The coach and general manager who helped the Nuggets win their first championship won’t get another shot at a second.

With three games left in the regular season, the Nuggets announced coach Michael Malone was fired and general manager Calvin Booth’s contract would not be extended. The news was announced Tuesday morning.

Malone was the fourth-longest tenured coach in the NBA, trailing only San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich, Miami’s Erik Spoelstra and Golden State’s Steve Kerr. His 471 wins as coach are a franchise record.

David Adelman will serve as Denver’s interim coach.

The assistant coaches are being retained, according to a report from The Denver Dig. A league source told The Denver Gazette that most of the assistants’ contracts expire at the end of the season.

“This decision was not made lightly and was evaluated very carefully, and we do it only with the intention of giving our group the best chance at competing for the 2025 NBA Championship and delivering another title to Denver and our fans everywhere,” team president Josh Kroenke said in a statement.

“While the timing of this decision is unfortunate, as Coach Malone helped build the foundation of our now championship level program, it is a necessary step to allow us to compete at the highest level right now. Championship level standards and expectations remain in place for the current season, and as we look to the future, we look forward to building on the foundations laid by coach Malone over his record-breaking 10-year career in Denver. There is no amount of gratitude that we can properly convey to his contributions since he joined our franchise in 2015. It is with our utmost respect that we would like to thank coach Malone for the most successful decade in Nuggets history, setting the all-time wins record and helping deliver Denver our first championship.”

In a video shared by the team on social media, Kroenke said he and his father, Stan, decided recently that both changes would be made at the end of the season before expediting the process in hopes of getting more out of the team over the remainder of the season. Kroenke said ownership would do a “full search” for both positions at the end of the season.

It matches the latest coaching change in a season since Hubie Brown’s firing from Atlanta in 1981.

Adelman inherits a team that sits fourth in the Western Conference after a four-game losing streak, but the Nuggets are only half a game ahead of Memphis, which sits eighth in the conference standings with a roster that has Booth’s fingerprints all over it.

Booth joined Denver’s front office in 2017 and was promoted to general manager in 2020. Tim Connelly left Denver in 2022 to become the Timberwolves’ president of basketball operations.

Since then, Booth has drafted the likes of Christian Braun, Peyton Watson and Julian Strawther but saw some of his other decisions fail.

Dario Saric was brought to Denver this summer using the taxpayer mid-level exception, one of the team’s only assets to improve the roster, and has played in just 16 games. The Nuggets also had to use three second-round picks to get Charlotte to take on Reggie Jackson’s contract, which limited the team’s ability to make a trade this season.

With Denver’s lack of draft capital and salary situation, Malone and Booth seemed at odds when it came to filling out the rest of the roster around the core. Booth believed Denver’s best path forward was to bet on younger players fulfilling their potential, as he gave second-round picks Jalen Pickett and Hunter Tyson guaranteed three-year contracts.

Malone’s rotation decisions leaned toward older, more established options like Justin Holiday.

The disagreements included how players were used. After the Nuggets sat still at the trade deadline, Booth said he believed Zeke Nnaji was best utilized as a power forward. Most of his Nnaji’s minutes under Malone came as a back-up center.

“I want to thank Calvin Booth for leading our front office for the past three years and most importantly for helping put the final pieces in place for the roster that delivered Denver and our fans their first NBA Championship,” Kroenke said. “Calvin’s knowledge of the game, his passion for scouting, and his long history as a player and executive in the NBA helped lift our organization to new heights which we will continue moving forward. We are grateful to Calvin for his eight years with the Nuggets and know his place in Nuggets history as our first championship-winning GM will be honored for years to come.”

Adelman’s first game as interim coach is Wednesday in Sacramento. Denver’s ownership is expected to be in attendance at Golden 1 Center.