1979-81: Denver Acquires Fluent English

Despite the team's struggles, Denver made a major acquisition during the campaign that shaped the Nuggets' fortunes for years to come. In a February 1 trade with Indiana, Denver swapped George McGinnis for Alex English and a 1980 first-round draft pick. A sleek, 6-7 swingman in his fourth pro season, English would play 11 seasons for the Nuggets and become the team's all-time leading scorer, never averaging fewer than 23.8 points until his final campaign in 1989-90. In his 24 games with Denver in 1979-80, English contributed 21.3 points per game.

David Thompson suffered a serious foot injury and played in only 39 games in 1979-80, marking the first time in his career that he had spent significant time on the sidelines. Thompson's absence dampened the team's firepower, although Issel, who led the Nuggets in scoring, ranked seventh in the NBA with 23.8 points per game.

The 1980-81 version of the Nuggets improved to 37-45, starting the year under Head Coach Donnie Walsh but finishing it under colorful Doug Moe. Moe emphasized pressure defense, team cohesiveness, hard work, and a relentless motion offense, which he described as "playground ball with a little supervision."

This entertaining Nuggets squad had little trouble scoring points, although they did struggle to prevent opponents from doing the same. For the season, the Nuggets poured in 121.8 points per game, the first of five consecutive years in which they averaged at least 120 points per contest. Unfortunately, Denver's defense gave up a league-high 122.3 points per game. On February 13 Denver set a new franchise single-game scoring mark with a 162-143 victory over Portland.

David Thompson was back for the 1980-81 season. Averaging 25.5 points, he formed part of a high-scoring Nuggets triumvirate that also included Alex English (23.8 ppg) and Dan Issel (21.9).

1981-84: Vandeweghe Gives Team Another Scoring Threat

With Vandeweghe on board in 1981-82, Denver continued to improve, posting a 46-36 record. After a two-year absence from postseason play, the Nuggets returned to the playoffs but made a first-round exit courtesy of the Phoenix Suns.

The team's brightest star was English, who appeared in the first of his eight consecutive NBA All-Star Games. Although he possessed a wide repertoire of offensive skills, English was not a flamboyant player. Instead, he was a smooth operator both around the basket and from the perimeter. But because his career paralleled that of Julius Erving, the Hall of Fame forward who redefined the game during that era, English was always obscured by Dr. J's shadow.

With English leading the assault, the wide-open Nuggets offense scored an NBA-record 126.5 points per game, breaking the previous mark of 125.4 set by the 1961-62 Philadelphia Warriors. Denver became the first team in NBA history to score at least 100 points in every regular-season contest, at the same time setting the all-time high for most points allowed at 126.0 per game.

For the second consecutive season the Nuggets had three players average more than 20 points, but David Thompson wasn't one of them. Instead, the scoring leaders were English (25.4 ppg), Issel (22.9), and Vandeweghe (21.5). Thompson missed 20 games with injuries during the early part of the season and was replaced in the starting lineup by T. R. Dunn. Thompson returned to play in 61 contests, starting only 5, and averaged just 14.9 points.

After the season Thompson was traded to Seattle in exchange for a first-round draft pick and Bill Hanzlik, a 6-7 forward who gave the Nuggets eight solid seasons.

Denver held steady in 1982-83 with a 45-37 record. After scoring at least 100 points in every regular-season game the year before, the Nuggets' jet-powered offense slowed just a bit-Denver had four games of fewer than 100 points in 1982-83. Still, the Nuggets not only had the league's top two scorers in English (28.4 ppg) and Vandeweghe (26.7), but they also had Issel, who contributed 21.6 points per game. English and Vandeweghe were the first pair of teammates to rank first and second in the league in scoring since the 1954-55 season, when the feat had been accomplished by Neil Johnston and Paul Arizin of the Philadelphia Warriors.

Denver faced Phoenix in a best-of-three first-round playoff series and needed a 117-112 overtime victory in Game 3 to advance. The Nuggets then engaged San Antonio in a high-scoring conference semifinal series, but the Spurs had too much firepower. San Antonio averaged 132.8 points while winning the series, four games to one.

Denver slipped in 1983-84, tumbling to a 38-44 record. They were mediocre in the win column but still featured an unrelenting offense. On December 13 Denver and Detroit staged the highest-scoring game in NBA history, a three-overtime, 186-184 victory for the Pistons. The Nuggets' 184-point total was easily the team's top single-game mark, surpassing the 162 chalked up against Portland in 1981. Only a month later, on January 11, the Nuggets put up their second-best all-time total by downing San Antonio, 163-155.

Vandeweghe had 51 and 50 points, respectively, in each of the score-a-thons. He was Denver's representative in the All-Star Game for the second consecutive season, and he averaged 29.4 for the year. English also had a solid season, contributing 26.4 points per contest.

1984-85: Nuggets Get "Fat" And Natt

Before the season even began Denver made a crucial move by engineering a blockbuster trade with the Portland Trail Blazers. The Nuggets sent Vandeweghe to Portland in exchange for Wayne Cooper, Lafayette "Fat" Lever, Calvin Natt (who made the 1985 All-Star Team), and two draft picks. The deal paid immediate dividends for the Nuggets. They got off to a 12-3 start, floundered a bit, then found their second wind, going 29-14 from January through March, including 20 straight wins at home.

The team's momentum in the second half of the season carried over into the playoffs. Denver met San Antonio in the first round and engaged the Spurs in a postseason shootout for the second time in three seasons. This time the Nuggets prevailed, winning the best-of-five series in five games. Denver had an easier time in the conference semifinals, trouncing the Utah Jazz, four games to one. Their reward, however, was a matchup with the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference Finals. The Lakers bounced the Nuggets in five high-scoring games on their way to the NBA title.

For the season, Alex English scored 27.9 points per game, and 6-6, 220-pound Calvin Natt had the best of his five seasons for Denver, averaging 23.3 points. Two of Bobby Jones's team defensive records fell when versatile 6-3 guard Fat Lever recorded 202 steals and Wayne Cooper blocked 197 shots. Dan Issel retired after the 1984-85 season, having averaged 20.7 points over a 10-year Denver career and scoring 16,589 points for the franchise. All told, Issel scored 27,482 points in his ABA/ NBA career, ranking behind only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain, Julius Erving, and Moses Malone on the all-time ABA/NBA scoring list. At the time of Issel's retirement he owned most of the Nuggets' career offensive records, although he was later superseded by Alex English.

1985-88: Issel Gone, But English Takes Up The Slack

Denver advanced to the 1986 NBA Playoffs but retained its also-ran status. The Nuggets had an easy time with Portland in a first-round series but then fell to Houston and its "Twin Towers," Hakeem Olajuwon and Ralph Sampson, in the Western Conference Semifinals.

The Nuggets lost ground again in 1986-87, finishing with a 37-45 record. The team played .500 ball through the first month of the season, then slipped to just below the winning mark for the rest of the schedule. English continued to score, with 28.6 points per game, and Fat Lever cemented his reputation as one of the league's most versatile players. Lever set a team single-season record for assists with 654 (8.0 apg) and, at only 6-3, led the Nuggets in rebounding with 8.9 per game.

The Nuggets were terrific in 1987-88. Coach Doug Moe's system clicked to the tune of a 54-28 record, the best in the club's NBA history. Denver played winning ball all season, highlighted by a 10-game winning streak in the final few weeks of the campaign. The Nuggets went 35-6 at home, second best in the franchise's NBA era. Despite high hopes entering the postseason, Denver lost in the Western Conference Semifinals to a high-powered Dallas Mavericks squad that included Mark Aguirre, Rolando Blackman, Derek Harper, Sam Perkins, Roy Tarpley, and Detlef Schrempf.

Doug Moe was named NBA Coach of the Year in 1987-88. Michael Adams, a 5-10 shooter acquired from the Washington Bullets, made 139 three-pointers, a Denver record that he improved on in each of the next three seasons. Fat Lever broke his own record for steals with 223, and six Nuggets scored 12.7 points per game or better, topped by Alex English's 25.0 average.

1988-90: Alex's Swan Song

There were some notable individual efforts, however. On March 10 English scored 51 points but couldn't salvage a one-point Denver loss to Miami. Lever matched Larry Brown's 1972 franchise record for assists in a game when he dished out 23 against Golden State on April 21.

Denver maintained a winning record in 1989-90, finishing 43-39. Walter Davis, acquired from Phoenix before the 1988-89 season, contributed 17.5 points per game and set a new team mark for free-throw percentage at .912 (later broken by Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf). Lever (18.3 ppg) led eight Nuggets in double-figure scoring.

English's scoring fell off to 17.9 points per game after nine years of averaging better than 20, and he left via free agency after the season to sign with the Dallas Mavericks for one final NBA campaign. In his 11 years with Denver, English averaged 25.9 points and became the club's all-time leader in games played (837), minutes played (29,893), total points (21,645), field goals made (8,953) and attempted (17,604), and assists (3,679).