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The Denver Nuggets are an American professional basketball team based in Denver. The Nuggets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league’s Western Conference Northwest Division. The team was founded as the Denver Larks in 1967 as a charter franchise of the American Basketball Association (ABA) but changed its name to Rockets before the first season. It changed its name again to the Nuggets in 1974. After the name change, the Nuggets played for the final ABA Championship title in 1976, losing to the New York Nets.
Denver Nuggets Team Player Salaries
| Player | Age | Avg. Salary |
| Jamal Murry | 22 | 33,930,000 |
| Nikola Jokic | 24 | 29,542,010 |
| Paul Millsap | 34 | 30,000,000 |
| Gary Harris | 25 | 21,000,000 |
| Will Barton | 28 | 13,250,000 |
| Mason Plumlee | 29 | 13,666,667 |
| Jerami Grant | 25 | 9,115,384 |
| Jamal Murray | 22 | 3,627,677 |
| Micheal Porter Jr. | 21 | 3,278,120 |
| Juan Hernangomez | 24 | 2,387,918 |
| Malik Beasley | 23 | 1,958,379 |
| Monte Morris | 24 | 1,553,774 |
| Vlatko Cancar | 22 | 1,399,637 |
| Torrey Craig | 28 | 2,000,000 |
| Jarred Vanderbilt | 20 | 1,306,392 |
| P.J. Dozier | 23 | – |
| Bol Bol | 20 | – |
The team has had some periods of success, qualifying for the ABA Playoffs for all seasons from 1967 to the 1976 ABA playoffs where it lost in the finals. The team joined the NBA in 1976 after the ABA–NBA merger and qualified for the NBA playoffs in nine consecutive seasons in the 1980s and ten consecutive seasons from 2004 to 2013.
However, it has not made an appearance in a championship round since its last year in the ABA; as such, they are also the only of the four surviving former ABA teams to have never reached the NBA Finals. The Nuggets play their home games at Pepsi Center, which they share with the Colorado Avalanche of the National Hockey League (NHL) and the Colorado Mammoth of the National Lacrosse League (NLL).
On June 15, 2015, at the end of the 2014–15 season, Michael Malone was named as the new head coach of the Denver Nuggets. Entering the 2015 NBA draft with their lowest draft pick since 2003, the Nuggets drafted Emmanuel Mudiay who was widely regarded as the top point guard of the draft, leading to speculation that current starting point guard, Ty Lawson, would be traded. On July 14, 2015, Lawson was arrested in Los Angeles on suspicion of driving under the influence, his second in six months.
On January 27, 2016, it was announced that both Mudiay and Jokić would participate in BBVA Compass Rising Stars Challenge during NBA All-Star 2016. On February 18, the Denver Nuggets announced that they decided to trade veteran shooting guard Randy Foye to Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for D. J. Augustin, Steve Novak, and two second-round draft pick. One day later, JJ Hickson and the newly acquired Novak were waived.
Over the course of the 2016 NBA draft, the Denver Nuggets added the Kentucky guard Jamal Murray as well as Juan Hernangómez, Malik Beasley, and Petr Cornelie. Meanwhile, their 56th pick was traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
