The Denver Nuggets just won the NBA title in which the average age of their Top 3 players – Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon – was just 27 years and 170 days the day the Finals came to an end.
That makes the team’s core one of the youngest to conquer a championship in recent NBA history, which bodes extremely well for the team’s future championship hopes.
Our own Alberto de Roa researched the average age of the Top 3 players for each NBA champion since 1983 using our Global Rating metric. For the Nuggets, their combined average age of 27.5 years old makes them the fifth youngest core to win a championship in the last 40 seasons.
It’s interesting to note that all of the championship teams with a younger core than Denver’s this season – the 2015 Golden State Warriors (Stephen Curry–Klay Thomson–Draymond Green), the 2001 Los Angeles Lakers (Shaquille O’Neal–Kobe Bryant–Derek Fisher), the 1991 Chicago Bulls (Michael Jordan–Scottie Pippen–Horace Grant) and the 2005 San Antonio Spurs (Tim Duncan–Tony Parker–Manu Ginobili) – all won at least one more championship with that same core.
Going back through history to look at other young cores to win championships, the 1979 Seattle SuperSonics (Gus Williams–Jack Sikma–Dennis Johnson) are the most recent young core younger than Denver’s this year to never win another championship together. They made it to the Western Conference Finals the next year before falling and then traded Johnson to the Boston Celtics not long thereafter.
Below, check out the 15 youngest Top 3 cores to win NBA championships since 1983.