Years in Lottery: 16
Slots Dropped: 11
Average: -0.69
The only lottery direction the Denver Nuggets know is down.
During the franchise’s 16 encounters with the ping-pong balls, they’ve produced eight static and eight negative results.
On paper, the 1991 and 1998 drafts are the worst memories. Denver watched the first overall pick disappear both years, falling three positions in 1991 and two in 1998. In the former year, UNLV’s Larry Johnson was the prize at the top of the lottery, and Denver took some guy named Dikembe Mutombo; in the latter, Michael Olowokandi went No. 1, with Raef LaFrentz going to the Nuggets. (Hindsight isn’t terrible but it’s still bad lottery luck.)
Maybe the Nuggets—whenever a hoped-to-be-very successful Nikola Jokic era is over, ideally—will finally see a lottery go their way.
