Denver Nuggets
Denver Nuggets, American professional basketball team based in Denver that plays in the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Nuggets have won one NBA title (2023).
Originally known as the Denver Rockets, the team was one of the founding franchises of the American Basketball Association (ABA) in 1967. Led by local favorite Byron Beck out of the University of Denver, the Rockets had winning records in each of their first three seasons. Anticipating a move to the NBA, where the Houston Rockets were already established, the team changed its name to the Denver Nuggets in 1974. The newly christened Nuggets posted the best record in the ABA in 1974–75 behind the standout play of guard-forward Ralph Simpson. However, Denver was upset by the Indiana Pacers in the Western Division finals. The Nuggets did advance to the ABA finals the following year after once again having the best record in the league, but they lost to the New York Nets in six games.
The Nuggets were one of the four teams from the ABA that joined the NBA in 1976. In the first post-merger season, the Nuggets proved to be the most successful of the former ABA squads, winning a division title and appearing in the playoffs, where they lost to the eventual champion, the Portland Trail Blazers. Led by future Hall of Fame members Dan Issel and David Thompson, Denver won its division for a second straight year in 1977–78, and in the postseason the Nuggets advanced to the Western Conference finals before being eliminated by the Seattle SuperSonics.
In 1980 Denver traded for forward Alex English, who would go on to become the franchise’s all-time leading scorer in 10 and a half seasons with the Nuggets. During English’s second season with Denver, Doug Moe took over as head coach. Moe and English guided high-scoring Nuggets teams, which were also notable for often giving up almost as many points as they scored, to nine consecutive postseason berths between 1981–82 and 1989–90, including another conference finals appearance—a five-game loss to the Los Angeles Lakers in 1984–85. However, English and Moe both left the team after the 1989–90 season, having never brought a title to Denver.
The 1990s were not particularly noteworthy for the Nuggets, with one considerable exception: the 1993–94 season. In that season, the only one in which the team posted a winning record between the 1990–91 and 1999–2000 seasons, the Nuggets had a 42–40 record, which earned them the eighth (the lowest) seed in the Western Conference playoffs and a first-round series against the Seattle SuperSonics, owners of the best record in the NBA that season. Led by center Dikembe Mutombo, the Nuggets rallied from a 2–0 series deficit to win three straight games (including a deciding fifth game in Seattle) to become the first eighth seed in NBA playoff history to defeat a top-seeded team. The Nuggets’ momentum after the upset could not be sustained, and the team was eliminated by the Utah Jazz in the second round of the playoffs.
In the 2003 NBA draft the Nuggets selected forward Carmelo Anthony with the third overall choice. In the 2003–04 season Anthony’s presence helped spur a 26-win improvement from the previous season, and the Nuggets ended an eight-year playoff drought. Denver qualified for the postseason each year from the 2003–04 season to 2007–08, but the Nuggets failed to advance past the first round on each occasion. The team acquired veteran point guard Chauncey Billups early in 2008–09, and at the end of the season he helped Anthony guide the Nuggets to victories in both the first and second round of the Western Conference playoffs before losing to the Los Angeles Lakers in the conference finals. Following another first-round postseason elimination in 2009–10 and amid speculation that Anthony, a free agent at the end of the 2010–11 season, was soon to leave the franchise, both he and Billups were traded to the New York Knicks in February 2011.
The Nuggets rebuilt around a core of young versatile players who helped the team win a franchise-record (for an 82-game NBA season) 57 games in 2012–13, but the Nuggets’ string of postseason disappointments continued as the team was upset in the opening round of the playoffs. The team surprisingly fired reigning NBA Coach of the Year George Karl in the offseason, and Denver’s 10-year streak of playoff berths ended the following season. The Nuggets won a division title and returned to the playoffs (which ended in a conference semifinals loss) in 2018–19 behind the play of All-Star center Nikola Jokić. Denver finished atop its division again in 2019–20, advancing to the conference finals where they were eliminated by the eventual champion Lakers.
The following season saw Jokić blossom into superstardom as he won the first of two consecutive NBA Most Valuable Player awards. However, the Nuggets failed to advance further than the second round of the playoffs during those seasons, and Jokić received criticism for his perceived postseason shortcomings. The Nuggets broke through in the 2022–23 season, posting the best record in the Western Conference (53–29) and losing just three games during the conference playoffs en route to earning the franchise’s first berth in the NBA finals. There, Denver soundly defeated the Miami Heat in five games to capture its first NBA championship. Jokić won a third MVP award in the 2023–24 season, but the Nuggets’ title defense fell short in the second round of the playoffs when they were defeated in a hard-fought seven-game series by the Minnesota Timberwolves.