The Denver Nuggets finished the year with a three-game victory after a double fire in the late season.
The Denver Nuggets created the biggest noise throughout the NBA on their final lap of the regular season. Despite Nicola Djokic’s brilliance, their concerns about their fall led them to a bold move by rejecting head coach Michael Malone and general manager Calvin Booth.
The move was filled with such criticism given that the NBA playoffs were already approaching, but the franchise was forced to move out of a worse feud between the two nugget staff.
Despite major organizational changes, Denver has grown resilient and avoided the play-in tournament by ending the season and earning the final three games towards postseason qualifying as the fourth team in the Western Conference.
They definitely deserve to be praised for surviving the season and reaching the playoff stage, but the real challenge has yet to come for the Nuggets.
What Denver painted for the opening round of the 2025 playoffs was simply a difficult one, a surge in Raclippers team that went against the odds and expectations placed on them.
It could definitely be a seven-game banger for both teams, but Draymond Green believes the Nuggets are at a very disadvantage when it comes to coaching perspectives.
“I miss Mike Malone here. I’m playing against Ty Lu as good as they’re coming. It’s tough for coaches who coach four games as head coaches and others and try to win Ty Lu in the playoff series.”
“I think that’s going to make a huge difference to this series.”
Malone came out and the Nuggets tapped assistant David Adelman to become the interim team head coach.
David, coach of Hall of Fame son Rick Adelman, deserves many credits for leading the Nuggets despite the recent chaotic turns of events around the franchise. However, there is no denying that he will truly face a difficult tactical battle with seasoned ones like Ty Lue.
“I don’t know, man. It’s hard to resist the Clippers when you’re trying to get a 3-game tenure head coach against Ty Lue. I think it’s almost impossible to overcome that,” Green said. “
“It’s hard to resist the Clippers just for that reason. David Adelman is not very clear.
I’m not sure if the Nuggets can pull it apart from an X and O perspective, but Green is bullish about one Denver star who can play a key head-to-head role over Nicola Jokic against the Clippers.
For Green, Russell Westbrook becomes the Nuggets game-changer with his energy and defense.
He is expected to play a prominent role, causing much chatter before about his tragic shock to the Minnesota Timberwolves and was thrown into speculation about Malone’s departure.
“We really need Russell Westbrook for this series, and Russell Westbrook is defensively needed,” Green insisted. “He’s one guy who thinks he can throw at James (Harden) or Kawi (Leonard) and he can cause some havoc.
“You’re not stopping any of those guys, they’re superstars with a reason, but I think Russ can cause havoc. That’s important, Russ is the X-factor of that series.”
Time shows how the battle between the Nuggets and the Clippers unfolds. It appears to be heading towards a thriller series between the two titles Powerhouses.