What is your opinion on Jamal Murray, who plays for the Denver Nuggets?

Living proof that All-Stars don’t mean a thing when it comes to the playoffs. All-Stars are a reflection of regular season performance + popularity with fans. It does not indicate who is better in the playoffs.

Let me give you an example.. here’s Lebron’s teammates Wade and Bosh in the 2013 playoffs, who everyone considers a ‘superteam’.

Wade (2013 playoffs): 15.9 PPG / 4.6 RPG / 4.8 APG

Bosh (2013 playoffs): 12.1 PPG / 7.3 RPG / 1.5 APG

So these two were All-Stars that season, keep that in mind. (and no to Bron haters who want to comment that Bron makes his teammates worse hence the numbers, go check up 2011/2012 Wade/Bosh it’s obvious they were declining but still getting all-star selections).

Now let’s look at some players who were not all-stars that season and their playoff numbers

Joe Dumars (1989 playoffs, Finals MVP): 17.6 PPG / 2.6 RPG / 5.6 APG

Scottie Pippen (1991 playoffs): 21.6 PPG / 8.9 RPG / 5.8 APG

Clyde Drexler (1995 playoffs): 20.5 PPG / 7.0 RPG / 5.0 APG

Rip Hamilton (2004 playoffs): 21.5 PPG / 4.6 RPG / 4.2 APG

Lamar Odom (2006 playoffs, never an all-star): 19.1 PPG / 11.0 RPG / 4.9 APG

Pau Gasol (2008 playoffs): 16.9 PPG / 9.3 RPG / 4.0 APG

Kyrie Irving (2016 playoffs): 25.2 PPG / 3.0 RPG / 4.7 APG

Khris Middleton (2021 playoffs): 23.6 PPG / 7.6 RPG / 5.1 APG

and now Jamal Murray (2023 playoffs, never an all-star): 27.6 PPG / 5.5 RPG / 6.4 APG

^ None of these guys were all-stars in those years. So just remember that, when casuals bring up ‘player A had no help because these guys weren’t all stars’, or ‘player B had a superteam because so and so were all-stars’ it means nothing. Look at their actual numbers and production in the playoffs.

I know 10 years in the future some casual is going to say Giannis didn’t have all-star help in 2021 or Jokic didn’t have all-star help in 2023, point them to the actual numbers. Nobody in their right mind would look at Middleton and Murray’s numbers and think those aren’t all-star level guys.

Murray might be the best player never to be an all-star. Previously this subjective title was held by Lamar Odom and Michael Cooper, but now I think it has to go to Murray.