DENVER — Jamal Murray’s All-NBA selection to the Third Team this morning serves as a bittersweet validation of his individual brilliance during a season that ended in freezing disappointment.
Jamal Murray’s All-NBA Selection Should Remind Nuggets Faithful About 1 Cold Championship Fact
While the Mile High City is still grappling with a stunning first-round exit at the hands of a short-handed Minnesota Timberwolves squad, this honor provides a cold, hard fact: Denver still possesses a championship-caliber core, even if the postseason results didn’t mirror the regular-season hardware. Murray’s first-ever All-NBA nod confirms that he has reached the tier of stardom that ensures Nuggets’ championship window is far from closed, provided the organization learns the right lessons from a spring that went cold too early.
The 2025-26 season was a historic 75-game statement for Jamal Murray, who set career highs across the board with 25.4 points, 7.1 assists, and 4.4 rebounds. Perhaps more significantly, he joined the league’s elite efficiency club by shooting a career-best 48.3% from the field and 43.5% from deep. For the first time in his nine-year career, the “Blue Arrow” stayed locked in from October to April, proving he could sustain his legendary “Playoff Murray” gear over the grind of a full season, even if that gear uncharacteristically stalled during the six-game battle against a relentless Minnesota unit missing Anthony Edwards and Donte DiVincenzo.
The Joker’s Greatest Partner Gets His Due
While Nikola Jokic secured another First Team selection, Jamal Murray’s All-NBA selection marks the first time the Nuggets’ championship duo has been honored on the same end-of-season ballot. This wasn’t a “legacy” vote or a “coattail” selection; it was a direct acknowledgment of Murray’s role as the primary engine during the most vulnerable stretch of the Nuggets’ season. When Nikola Jokic missed 16 games mid-season due to a knee injury, Murray elevated his game to 27.7 points and 8.6 assists, leading Denver to a 10-6 record during that span and keeping them firmly in the hunt for a top-three seed.
Jamal Murray also finished the season ranked fifth in the NBA in total three-pointers made (245) and seventh in three-point percentage. For the Nuggets, having two All-NBA pillars in their prime is a luxury few teams in history have enjoyed, and it is the primary reason why any talk of a “mini-rebuild” in Denver is premature. The narrative following the Game 6 loss in Minneapolis focused on the uncharacteristic shooting slumps, but the fact remains that Denver didn’t lose because their window had slammed shut; they lost a high-variance series while their second star was working through a rare, ill-timed fatigue.
Final Verdict: The Redemption Path Starts Today
Ultimately, Jamal Murray’s All-NBA selection is about justice for a player who has already proven he can be the second-best player on a championship contender. By finishing the 2025-26 season with the best shooting efficiency of his life and carrying the load when his MVP teammate went down, Jamal Murray didn’t just earn a spot on the Third Team, he earned the right to be the catalyst for Denver’s redemption story next season. The Nuggets’ championship window remains wide open, and as long as they have two All-NBA stars leading the way, the rest of the league would be wise not to count them out.
Credit:© Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images
