Alex English is No. 2 on the Denver Nuggets’ all-time assists list.
The Nuggets have been a winning organization for long stretches, but they have the best team in recent years right now. The reason for that is that they have the best player in the NBA. That’s where we’re going to kick things off, so let’s talk about Nikola Jokic.
The fact that Joker is at the top of this list shows just how ridiculous this guy is. Having a center at the top of an assists leaderboard for any franchise is absurd, especially since he’s not even 30 yet. It’s no surprise when looking at his accolades, making the All-Star team in six straight seasons while winning MVP in three of those. Jokic is simply the best player in the NBA right now, averaging 24 points, 11.6 rebounds and 8.2 assists during that six-year span. The only thing that will keep him off of these lists is an early retirement, but Joker should be doing this for another 5-10 seasons, if he wants to.
English is regarded as one of the greatest Nuggets of all time, playing 11 of his final 12 seasons in Denver. That was the best stretch of his career, making eight-straight All-Star appearances with the Nuggets. They were one of the highest-scoring teams in the NBA at the time, and English was thriving in that high-powered system. In his final eight years in Denver, English averaged 26.2 points, 5.2 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game. That assist total doesn’t jump off the page, but he played at least 78 games every year outside his rookie season. He was inducted into the Hall-of-Fame in 1997.
Lever was also a key piece to that high-flying Nuggets team, and he was the primary point guard. Lever accumulated all 3,566 assists in just six seasons with the Nuggets. Lever played at least 78 games in five of those six seasons, averaging 17 points, 7.6 rebounds, 7.5 assists and 1.5 steals with Denver. He only made two All-Star teams during that span, but he had one of the best assist-to-turnover ratios in this franchise’s history. He played his final three years in Dallas and retired in 1994.
Denver was one of the best teams in the 2000s when they had Carmelo Anthony and this guy. Miller was an unsung hero for that team, running the show for one of the best clubs in the Western Conference. Miller joined Denver in 2003 and spent seven seasons there in total across two separate stints. In his Denver career, Miller averaged 12 points, 3.8 rebounds, 6.7 assists and 1.2 steals per game. He played 17 seasons in total and retired in 2016.
Lawson actually followed up Miller as the point guard in Denver, and he used his speed to rack up the assists. The 18th pick in the 2009 NBA Draft played his first six seasons in Denver after a draft-day trade, averaging 14.2 points, 2.9 rebounds, 6.6 assists and 1.2 steals throughout his Nuggets career. They were also a winning team throughout most of that, but due to some off-court issues, he only played nine seasons. Lawson closed out his career in China and officially retired in 2019.
