15 players you forgot suited up for the Denver Nuggets
By Dean Hasan
8. Jalen Rose (1994-96)
Jalen Rose is one of the best players in NBA history to have never made an All-Star team, and while he’s best known for his time with the Pacers and Chicago Bulls, he was selected 13th by the Nuggets in the 1994 draft and spent the first two years of his career with the team.
In his rookie year, he averaged 8.2 points, 4.8 assists 2.7 rebounds per game on 45.4 percent shooting and earned Second-Team All-Rookie honors. Denver earned the eighth seed in the playoffs, and while they went home early after a 3-0 sweep at the hands of the Spurs, Rose played admirably and started in all three games.
For the series, he put up 10.0 points, 6.0 assists and 3.7 rebounds per game. In Game 3 of the series his 15 points, seven dimes and six boards kept things close as Denver lost by just four points.
The following season, he averaged 10.0 points, 6.6 assists and 3.3 rebounds a game on 48.0 percent from the field, and while the Nuggets missed the playoffs, Rose had some excellent individual performances. On Mar. 26, 1996 he had 19 points, nine assists and four rebounds against the Hornets. On April 7, he had 19 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists against the Rockets.
He also had three separate games where he recorded 16 assists, the best of which was a stat-stuffing 10-point, 16-assists, six-block, four-rebound, three-steal performance in a 24 point win over the Boston Celtics on Feb. 18, 1996.
While the Nuggets ended up trading Rose to the Pacers the following summer, his time with the team was rather successful, and he certainly showed flashes of the star player he’d eventually become for Indiana and Chicago.