Denver Nuggets’ starting point-guard Jamal Murray won the 2023 NBA championship as part of the dynamic duo with his teammate and two-time NBA MVP award winner, Nikola Jokic. According to NBA writer Mark Medina, the 26-year-old is an early candidate to earn his first All-Star honors in 2024.
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Everett Williams of Sports Illustrated argues that the Denver Nuggets have the top ‘big trio’ going into the 2023-24 season with Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon, ahead of the trio of the Phoenix Suns with Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal, and Los Angeles Clippers with Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and Russell Westbrook, respectively.
After playing over 2000 possessions together last season, they have a points-per-possession rating that equates to being in the 83rd percentile in the league, as well as a field goal percentage rating in the 86thpercentile, and defensive rating total in the 70th percentile, per cleaningtheglass.com.
Sky Sports’ Maryam Naz believes the Nuggets could easily become the next NBA dynasty due to their relatively young roster, combined with the exuberant experience of head coach, Mike Malone.
Despite losing key role players of their championship run during free-agency in Bruce Brown and Jeff Green, they picked up Justin Holiday to add some much-needed wing depth and veteran experience in the locker room, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
With Jokic only 28 years old and Murray only 26 years old, they are really only entering their respective primes.
As a result, there is no reason why the Denver Nuggets can’t cement themselves as genuine title contenders every year for many seasons to come.
Early candidates for making a 2024 All-Star appearance
Medina believes that Jamal Murray - who is working through a $158m, five-year contract with the Nuggets - should receive his first career All-Star honors next season after a championship-winning season in which he was limited on the court due to a previous injury.
When asked to make early predictions for All-Star honors next season, Medina told GIVEMESPORT: “Yeah, I got two of them. I got Jamal Murray. I got Jalen Brunson.”
“Jamal Murray, who won an NBA championship with the Denver Nuggets, he showed that he is one of the best point guards in the NBA, and really the only thing holding him back was some of his injuries. Once he came back, he had a little bit of a limited workload to make sure that he wasn't getting hurt again.”
“I remember talking to Calvin Booth, the Nuggets general manager, before last season started that he thought that Jamal Murray could become an all-star last season. It was probably a little ambitious because last season was a little bit of a transition season for him with his workload being limited gradually, but I fully expect that he will build off of the championship run.”
How did Jamal Murray perform last season?
Murray was an integral piece of a Nuggets team that made history and brought the city of Denver their first ever NBA championship alongside teammate, Nikola Jokic.
After suffering a torn ACL in April 2021, he returned to action in October 2022 going on to play 65 regular season games for the Nuggets, per Sporting News.
As per Statmuse, Murray well and truly bounced back from his injury, averaging 20.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and a career-high 6.2 assists. He shot 45.4% from the field and 39.8% from the three-point, just shy of his career best of 40.8% the season prior.
In the 2023 playoffs, though, is where the Kentucky alum looked back almost close to his best.
On his run to his first NBA championship, he posted 26.1 points, 5.7 rebounds and 7.1 assists on 47.3% shooting from the field and 39.6% from beyond the line.
If Jamal Murray can somewhat emulate last season’s numbers, or take an even further leap in his development, there is no doubt that he can become an NBA All-Star for the very first time, and he is nothing short but deserving of those honors.