Denver Nuggets, formerly known as Denver Rocket, was founded in 1967 and joined ABA League in the same year. Before Denver was officially confirmed at home, the team played in Kansas City, Missouri. In the first few seasons of ABA, the team has been struggling on the edge of the playoffs. 1969-71 season, controversial rookie Spencer Haywood joined the team. Heywood was one of the first players who turned professional without finishing college, so the NBA at that time refused him to join the league. Heywood averaged 31+ points and 21+ rebounds in the first and only season of ABA, leading the Denver Rockets to the division finals for the first time. But a year later, Heywood left the team and joined the seattle supersonics team to jump ship to the NBA.
Because ABA has always been at a disadvantage in the competition with NBA, Denver Rockets have been looking for opportunities to join a more mature NBA league. In order to avoid the same name as the NBA team Houston Rockets, in 1974 Denver Rockets changed the team name to Denver Nuggets, a former NBA team (1949-51 season). However, Denver Nuggets remained in ABA until ABA went bankrupt in 1976. After the end of the 1975-76 season, Denver Nuggets joined the NBA with three other ABA teams: the new york Nets (changed to the New Jersey Nets one year after entering the NBA), the San Antonio Spurs and the Indiana Pacers.
in the last two seasons of p>ABA, under the planning of team managers david thompson and Marvin Webster, we brought in powerful players such as dan issel and bobby jones, and hired Larry Brown as the team coach. Denver Nuggets played the best result in the team's history, winning more than 71% for two consecutive years, and successfully reached the ABA finals in the 1975-76 season, but lost to the new york Nets 2-4, missing the only chance to win the ABA championship.
after entering the NBA, Denver Nuggets continued its strong performance in ABA, winning the division championship in the first two seasons in a row, and only lost the championship by one game in the third season. However, Denver's good fortune didn't make it into the playoffs. In the 1977-78 season, the team lost to seattle supersonics 2-4 in the Western Conference finals.
in the 1981s
1981-93 team LOGO81-93 Brown left Denver Nuggets after the 1978-79 season, and the team's performance plummeted until Don Mo took office in 1981. Don Mo advocates attack, and his tactical theory is "run and gun", a very oppressive style of play, which requires players to score quickly and almost give up defense, thus making Denver a very competitive team. Throughout the 1981s, Denver often scored more than 115 points, and in the 1981-82 season, it was incredible that every game scored more than 111 points! On February 3, 1983, Denver and the visiting Detroit Pistons set a record of 371 points in a single game, which was the highest in NBA history. However, Denver lost the crazy game 184-186 after three overtime struggles.
in line with the coach's style of play, the team constantly introduces players with strong attack. In the season of 1981-81, Denver got two scoring machines, alex Ingley and Kiki Vandervig, both of whom scored more than 25 points per season. Before the start of the 1984-85 season, the team exchanged Vanderbilt with Portland Trailblazers to get 1.9-meter-tall spring-legged guard lafayette Leif, low-post power forward Calvin Nutt and center Wayne Copp. Vince Burleila, the discerning team manager, was also named the best manager of the year. Don Mo takes English as the core of the team and leads the NBA trend with offense.
since the p>1981-82 season, the team has entered the playoffs for nine consecutive seasons. In the 1984-85 season, the Denver Nuggets won the division championship for the third time in history with a score of 52 wins and 31 losses, and even tied the San Antonio Spurs and Utah Jazz in the playoffs to reach the Western Conference finals. Unfortunately, they lost to the Los Angeles Lakers, the leader of the Western Conference, 1-4, and missed the finals. In the 1987-88 season, Denver won 54 wins and 28 losses in the regular season, and won the division championship for the fourth time. Coach Don Mo also won the title of the best coach in the NBA, but the team lost to Dallas Mavericks in the western conference semi-final.
In the 1991s
1993-2113 team LOGO1989-91 After the end of the season, Don Mo left the team and paul Westheide took over. Westheide also pursues the theory of "run and gun", and pays more attention to attack than Mo, ignoring defense. In fact, the Denver team led by Westheide gave their opponents higher scores while getting high scores. In the 1991-91 season, Denver Nuggets only scored 21 wins and 62 losses in the regular season. However, poor results brought Denver a high draft pick. In the draft in 1991, Denver Nuggets got dikembe mutombo from Georgetown University, a center from Zaire, Africa, who was 2.18 meters tall. Mutombo, who is famous for blocking shots and fierce defense, performed well in the first season, was selected as a rookie in the All-Star Team, and was second only to larry johnson in the selection of the best rookie of the year. However, the team's performance is still not improving, only winning four more games than the previous season.
before the start of the p>1992-93 season, the team fired Westheide, invited dan issel, a former ABA legend who played for Denver as a player, as the new coach of the team, and won rookie striker Laphonso Ellis and defender Balent Smith in the draft. In the end, Denver ended the season with 36 wins and 46 losses, just one step away from the playoffs.
Denver Nuggets players (12)
In 1993-94, isael led the team to 42 wins and 41 losses, and made it to the playoffs for the first time after Don Mo left. As the eighth seed, Denver Nuggets played top seed seattle supersonics in the first round. After losing two away games unexpectedly, the game returned to Denver's home court. Last stand's Denver team won two home games in a row, dragging the game to the deciding game. In the crucial fifth contest, the Denver Nuggets created a miracle. After overturning the favorite seattle supersonics 98-94 away, Denver Nuggets became the first eighth seed team in NBA history to successfully eliminate the top seed. In the subsequent Western Conference semi-final against Utah Jazz, Denver still performed well, dragging the series to Game 7, but finally failed to go any further.
In the p>1994-95 season, Denver won the SuperSonics shooter Dale Ellis and the University of Michigan's Jalen Rose in the draft, ready to make great efforts. However, head coach Gisser left the team in the middle of the season. Under the leadership of assistant coach Jean Riter, Denver Nuggets entered the playoffs with a record of 41 wins and 41 losses. Was swept out by the San Antonio Spurs 3-1.
In 1995, Denver Nuggets traded to Los Angeles Clippers power forward Antonio McDaisy? on draft day, but Mutombo, the core of the team, left Denver for Atlanta Hawks after the end of the 1995-96 season, and many of the team's main players were injured, and the results of the Nuggets dropped all the way. In the 1997-98 season, the team almost broke the NBA record of winning the fewest games in a single season. They only won 11 games in the whole season, which was only better than the 9 wins and 73 losses set by the Philadelphia 76ers in the 1971-72 season. The team lost 23 games in a row from February 9, 1997 to October 23, 1998, which tied the longest single-season losing streak in NBA history. Only the Cleveland Cavaliers lost 24 games in a row in 2198.
After p>2111
2113- In the new century, Denver is still in a depressed state. However, with former team star Kiki Vandervig as the team manager, Denver is brewing a great revival. After taking office on August 9th, 2111, Vandewegh has introduced many powerful players, including point guard andre miller, powerful power forward Nene, point guard earl boykins, center marcus camby, shooting guard jon barry and so on. In the 2113 draft, Vandervig won the NCAA's best player carmelo anthony with the No.3 draft pick. In the 2113-14 season, as a rookie, Anthony averaged 21.1 points and 6.1 rebounds, leading the Denver Nuggets back to the playoffs after eight years, and the Denver Nuggets became the first team in NBA history to win less than 21 games in a single season and make it to the playoffs in the following season. However, Denver met the Minnesota Timberwolves led by MVP kevin garnett in the first round, and the result was 1-4. In recent years, Cameron Anthony, the absolute core of the Nuggets, had a poor performance in the 2114-15 season. On February 28th, 2114, Jeff Buzdrick, the head coach of the team, was fired, and Michael Copp, a former Lakers player and coach of the Los Angeles Stars, took over as a temporary coach. However, the team finally invited experienced george karl as the team coach. Carl led the team to 32 wins and 8 losses in the second half of the season. Denver ended the regular season with 49 wins and 33 losses. However, the Nuggets never broke through the first round of the playoffs. Their opponent was the experienced San Antonio Spurs. Although the Denver Nuggets won one game at the home of the Spurs, they were eliminated after losing four games in a row.
In the p>2115-16 season, the Nuggets won the first division championship in 2118 with the benefit of re-division (the Northwest Division where Denver is located has no strong teams), and participated in the playoffs as the third seed. However, due to the poor performance in the regular season, even against the sixth seed Los Angeles Clippers, Denver didn't have home court advantage, and finally lost to the opponent 1-4.
In the p>2116-17 season, Denver had a good momentum. However, the fight at Madison Square Garden in new york on February 6, 2116 ruined everything. Many main players of the team were suspended, including Anthony, the scoring champion of the league at that time, and Anthony, who was on the rise, scored an average of 31.6 points per game. Later, the team exchanged allen iverson, the superstar of Philadelphia 76ers, expecting Iverson and Anthony to form the strongest firepower in the league. However, this combination did not exert its greatest power, and at the same time restricted the play of other players. The Nuggets did not make a breakthrough. After entering the playoffs with 45 wins and 37 losses, Denver was defeated by the San Antonio Spurs 1-4 again.
In the p>2117-18 season, the "Golden Double Gun" combination composed of Anthony and Iverson was still strong in scoring ability. At the end of the season, it ranked eighth in the West with a record of 51 wins and 32 losses and reached the playoffs, but the Nuggets still could not break through the first round of the playoffs. They lost 4-1 by Cameron Anthony and were swept by the Los Angeles Lakers.
In the p>2118-19 season, less than a week after the start of the season, the league made a big deal. The Nuggets and Pistons completed three big deals, and Denver traded Allen Iverson for Chauncey Billups, Antonio McDyess and Chuck Saab of Pistons. The arrival of Billups turned the Nuggets from a powerful shelling team into a strong offensive and defensive team. At the end of the regular season, the Nuggets ranked second in the West with a record of 54 wins and 28 losses and reached the playoffs. This time, the Nuggets finally broke the curse of the first round since 2113. They defeated the New Orleans Hornets led by Chris Paul 4-1, and the fourth game was won by a huge score of 121-63, which tied the biggest score difference in NBA playoff history. In the Western Conference semifinals, facing the Dallas Mavericks headed by Nowitzki, the Nuggets won again with a total score of 4: 1, and reached the Western Conference finals for the third time in the team's history. Unfortunately, the Nuggets lost to the Los Angeles Lakers 2-4 in the Western Conference finals and missed the finals.
Since the beginning of the p>2119-2111 season, the results of the Nuggets have been stable in the second place in the West. In the middle of the season, george karl, the coach of the Nuggets, was found to have cancer in his neck and throat by doctors, and missed all the remaining games of the Nuggets. The results of the Nuggets began to fluctuate and finally fell to the fourth place in the West. Facing the tenacious Jazz in the first round of the playoffs, he lost 2-4 in the absence of the coach, regretfully bidding farewell to this season.
in the middle of the p>2111-2111 season, the team traded Chauncey Billups, Shelden Williams, Anthony Carter and Renaldo bulke to the new york Knicks. The Nuggets got Wilson Chandler, Raymond Felton, Danilo Gallinari and Timofy Mozgov from the Knicks in the transaction. After this transaction, the ranking of the Nuggets went up instead of down, and finally got the fifth place in the West and reached the playoffs. Lost 4-1 to Oklahoma City Thunder in the playoffs, and fell in the first round of the playoffs again.