Denver Nuggets CEO Josh Kroenke took a subtle shot at former head coach Michael Malone on Thursday, suggesting the franchise was headed toward a disappointing NBA Play-In Tournament exit before his shocking decision to make a coaching change with just three games remaining in the regular season.

Speaking at the team's end-of-season press conference, where he officially named David Adelman as the team's new head coach, Kroenke addressed critics who viewed the coaching change as a sign of organizational instability. Instead, he argued that maintaining the ‘status quo' would have been the real mistake.

“From an instability standpoint, that's why I made the decision that I did before the playoffs,” said Kroenke. “I think the real instability would be if I just hid behind the curtain and allowed the plane to continue to go where it was heading, and probably, I think that plane would have landed in the play-in and probably gone right out then. I made that decision because I thought there was more in that group, and from a stability standpoint, I feel way more stable right now than I did six weeks ago.”

Josh Kroenke's gamble pays off for Nuggets in the playoffs

The timing of Malone's dismissal sent shockwaves throughout the NBA, but it didn't entirely come out of nowhere. In fact, Denver had dropped four consecutive games before the front office decided a different voice was needed heading into the postseason.

That gamble ultimately paid dividends. Under Adelman, the Nuggets pushed the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder to 7 games in the playoffs. Adelman's 17-game audition, including the regular season and playoffs, resulted in a 10-7 record against some of the top teams in the NBA.

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Kroenke's response comes after his former championship-winning coach made some interesting comments on a recent ESPN broadcast. During ESPN's pregame show before Game 1 of the Western Conference finals, Malone appeared to take a veiled shot at Nikola Jokic while discussing Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's MVP candidacy.

However, Malone would go into damage control mode before Game 2, stating he would have voted for Jokic for MVP “if I had a vote” and wanted “to make sure the people in Denver know that because, right now, I'm getting a lot of heat back home.”

By promoting from within and validating Adelman's capabilities through playoff success, the Nuggets believe they've positioned themselves for future success around their core of Jokic and Jamal Murray.