The Denver Nuggets, of all teams, know how important it is to nail their draft picks, as the Mile High City isn't a particularly attractive destination for superstar free agents. And to their credit, they have made the most out of their picks, especially in the 2010s, where they built the core of their 2023 championship-winning team.

With that said, here are the 10 best draft picks the Nuggets have made in their franchise's history.

10. Raef Lafrentz

Raef Lafrentz was a prototype for the unicorn big man archetype we see nowadays. And the Nuggets certainly had high hopes for Lafrentz when they selected him with the third overall pick of the 1998 NBA Draft. Lafrentz was the rare big man who could space the floor and protect the rim; he averaged 2.5 swats a night in 3.5 seasons in the Mile High City while making 198 triples.

Even though he fell way short of expectations, especially when the Nuggets could have taken a ton of other more impressive players such as Dirk Nowitzki, Paul Pierce, or Vince Carter, Lafrentz wasn't a huge bust. Compared to other Nuggets draftees, Lafrentz is certainly deserving of inclusion on this list.

9. Bryant Stith

The draft is a crapshoot. No matter the draft spot, there's a risk that the player teams select would end up falling way short of expectations. But in Bryant Stith's case, the Nuggets were able to draft a player who was a capable starter for multiple years, which is a good enough return for the 13th overall pick, all things considered.

Stith spent eight seasons with the Nuggets, averaging 10.9 points and 3.5 rebounds on 43 percent shooting from the field and 30.8 percent shooting from deep.

8. Kenneth Faried

Kenneth Faried didn't exactly excel in protecting the rim and at spacing the floor. But what Faried was during his heyday was a bundle of energy. In every possession, Faried was bursting with vigor, setting screens as hard as he could, rolling as fast as he could to the rim, and crashing the boards with such undeniable ferocity.

Dubbed as the Manimal, Faried didn't take long in establishing himself as the Nuggets' starting power forward in the early 2010s. He was a livewire on both ends of the floor, a wrecking ball of a man who instilled fear in the hearts of his opponents with his top-tier athleticism. For a good chunk of seven seasons, Faried was a crucial member of the team, averaging 11.4 points and 8.2 rebounds in 441 games for the franchise.

As the Nuggets entered a new era with Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray leading the way, however, Kenneth Faried eventually gave way to Paul Millsap as the team's starting four, a defensively-inclined burly power forward who also spaced the floor — the better complement to Jokic.

7. Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf

Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, in many ways, was ahead of his time as a lead guard in the NBA. 30 years ago, a point guard's job was to run the offense, get the ball into the post, or hand off the ball to their best player and get out of the way. But Abdul-Rauf was much more than the prototypical guard. He was a shot-creator at heart, and he loved pulling up from distance before it became en vogue in the league.

In fact, Abdul-Rauf's style of play drew comparisons to Stephen Curry from Hall of Fame coach Phil Jackson. That's how ahead of his time the Nuggets guard was.

Alas, despite averaging 16 points in six seasons as a member of the Nuggets franchise, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf last played in the NBA in 2001, when he was just 31 years old. Abdul-Rauf felt like he was blackballed out of the league thanks to his staunch expression of his political beliefs. But that shouldn't hide the fact that he was a high-quality player in the NBA for nearly a decade.

6. LaPhonso Ellis

LaPhonso Ellis isn't exactly a Nuggets legend. He won't be making any greatest Nuggets players of all time lists soon enough, as he didn't exactly have a high career peak. But there's value in being a high-level role player for multiple years, and Ellis certainly was that during his six-year stint with the franchise.

Ellis was a solid frontcourt partner for Dikembe Mutombo, as Ellis was capable of spacing the floor — not exactly a common occurrence during his time. In fact, the 6'8 power forward had a season wherein he made 95 of his 259 attempts from deep, good for 36.7 percent, a rarity for power forwards during the 1990s.

In six years (343 games) with the team, LaPhonso Ellis averaged 15,2 points and 7.9 rebounds per game, peaking with an impressive 21.9 points and 7.0 rebounds per game season with the team in 1997.

5. Michael Porter Jr.

Entering the 2018 NBA Draft cycle, Michael Porter Jr. was drawing rave reviews, as he had the potential to be the next great forward in a wing-driven league. However, Porter wasn't exactly cut from the same cloth as Kevin Durant, as he flourished more as an off-ball scorer, while his uninspiring physical condition did not exactly help his standing on team's draft boards. His back was a red flag, with even some evaluators believing that Porter may not have the longest NBA career.

Even then, the Nuggets took a chance on Porter with the 14th overall pick of the draft and brought him along slowly. Porter did not play at all during the 2018-19 season, and he played such a bit role off the bench during his debut campaign before emerging as a key fixture of the team in the latter half of the season.

During the 2020-21 season, Michael Porter Jr. broke out in a big way, earning himself a huge contract extension in the process to fill the role as the team's third star alongside Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic. After a lost 2021-22 campaign, Porter is now back and has settled into a role lower down the offensive hierarchy than many thought he'd seize following his impressive sophomore season. But with what the Nuggets require out of him, Porter performs his role at an exceptional level — an audacious bomber who never shies away from any shot.

4. Dikembe Mutombo

When taking into the account the entire body of work for the Nuggets franchise, Dikembe Mutombo may be deserving of a higher spot on this list. Alas, the man who placed third was huge in propelling the team to its first-ever championship, so Mutombo will have to “settle” for number four.

With the fourth overall pick of the 1991 NBA Draft, the Nuggets were able to draft one of the greatest rim protectors in history. Even though Mutombo played in just five seasons for the franchise before he signed as a free agent with the Atlanta Hawks, he still remains the team's all-time leader in blocks with 1,486 swats.

Of course, Dikembe Mutombo had some iconic moments in a Nuggets uniform as well. The lasting image of the Nuggets' incredible 1-8 upset over the Seattle Supersonics in 1994 was Mutombo falling to the ground with the basketball with his face full of jubilation. He then broke into tears with his head resting upon the hardwood of the Sonics court as his coaches tried to console him, to no avail.

3. Jamal Murray

Jamal Murray did not have the most seamless transition to the professional level after he was drafted by the Nuggets with the seventh overall pick in 2016. With the Nuggets having drafted Emmanuel Mudiay not too long before Murray's arrival, the talented guard was stuck between two positions. But it didn't take long after that for Murray to set himself apart and forge a magical duo with Nikola Jokic.

In his second season, Murray firmly established himself as the Nuggets' starting point guard, being the exact kind of player the team needed to keep up with where the position was headed amid the three-point revolution. But it wasn't until the 2020 NBA playoffs where Murray burst onto the limelight as one of the premiere postseason performers in the league. He went toe-to-toe in a thrilling offensive battle against Donovan Mitchell and snatched the Los Angeles Clippers' collective souls, leading the way for two historic 3-1 comebacks, the first of its kind in league history.

And then in 2023, Jamal Murray showed that he's now all the way back from the torn ACL he suffered in 2021. Murray played some sweet string music with Nikola Jokic in their vaunted two-man game, even notching historical numbers in the process. Without Murray playing the way he did, it's difficult to imagine the Nuggets winning the 2023 NBA championship, Jokic's greatness notwithstanding. Teams cannot put a price on mental fortitude under the bright lights of the playoffs, and Murray has that in spades.

2. Carmelo Anthony

Back in the 2003 NBA Draft, there were no guarantees that the Nuggets would be able to draft Carmelo Anthony, the dynamic small forward who lit the collegiate world ablaze as he led his Syracuse Orange to the national championship. They had the third overall pick of the draft, with the Detroit Pistons looming as a threat to add Anthony to their core that had just made the Eastern Conference Finals.

But as fate would have it, the Pistons took Darko Milicic over Anthony, so the Nuggets were in business. And for all the flak Anthony has caught throughout his career for not being the best two-way player he could have been given his athletic gifts, the talented small forward had an immediate impact for the team. Before Anthony arrived, the Nuggets won just 17 games; during his rookie season, the team was able to win 43 games, 26-game improvement.

With Carmelo Anthony in the Mile High City, the Nuggets made the playoffs for eight consecutive seasons, winning 50 or more games four times and making the Western Conference Finals once. In 564 games as a member of the franchise, Anthony averaged 24.8 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 3.1 games, notching four All-Star appearances along the way.

1. Nikola Jokic

When the Nuggets selected Nikola Jokic with the 41st overall pick of the 2014 NBA Draft, not too many paid attention. After all, his selection came during a Taco Bell advertisement on ESPN. However, from the beginning, Jokic's skill was apparent. He had buttery touch around the hoop, and he was a burly presence in the paint, so his offensive prowess wasn't exactly an issue. It was his lack of athleticism, subpar conditioning, and projected shortcomings on the defensive end of the court that didn't instill belief in talent evaluators that he'd turn out to be one of the biggest stars of the game.

But gradually, Jokic began asserting himself as the Nuggets' best player. He even forced the team to make a decision in 2017, when the Nuggets dealt away Jusuf Nurkic for Mason Plumlee to completely hand over the keys of the team to the Serbian star. And Jokic did not disappoint.

Nikola Jokic has become an otherworldly offensive force, an unstoppable presence on that end of the floor who bends defenses to his will. Jokic leverages his incredible touch from everywhere on the court to make his teammates better, setting them up with dribble handoffs, dunker spot dump-offs, and pinpoint crosscourt passes straight into their shooting pockets. The Nuggets have even built a team that more than compensates for Jokic's shortcomings as a rim protector, with the team maximizing the Serbian's strengths in blitzing the pick-and-roll and being an overall disruptive presence in the passing lanes.

No one could have foreseen that Jokic's selection in 2014 would culminate in the franchise's first-ever championship nine years later, but here we are. Credit must go to the Nuggets for helping develop Jokic into a two-time MVP and the greatest draft steal of all time.