It’s 11:45 on a Wednesday night on the West Coast when you realize that you’re not even a quarter complete with the data you’re trying to compile for an article, and also conclude that you’ve already been working at it a few-ish hours. It’s now too late to ping Ryan Blackburn three time zones away, and when you realize he could probably pull the data you’ve been piecing together painstakingly and cross-reference it in 72 seconds, you just get pissed off that you don’t learn yourself a few more skills. You start to do the math, and realize that you’ll have your work completed around 8 a.m. On Friday. Crappity crap.

Apologies all, but here’s a heaping helping of Nuggets hospitality and hardscrabble for your Thursday, if the title wasn’t unappealing enough.

Denver Nuggets Did you know?

  • Torrey Craig, who wears the number three for the Nuggets, averaged 3.3 rebounds per game this season.
  • Monte Morris, the rookie point guard who saw brief action this season when up from the G-League, played in three games. His per-game points average? 3.3.
  • The Nuggets have now completed 51 seasons of play, a prime number.
  • That last one is not completely true, as 51 is divisible by 3. And 17.
  • The Nuggets’ promotions and marketing teams were also deft in their messaging of the 50 seasons they were celebrating last year. The “decades roster” nights were an especially nice touch.
  • The highest-drafted player currently on the Nuggets roster is… Devin Harris, who was the 5th pick of the 2004 draft, chosen by the Washington Wizards. Harris did not play a second for the Wizards, being a part of a trade with the Mavericks that involved the pick. Amazingly, the only other player on the Nuggets roster drafted in the top 10 is Jamal Murray.
  • The lowest-drafted player on the Nuggets is… Nikola Jokic, with the 41st pick of the 2014 draft.
  • OK, that’s also not true, but you were totally in on that one, right? There are actually three players on the team drafted below the 41st spot. Any idea who they are? The low end of that totem pole was actually an undrafted player, in surprise stud Torrey Craig. Above that is Monte Morris, the rookie drafted at… 51. Did you know 51 is a prime number? Anyway…
  • The last player drafted lower than Jokic’s 41st spot is none other than three-time All-Star Paul Millsap, drafted in the 47th spot in 2006 by the Jazz. There’s also one other Nuggets player drafted in the 40’s in Will Barton. When you consider the contributions of four of those five players for last year’s team, it’s pretty staggering in a bang-for-the-buck perspective.
  • Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone was born in the same New York neighborhood as Tony Bennett, Ethel Merman, Christopher Walken, Robert Davi, Cyndi Lauper, Dee Snider, and more.
  • Sophomore sensation Jamal Murray ended up knocking down 229 of his 253 free throws this season, good for a .905 average, fifth-best in the league this year. Murray does not hold the title on his own team, though, as Monte Morris sneaks back in to make both of the free throws he took this year, good for the sterling 1.000. Thank goodness for minimum thresholds in our stats.
  • You’ve all seen The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh by now, as anyone who frequents a team-specific NBA blog in that team’s too-early offseason has also been desperate enough for hoops content to watch a film starring Dr. J. The story is built on the premise that every player on a team being born under the same astrological sign gives a team super-connected superpowers for a placebo-powered moment. Pisces. Fish. You get it. Apologies for the spoiler alert on that 1979 movie that’s still on your list. It was absolutely and unquestionably Julius Erving’s finest feature film effort. It was also absolutely and unquestionably his only feature film effort. For what it’s worth, The Doctor did also make it onto the telly for single-episode appearances on five unique television shows. Twice he played someone named Moses. Never once did he play a doctor.
  • I digress. The Denver Nuggets roster is not all Pisces, that would be ridiculous. They are actually all Geminis.
  • That is also completely untrue, but I think you’re onto me by now. Gemini is actually one of two astrological signs not represented on the squad, with 10 others spread thinly amongst the 17 players. You’ve got one each of Libra, Virgo, Taurus, Aquarius, and Capricorn, followed by two each of Scorpio, Cancer, Aries, and Sagittarius.
  • The last four? Hilariously, all Pisces. The fishy foursome is comprised of Devin Harris, Mason Plumlee, Jamal Murray, and Nikola Jokic.
  • The Fish That Saved Denver. Huh.

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