From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Denver Nuggets are a National
Basketball Association team based in Denver,
Colorado.
Franchise history
A charter franchise in the American
Basketball Association originally starting out
in Kansas
City, Missouri, later relocating to Denver,
Colorado and one of four ABA teams that joined
the NBA through a league merger in 1976, they were
known as the Rockets for their first seven years
of existence, and were very strong in their early
years.
However, they tended to struggle in the postseason
and failed to make a championship game during this
span. They had a solid lineup led by Byron
Beck and Larry
Jones, then later by Beck and Ralph
Simpson. During the 1969-1970 season, the team
also had a controversial rookie named Spencer
Haywood. Haywood was one of the first players
to turn pro before graduating from college, and
the NBA initially refused to let him play in the
league. Haywood averaged 30 points in his only ABA
season, then was allowed to sign with the Seattle
SuperSonics to start a productive NBA career.
In 1974, a contest was held to find a new nickname
for the Rockets. There was already a Rockets
team in the NBA (Houston). The name Nuggets won,
having been the nickname first used by the Denver
1949-50 NBA franchise. Their new logo was a miner
apparently discovering an ABA ball.
With Larry
Brown coaching, they had their best seasons
in team history in their first two seasons as the
Nuggets, with the team making the ABA finals in
1975-76. They would get no second chance to win
a league championship, as the ABA merger occurred
during the off-season.
Led by Dan
Issel, Bobby
Jones, and David
Thompson, Denver (and their memorable rainbow-striped
jerseys) were quite strong early on in the NBA,
as they won division titles in their first two seasons
in the league, and missed a third by a single game.
However, neither of these teams were ultimately
successful in the postseason.
Brown left the team in 1979, helping usher in a
brief decline in their team's performance. It ended
in 1981, when they hired Doug
Moe as a head coach. Moe brought with him a
"run and gun" philosophy, a style of play focusing
on attempting to score rapidly with little interest
in defense, and it helped the team become highly
competitive. 1980s Denver Nuggets basketball teams
would often score in excess of 115 points a game,
and during the 1981-82 season, they scored at least
100 points in every game. It was a novel strategy,
but it rarely led to playoff success. (On December
13, 1983,
the Nuggets and the visiting Detroit
Pistons combined for an NBA record 370 points,
with Detroit winning in triple overtime,
186-184.) Only once, in 1984-85, did they even make
it to the Western
Conference finals, and that year they lost in
five games to the Los
Angeles Lakers.
Moe left the team in 1990, and his departure ended
their run as a competitive franchise. The team had
a brief resurgence in 1993-94 (a year they ditched
their rainbow colors for a dark blue and gold scheme)
finishing 42-40 and stunning the top-seeded Supersonics
in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs,
falling to the Utah
Jazz in game Seven of the second round, but
it was a rare highlight following Moe's departure.
The Nuggets were swept in the following year by
the San Antonio Spurs in the first round of the
playoffs. Denver was an also-ran for nearly a decade,
and flirted with having the worst record in a season
in 1997-98, winning only 11 games in an 82 game
season. They tied for the worst record in the NBA
in 2002-03 with the Cleveland
Cavaliers. Ironically, Cleveland (LeBron
James) and Denver (Carmelo
Anthony) would eventually have a twin pair of
rookie dynamos enter their ranks the very next year.
The team has shown signs of another renaissance
for the 2003-04, with the drafting of Carmelo Anthony
and yet another uniform change (powder blue and
yellow). In just two months of the season, they
recorded more wins than they had in 5½ months of
play in 2002-03. Much of the reason for this incredible
turnaround were the front-office moves of General
Manager Kiki
Vandeweghe a former Nuggets player who assumed
General Manager duties August
9, 2001,
adding crucial personnel including: point guard
Andre
Miller, power
forward Nenê,
point
guard Earl
Boykins, center
Marcus
Camby and shooting guard Jon
Barry. In April, the turnaround was complete
as they became the first franchise in NBA history
to qualify for the postseason following a sub-20-win
campaign the previous year. They were eliminated
in the first round four games to one by the Minnesota
Timberwolves.
On December 28, 2004, head coach Jeff
Bzdelik was fired from the organization and
replaced by interim coach, former Los Angeles Laker
player and Los
Angeles Sparks head coach Michael
Cooper, before finally hiring veteran coach
George
Karl as a permanent replacement. Karl lived
up to his reputation by leading the team to an astounding
record of 32-8 in the second half of the regular
season which vaulted the team into the playoffs
for the second consecutive year.
In the playoffs,
however, the Nuggets could not survive the powerhouse
defense of Tim
Duncan and the San
Antonio Spurs. After winning an incredible game
one in San
Antonio, the Nuggets proceeded to lose the next
four games and lost the series 4-1. The Nuggets
picked 20th in the 2005
NBA Draft; it was acquired from Washington
via Orlando.
Players of note
Denver Nuggets alternate logo introduced for
2005-06 season. The logo has twin yellow pick
axes with mountain peak on a blue circle.
