When the Denver Nuggets won their first-ever championship in franchise history on the backs of Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray , it seemed that the league had found a new dynamic duo that would dominate for years to come.
During that playoff run in the 2022-23 season, Murray showed that his phenomenal performance in the Orlando bubble wasn't a fluke as he proved that he is truly one of the best players in the world.
It was unbelievable that a player of his caliber still hadn't made an All-Star zeam.
Vlatko Cancar , now a former Murray's teammate from those championship days, spoke about the main reason why we still haven't seen the Canadian guard at ASG on the X's and O's Chat podcast.
"Murray, who is a top player, just isn't consistent enough to be an All-Star," said Cancar. "We were finishing first before the All-Star break, and there's always just one of us on the team, never two or three. One year [Aaron] Gordon barely missed out and it went to Jaren Jackson Jr. instead," Cancar concluded.
Although the All-Star game has long lost much of its old shine, being selected is still seen as recognition for an outstanding regular season. When it comes to Jamal, although he's had a few great regular seasons, it has to be admitted that he has still been far from All-Star level.
Known as a dynamic scorer, his career high in points per game came just last season when he averaged 21.4 points, well below the averages of the elite guards who have dominated the Western Conference in recent years.
Stephen Curry , Luka Doncic , Russell Westbrook , James Harden , Chris Paul , Damian Lillard , Kyrie Irving , Ja Morant , Devin Booker and Anthony Edwards , among others, are just some of the guards who had better seasons than Murray's best year.
It's true that competition in the East has been somewhat lighter, while the West was absolutely stacked, especially at the guard position. Still, it wouldn't have been undeserved if Jamal had at least once received that recognition, especially after successfully returning from a torn ACL and leading the Nuggets back to the top of their conference.
Of course, with someone like Jokic on the same team, it's difficult for Murray to take the leading role, while on a weaker team, he'd likely have more impressive numbers.
At the end of the day, we're talking about a player who, during the 2023 championship run, achieved the following:
He became the first player in the history of the league to average 30.0 points on 50/40/90 shooting splits in the Conference finals. He and Jokic became only the second pair of teammates to each record at least 25 points and 10 assists in an NBA Finals game. They also became the first teammates, regular season or playoffs, to record a 30-point triple-double in the same game.
Murray also became the first player to record at least 10 assists in each of his first four Finals games, joining Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan and LeBron James as the only players to average at least 20 points and 10 assists per game in an NBA Finals series.
Although Jokic was the unquestioned Finals MVP, Murray finished that entire playoff run averaging 26.1 points, 7.1 assists, 5.7 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game on 47.3 percent from the field.
According to NBA.com , alongside Jokic and Jalen Brunson , he holds the record for the highest increase in scoring from the regular season to the playoffs, improving by 5.7 points.
Still, when it comes to the regular season, Cancar's words hold true as Murray has never been truly dominant and frequent small injuries have slowed him down.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Oct 7, 2025, where it first appeared in the Latest News section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
