The Denver Nuggets made a big move right before the postseason started, firing head coach Michael Malone and general manager Calvin Booth. It sounds like this move was bound to happen at some point, and owner Josh Kroenke knew the exact moment when it was time to pull the plug.

“Coming into the locker room after our loss to Indy. I could feel how flat the room was,” Kroenke said via reporter Jake Shapiro. “And on a four-game losing streak heading into the playoffs, with a flat locker room, that was when I understood, and I internalized how much I had let this room slip.”

There seemed to be a power struggle between Malone and Booth as both were on different pages when it came to the direction of the team, and everybody in the organization felt it. Now, the Nuggets can focus on trying to make a deep playoff run, and after the season, they can figure out everything else.

Nuggets went through a power struggle with Malone, Booth

For some time, Malone and Booth had different philosophies of the team, which caused a rift in the organization. Booth wanted to invest in the youth movement for the Nuggets, and that meant getting players from the draft and developing them. For Malone, he wanted to keep putting veterans around Nikola Jokic so they can grow their championship window.

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For example, Malone pushed for the Nuggets to trade Christian Braun, according to Marc Stein.

“Braun is yet another player who had to dig his way out of being buried into the coach's bench,” Stein wrote. “Malone, sources say, had even pushed to trade Braun leading up to last season's trade deadline, during last season's title defense that would end with a second-round exit to Minnesota in a seven-game classic, in exchange for a more established player.”

The Nuggets had also been looking at trades for Jamal Murray last season, but it's not certain what they were looking for in return.

After winning the NBA championship two seasons ago, the Nuggets were knocked out of the second round of the playoffs last season against the Minnesota Timberwolves. They've still been one of the top teams in the league for the past two seasons, but now they're just looking to get back to the NBA Finals, especially with the way Nikola Jokic has been playing.