The long coaching search is now over for the Denver Nuggets, as the team has reached agreement to hire former Sacramento Kings head coach Michael Malone, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports.

Michael Malone has reached agreement on a deal to become coach of the Denver Nuggets, league sources told Yahoo Sports.

It is not know at this time what the details of the contract will be, but stay tuned. In his season and a half as the Kings coach, Malone put up a 39-67 record. He is lauded for being well liked by his players in Sacramento, most notably by DeMarcus Cousins and Isaiah Thomas.

Thomas went so far as to post this message about Malone and the Nuggets:

This is a fairly shocking hire, even if the face of Malone having multiple interviews with the Nuggets. Known as a slow-it-down coach, Malone sort of flies in the face of what the Nuggets have been preaching since the off-season ended. All signs from Denver pointed to hiring a guy who would take advantage of the altitude and pace-and-space.

It would have been interesting to see what Malone had said during the interview process and what he sold the Nuggets on. Perhaps he can cater to any style, but with Jusuf Nurkic aboard – an offense that gets him involved will be vital.

Must Reads

Coach’s Resume: Mike Malone

Adam Mares

Part 8 in a series on head coaching candidates for the Denver Nuggets. Today I review and assess the coaching styles of Nate McMillan and Mike Malone and provide my opinion on how they’d fit in Denver.

Must Reads

Coach’s Resume: Mike Malone

The other interesting aspect is the Nuggets bringing back Pete D'Alessandro. Almost every Sacramento media outlet says D'Alessandro and Chris Mullen were responsible for getting Malone fired in Sacramento. However, Wojnarowski has maintained that Pete would have "no negative impact" on a Malone decision, and that came true today.

Malone is a tireless worker, a basketball junkie, and this is an excellent hire by the Nuggets from a basketball standpoint, but the team will have a lot of work to do with the roster. Kenneth Faried and Danilo Gallinari were both in favor, publicly, of Melvin Hunt and the team must now figure out a way to get Malone and the roster on the same page.

An interesting hire. Time will tell how it plays out.

And Isaiah Thomas is happy about the hire:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Hell yeah!! RT <a href="https://twitter.com/WojYahooNBA">@WojYahooNBA</a>: The Denver Nuggets have reached an agreement to hire Michael Malone as coach, league sources tell Yahoo Sports.</p>&mdash; Isaiah Thomas (@Isaiah_Thomas) <a href="https://twitter.com/Isaiah_Thomas/status/610511203517882368">June 15, 2015</a></blockquote>

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

This content is no longer available.

This page may be missing content that is no longer available.