I understand, it was Mike Malone's insistence that Jokic take on the role of team leader and offensive power house that helped Jokic level up to MVP stature. He kept pushing Jokic to be a more assertive scorer.
I certainly wouldn't credit Malone with Jokic's success. Talent is talent, after all. And Malone is not the only coach who could have conceivably broken through with the selfless and mercurial big man. But he was Jokic's only NBA head coach up until his firing, and they did manage to win a title together despite a surrounding roster that was never quite good enough or healthy enough.
Not to mention the fact that Jokic's talent, while apparent early on, didn't come with automatic MVP aspirations. He wasn't a self motivator. He was frequently out of shape. There was no guarantee he was going to find the next gear. From what I understand, it was Mike Malone's insistence that Jokic take on the role of team leader and offensive power house that helped Jokic level up to MVP stature. He kept pushing Jokic to be a more assertive scorer.
I certainly wouldn't credit Malone with Jokic's success. Talent is talent, after all. And Malone is not the only coach who could have conceivably broken through with the selfless and mercurial big man. But he was Jokic's only NBA head coach up until his firing, and they did manage to win a title together despite a surrounding roster that was never quite good enough or healthy enough.
Well, that's the rub, isn't it? There's no counterfactual for whether Jokić would have succeeded in the NBA, no matter what. People like to assume that talent will always win out, but we've also seen many examples where it didn't. It's just that, we canonize the times when it happens, like when Petrović got traded to New Jersey and everybody realized, "Oh yeah, they really were holding him back in Portland, that whole time!" Or when Sheed shines after getting out of Webber's shadow, or when Jermaine O'Neal shines after getting out of Sheed's shadow. And, when it doesn't work, we play the results and act like it was always the player that failed, rather than the player being failed. Nerlens Noel wasn't failed by multiple organizations, he just was never that good. Otto Porter, Jr.? He wasn't ruined by the Wizards! No! He just wasn't that good. Philly didn't ruin Jahlil Okafor, he just wasn't that good... that's how we rationalize it, anyway.
Somewhere in the multiverse is a version of the Nuggets where Jokić gets sick of sitting behind Nurkić and Faried, and pulls a Vezenkov.
Somewhere in the multiverse is a version of the Nuggets where Jokić gets sick of sitting behind Nurkić and Faried, and pulls a Vezenkov.
Hopefully they get Jenkins to replace Malone and change the offense so it's not so Jokic centric because atm he's kind of gone into stat padding Luka territory despite his numbers being insane his lack of effort on D this season has been shocking he was much better 2 years ago overall imo.
The easiest way to beat Denver is just to let Jokic go 1 on 1 and stop Porter/AG who get frozen out when he does that every 50+ points game Jokic has had has been a loss pretty much the team is at its best when he's scoring in the 18-24 PPG range and getting everyone involved and trying on D instead of the 30-50 and 14+ assists games with zero defense where he's way to ball dominant.
The easiest way to beat Denver is just to let Jokic go 1 on 1 and stop Porter/AG who get frozen out when he does that every 50+ points game Jokic has had has been a loss pretty much the team is at its best when he's scoring in the 18-24 PPG range and getting everyone involved and trying on D instead of the 30-50 and 14+ assists games with zero defense where he's way to ball dominant.
Between NIL in college and whatever we're seeing now with coaches and GMs fired on player whims and you know I have kept quiet since Feb the Fox thing, I am finding following my sports teams less enjoyable. Maybe Slim is right. I don't think I can change my ways but if I was a kid today I probably would have no shame in just rooting for players.
It took a few years after the Kings fired him but it eventually came out that Malone wears on people. The days of coaching influence and power with the likes of a Jerry Sloan, Pat Riley, Pop, etc. are waning. The game being so uniform stylistically has all but made it solely a position of chemistry management. Coaching always tilted towards that but having particular systems on either end is over. You shoot on one end, you switch on the other, done.
Not only that but apparently the Coach/GM fighting was bleeding into the whole organization. Team employees were having to pick sides and were choosing not to talk to those on the other end. Why would Joker or any other player want to come to work in that environment? Sounds super toxic and probably both the guys fired deserved to be
Is it "over"? I mean, yes, at this specific moment in time, the game has been utterly flattened by the ascendance of the three point shot. But as I noted in a separate thread, it's unlikely to remain this way. The NBA is very sensitive about how their brand is viewed and understood. And though they sometimes react slowly, the league office is generally unafraid to shake things up. Just consider the play-in format and the in-season tournament.
As greater numbers of fans, pundits, players, coaches, and front office personnel continue to express displeasure with the "state of the game" in this era of three pointer excess, the league will alter its course and make changes to the rules. It's not like this is an unsolvable problem. Will the NBA outright remove the three point line? No, I would expect not. But there are plenty of innovative adjustments that could rebalance the court and tilt the math away from the three point shot, and the league office is no doubt discussing some of those innovations. I imagine we'll see at least a couple of them implemented within the next five years or so.
And while that obviously affects nobody's coaching search today, it is hardly a given that having influential coaches with stylistic variance and particular systems on either end of the court is "over".
As greater numbers of fans, pundits, players, coaches, and front office personnel continue to express displeasure with the "state of the game" in this era of three pointer excess, the league will alter its course and make changes to the rules. It's not like this is an unsolvable problem. Will the NBA outright remove the three point line? No, I would expect not. But there are plenty of innovative adjustments that could rebalance the court and tilt the math away from the three point shot, and the league office is no doubt discussing some of those innovations. I imagine we'll see at least a couple of them implemented within the next five years or so.
And while that obviously affects nobody's coaching search today, it is hardly a given that having influential coaches with stylistic variance and particular systems on either end of the court is "over".
Amen to that, and hopefully that is the case moving forward. That will likely depend on what star the league builds itself around and if it's Wemby it can go either way. With these current rules he could literally break the game if it goes unchecked. My personal hope? The rebalancing potentially coincides with the NBA's return to NBC. The rebalancing would be easy, simply allow for more physicality on the perimeter and stop propping up players with these "freedom of movement" rules. So far there has been a bit more of a balancing recently but it needs more. "Fights", lol, seem to be more of a thing now. Gee, sure does remind one of the good 'ol days of the 90's and NBA on NBC eh? Now, that said, hopefully the game doesn't tilt back all the way where they were because that era became a bit stale as well getting way too grindy and physical. The era of Euro style ball has had it's run and it's time to shift back to the days where defenders and athletes mattered. Once the Euroleague started to become more physical than the NBA game the clock started ticking. Then once that happens yeah, coaching and system should matter more.
It would be my ultimate dream to see the late 80s/early 90s style of basketball come back to the NBA. Give me more Steph Curry drives into the paint, meeting the likes of Wemby, Jokic, or any other big man close to the hoop. Allow the guy to take some bumps throughout a game.
Could you imagine the bumps and bruises sustained if someone like Curry constantly drove into the paint against the likes of Shaq, Patrick Ewing, Hakeem, David Robinson, and Alonzo (just to name a few)???
Could you imagine the bumps and bruises sustained if someone like Curry constantly drove into the paint against the likes of Shaq, Patrick Ewing, Hakeem, David Robinson, and Alonzo (just to name a few)???