USA Today’s All-Unknown Team highlights those random NBA players no one knows about who are pretty ok relative to … something …
Small market teams like the Nuggets don’t receive a whole lot of national spotlight. Most casual NBA fans know nothing about the Nuggets besides a Denver blooper reel that makes the Sports Center Top 10 or when TNT airs a Nuggets trouncing at the hands of the undefeated Warriors. Long story short, the majority of the players on Denver’s roster aren’t what one would call household names. There’s no Kobe, Curry, Harden not even a Lawson at this point.
There is however a Jokic, a Nurkic and a Papanikolaou. And while these seemingly random dying stars may never feel the warm blaze of playoff glory, they have, however, made it to the top of another very important NBA list: least known, yet most kinda-okay players.
USA Today has created a very sad/funny fantasy team of overlooked NBA players called the All-Unknown team. And wouldn’t you know it, but 40 percent of that team is made up of Nugs. They had this to say about the pair of Nuggets who made their starting roster for the Team All-Unknown:
Will Barton, Guard, Denver Nuggets, Drafted 40th overall in 2012
The biggest name on this list, Barton has finally found his fit with the Nuggets after three years with the Portland Trail Blazers. He's started six games in his career and has an average of 14.5 minutes per game, but has made a difference coming off the bench for Denver (13.4 points and 47% shooting in 26.8 minutes).
Nikola Jokic, Center, Denver Nuggets, Drafted 41st overall in 2014
Jokic was one of the top Serbian players during his time playing overseas, earning an MVP award in his league. But unlike his European big man counterpart Kristaps Porzingis, Jokic hasn't received much national attention. However, he has started the past seven games for the Nuggets and may have secured himself a spot in their lineup (7.7 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 54.5% shooting in 16.9 minutes).
‘The nobody Nuggets.’ We get it. Significantly out of the playoff picture and enduring the pain of a rebuilding year, we’ll take anything we can get…
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