Denver – Nuggets Vice President Josh Kroenke said on Monday that he resisted twice when he said goodbye to the most winning coach in the history of the franchise and the general manager who connected the final pieces of the only puzzle of the team championship before finally canned them last week with only three games in the season.
Kroenke stopped in November to give Jell’s team time and an eight-game winning streak in the direction of the All-Star Break modeled his desire to separate in February with coach Michael Malone and the GM Calvin Booth.
Kroenke finally fired both men last week in a movement that surprised the League because the Nuggets were still in the local court mixture in the first round of the playoffs and less than two years retired from the first parade of the NBA championship of the city.
“So what would be craziest, I do what I did last week or do it with a winning streak of eight games?” Kroenke asked.
Only one of those eight victories that lead to the stars holiday occurred against a team that would arrive at the playoffs, the Orlando Magic, the seed number 7 in the east.
“I think those eight games masked a trend that was happening behind closed doors that finally began to affect the end of our season,” Kroenke said.
Kroenke said he also seriously considered a change on Thanksgiving with nuggets with such a similar beginning and “he really felt that things were not heading in the right direction.” But he said he clung to the team to accommodate.
Despite taking Denver to his first title in 47 years, Malone and Booth met for a long time about the philosophies of the list, a discord that led to toxicity in the organization that began to affect the fortune of the team and led Kroenke to say goodbye.
Kroenke also addressed a report that he would not approve the commercial striker Michael Porter Jr. partly due to his ties with the Alma Mater of Porter, Missouri, calling him “completely false.”
“First of all, I will say, I am incredibly proud of Michael,” Kroenke said, referring to his return trip of several surgeries after the beginning of his career. “… But I think that any type of report that says we are not open to trade with all possible to improve the equipment is completely false.
“The other thing I will say is that … I will not illuminate any exchange here when I do not see the complete organizational cohesion and we are not maximizing the group we obtained.”
No club or staff requested the change in the organizational structure, Kroenke added. He offered to three times MVP Nikola Jokic the opportunity to discuss a decision that had already been made, but Kroenke said on Monday that Jokic’s response was a “no” wink.
“You have a responsibility when you have such a player, especially, obviously, at his best,” Kroenke said about Jokic. “But I feel an even greater responsibility with the person … it would be the darkest type of basketball if I did not ask for your opinion about certain things. But it is my responsibility to make those decisions for the best of the organization and I think Jokic understands and respects that.”
The Nuggets have won the three games under the interim coach David Adelman to ensure a third consecutive season of 50 victories and the fourth seed in the West, where they will open at home on Saturday against the fifth Los Angeles Clippers.
Kroenke said he will start looking for both positions after the season, but that he turned when he was asked if he wanted to have a GM in his place before hiring a chief coach: “My thoughts are not there because this season is not over.”
Kroenke also announced that he had promoted Ben Tenzer to GM interim for the playoff career.
Kroenke began his press conference of almost 30 minutes, the first from The Firings, praising Malone and Booth: “I want to start initially simply thanks to Calvin and coach Malone … and to be Franco, none of them deserved it, so that’s why I apologize.”
Kroenke said he finally made the decision to move from both men “hoping to rejuvenate the group’s energy and restore some positive thoughts before the playoffs. I think we did it in the last three games … I still have a long way to go.”
Associated Press contributed to this report.
