Reflecting on the Rise: Michael Malone is set to join historic company

Michael Malone still doesn’t have any purple in his closet.

It’s been nearly five years since he was let go by the Sacramento Kings, yet Denver’s coach insists that his wife Jocelyn’s favorite color is still banned from his wardrobe.

At Media Day on the eve of his fifth season in Denver, Malone, dressed in Nuggets’ midnight blue reflected on his last four years just as he’s about to join Nuggets royalty. He’s set to become just the fourth coach in franchise history to coach the Nuggets for five consecutive seasons, joining George Karl, Doug Moe and Larry Brown.

“I think it speaks to ownership being patient, our front office, Tim Connelly, and our relationship,” Malone told DNVR. “In today’s pro sports, that fact that you have an owner, a president, and a coach that are aligned in everything that we do. For me to be going into my fifth year with the Denver Nuggets, being one of four guys to do that in Nuggets history is a testament to the fact that when they hired me they believed in me. And they still believe in me.”

It’s been a steady rise for Malone since he was unfairly let go in Sacramento just 24 games into his second season on the job. The Nuggets hired him in 2015 after two forgettable years under Brian Shaw looking for a culture setter and someone to steer their organization back on course.

He’s done that and some, completely rewriting the narrative on his young career while captaining the Nuggets to NBA prominence. Denver was booed off the court at Pepsi Center during his first season at the helm. Now, the Nuggets are on the horizon of one of their most anticipated seasons in franchise history.

Culturally, the Nuggets have built the type of organization that rival teams envy and it’s been Malone at ground zero on Denver’s practice court every day for the last four years seeing that process through.

“When I got hired I was taking over a team that had just won 30 games and there were a lot of question marks about the culture and locker room that we had,” Malone said. “Obviously we’ve all improved.”

That’s precisely what makes Malone’s rise and place in Denver the perfect side story to the Nuggets’ rapid ascent towards the top of the Western Conference; while Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, Gary Harris and the rest of Denver’s roster has improved each of the last few seasons, Malone has grown with them.

When I asked him on Monday where he’s improved the most as a coach during his Nuggets tenure, Malone said it hasn’t been in the X’s and O’s or game management department.

He’s much more serene on the sideline now than when he first arrived in Denver.

“Settling down, calming down, and not being so emotional,” said Malone. “I think when you’re a young coach and you’re trying to prove yourself, you wind up almost coaching every dribble.

“I think what’s given me confidence is we’ve gotten better every year and I have the full support of Tim and Stan Kroenke and Josh Kroenke, and I think that allows me to be a little more level headed and think big picture instead of being reactionary to every single game and every single play.”

That’s an essential coaching characteristic to have when leading what’s been one of the youngest teams in the league each of the last few seasons.

“It used to be, every win or loss is like life and death,” Malone told DNVR. “That’s a hard way to live. That’s a hard way to coach.”

There’s something that’s unique about Malone’s standing in the league, one that he grew up in as the son of Brendan Malone who coached in the NBA for close to 30 years. He’s always garnered an incredible amount respect for his preparation and coaching acumen not only from the likes of Gregg Popovich, Steve Kerr, and Rick Carlisle but also from his players, both current and former. From LeBron James to Steph Curry and Draymond Green, who Malone coached during stops as an assistant in Cleveland and then Golden State, former players routinely speak of how Malone has helped inspire confidence in themselves.

After a forgettable rookie season where Gary Harris only averaged 13 minutes per game, Malone arrived in Denver and quickly anointed the young Michigan State product as his starting shooting guard. Harris has since started 245 of the 257 games he’s appeared in over the last four seasons and established himself as one of the better two-way guards in the league.

After an ugly playoff debut in Game 1 and for three quarters of Game 2 in the Nuggets’ first-round matchup against the Spurs last year, Malone stuck with Jamal Murray who through that point in the series was shooting 8-31 from the field. Murray responded with a 21-point fourth quarter that led the Nuggets to a Game 2 win and swung the momentum of the series back to Denver’s favor.

“I needed to show him that I believed in him,” Malone said that night after the Nuggets’114-105 win.

When Torrey Craig arrived in Denver as a Summer League invite in 2017, he wasn’t sure if he belonged. Craig went undrafted out of the University of South Carolina Upstate in 2014 and had found a home as a top player in Australia and New Zealand’s National Basketball League but didn’t know if he had what it took to succeed at the NBA level.

Malone approached Craig in the Nuggets’ weight room early that summer.

“Why not Torrey Craig?” Malone asked the forward. “Why can’t it be you?”

“That stuck with me,” said Craig, who started 11 of the Nuggets’ 14 games during last year’s playoff run. “He believed in me from Day 1. It gave me all the confidence in the world.”

On the cusp of his fifth season in Denver, Malone is quickly climbing the Nuggets’ all-time leaderboards. Malone’s 173 wins as the Nuggets’ head coach are the fifth-most in franchise history and just seven fewer than Dan Issel who won 180 games over two different stints with the team from 1992-95 and 1999-2001. Malone needs 79 more victories to pass Brown for the third-most wins in Nuggets history behind Doug Moe (432) and George Karl (427).

Under Malone’s stewardship, the Nuggets are the only team in the league to improve their win-loss record every season over the last four years.

Malone has been at the core of the Nuggets’ rewarding climb from the lottery to NBA luxury and now to one of the favorites in a crowded Western Conference. Ahead of his fifth year on the job, Denver’s coach and his players spoke candidly about their championship aspirations entering this season.

“It’s all we talk about,” Malik Beasley said.

“My mentality is we have a chance to win a championship,” said Murray.

“We want to win a championship,” Malone said at his Media Day address. “That’s something we’re going to talk about. That’s something I’ve been hitting our players about all summer long. This should be our goal.”

Championship talk is a foreign language in Denver. The Nuggets haven’t made the Finals since the 1975-76 season when they were still a part of the ABA. Malone wants to change that and chart a path he foresaw when he took the job five years ago.

“Coming in and creating a culture, establishing an identity and getting all of our players better was the goal,” Malone told DNVR. “And here we are going into year five. I envisioned it and the scary thing is we’re not done.”