<h1>Denver Nuggets on Yahoo! Sports News, Scores, Standings, Rumors, Fantasy Games</h1>

Haywood was one of the first players to turn pro before graduating from college, and the NBA initially refused to let him play in the league. The Nuggets hold the draft rights to the following unsigned draft picks who have been playing outside the NBA. A drafted player, either an international draftee or a college draftee who is not signed by the team that drafted him, is allowed to sign with any non-NBA teams. In this case, the team retains the player's draft rights in the NBA until one year after the player's contract with the non-NBA team ends. This list includes draft rights that were acquired from trades with other teams.

The Nuggets, Nets, Indiana Pacers and San Antonio Spurs were merged into the NBA. Playing in the Denver Auditorium Arena for the last season the 1974–75 team went 65–16, including a 40–2 record at home. ' last five games, Smith found himself outside of Denver's rotation while head coach Michael Malone turned to Bones Hyland and Christian Braun as his main guards off the bench. Hyland rewarded Malone for his faith by producing 20 points, five assists and four rebounds in 30 minutes, while Braun's contributions were more muted. Because both Hyland and Braun are recent first-round picks, the Nuggets could continue to make them priorities over Smith, a 34-year-old journeyman on an expiring deal who lacks size as perimeter shooting.

Denver rebounded and earned the 8th seed again in the playoffs, finishing 41–41. The Nuggets were swept by the San Antonio Spurs in the first round of the playoffs that season. ' previous game Sunday against the Pelicans, the two ended up essentially absorbing the rotation spot of Ish Smith, who didn't leave the bench in a coach's decision. According to Harrison Wind of TheDNVR.com, head coach Michael Malone said after Tuesday's contest that he's "got to find minutes for Christian," but that may prove more difficult once Michael Porter is ultimately cleared to play.

Up to that point, they held an NBA Playoffs-high in three-pointers made and a 16-point average margin of victory, the largest average margin of victory in the first 10 playoff games in NBA Playoff history. They lost the first game of the Western Conference Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers but won the second game to tie the series. Anthony became the first Denver player to score at least 30 points in five consecutive playoff games since the Nuggets joined the NBA in 1976.

During the Nuggets' final two seasons in the ABA, the team's logo featured a cartoonish miner known as "Maxie The Miner," with a large red beard, a pick-axe in one hand and a red and blue basketball in the other hand. When the Nuggets joined the NBA in the 1976–77 season, they retained the pick-axe logo on their jerseys from the ABA days. The home uniforms feature "Nuggets" in red, with a red pick-axe inside a blue oval, and gold numbers with blue trim in front, blue numbers and letters at the back.

The nuggets also had the 22nd overall selection in the draft, in which they selected Jarrett Jack, but sent him to the Portland Trail Blazers for rights to Portland's 27th overall pick, Linas Kleiza. After finishing the 1996–97 season with the fourth-worst record in the league (21–61), the Nuggets sent Antonio McDyess to the Phoenix Suns, and Dale Ellis returned to Seattle. Denver flirted with history in the 1997–98, by nearly setting the mark for fewest wins in an 82-game season . They tied the then-NBA's all-time worst single-season losing streak at 23—only one game shy of the overall worst mark of 24 by the Cleveland Cavaliers of the early 1980s.