In Denver, the “Cold War” between Mike Malone and Calvin Booth finished without winner • Basket USA

What's going on in the NBA this season? Between the “trade” of Luka Dabusic then the layoffs of Taylor Jenkins and Mike Malonethe owners seem to have joined the “Sideration strategy” De Donald Trump.

But among the nuggets, the internal tensions between the coach and his GM, Calvin Boothweren't really a secret. The coach and the leader were clearly not in line on the strategy to be implemented to make the most of Nikola Jokic. For the GM, if the club wanted to win other titles in the ten -year window offered by the pivot, it was necessary to develop young players of the group, as Peyton Watson et Jalen Picketteven if it meant letting them make mistakes. And maybe leave a few games on the way …

An impossible balance?

A balance between short, medium and long term extremely difficult to set up for Mike Malone, known to rely on players in whom he has fully confidence.

“It's hard” Calvin Booth confessed upstream of the season. “You are a coach, you try to win the next game, and you want a finished product. This is where the concept, even if it seems good and that the coaches joined it, when the competition resumes, you understand why (Malone) sometimes had trouble accepting it. »»

The trainer thus annoyed himself to lose his soldiers (Bruce Brown, Jeff Green, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope …) over the years, when he had trouble trusting the players who were gave him (Zeke Nnaji, Dario Saric …). What make it more and more nervous, and therefore to refuse the strategy of his GM.

Calvin Booth had thus come to the conclusion that Mike Malone was going to have his bags this summer, except that he did not succeed in negotiating an upstream contract extension. And seeing the bad atmosphere that reigned within the club, the owner Josh Kroenke finally turned both!

Selon The Athleticthe tensions were increasingly strong in the locker room, the executives less and less supporting the iron grip of Mike Malone… and the freedoms granted to Russell Westbrook.

Is there juice in the fruit?

Compared to the little confidence granted by the coach to a good part of his workforce, the one he offered to the former MVP seemed disproportionate, especially after the “money-time” against the Wolves. Moreover, David Adelman drastically reduced his playing time when he took office, facing the Kings.

However, if the explosion seemed inevitable, the question of “timing” questions. Between the lines, Josh Kroenke has generally explained that given the management taken by the team, the nugget season seemed lost if no change had been made. The owner repeated that he wanted “Extract the maximum juice” From this group, hoping that the callest David Adelman would manage to bring a little joy back, by changing the gloomy atmosphere.

As with the Grizzlies with Tuomas Iisalo, this change so late in the season may also be a way of testing the assistant on the big stage, and seeing if he has the qualities necessary to carry this team.

In any case, it is a new blast in an NBA which seems more and more unstable. And you will have to see how Nikola Jokic reacts there. The triple MVP is not one to put pressure on its leaders but, at 30 years old and at the top of its form, it has the right to ask his club guarantees for the future.