Report: Denver Nuggets fire head coach Brian Shaw
By Andrew Dill
The time has finally come. The Denver Nuggets announced Tuesday morning that they have fired Brian Shaw as the team’s head coach, relieving him of his head coaching duties. Assistant coach Melvin Hunt will be named interim head coach for the remainder of the season.
Brian Shaw has been relieved of his coaching duties.
— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) March 3, 2015
Melvin Hunt will be interim head coach: http://t.co/I2XJD2gc9G pic.twitter.com/gpilKjvf3t
Everyone saw this coming, yet I’m sure it took a little longer to some people’s liking. The season didn’t go the way general manager Tim Connelly hoped, seeing his Nuggets fall to a fall to a 20-39 record as he had no other choice but to fire Shaw.
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Denver has lost 19 out of their last 21; not what you would expect from a team that won 57 games just two years ago. So as you know, expectations were essentially through the roof for this team. Shaw was given the benefit of the doubt last season due to the key injuries to half of the roster, but this season was no different.
Shaw basically lost the locker room. Denver’s not a good team to do so with – they don’t have a leader. Shaw called out his players in early February due to the lack of effort. (The Denver Post).
"It just looks like you almost have to try to lose as bad, and in the way we’ve been losing,” he said. “At that point, something gives. The decision-makers at some point are going to make a decision. And everybody is going to have to live with it. Then it’s out of our control."
When you have to beg and plead your players to put forth an effort nearly every night, you know you’ve done something wrong. Not to mention the most recent ‘1, 2, 3, six weeks’ quote from the players in the huddle. That’s not something you want to hear as a fan.
Over his two-year stint with the Denver Nuggets, Shaw collected a record of 56-85. Denver won one more game than that in the 2012-’13 campaign, so it speaks volumes.
Shaw traded away four players this season, Timofey Mozgov (Cleveland), Nate Robinson (Boston), Arron Afflalo (Portland), and JaVale McGee (Philadelphia).
But hey, at least Brian Shaw got rid of JaVale McGee. There’s a bright side to every story!