2002–03 Denver Nuggets season

The 2002–03 Denver Nuggets season was the 27th season for the Denver Nuggets in the National Basketball Association, and their 36th season as a franchise.^[1] The Nuggets received the fifth overall pick in the 2002 NBA draft, and selected power forward Nikoloz Tskitishvili from the Republic of Georgia.^[2][3][4] During the off-season, the team acquired Marcus Camby, and Brazilian rookie power forward, and top draft pick Nenê Hilario from the New York Knicks,^[5] acquired second-year guard Rodney White from the Detroit Pistons, signed free agents Mark Blount, and undrafted rookie point guard Junior Harrington, and acquired Chris Whitney from the Washington Wizards. The team also hired Jeff Bzdelik as their new head coach.

Under Bzdelik and with the addition of Nenê, Camby and White, the Nuggets struggled losing nine of their first eleven games of the regular season. The team won three straight games afterwards, but then lost 15 of their next 16 games, which included a 10-game losing streak in December. Also in December, the team traded James Posey to the Houston Rockets in a three-team trade.^[6] The Nuggets posted a seven-game losing streak between January and February, and held a 12–37 record at the All-Star break.^[7] At mid-season, the team traded Blount back to his former team, the Boston Celtics, in exchange for Shammond Williams in February, while Whitney was released to free agency, and signed with the Orlando Magic for the remainder of the season. The Nuggets suffered a 14-game losing streak between February and March, and lost their final eight games of the season, finishing in last place in the Midwest Division with a league-worst 17–65 record, which was tied with the Cleveland Cavaliers this season; it was also the franchise's worst record since the 1997–98 season.^[8] The team also missed the NBA playoffs for the eighth consecutive year.

Juwan Howard averaged 18.4 points and 7.6 rebounds per game, while Nenê averaged 10.5 points and 6.1 rebounds per game, and was named to the NBA All-Rookie First Team, and Williams provided the team with 9.4 points and 5.1 assists per game in 27 games after the trade. In addition, White contributed 9.0 points per game, while Donnell Harvey provided with 7.9 points and 5.3 rebounds per game, and Camby averaged 7.6 points, 7.2 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game, but only played just 29 games due to injury. Meanwhile, rookie small forward, and second-round draft pick Vincent Yarbrough contributed 6.9 points per game, second-year center Chris Andersen averaged 5.2 points and 4.6 rebounds per game, Harrington contributed 5.1 points and 3.4 assists per game, Tskitishvili contributed 3.9 points per game, but struggled only shooting .293 in field-goal percentage, and Ryan Bowen provided with 3.9 points per game.^[9]

During the NBA All-Star weekend at the Philips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia, Nenê was selected for the NBA Rookie Challenge Game, as a member of the Rookies team.^[10][11] He also finished in sixth place in Rookie of the Year voting.^[12] The Nuggets finished 25th in the NBA in home-game attendance, with an attendance of 607,813 at the Pepsi Center during the regular season, which was the fifth-lowest in the league.^[9][13]

Following the season, Howard signed as a free agent with the Orlando Magic, and Williams, Harvey and Harrington were all released to free agency.