Green Team? When you think about it, it's the Nuggets

Share

The NBA has become a young man’s game.

No team brings this reality to life more than the Denver Nuggets, one of the league’s more youthful squads even if they are sporting the kind of record (8-1) you expect to see from a team of grizzled veterans. which in this day and age, means guys who are around 25.

I know, crazy huh?

But such is the state of the league now, one where the average NBA player according to a recent NBA survey, is 26.41 years old.

The Nuggets?

In addition to being tied for the third-best record in the NBA, the Nuggets are the league’s second-youngest team with players whose average age is 24.72 years old with only the New York Knicks (24.58) sporting a younger team.

Of Denver’s 17 players (that includes a pair of two-way contract players), 11 are under 25 with only one, Paul Millsap (33), older than 30.

And while the Celtics aren’t quite that green a team, they bring a relatively youthful squad to their game against the Nuggets tonight.

Boston players are on average 25.88 years old making them the 13th-youngest team in the NBA.  And like the Nuggets, Boston (6-3) is also among the better teams in the NBA.

In addition, the Celtics (3.53 years) and Nuggets (3.27 years) are just two of eight teams in the NBA with the average years of experience on the roster being four or less.

We know about how Boston’s youthful roster has come together to the point where they were a win away from getting to the NBA Finals a year ago.

Naturally, Denver’s looking for a similar youth movement this season, the kind of optimism that’s only heightened by getting off to such a strong start.

Denver’s quick ascension has been fueled by their ability to recognize the right deal at the right time.

Although the Nuggets drafted combo guard Emmanuel Mudiay with the seventh overall pick in 2015, there were signs early on that things weren’t going to work out as well as the Nuggets thought they would.

Armed with the seventh overall pick a year later, they selected another combo guard, Jamal Murray.

The second time proved to be the charm for the Nuggets, with Murray who is averaging 15.7 points, 4.4 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game this season.

Mudiay has since been traded to the Knicks where he’s sparingly used, while Murray has become a starter who continues to progress into a better-than-average player in the league.

Denver has also added young talent via trade, like acquiring Gary Harris.

On draft night in 2014, Denver acquired Harris (the 19th overall) and Jusef Nurkic (the 16th overall) from Chicago in exchange for the 11th overall pick (Dough McDermott) and Anthony Randolph.

Harris has developed into one of the best two-way players under 25 while Nurkic has since been traded to Portland for Mason Plumlee whose athleticism and rim-running ability has added depth to Denver’s frontline.

But the gem of pickups by Denver came in 2014 when they drafted Nikola Jokic with the 41st overall pick.

After spending another year in the Adriatic League prior to joining the Nuggets, Jokic has steadily progressed to where he’s more than just an on-the-rise talent.

The 23-year-old 7-footer has averaged 18.0 points, 10.0 rebounds and 7.7 assists per game and is considered a likely all-star this season.

“He’s not an above-the-rim athlete, and not the most athletic,” Tim Connelly, Denver’s president of basketball operations, told the Washington Post. “But he’s unbelievably skilled, has an IQ few can match in the NBA, and it works for us. The league is going small for sure but when you have quality bigs like Plumlee and Jokic, it’s much harder to go small because they’re skilled enough to hurt those mismatches.”

Now, the next challenge – making the playoffs.

Denver came within a game of making the postseason each of the past two seasons, the kind of experience that should pay off this season as they try to navigate their way through the always-rugged terrain of the Western Conference.

“At times it can be a bit daunting looking at these other rosters and seeing the moves as the West gets stronger and stronger,” Connelly said. “But if you want to be at the highest level, you’re gonna have to go through everybody.”

NBC SPORTS BOSTON SCHEDULE

Contact Us