Will it be a Curry or a Nene?

Last night, we heard the almost audible collective groan of Denver Nuggets fans as the team kept their streak of failing to improve their stock via the NBA draft lottery. As such, the Nuggets will have the seventh selection in the upcoming draft.

So then the only question truly is: Will it be a Curry or a Nene?

You all know Stephen Curry. The NBA’s reigning MVP is a former seventh-overall pick, and his accomplishments this season (besides the MVP) include being the best player on the best offensive and defensive team in the NBA, leading that team into the Western Conference Finals.

It may have taken Curry six seasons to earn his first MVP trophy (what an eternity), but the signs of superstardom were there from the beginning. This phenom out of Davidson averaged 17.5 points, 4.5 rebounds and 5.9 assists as a rookie, while shooting almost 44 percent from beyond the arc and nearly 90 percent from the charity stripe.

Contrast that with the career of another seventh-overall draft pick: Nene, the former Nugget and current center/forward for the Washington Wizards.

Nene entered the league as a raw but massive and athletic 20-year-old big man from Brazil. With a scoring touch and natural rebounding ability, all Nene needed was a little bit of footwork, some seasoning and a healthy fire lit under his butt to blossom into one of the premier big men in the NBA… Except that it never happened that way for Nene.

After an infuriating lack of growth over his first few years, the young Brazilian dealt with injuries and an unfortunate bout with cancer during the next three seasons that stunted his growth as a player further. And although Nene eventually climbed to a steady 14 points and seven rebounds per game during the prime seasons of his career, he never lived up to his true potential, and never will shake the moniker that he’s always been a little soft.

But this is not to pile on Nene. I could have picked a far worse No. 7 overall pick than him if that was the point I was trying to prove. But the fact is, a lot more picks in that range of the draft had careers that resemble Nene’s more than they do Curry’s.

Basketball is such a top-heavy sport talent-wise that top-10 picks are everywhere, but no one even thinks of them as top draft choices. Corey Brewer was a No. 7 overall pick. As was Randy Foye. At one point or another, each was probably a similarly mild disappointment to some team that Nene was to the Nuggets. They got a fresh start somewhere else, and everyone forgot that they ever had such high expectations; eventually, they carve out a niche within the Association.

It’s the guys like Curry that stand out, because the guys like Steph Curry can change the course of your entire franchise.

And it’s Tim Connelly’s job to find the next Steph Curry.

Of course, that’s easier said than done. Heck, in the NBA, there may not even be a Steph Curry in a draft for a few years at a time. But the Nuggets’ front office has quietly assumed the tone of shrewd draft tacticians since Masai Ujiri’s departure, and it’s time to put their money where their mouth is.

It’s true that Jusuf Nurkic looks like a draft pick that nobody knew about who could develop into a serious player, after making the NBA’s second All-Rookie team averaging 6.9 points, 6.2 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game in his first stateside campaign. And even Gary Harris showed promise in limited playing time. The move to acquire both vindicates Connelly’s trade that sent Doug McDermott to the Chicago Bulls.

But let’s be honest: Messing around with picks at that stage of the draft are the details, not the big picture. If Connelly really wants to call himself a draft-savvy general manager, he has to get the steal of this year’s NBA draft. If it’s there at No. 7, so be it. If Ty Lawson, Kenneth Faried or Danilo Gallinari have to go to get to where they need to be to get the steal of the draft, so be it. Connelly has to get that guy.

With the way the team has seemingly bungled their deteriorating coaching situation over the past two seasons, not to mention reports citing other NBA executives stating that the team was proposing trades that would be illegal under the Collective Bargaining Agreement because they didn’t know better, Connelly has to know that he can’t mess this one up.

If Tim Connelly gets a Nene instead of a Curry in the 2015 draft, he won’t be part of the contingent making the Nuggets’ next pick in the single digits.

It really is as simple as that.