2021 All-Star reserves announced, Jamal Murray not among them

According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, the reserves for the 2021 NBA All-Star game on March 7th have been revealed.

In the Western Conference, guards Damian Lillard, Donovan Mitchell, and Chris Paul were selected. All three play for teams in the top five seeds in the current West standings and have driven their teams to successful years. Frontcourt players Paul George, Rudy Gobert, and Anthony Davis are also featured within the top three seeds in the West and have been exceptional. The only two players to be voted in from the outside looking in on the West playoff picture were Luka Doncić (voted as a starter) and Zion Williamson, who has been incredibly productive in his own right on a decent New Orleans Pelicans roster.

In the Eastern Conference, guards James Harden, Jaylen Brown, Zach LaVine, and Ben Simmons were credited with reserve spots. Harden is a mainstay, while all three of Brown, LaVine, and Simmons are young players entering the primes of their career and have put up incredible numbers for the Boston Celtics, Chicago Bulls, and Philadelphia 76ers respectively. The frontcourt players voted in were Jayson Tatum, Julius Randle, and Nikola Vucevic. Tatum is becoming a mainstay in the All-Star picture on a Celtics team struggling around him and Brown, while Randle and Vucevic have been great on middling squads so far.

With regard to the Nuggets, Nikola Jokić was already voted in as a starter. The only player with a justifiable case for the All-Star game after an incredible stretch recently was Jamal Murray; however, those games may have been too late for voters to properly calibrate how impactful Murray has been for the Nuggets this season. The Nuggets guard (who just turned 24 today) is currently averaging 20.9 points, 4.4 assists, and 4.4 rebounds while shooting 47.7% from the field and 38.3% from three-point range. Had the Nuggets won more games, there might have been a better case for Murray’s inclusion.

What do you think, Nuggets fans? Did the coaches get it right?