The Denver Nuggets are an American professional basketball team based in Denver, Colorado. The Nuggets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member club of the league's Western Conference Northwest Division. The team was founded as the Denver Larks in 1967 as a charter franchise of the American Basketball Association (ABA), but changed its name to Rockets before the first season. [1] It changed its name again to the Nuggets in 1974. [2] The team joined the NBA in 1976 after the ABA–NBA merger. They first participated in the NBA draft in 1977.