The Denver Nuggets have fired Brian Shaw after a season and a half as the team’s coach, according to an NBA source.
News of his firing comes days after general manager Tim Connelly had said Shaw is “absolutely” safe as the team’s coach for the remainder of the season.
The Nuggets, however, have struggled since Shaw arrived in June 2013 as a first-year head coach. A string of injuries to many of the team’s key players contributed to a 36-46 record, the team’s wrost record in 11 years.
This season, the team has regained its health but has failed to live up to expectations, sporting a 20-39 record through Monday.
Shaw was hired in 2013 in place of George Karl, the reigning NBA Coach of the Year who was let go after leading the team to a 57-25 record in 2012-13 and guiding the Nuggets to the playoffs every season since he came on in 2005.
Shaw, who retired as a player in 2003, joined the Lakers as a scout and then assistant under Phil Jackson. He went to be an assistant in Indiana, where he was promoted to associate head coach and pegged as one of the up-and-coming head-coaching candidates.
The Nuggets host the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday.