The Denver Nuggets, in data: origin, postseason, historical players, shield

(CNN Spanish) — The Denver Nuggets find themselves in a moment they’ve never experienced before: they’re playing their first NBA Finals in history.

Since their entry into the NBA in the 1970s, the Nuggets had come within a step of the Finals on a few occasions, but they had never been able to make the jump to the championship series … until now.

The Denver team, led by its superstar Nikola Jokic, is playing for the title as the best team in the NBA this season and faces a Miami Heat whose hopes seem to be in the hands of Jimmy Butler.

Can Jokic and company achieve the dream title for the Nuggets? While the teams dispute the final series, here we leave you with data from the history of the Denver infield.

Origin of the Denver Nuggets

• The Denver franchise was born in 1967 and was one of the founding teams of the American Basketball Association (ABA) in that same year, a league that was created to compete with the NBA -which at that time was almost 20 years old-, says the Britannica encyclopedia.
• At the beginning, they were not called the Nuggets, but the Rockets. However, with their arrival in the NBA in 1976, they had to change their name to the Nuggets because the Houston Rockets were already in the league.
• The Nuggets’ outlook looked promising in their NBA early days: In the first two seasons they played, the Denver team won the division title and even reached a conference final, but failed to advance further.
• From then to date, the Nuggets have had successful periods in regular seasons, but in the postseason they have not had the results necessary to win the championship. Jokic has a chance to bring the first NBA title to Denver.

postseason

• Of 46 seasons that the team has played in the NBA (including the current 2022/2023 season), the Nuggets have reached the postseason 29 times, according to data of the league.
• Of those 29 occasions, only one have advanced to the NBA Finals: in the current 2022/2023 campaign, in which they play against the Miami Heat to try to win their first league title.
• The Nuggets have had two great postseason streaks: the first was from the 1981/1982 season to the 1989/1990 campaign; and the second was from 2003/2004 to 2012/2013. In those lapses, they always qualified for the postseason, but without winning the title.
• The Denver team is on another streak right now, as have qualified for the postseason consecutively since the 2018/2019 season.
• In their history, they have reached the finals of their conference (the Western Conference of the NBA) four times. Three lost them (in the 1977/1978, 1984/1985 and 2008/2009 seasons) and one won it (in the current 2022/2023).

historical players

We present some of the historical leaders of the team in regular seasonaccording to NBA data:

• Most games played: Alex English, with 837 games
• Most points: Alex English (21,645)
• Most assists: Nikola Jokic (3,959)
• Most rebounds: Nikola Jokic (6,273)
• Most steals: Lafayette Lever (1,167)

In postseasonThese are some of the historical leaders:

• Most games played: Nikola Jokic, with 64 games
• Most points: Nikola Jokic (1,745)
• Most assists: Nikola Jokic (474)
• Most rebounds: Nikola Jokic (760)
• Most steals: TR Dunn (83)

Of these players, Jokic is the only one active, and he has time left on the court because he is barely 28 years old.

Shield

In 2018the year in which their current winning streak began at the franchise level, the Nuggets unveiled the new design of their logo, which includes two peaks, a ball and a mountain.

Historically, these have been signature elements of the Nuggets’ crest:

• The peaks represent the great mining tradition of Colorado, whose capital is Denver.
• In fact, the name “Nuggets” was given to the team in honor of the gold mining in the state. “nuggets” in English it means to nuggets of precious metals such as gold.
• Colorado is a state known for its mountains, which is why it is a characteristic seal on its shield.