How so? I feel like the nuggets are significantly better then the Hawks, and have room to improve over the years as well.
Arron Afflalo - 26 years old
Corey Brewer 25
Kenneth Faried 22
Rudy Fernandez 26
Danilo Gallinari 23
Ty Lawson 24
not to mention that Andre Miller might be the best back up PG in the league right now, and hasn't shown much decline in terms of performance because of his age.
These are major players in their rotation (Faried aside, but i feel he will grow into one in a few years) and all of them are young and have several years to improve. Especially Lawson who is in his 3rd year i believe, and Gallo who is already arguably their best player.
Their front line is aging with Nene at 29, birdman at 33, and harrington at 31 but they still have kosta koufos at 22 and mozgov at 25 who are getting pretty good minutes already.
Compare that to the Hawks:
Joe Johnson - 30
Josh Smith -26
Horford 25
Marvin Williams - 25
Jeff Teague - 23
Nearly everyone else is 30+ and are on the decline.
George Karl > Larry Drew
If you are trying to say that the Nuggets will be stuck on the treadmill of mediocrity like the Hawks have been, i'm inclined to disagree. I believe they've shown so far this season that they can beat any team in the West in a playoff series right now (Big question mark is OKC however, as they have yet to play them in the regular season). I can't say the same about the Hawks in the East. I'm starting to think that the Nuggets will be at the top of the West for the next 2-3 years, especially if they can improve their front court.