This story is part of ESPN The Magazines Oct. 31 NBA Preview Issue. Subscribe today!Denver NuggetsOverall: 101 Title track: 116 Ownership: 95 Coaching: 85 Players: 94 Fan relations: 104 Affordability: 66 Stadium experience: 89 Bang for the buck: 87 Change from last year: +18In 2013, George Karl was let go by the Nuggets after 57 wins and an NBA Coach of the Year award. Denver has not won more than 36 games in the three seasons since. Gone are Ty Lawson and Andre Iguodala, staples under Karl. Long gone is Carmelo Anthony, who was traded during the 2010-11 campaign after six first-round playoff exits in seven full seasons in the Mile High City. Man, even the first round sounds pretty good right about now, doesnt it?Whats goodWhich Nuggets player would you pay to see? Sure, Emmanuel Mudiay, a former seventh overall pick, has promise. Kenneth Faried is fun. And theres new lottery pick Jamal Murray. But that trio isnt filling seats. No one is packing the house to see Nikola Jokic or Danilo Gallinari (sorry, fellas) like they did to see Melo. But to its credit, Denver has adjusted, keeping its costs low to get fans in seats. That was reflected in a 19-spot improvement in affordability. An average ticket to the Pepsi Center is slightly below NBA average, and the average cost per game is only $60.32 (less than half what it takes just to get in the building in New York).Whats badPut it this way: There are only six teams below the Nuggets in title track (116th), and two of them are the Cleveland Browns and Detroit Lions. Even the Brooklyn Nets, whose next first-round pick comes at the end of the decade, are two spots ahead of Denver. Sadly for Coloradans, that makes sense. Since cutting ties with Karl, the Nuggets have hired and fired Brian Shaw and replaced him with Mike Malone. They have yet to identify their next franchise cornerstone. Mudiay landed on the All-Rookie second team but wasnt a knockout, and the teams leading scorer was Gallinari, who has played a combined 112 games the past three seasons. As a result, the Nuggets have landed squarely in the NBAs Siberia: not good enough to contend ... and not bad enough to win the lottery.Whats newCoaching (at No. 85) and players (at 94) improved 22 and 25 spots, respectively. Although its true the Nuggets arent on a title track, as we say in these rankings, they have made some positive changes. Malone is a veteran NBA coach who is defense-first and looks to instill a more functional environment than Shaw, who underperformed relative to expectations that he would be the NBAs next hot coach. Alongside Mudiay, the Nuggets have added Murray, the lottery pick out of Kentucky who declared himself the best player in the draft prior to his being selected. The good news for Denver fans? 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BATON ROUGE - Junior All-SEC striker Jorian Baucom converted two penalty kicks on either side of halftime and junior midfielder Zoe Higgins put the match out of reach with her first career goal late in the second half to lead the LSU Tigers to a 3-0 shutout of Ole Miss in their SEC home opener Friday night at the LSU Soccer Stadium.Baucom made it a perfect 4-for-4 from the penalty spot this season and finished the match with a team-leading six goals for the fall with conversions in the 30th and 70th minutes of play, while Higgins secured the points for the hosts with her first goal as an LSU Tiger when she headed home Marlena Cuturas corner kick in the 77th minute of the second half.The Tigers (5-4, 1-1 SEC) snapped a three game losing streak to the Rebels (4-5, 0-2) with their first win in the series since 2012 while taking a 10-9-4 advantage in 23 matches played between the two sides.Fridays win marked a return to winning ways for the Tigers as they picked up their fourth win in their last five outings in all competitions dating back to another 3-0 win at Indiana back on Sept. 2. They entered SEC play on the back of three-straight non-conference wins, including a 2-1 win at reigning Big East Champion Butler on Sept. 4 and a 1-0 win at Western Kentucky on Sept. 8.As weve been building early in the season, weve been confident that we have a good team. Weve just needed to find the right mix of players, get into the flow of the season and get a little familiar with each other. Weve had maybe five new kids in the lineup at any given time, said LSU head coach Brian Lee. Were starting to gel a little bit. I think tonight is the best weve competed and the best weve played.The home side seized the initiative at the half-hour mark when Baucom drew a penalty with an incisive cutback in the right side of the area where she was hauled down by freshman defender Madison Meador for the Rebels. Baucom sent goalkeeper the wrong way on the ensuing spot kick and finished calmly to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead.Melissa Capocaccia was the victim of a lovely bit of individual skill from senior Summer Clarke midway through the second half as LSUs All-SEC striker skipped past the Rebel defender near the end-line before dropping to the turf under an awkward challenge in the left side of the area. Baucom was true from the spot for the second time as sshe again got the best of Merritt for her sixth goal of the season in the 77th minute.ddddddddddddBaucoms strike rate is impressive as she has now found the net six times in nine appearances this season. She remains LSUs active career scoring leader with 29 goals scored in 51 career appearances as a Tiger.Every time I step up to take a PK, I have a certain routine I like to do. I just pick a spot and try to place it as best I can. Theres not any certain way I like to go, Baucom explained. We definitely had something to prove tonight coming back for our SEC home opener. We just came in with a mindset that we had to be aggressive, get into every tackle, win headers, get stuck into tackles.The win means everything. I think we just need to take this momentum into Sunday, and just start thinking of it one game at a time. If we stay consistent with the way we played tonight, we can get a lot of wins.The match was beyond the Rebels reach in the 77th minute when freshman Jade Clarke won LSUs fourth and final corner kick of the night with her run down the left flank. Cutura picked out Higgins near the top of the six-yard box for a thumping header into the back of the net for her first goal of the season and a commanding 3-0 lead.It was exciting, I finally got one, Higgins said of scoring her first goal for the Tigers. Marlena does a great job of putting those corner kicks right in the danger zone. We feel like all we have to do is step out and get our head on it, and its probably going in. Thats all I really had to do. We came out strong and just put the game away like we hoped to in the second half. Its SEC play, so we know we have to buckle down.Redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Caroline Brockmeier was steady once again in defense as she saved all four shots on target she faced from the Rebels in the 90 minutes for her fourth clean sheet of the season.The Tigers return to non-conference play on Sunday afternoon when they welcome Lamar to the LSU Soccer Stadium for a match that is set to kick off at 1 p.m. CT on the SEC Network+. 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