The 10 greatest Nuggets in history, ranked by Player Efficiency Rating (PER)
By Ben Handler
6. Carmelo Anthony - 20.2 PER
It’s frankly hard to believe Melo isn’t higher on this list as he completely revitalized this franchise in the early 2000s. The Nuggets were perennial bottom-feeders before drafting Anthony after he led Syracuse to an NCAA championship in his lone year in college.
He immediately came in and became one of the best scorers in the NBA, leading Denver all the way to the Western Conference Finals in 2009. In seven full seasons with the Nuggets, Melo made four All-Star games, two All-NBA teams, and led the team to the playoffs every single year after an eight-year drought.
Carmelo averaged 24.8 points and 6.3 rebounds per game during his Nuggets tenure and finished sixth in MVP voting in his final full season with the club.
The final days of his Nuggets career could have ended better as he indicated he would not re-sign with the team and was traded to the Knicks during the 2010-11 season. But his legacy in Denver is bulletproof and his impact on the franchise should not be forgotten.
He helped bring Nuggets basketball back in a big way and played a major role in paving the ground for the team’s current success. There’s no way Melo would be absent from any list of the top 5 players in Nuggets history, so this is an example of some of the flaws of PER.