The 10 greatest Nuggets in history, ranked by Player Efficiency Rating (PER)
By Ben Handler
2. Larry Jones - 22.0 PER
A late bloomer in basketball and only 6’2” Jones wasn’t heavily recruited out of high school and played in the Mid-American Conference for the University of Toledo. He bounced around the NBA and then the Eastern League with little success before finally catching on with the Denver Rockets of the brand new ABA in 1967.
But Jones found his game in Denver and then some. He played just three seasons for the city, and only in the ABA, but he made first-team All-ABA each season, making the ABA All-Star Game each season, and finished top four in MVP voting in two of the three seasons.
While with the Rockets, he became the first player in ABA history to reach 2,000 career points, and later the first player in the league to reach 5,000 points in his final season in Denver.
Jones averaged 25.4 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 4.3 assists per game during his Denver ABA career, including 28.4 points per game in the 1968-69 season. The team lost in the West Finals in 1970 and couldn’t afford to retain Jones at a competitive price.
He demanded a trade and was shipped out of Denver after just three seasons. But he got the franchise off the ground, put up some amazing numbers in the process, and helped lay the groundwork for professional basketball in Denver.