The 10 greatest Nuggets in history, ranked by Player Efficiency Rating (PER)
By Ben Handler
3. Dan Issel - 21.1 PER
Issel is another Nuggets legend who helped the team transition from the ABA to the NBA gracefully. The big man was one of the best college basketball players of all time for the Kentucky Wildcats before being drafted in the first round of the 1970 ABA draft by the Kentucky Colonels.
He was traded to Denver after five seasons in the league, playing one year for the Nuggets ABA team before entering the NBA after the leagues merged. He’d play for 10 seasons with the team, averaging 20.7 points and 8.3 rebounds per game and making the playoffs every single year.
Issel was an ABA All-Star and made second-team All-ABA in his one season in the league with the Nuggets, then made the All-Star Game in the team’s first season in the NBA.
He put up at least 21 points per game in seven of his ten seasons in Denver and only averaged under 17 in his final year in the league, at age 36 when he won the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year Award.
After retiring, Issell would become the color commentator for the Nuggets and then the head coach in 1992. He led the team to a massive first-round playoff upset in 1994 and helped them become the first 8 seed to ever defeat a 1 seed. Issel was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame in 1993.