The Nuggets have preached patience all along, and they deserve immense credit for sticking to that philosophy.

The last month must have been full of temptation, but fear not Nuggets fans, President of Basketball Operations Tim Connelly and his front office crew decided to stay fiercely loyal.

Kyrie Irving won’t be headed to Denver. And that’s a good thing.

Irving is electric, and he would have made the Nuggets an exciting team, but man, that price was higher than the average hipster who moved to Colorado in the last five years.

The (former) Cavaliers point guard was moved to the Boston Celtics on Tuesday for a package that included All-Star and Second-Team All-NBA point guard Isaiah Thomas, career 19.1-per-night point-scorer Jae Crowder, highly touted European prospect Ante Zizic and Brooklyn’s 2018 first round pick – which will likely be one of the top three in the NBA Draft.

Got all that?

While Irving’s a better player than Thomas, he’s not that much better. Throw in Crowder, Zizic and the juicy pick and – based on the eye test – the Cavs were the clear winners of the deal.

Even though the ball wasn’t in their court, Cleveland was clearly looking to fleece whomever they did business with and somehow pulled it off.

Meanwhile, the Nuggets could have landed Irving in the past few weeks if they wanted to, but Connelly made the right decision to stay away.

Without any juicy inside info to pass along, it’s likely Cleveland was asking for some combination of Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and Gary Harris.

Thanks, but no thanks.

Jokic has average-a-triple-double type promise.

Murray has a could-be-the-next-Steph-Curry type ceiling.

And Harris could make an All- NBA Defensive team… as soon as this year.

For as tantalizing it may have been to pair Irving with the newly signed Paul Millsap and one of the three gentlemen listed above, it ultimately wasn’t worth the asking price.

Media and fans, both locally and nationally, like the direction this Nuggets team is going. Taking an unnecessary detour could have killed a trip to the ultimate destination.

It’s no secret Denver has underachieved since George Karl was let go, but after surviving the disastrous Brian Shaw era, the train’s back on the track and steaming toward the promised land.

The team won 40 games last season for the first time since 2012-13. Most people expect that number to be closer to 45 this season, with a trip to the playoffs for the first time in five years the goal.

But here’s the best part: That 45 this season will be expected to be 50 the next. And 55 after that, and maybe even 60 in 2021-22 when this team could peak with a core of Jokic, Murray and Harris.

The Warriors are going to dissolve at some point. The Rockets and Spurs are will get old in a hurry. The Thunder won’t be together much longer. The Clippers, Grizzlies, Trail Blazers and Mavericks look like their best days are behind them. And Utah and Phoenix don’t have nearly the young core Denver does.

The Western Conference is there for the taking in the next three to four years for the Nuggets, with Minnesota and the Los Angeles Lakers right there as well.

That made be hard for Nuggets fans to stomach here in August of 2017 – but that’s what the NBA has become. Only two or three teams have a legitimate chance to win the championship each year. So, while Denver will creep closer to that bunch the next few seasons, staying on this track means they could be in that group come the turn of the decade.

Irving would have amounted to a two-year rental that could lead the Nuggets to a playoff series win, maybe two. But he wasn’t going to take them to an NBA Finals.

Those other three guys, if everything comes together, absolutely can. It’s a big ‘if,’ but it’s an ‘if’ – and that’s what every NBA fan desires for their team right now.

The Nuggets have preached patience all along.

Tuesday night – when they let someone else trade for Irving – showed they deserve credit for sticking to their philosophy.