Stunning reports say trouble is brewing for championship contending Denver Nuggets

A stunning report points to some trouble brewing between the Denver Nuggets and head coach Mike Malone.

On the surface, just two years removed from winning their first NBA Championship in franchise history, there wouldn't be much reason to believe that the Denver Nuggets are in a delicate situation heading into the 2024-25 NBA season. However, there are other signs that could point to that being so. First, the team is coming off a disappointing title defense in which they lost at the hands of the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 7 on their home floor of the Western Conference semifinals.

To add to that, the team is coming off an offseason in which they were open to trading one of their key core players. The Nuggets ended up not making the move but that rumored report is unlikely to help the locker room.

The culmination of that could fall on the heels of a recent report that states head coach Mike Malone and the Nuggets aren't seeing "eye to eye" at this point. ESPN's Zach Lowe, the originator of this report, would go on to say that it's "unusual" to a degree even for the NBA. If nothing else, it's something else to think about heading into the start of the season which, all of a sudden, could prove to be extremely important to the future of this franchise.

Are the Nuggets and head coach Mike Malone one down season away from a divorce?

From the sound of this reporting, it does seem as if the Nuggets could be one "bad" season away from pivoting in a different direction. And that could mean a divorce between the team and head coach Malone. Preparing for his 10th season with the Nuggets, Malone is one of the highest-tenure coaches in the league. It would not be surprising if there was some unrest between the coach and the front office. Working that long is naturally going to sprout some of that.

However, generally in the NBA, winning does go a long way in curing a lot of that. And for the past six years, the Nuggets have been a perennial playoff team in the West. Over the past two years, they've been a championship favorite. And not much of that is going to change heading into the 2024-25 season.

That said, the Nuggets could be one bad year away from it all falling apart. That's what this recent reporting seems to suggest. The question is, will that end up being the case? We should find out a whole lot about the Nuggets heading into this season.