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Team Profile
Denver Nuggets: Five things you need to know
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One Australian has a Denver Nuggets championship ring, and it's the most slept on ring Down Under
- Australian forward Jack White was part of Denver's 2023 championship roster.
- Denver won 54 games and a franchise-record 26 on the road in 2025-26.
- Minnesota eliminated the third-seeded Nuggets 4-2 in the first round.
There is an Australian with a Denver Nuggets championship ring, and almost nobody at home talks about it.
Jack White signed a two-way contract with Denver for the 2022-23 season, made his NBA debut that year, and was part of the roster when the Nuggets won the first championship in franchise history. He played 21 NBA games across spells with Denver and Memphis and averaged 1.3 points. He is also, on the only measure that gets remembered, more decorated than almost every Australian who has played the game.
That is a very Denver story. This is a franchise that spent 47 years without a title, then won one with a second-round pick nobody wanted.
Australians who have played for the Denver Nuggets
Jack White is the one who matters. The Australian forward joined Denver for the 2022 Summer League, signed a two-way contract for 2022-23 and debuted in the NBA that season, splitting his time between the Nuggets and their G League affiliate. When Denver beat Miami in the 2023 NBA Finals, White was part of the championship roster – making him one of a small group of Australians to win an NBA title. He later played for Memphis.
That is the extent of the Australian connection at present. No Australian is currently under contract in Denver, which makes White's ring the whole of the story rather than a footnote to it.
2025-26 team snapshot
Denver enters the new season with the same question it could not answer last April.
The Nuggets went 54-28 in 2025-26 and finished third in the Western Conference. They won 26 games on the road, the most in franchise history. Nikola Jokić averaged a triple-double across the season.
Then Minnesota, the sixth seed, beat them 4-2 in the first round, closing it out 110-98 in Game 6 on 30 April 2026.
For a team with the best player in the world, a first-round exit at 54 wins is not a rebuilding signal. It is an indictment of depth, and Denver's offseason has read that way. The Nuggets waived Jonas Valančiūnas on 8 July, signed forward Trevon Brazile on 10 July and re-signed guard Tyus Jones on 14 July, having brought Jones in on a rest-of-season deal back in March. Marvin Bagley III arrived on a one-year deal; Tim Hardaway Jr. left for Miami.
Around Jokić, the roster is being rebuilt in the margins rather than overhauled – which is the correct approach when the centrepiece is under contract and in his prime, and the wrong one if the supporting cast was the reason for April.
Why the Nuggets matter
Denver is the proof that the NBA's talent-identification machine still misses.
Nikola Jokić was taken 41st overall in 2014. The pick was announced during a Taco Bell commercial – American television did not consider it worth showing. He has since become a multiple-time MVP, a champion, a Finals MVP, and the most complete passing big man the sport has produced.
No franchise has ever received a larger return on a second-round pick. That single decision separates Denver from every other team that has spent decades searching for a superstar.
From the ABA to the merger
The Nuggets began life in 1967 as the Denver Rockets, a founding member of the American Basketball Association, and were renamed the Nuggets in 1974.
When the ABA folded in 1976, Denver was one of four clubs absorbed into the NBA, alongside the Nets, Pacers and Spurs. They arrived with an established identity: fast, high-scoring, and played at altitude, where visiting teams have complained about the thin air for half a century.
The Doug Moe era and basketball at speed
Through the 1980s, Denver played the most entertaining basketball in the league and won nothing.
Under coach Doug Moe, the Nuggets ran a motion offence at a tempo nobody could live with. Alex English became the highest-scoring player of the entire decade. Dan Issel and Kiki Vandeweghe scored in volume alongside him, and in 1983 Denver and Detroit combined for 370 points in triple overtime, still the highest-scoring game in NBA history.
Denver reached the Western Conference Finals in 1985. That was as far as the fun took them.
1994: the greatest upset
In 1994 the eighth-seeded Nuggets met the 63-win Seattle SuperSonics in the first round.
No No.8 seed had beaten a No.1 in NBA history. Denver lost the first two games, won the next three, and Dikembe Mutombo finished flat on the floor clutching the ball with both hands, an image that is still the shorthand for a playoff upset three decades later.
2023: the championship
Denver's title run was not an upset. It was a procession.
The Nuggets went 16-4 in the 2023 playoffs and beat the Miami Heat 4-1 in the Finals, with Jokić named Finals MVP and Jamal Murray finally healthy after two years lost to a torn ACL. Michael Porter Jr. and Aaron Gordon completed a starting five that had grown up together.
Forty-seven years after joining the NBA, Denver had a banner. Jack White was on the roster.
The greatest Nuggets of all time
Nikola Jokić is the greatest player in franchise history and the argument is not close. Alex English is its all-time leading scorer and the highest-scoring player of the 1980s. Dan Issel carried the club from the ABA into the NBA. David Thompson was, before injury, one of the most explosive athletes the sport has seen.
Dikembe Mutombo anchored the 1990s and authored its defining image. Carmelo Anthony dragged Denver back to relevance and to the 2009 Western Conference Finals. Jamal Murray hit the shots that won the title.
Five Fast Facts
- Denver won its only NBA championship in 2023, beating Miami 4-1.
- Nikola Jokić was selected 41st overall in 2014, with the pick announced during a Taco Bell commercial.
- The Nuggets were one of four ABA clubs absorbed into the NBA in the 1976 merger.
- Denver's 1994 first-round win over Seattle was the first time a No.8 seed beat a No.1 in NBA history.
- Australian forward Jack White was part of the 2023 championship roster.
Historical Timeline
- 1967: Founded as the Denver Rockets, a founding ABA franchise.
- 1974: Renamed the Denver Nuggets.
- 1976: Absorbed into the NBA in the ABA merger.
- 1985: Reach the Western Conference Finals under Doug Moe.
- 1994: Beat top-seeded Seattle, the first No.8 over No.1 in NBA history.
- 2014: Nikola Jokić drafted 41st overall.
- 2023: Win the NBA championship, beating Miami 4-1; Jack White part of the roster.
- 2026: Win 54 games with a franchise-record 26 on the road, then lose in the first round to Minnesota.
Looking ahead
Denver has the best player in the world under contract and a supporting cast that got beaten by a sixth seed. Those two facts define the season ahead.
Jokić's prime is the asset the entire franchise is built on, and it is finite. Every offseason that passes without meaningfully improving the roster around him is one fewer chance to add a second banner.
For Australian fans the connection is historical rather than current, and it belongs to a player who logged 21 NBA games. Jack White will spend the rest of his life as an NBA champion. That is not a small thing.
