New Nuggets coach Malone, exec D'Alessandro are good towork together

Denver Nuggets new head coach Michael Malone answers questions at a press conference June 16,2015 at Pepsi Center. (John Leyba, The Denver Post)

Simplification is bliss for new Nuggets coach Michael Malone.

Specifically, a pared-down and tight-knit version of the front-office chaos he left behind inSacramento.

"What excited me about this job is it's not too many voices: It's Josh (Kroenke). It's Tim (Connelly).It's me," Malone told The Denver Post on Wednesday. "And as long as we're all pulling in the rightdirection and constantly communicating with each other ... not every day will we be hugging eachother. There needs to be some disagreement. There needs to be some challenging of each other.Obviously, most important when we leave that room, we're a united front. I'm excited about this."

Kroenke is the Nuggets' president, and Connelly is the general manager.

On Malone's immediate to-do list is putting his coaching staff together and helping prepare for theNBA draft next week and also the summer league, which is only three weeks away.

Connelly and his scouting staff have been working out draft candidates and also gauging interest intrades.

Part of Malone's future includes working with Pete D'Alessandro, who as general manager ofSacramento last season was forced to fire Malone, then the Kings' coach. Both are reunited in theNuggets organization -- D'Alessandro is VP of business -- and both say they can work well together.

"Pete and I have always respected each other, have always gotten along," Malone said. "It was justthat sometimes, the environment that we were working in was not conducive to a healthyrelationship."

Malone said it never bothered him that he was up for the head coaching job when the Nuggetsrehired D'Alessandro.

"I'm not going to get into too many details, but I wasn't worried about it, because the reality is Iwould never had gotten an interview in the first place, because Josh and Pete are close," Malonesaid. "Josh brought Pete back. If Pete was killing me and Pete was saying, 'He's a bad coach, he's abad guy, the players hated him, I didn't like working with him,' they never would have interviewedme.

"Or, maybe they would have (conducted) the first interview, but I never would have been broughtback and sat in Josh Kroenke's living room, petting his two bulldogs."

D'Alessandro seconded Malone's comments.

"Michael and I, from the time he left our last place of employment, we actually continued ourrelationship," D'Alessandro said. "We continued our conversation and dialogue. We'd always held agreat deal of respect for each other. I think the world of him and his family. Sometimes, perceptionis not always reality. It's been good to have him here."

Christopher Dempsey: cdempsey@denverpost.com or twitter.com/dempseypost

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