1990–91 Denver Nuggets season

The 1990–91 Denver Nuggets season was the 15th season for the Denver Nuggets in the National Basketball Association, and their 24th season as a franchise.^[1] Bernie Bickerstaff took over as General Manager and decided it was time to rebuild the Nuggets. At the time, the club had the oldest team in the league; the Nuggets would make radical changes trading off stars for draft picks. Despite finishing with a 43–39 record the previous season, the Nuggets had the third overall pick in the 1990 NBA draft, and selected point guard Chris Jackson out of Louisiana State University.^[2][3][4] During the off-season, the team acquired Orlando Woolridge from the Los Angeles Lakers,^[5][6] acquired rookie power forward, and top draft pick Terry Mills from the Milwaukee Bucks, and signed free agent Joe Wolf.

Under new head coach, former Loyola Marymount coach Paul Westhead, the Nuggets got off to a bad start by losing their first seven games of the regular season, and then later on posted an eight-game losing streak between December and January. The team posted a six-game winning streak between January and February, and held a 14–31 record at the All-Star break.^[7] At mid-season, the team signed free agent Reggie Williams, who was previously released by the San Antonio Spurs. In a three-team trade, the team traded Walter Davis to the Portland Trail Blazers, and traded Mills to the New Jersey Nets in exchange for Greg Anderson.^[8][9][10] The Nuggets posted two seven-game losing streaks in February and March, then posted a 10-game losing streak between March and April, and finished in last place in the Midwest Division with a league-worst 20–62 record.^[11]

Michael Adams averaged 26.5 points, 10.0 assists and 2.2 steals per game, led the Nuggets with 167 three-point field goals, but only shot .296 in three-point field-goal percentage, and finished tied in eighth place in Most Improved Player voting.^[12] In addition, Woolridge averaged 25.1 points and 6.8 rebounds per game, but only played 53 games due to injury, while Williams provided the team with 16.1 points, 4.8 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game in 51 games, and Jackson contributed 14.1 points and 3.1 assists per game, and was named to the NBA All-Rookie Second Team. Meanwhile, second-year guard Todd Lichti provided with 14.0 points and 1.6 steals per game, but only appeared in just 29 games also due to injury, Blair Rasmussen averaged 12.5 points, 9.7 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game, Jerome Lane provided with 7.5 points and 9.3 rebounds per game, Wolf averaged 7.3 points and 5.4 rebounds per game, second-round draft pick Marcus Liberty contributed 6.7 points per game, and Anthony Cook provided with 5.3 points, 5.6 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game.^[13]

One of the most notable games that best signified the Nuggets' woes throughout this season was on November 10, 1990, where the Phoenix Suns defeated the Nuggets, 173–143, which not only tied the 1959 Boston Celtics for the most points scored in a game that did not go into at least one overtime (and did not involve the winning team making a single three-point field goal in Phoenix's case), but also saw the Suns score a record-high 107 points in the first half, which remains the only game to have a team scoring over 100 points in a half as of 2025.^[14]

However, the Nuggets also had preseason games that had the Boston Celtics scoring 172 points (one point shy from their highest mark), the Suns scoring 186 points (which would have tied the scoring record the Detroit Pistons (who previously won the lowest-scoring game in NBA history back when they were the Fort Wayne Pistons) had back in 1983 against the Nuggets themselves had it counted as a regular season game), and the Atlanta Hawks scoring 194 points (which would have broken the Pistons' scoring record against Denver back in 1983 had it counted as a regular season game, as well as became six points shy from breaking the 200 point barrier that would only be reached properly by the Eastern Conference All-Star team in the 2024 NBA All-Star Game) under blowout losses that Denver had during this time, which became precursors for what was to come for them during this season.^[15]

The Nuggets finished last in the NBA in home-game attendance, with an attendance of 438,103 at the McNichols Sports Arena during the regular season, which was 27th in the league.^[13][16] By season's end, the Nuggets led the league in team scoring with 119.9 points per game, but also allowed 130.8 points per game for their opponents, setting an NBA record for the most points per game, and most total points allowed by a team in a season.^[17][18][19] Following the season, Woolridge was traded to the Detroit Pistons,^[20][21] while Adams was traded back to his former team, the Washington Bullets,^[22][23] and Rasmussen was dealt to the Atlanta Hawks.