Stu Jackson sees some Boston Celtics in the Denver Nuggets

While it might feel like the Boston Celtics have the luck ‘o the Irish lately, there may be a nugget of gold at the end of the rainbow skyline for Denver Nuggets fans.

The No. 1-seed Celtics open the Eastern Conference Finals on Wednesday night against the defending world champion Cleveland Cavaliers with a shot to knock off the defending champs. Boston was a stellar 30-11 at home this season, splitting their two games there against LeBron James and Company. Boston has home-court advantage in the best-of-seven series; regardless of the outcome, they’ll have a big advantage over Cleveland in this year’s NBA Draft after landing the top overall pick in the draft lottery (via a trade with Brooklyn). The Celtics have some major bargaining power come June 22, or they can take their pick of the litter in a deep draft class. Plus, they have plenty of cap space to surround Isaiah Thomas with even more talent.

Things might not feel so lucky for the Denver Nuggets, who haven’t played a game since April. Having missed the playoffs for the fourth season in a row, Denver is in the middle of a rebuild. But through that rebuild, their luck may be changing.

Former NBA head coach and league executive vice president Stu Jackson joined Sean Walsh and TJ Carpenter on Wednesday ahead of the Eastern Conference Finals and said he sees some similarities between where Boston is now and where the Nuggets could be in very short order.

“Just as you describe Boston,” Jackson said, “If you describe a poor man’s Boston franchise, it may be the Denver Nuggets. In terms of trying to amass young assets, doing it the right way over time.”

While Jackson may not have chosen the most flattering way to put it, it’s a compliment nonetheless.

Catch the full interview with Jackson, including his thoughts on Zaza Pachulia, in the podcast below.

Sorry – this audio content is no longer available.

Catch Walsh and TJ every weekday from 2p-4p on Mile High Sports AM 1340 | FM 104.7 or stream live any time for the best local coverage of Colorado sports from Denver’s biggest sports talk lineup.