DENVER -- Nuggets vice chairman Josh Kroenke said Monday that he twice balked at firing the winningest coach in franchise history and the general manager who connected the final pieces of the team's only championship puzzle before finally canning them last week with just three games left in the season.

Kroenke held off in November to give the team time to jell and an eight-game winning streak heading into the All-Star break tempered his desire to part ways in February with coach Michael Malone and GM Calvin Booth.

Kroenke finally fired both men last week in a move that stunned the league because the Nuggets were still in the mix for home court in the first round of the playoffs and less than two years removed from the city's first NBA championship parade.

"So, what would be crazier, me doing what I did last week or doing it on an eight-game winning streak?" Kroenke asked.

Only one of those eight wins leading into the All-Star break came against a team that would make the playoffs, the Orlando Magic, the No. 7 seed in the East.

"I think that those eight games masked a trend that was going on behind closed doors that ultimately started to really affect the end of our season," Kroenke said.

Kroenke said he also seriously considered a change around Thanksgiving with the Nuggets off to a so-so start and "I was really feeling like things weren't headed in the right direction." But he said he held off then to give the team time to settle in.

Despite leading Denver to its first title in 47 years, Malone and Booth long clashed over roster philosophies, a discord that led to a toxicity in the organization that began to affect the team's fortunes and which led Kroenke to fire them both.

Kroenke also addressed a report that he would not approve trading forward Michael Porter Jr. in part because of his ties to Porter's alma mater, Missouri, calling it "completely false."

"First of all I'll say, I'm incredibly proud of Michael," Kroenke said, referencing his journey back from multiple back surgeries earlier in his career. "... But I think that any kind of report saying that we're not open to trading everybody possible to improve the team is completely false.

"The other thing I'll say is ... I'm not going to be green-lighting any trades around here when I don't see complete organizational cohesion and we're not maximizing the group we got."

No players or club personnel requested the change in organizational structure, Kroenke added. He offered three-time MVP Nikola Jokic a chance to discuss a decision that had already been made, but Kroenke said Monday that Jokic's response was a head nod of "no."

"You have a responsibility when you have a player like that, especially, obviously, in his prime," Kroenke said of Jokic. "But I feel an even greater responsibility to the person. ... I'd be the dumbest guy in basketball if I wasn't asking him for his opinion on certain things. But it's my responsibility to make those decisions for the best of the organization and I think Jokic understands and respects that."

The Nuggets have won all three games under interim coach David Adelman to secure a third consecutive 50-win season and the fourth seed in the West, where they'll open at home Saturday against the fifth-seeded Los Angeles Clippers.

Kroenke said he'll commence a search for both positions after the season but he demurred when asked if he wanted to have a GM in place before hiring a head coach: "My thoughts aren't there because this season's not over."

Kroenke also announced he'd promoted Ben Tenzer to interim GM for the playoff run.

Kroenke began his nearly 30-minute news conference, his first since the firings, by praising Malone and Booth: "I want to start off by initially just staying thank you to both Calvin and Coach Malone ... And to be frank, neither one of them deserved it, so for that I apologize."

Kroenke said he ultimately made the decision to move on from both men "with the hope of kind of rejuvenating the energy of the group and re-establishing some positive thoughts before the playoffs. I think we did that over the last three games ... still have a long way to go."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.