The Denver Nuggets have a promising young roster. With young guys like Nikola Jokic and Emmanuel Mudiay, along with veterans like Danilo Gallinari and Kenneth Faried, it’s easy to talk yourself into believing this franchise is on the verge of jumping back into playoff contention.
Well, unless you’re Rohan Nadkarni of Sports Illustrated, who ranked the Nuggets as one of the worst coaching jobs in all of basketball.
According to Nadkarni, the Nuggets are the sixth worst job in the NBA, bundled in with the likes of the Philadelphia 76ers, Orlando Magic and Phoenix Suns.
“The Manimal is currently the best nickname in the NBA, and Nikola Jokic is a fun player to have at center,” Nadkarni writes. “This team is a weird mashup of veterans and somewhat promising youth, but they have the right players to trade for a disgruntled star.”
At the top of the rankings, unsurprisingly, sit the Golden State Warriors, followed closely by the San Antonio Spurs and Miami Heat.
The question for Denver, though, is: What will it take to change the identity of the franchise, to the point that it’s a desired landing spot, not a scrap heap for the other team’s leftovers?
Luckily, the answer is simple: win.
And the Nuggets are on the right track. Similar teams who rebooted their franchise and grew quickly through shrewd decisions and heady drafting, like the Boston Celtics and and Minnesota Timberwolves, sit inside the top 10 of this list.
If Denver is competing for a playoff spot next February and April, they’ll be turning plenty of heads around the NBA.
