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2002–03 Denver Nuggets season

NBA professional basketball team season

KTVD
Fox Sports Net Rocky Mountain

The 2002–03 Denver Nuggets season was the 27th season for the Denver Nuggets in the National Basketball Association, and their 36th season as a franchise. The Nuggets received the fifth overall pick in the 2002 NBA draft, and selected power forward Nikoloz Tskitishvili from the Republic of Georgia. Prior to the start of the season, the Nuggets acquired Marcus Camby, and Brazilian rookie power forward, and top draft pick Nenê Hilario from the New York Knicks, acquired second-year guard Rodney White from the Detroit Pistons, signed free agents Mark Blount, and undrafted rookie shooting guard Junior Harrington, and acquired Chris Whitney from the Washington Wizards.

After a 2–9 start to the regular season under new head coach Jeff Bzdelik, the Nuggets won three straight games, but then lost 15 of their next 16 games, which included a 10-game losing streak, as Camby only played just 29 games due to ankle and hip injuries. In December, the team traded James Posey to the Houston Rockets in a three-team trade, while Blount was traded back to his former team, the Boston Celtics in exchange for Shammond Williams in February. Also, that same month, Whitney was released to free agency, and signed with the Orlando Magic for the remainder of the season. However, the team struggled posting a 14-game losing streak between February and March. The Nuggets lost their final eight games of the season, and finished in last place in the Midwest Division with a league-worst 17–65 record, the franchise's worst record since the 1997–98 season. The team also missed the NBA playoffs for the eighth consecutive year.

Juwan Howard led the team with 18.4 points and 7.6 rebounds per game, while Nenê averaged 10.5 points and 6.1 rebounds per game, and was named to the NBA All-Rookie First Team. During the NBA All-Star weekend at the Philips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia, Nenê was selected for the NBA Rookie Challenge Game, as a member of the Rookies team.

Following the season, Howard signed as a free agent with the Orlando Magic, and Williams, Harrington and Donnell Harvey were all released to free agency.

Draft picks

Main article: 2002 NBA draft

Round	Pick	Player	Position	School/Club team
1	5	Nikoloz Tskitishvili	F/C
1	25	Frank Williams	PG	Illinois
2	33	Vincent Yarbrough	SF	Tennessee

Roster

Jeff Bzdelik ()
Jarinn Akana ()
Bill Branch () (assistant coach/scout)
T. R. Dunn ()
John MacLeod ()
Mark Randall () (player development)
Steve Hess (Ithaca)
Jim Gillen (Fort Hays State)

Roster notes

Point guard Shammond Williams holds American and Georgian dual citizenship. He played for the Georgian national team although he was born in the United States.

Regular season

Season standings

:z - clinched division title :y - clinched division title :x - clinched playoff spot

Game log

Player statistics

Regular season

Player	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3FG%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
Juwan Howard	77	77	35.5	.450	.500	.803	7.6	3.0	1.0	0.4	18.4
James Posey	25	24	34.9	.373	.273	.843	5.8	3.1	1.2	0.2	14.1
Nenê	80	53	28.2	.519	.000	.578	6.1	1.9	1.6	0.8	10.5
Chris Whitney	29	20	26.3	.360	.336	.807	1.6	4.3	0.6	0.0	9.6
Shammond Williams	27	9	26.4	.390	.363	.667	2.3	5.1	0.6	0.1	9.4
Rodney White	72	19	21.7	.408	.239	.784	3.0	1.7	0.6	0.4	9.0
Donnell Harvey	77	27	20.9	.446	.143	.670	5.3	1.3	0.6	0.4	7.9
Marcus Camby	29	9	21.2	.410	.400	.660	7.2	1.6	0.7	1.4	7.6
Vincent Yarbrough	59	39	23.4	.393	.269	.790	2.7	2.2	1.0	0.6	6.9
Devin Brown	3	2	23.7	.280	.000	.667	3.7	1.7	1.3	0.3	6.0
Kenny Satterfield	22	6	19.1	.309	.179	.696	1.6	2.4	0.8	0.1	5.6
Jeff Trepagnier	8	0	12.1	.425	.500	1.000	2.0	0.8	1.0	0.0	5.6
Mark Blount	54	24	16.4	.393		.717	3.4	0.6	0.4	0.9	5.2
Chris Andersen	59	3	15.4	.400	.000	.550	4.6	0.5	0.5	1.0	5.2
Junior Harrington	82	51	24.4	.362	.250	.652	3.0	3.4	1.0	0.2	5.1
Nikoloz Tskitishvili	81	16	16.3	.293	.243	.738	2.2	1.1	0.4	0.4	3.9
Ryan Bowen	62	31	16.1	.492	.286	.659	2.5	0.9	1.0	0.5	3.6
John Crotty	12	0	15.0	.341	.308	.600	1.3	2.4	0.3	0.0	3.4
Adam Harrington	6	0	12.3	.350	.364	.500	1.0	1.7	0.2	0.0	3.2
Predrag Savović	27	0	9.5	.312	.154	.724	0.9	0.8	0.5	0.0	3.1
Mark Bryant	3	0	4.7	.000		.500	0.7	0.7	0.0	0.0	0.3

Player statistics citation:

Awards and records

Nenê, NBA All-Rookie Team 1st Team

Transactions

References

[https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/DEN/2003.html 2002-03 Denver Nuggets]
Passan, Jeff. (June 27, 2002). "Rockets Select Yao No. 1 Overall in Draft". The Washington Post.
(June 26, 2002). "Rockets Make Yao Ming First Overall Pick". ESPN.
"2002 NBA Draft". Basketball-Reference.
(October 28, 2002). "WESTERN CONFERENCE: Team-by-Team Preview". The New York Times.
(December 18, 2002). "Nuggets, Rockets, 76ers Agree to 3-Way Trade". Arizona Daily Sun.
"2002–03 Denver Nuggets Schedule and Results". Basketball-Reference.
"2002–03 Denver Nuggets Roster and Stats". Basketball-Reference.
(February 8, 2003). "Basketball". The Madison Courier.
"2003 NBA Rising Stars: Sophomores 132, Rookies 112". Basketball-Reference.

Info: Wikipedia Source

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