The Denver Nuggets are coming into the latest NBA season with high expectations. Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, and company look like a top-four team. They’ve also been rumored to bring back a familiar name in Carmelo Anthony. Remember the days when Carmelo Anthony was in the race for scoring titles while in Denver?

Of course, that got the gears moving. In the NBA atmosphere, we love comparing eras of basketball and different basketball players that probably shouldn’t be compared. So, we needed to debate who would win in a seven-game series between the current Denver Nuggets team and the Carmelo Anthony Nuggets that reached the Western Conference Finals in 2008-09.

Think back to the 2008-09 season for a minute. The Denver Nuggets traded away Allen Iverson after that failed experiment and they brought in the services of Chauncey Billups to run the offense. Billups, Carmelo Anthony, Nenê, Kenyon Martin, and JR Smith all averaged double-digits in scoring for this squad.

Melo was only 24 years old and was putting up a stat line of 22.8 points, 6.8 rebounds, 3.4 assists, and 1.1 steals per game on 44.3% shooting from the field and 37.1% from three. Interestingly, this was the only season in a stretch of 11 seasons that he didn’t make the All-Star game. During that post-season, however, his stats boosted up to 27.2 points, 5.8 rebounds, 4.1 assists, and 1.8 steals per game.

The team has two surefire Hall of Famers in Anthony and Billups. So, looking at the current team, it does seem like there’s only one player that is surefire Hall of Fame. Nikola Jokic is the one that obviously stands out, but does that necessarily mean the 2008-09 team is better?

Jokic has led the Nuggets in win shares every single season since 2015-16. This past season, Jokic had a historic year, especially for a big man, and grabbed his second MVP trophy in a row. He finished with averages of 27.1 points, 13.8 rebounds, 7.9 assists, and 1.5 steals on 58.3% shooting from the floor.

As a team, on the other hand, health has been a big problem. The second and third options of the team Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. have failed to play more than 50 games in a season at the same time since the 2019-20 season. When they were healthy during that season, the team also reached the Western Conference Finals and coincidentally also lost to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Who do you think has the better team? Let us know in the comments of the video below!