Brian Shaw: Pressure is on after Sacramento’s firing of Mike Malone
By Andrew Dill
The pressure is on for Denver Nuggets head coach Brian Shaw after the most recent, bizarre firing of Sacramento Kings head coach Mike Malone. Malone was fired by the Kings late Sunday night after an 11-13 start. Sacramento started out the season red-hot, winning five out of their first six games – two of which came against Denver. Now all eyes focus on Shaw whose Nuggets are reeling.
Denver started out the season with a disastrous record of 1-6. Their struggles were then masked by a five-game win streak which was a streak where Denver won seven out of their eight games. Since then, Denver has won just one out of their last seven – talk about being streaky.
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We saw the same sort of theme last season even with the injury-plagued roster. They would go on a big-time losing streak which countered with a little win streak. Denver has been competitive in most of these games, but lack the discipline to finish off games. The million dollar question is, is it on the coaching staff or the players?
Their most recent loss to the San Antonio Spurs Sunday night was a prime example. Denver had one bad quarter (second) which doomed their fate. Other than that, they played good enough to win, minus the turnovers. Denver turned over the ball a whopping 21 times, which resulted in 30 points for the Spurs.
Sitting at 10-14 on the season, this isn’t what the management and players expected out of this deep club. The play from Danilo Gallinari, Nate Robinson, and Kenneth Faried at times has been not up to par with their capabilities. Denver needs a full team-effort in order to take down the top teams.
The next couple of weeks will determine the fate of Brian Shaw and his tenure as the Denver Nuggets head coach. Seeing Sacramento cut ties with Malone was a huge shock, but now all eyes are locked-in on Shaw. Shaw currently holds a record of 46-60 in his second season as head coach for the Nuggets.