The NBA Draft is where franchises, like the Denver Nuggets, are built. Few organizations have found greater value in the later stages of the draft than Denver.<\/p>\n
The team famously selected three-time MVP Nikola Joki\u0107<\/a> with the 41st<\/a> pick in the 2014 NBA Draft. Now, the choice is regarded<\/a> as the greatest second-round pick in NBA history. With this year\u2019s draft recently concluding, it\u2019s worth revisiting the greatest selections in Nuggets\u2019 history.\u00a0<\/p>\n Although the Nuggets drafted Joki\u0107, they have not always found consistent success in the draft. The top four players in the team\u2019s draft history are relatively easy to rank.<\/p>\n That said, the debate begins at number five. Denver has drafted several borderline All-Star-level talents, including Michael Porter Jr.<\/a> and Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf<\/a>. However, since joining the NBA in 1976<\/a>, the Nuggets have drafted and developed just four<\/a> All-Stars: Joki\u0107, Jamal Murray, Carmelo Anthony, and Dikembe Mutombo.<\/p>\n Keeping this in mind, here\u2019s who should be considered the five best draft picks in Nuggets\u2019 history.<\/p>\n 5. Michael Porter Jr.\u00a0<\/p>\n As mentioned, the number five spot is the most controversial. However, Michael Porter Jr. takes this position because of his important role in the Nuggets\u2019 first and only NBA championship to date.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Nuggets selected<\/a> Porter Jr. 14th overall in the 2018 NBA Draft. He became\u00a0a staple piece of the core for many years. After sitting out his entire<\/a> rookie season due to injury, Porter went on to play six seasons with the Nuggets. Before being traded<\/a> to the Brooklyn Nets during the 2025 offseason, he provided reliable three-point shooting and rebounding, which greatly helped the Nuggets during their 2023 championship run.<\/p>\n During MPJ\u2019s tenure with the Nuggets, he averaged<\/a> 16.2 points on great efficiency (50% overall, 41% from three, and 80% on free throws), along with 6.4 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game. In his final year in Denver, he averaged a then-career-high of over 18 points per game across 77 games played.<\/p>\n Ultimately, MPJ secures the fifth spot, although valid arguments can be made against this ranking. He is not far ahead of his competition, but MPJ\u2019s crucial contributions during the Nuggets\u2019 title run separate him from the rest.<\/p>\n Dikembe Mutombo was an all-time great who was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame in 2015<\/a>. Selected fourth<\/a> overall by the Denver Nuggets in the 1991 NBA Draft, it is only fitting that he lands fourth in these rankings.<\/p>\n Mutombo was not able to achieve the same level of playoff success in Denver as others on this list. However, he led the Nuggets to a historic upset. Mutombo and the Nuggets became the first<\/a> No. 8 seed in NBA history to beat a No. 1 seed, defeating the Seattle SuperSonics in 1994.<\/p>\n Although his time in Denver was relatively short, some of the best basketball of Mutombo\u2019s career came while wearing a Nuggets uniform.<\/p>\n Mutombo spent five seasons with the Nuggets before signing<\/a> with the Atlanta Hawks in 1996. Across his time with Denver, he averaged<\/a> 12.9 points, 12.3 rebounds, and 3.8 blocks per game. He also won the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award and earned three All-Star Game selections.<\/p>\n Mutombo\u2019s dominance defensively and historic impact in Denver make him one of the Nuggets\u2019 greatest draft picks.<\/p>\n Just ahead of Mutombo, Jamal Murray comes in at No. 3.<\/p>\n Despite being the second option on a title-winning team, Murray played a fundamental role for the Nuggets during their championship season in 2023. His playoff success with Denver edges him over Mutombo in the rankings.<\/p>\n Drafted seventh<\/a> overall in 2016, Murray has been a staple for the franchise ever since. After earning his first All-NBA and All-Star selections last season, Murray has further cemented himself at the third spot.\u00a0<\/p>\n Murray has spent 10 years in Denver, one of which he missed<\/a> entirely due to an ACL injury. Across his nine playing seasons with the franchise, he has averaged<\/a> 18.9 points (46% FG, 39% 3PT, 87% FT), 5.0 assists, and 3.8 rebounds per game. Last season was Murray\u2019s best. He averaged<\/a> a career-high 25 points per game on borderline 50\/40\/90 shooting splits.\u00a0<\/p>\n Beyond being one of the best players the Nuggets have ever drafted, Murray has become one of the best players in franchise history.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The original No. 15 before Nikola Joki\u0107 was Carmelo Anthony, who is No. 2 among the best selections in Nuggets\u2019 history.<\/p>\n Selected third<\/a> overall in the 2003 NBA Draft, Anthony is tied<\/a> for the highest draft pick in franchise history. Although Anthony has had a rocky<\/a> relationship with the Nuggets ever since his departure, there is no denying his talent and impact on the franchise.\u00a0<\/p>\n Fifty games into his eighth season in Denver, he was traded<\/a> to the New York Knicks after requesting<\/a> a trade. Over those eight seasons, he averaged<\/a> 24.8 points (46% FG, 31% 3PT, 80% FT), 3.1 assists, and 6.3 rebounds per game. He also earned four All-Star nods and four All-NBA selections during his time with the Nuggets.\u00a0<\/p>\n Even though Anthony never brought the Nuggets to the championship, he did lead them to the Western Conference Finals in 2009. At one point, this was the furthest<\/a> the franchise had advanced in the playoffs since 1985, until<\/a> Joki\u0107 and Murray led Denver back to the Western Conference Finals in 2020.<\/p>\n Despite Anthony leaving on a bad note, he remains one of the best players to ever play for the Nuggets.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n 1. Nikola Joki\u0107<\/p>\n No surprise here. Coming in at the top spot is Nikola Joki\u0107.<\/p>\n He was picked<\/a> during the middle of the second round in 2014. However, few could have imagined he would become the greatest draft pick in franchise history.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Joki\u0107 has put together one of the greatest careers in league history. He led the Nuggets to their first championship. Joki\u0107 has also earned<\/a> three MVPs, a Finals MVP, eight All-Star selections, and eight All-NBA honors. Last season, he also became the first<\/a> player ever to lead the league in both assists and rebounds.\u00a0<\/p>\n Joki\u0107 has spent 11 seasons with the Nuggets, averaging<\/a> 22.2 points (56% FG, 36% 3PT, 83% FT), 7.5 assists, and 11.1 rebounds per game across his lengthy career in Denver. Over the last two seasons, Joki\u0107 has averaged a triple-double. This is an achievement<\/a> accomplished by only one other player in NBA history: Russell Westbrook<\/a>.<\/p>\n Overall, Joki\u0107 stands alone as the greatest draft pick in Nuggets history and one of the most impactful selections in the NBA ever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NBA Draft is where franchises, like the Denver Nuggets, are built. Few organizations have found greater value…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":776510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3781],"tags":[7,3628,301,187,94749,94750,3943,614,762,562,6,12,253,302],"class_list":["post-776509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-denver-nuggets","tag-basketball","tag-carmelo-anthony","tag-denver","tag-denver-nuggets","tag-denver-nuggets-draft","tag-denver-nuggets-draft-history","tag-denvernuggets","tag-dikembe-mutombo","tag-jamal-murray","tag-michael-porter-jr","tag-nba","tag-nba-draft","tag-nikola-jokic","tag-nuggets"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116852317457135324","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=776509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/776510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=776509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=776509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=776509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}