Two years ago, the Denver Nuggets stood at the top of the NBA world. With Nikola Jokić leading the charge, they combined talent, chemistry, and relentless energy. Today, the team is at a crossroads after Josh kroenke sacked both head coach Michael Malone and GM Calvin Booth. After the All-Star break, the Nuggets posted a middling 14-13 record. A four-game skid led to the shocking aforementioned changes. David Adelman has since been named the interim head coach. That led to some stability, as the team ended the season with a three-game win streak. However, this stability is a far cry from how things were just weeks ago. Tensions threatened to fracture the team’s unity.
Division, distrust, and dysfunction reigned supreme in the background. Toxicity had been king on the Nuggets for a while.
BOMBSHELL: How Toxicity Became King On The Nuggets
Infighting Erupts in Public
Earlier in the season, internal fighting spilled onto the court and into the public eye.
Owner Stan Kroenke said he “had never seen” this much open infighting on one of his teams.
Every moment of frustration seemed to go viral.
Cameras caught Jokić throwing his hands up in disgust at his teammates’ defensive mistakes. Another video showed Aaron Gordon and Peyton Watson locked in a heated exchange during a timeout. Gordon was captured on camera calling for a team huddle but Jamal Murray ignored him. The dysfunction was no longer hidden. It became a major talking point around the league.
Division in the Front Office
Behind the scenes, tensions between Malone and Booth grew louder. Malone preferred veterans, players he trusted in playoff battles.
Booth wanted to rebuild through the draft and younger talent. This philosophical divide created two camps inside the organization.
Personnel and staff members began aligning themselves as either “Malone’s people” or “Booth’s people.”
This internal civil war only worsened as losses piled up after the All-Star break. Trust broke down at every level of the organization.
The Mishandling of Zeke Nnaji
One flashpoint was the curious handling of Zeke Nnaji. Sources revealed to ESPN that Malone showed reluctance to play Nnaji at power forward, even though analytics supported it. Staffers wondered aloud if there was an agenda behind that decision. “The numbers are way better [with Nnaji] as a 4 than a 5,” one team source said. “But if you play him as a 5, he gets exposed. Who does that make look bad?”
The stats backed it up:
Nnaji was plus-100 when paired with a center at power forward. He was minus-113 in 235 minutes when forced to play backup center. Many around the team questioned if Malone had used him poorly to justify not giving Booth’s picks more opportunities.
Urgency Around Jokic’s Future
Adding more urgency to the dysfunction was Jokić’s looming future. Jokić becomes eligible to sign an extension this offseason. The Nuggets needed to prove they can build a contender around him again. Anything short of that risked alienating the franchise’s most important figure. Instead, toxic infighting, mismanagement, and mistrust dominated the conversation.
The Nuggets are a Cautionary Tale on Unchecked Toxicity and Infighting
Two years ago, the Nuggets were champions of the basketball world. Today, they are a cautionary tale of how fast success can crumble when egos, agendas, and distrust take over. The question now is whether Denver can pull itself back together — or if the chaos will end an era far too soon.
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