Ultimate 5: The best Nuggets lineup since '95

While hoops remain on hiatus, theScore's NBA editors will be compiling the ultimate starting lineups for each team in the Association. The catch: Only players who have been in the league since the 1995-96 season can be included.

The Denver Nuggets have been a mixed bag over the past 25 years. From 1996-2003, the team failed to crack .500 or make the postseason. Then, starting with Carmelo Anthony's rookie campaign in 2003-04, the organization made 10 straight playoff appearances - but fell in the first round in all but one postseason.

After another five-year drought from 2013-18, the Nuggets returned to the playoffs last spring with a new-look roster leading the charge.

It's not the most impressive five-man unit ever conceived, but there's still some top-level talent.

Guard

Chauncey Billups

Billups' prime is bookended by stints with the Nuggets, totaling 259 games, a pair of All-Star appearances, and an All-NBA third-team selection. Overall, he averaged 16.9 points and 5.3 assists with Denver.

While his time with the team was relatively short, Billups played a significant role on the most successful Nuggets club of the past 25 years. After acquiring "Mr. Big Shot" from the Detroit Pistons in exchange for Allen Iverson mere days into the 2008-09 season, Denver won 54 games and advanced to the conference finals.

Guard

Andre Miller

Miller had two stints with the Nuggets - from 2003-2006 and from 2011-2014 - for a total of 447 regular-season games, his longest tenure with any of the nine teams he played for.

All told, "The Professor" averaged 12 points, 6.7 assists, 3.8 rebounds, and 1.2 steals per contest while making five postseason trips with Denver. Not terribly sexy, but effective.

Forward

Carmelo Anthony

Though he moved on from the franchise during his age-26 season, Anthony remains the team's top player of the past 25 years. The No. 3 overall selection in the star-studded 2003 draft made four All-Star appearances and four All-NBA teams (one second-team and three third-team selections) and led Denver to its lone deep playoff run in recent memory before his midseason swap to the New York Knicks in 2011.

In retrospect, "Melo" probably should have played more at the four early in his career, where his shooting range and athleticism would have given old-school power forwards fits. Still, the high-scoring forward put up 24.8 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 3.1 assists per night in a Nuggets uniform.

Forward

Nikola Jokic

Jokic will soon surpass Anthony statistically. He's only 5.5 career win shares behind the former Nuggets great - roughly a half-season of work by his recent standard.

There's simply no one like the sweet-passing, doughy-looking Serbian center. In 373 games, Jokic has averaged 16.9 points, 9.7 rebounds, 5.4 assists, 1.1 steals, and at least one "I can't believe he actually made that" pass in just 29 minutes per game.

Barring injury, Jokic should add to his two All-Star appearances and lone All-NBA first-team selection for years to come.

Center

Marcus Camby

While with the Nuggets from 2002-08, Camby averaged just over a double-double, led the league in blocks three times, and won Defensive Player of the Year honors in 2006-07.

His inclusion in Denver's top five forces Jokic to a forward spot - the sort of lineup that wouldn't have looked out of place in 2005 but looks prehistoric by today's standard. "The Joker" has almost played center exclusively this season, but spent about a fifth of his playing time at power forward over his previous three campaigns, according to Cleaning the Glass. That's all the cover we need to get both Jokic and Camby on this list.

Just Missed

Antonio McDyess

McDyess played six of his first seven sevens with the Nuggets, averaging 18.2 points, nine rebounds, and 1.7 blocks per contest. He made an All-NBA third team in the lockout-shortened 1999 season and an All-Star appearance in 2001. "Dice" was the real deal before a ruptured patellar tendon radically altered his career.

Jamal Murray

Murray has already surpassed Billups in total games with the Nuggets. If he continues to score 18-plus points per game, he'll easily nudge either Billups or Miller out of the top five.

Ty Lawson

Lawson had a solid run with the team from 2009-15, putting up about 16 points and 6.5 assists per game. In his first two seasons as a full-time starter, the team went 95-53; in his final two campaigns with the Nuggets, they slumped to 66-98.

Nene

The Brazilian big man played 555 games across 10 seasons with Denver, which ranks only second to Anthony on this list. Good for him, but Nene is not cracking an already-cramped frontcourt.