Denver Nuggets head coach Mike Malone opined about the firing of his colleague David Fizdale earlier this month, a hot topic of discussion after the New York Knicks started 4-18 this season with him at the helm. Following the Nuggets' 111-105 win over the Knicks, Malone gave his sincere thoughts on the matter.

‘They needed to make a change,” said Malone of the situation, according to Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic. “They made the change they felt was appropriate. Obviously there has been so much written about and talked about since David has been fired in terms of ‘Is David the fall guy? Does it start up higher—front office, ownership?' I can't answer those questions.”

Malone, however, could attest for Fiz's mettle as a basketball coach at this level:

“I know Fiz is a good coach. I know he's a good man. I know that all the players in the locker room still believe in him,” said Malone. “Obviously the day he got fired the players had a players' only meeting from what I hear and talked about how they have to go out there and do a much better job so it didn't all fall on Fiz. One thing I can say, I'm the son of a coach, we all know when you get into this business what it entails. When things don't go right the first guy they're going to look at is the head coach. Unfortunately, that's what happened with Fiz. I feel for him.”

The Knicks had problems that went well beyond Fizdale's capabilities to change. Poor roster construction, organizational instability, and lack of vision were some of the things that plagued this team into failure, as a string of bad decisions in free agency gave Fizdale yet another headache to work with to start the 2019-20 campaign.

Yet Fizdale will still be paid the remaining $17 million that is left on his contract after agreeing to a five-year, $22 million deal before the start of the 2018-19 season.