How many guards can replace J.Murray and Denver are still the same quality contenders?

[TheNG]

Jamal Murray has never been an all-star. Yet some people claim he is "all nba" due to his Playoffs ability. Some people say he isn't.

How many guards can replace Jamal Murray and Denver are still the same quality contenders? Meaning, they will have an equal or better chances to win the ring as with Murray?

List all the guards you think that can match this description (the position should be determined the same way it is determined for the All Star game. See below)

Short lists of possible names in no particular order (I just picked the top names from the full All Star lists and removed Jordan Poole and Westbrook ):

Doncic
SGA
Curry
Hailburton
Lillard
Brunson
Ant
Kyrie
Harden
Young
Mitchell
Maxey
Fox
Booker
Morant
Derrick White
Holiday
Giddey
Bane
LaMelo
DeRozan
VanVleet
Conley
Klay
Beal
Herro
Cunningham
Cam Thomas
Garland
Lavine
Clarkson
J.Green
Coby White
D.Murray
A.Simons
McCollum




Full lists:
West:
https://ak-static.cms.nba.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/46/2024/01/2024-Western-Conference-Starters-Guard-Voting-Results.pdf

East:
https://ak-static.cms.nba.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/46/2024/01/2024-Eastern-Conference-Starters-Guard-Voting-Results.pdf

[Kobe187]

8-10. Murray is great.

[JDR720]

Luka
SGA
Curry
Lillard
Ant
Kyrie
Fox
Booker
Morant

[EmpireFalls]

10 or so. Guard depth in the 2020s is really nice.

[zero rings]

Doncic
SGA
Curry
Hailburton
Lillard
Brunson
Ant
Kyrie
Harden
Young
Mitchell
Maxey
Fox
Booker
Morant
Derrick White
Holiday
Giddey
Bane
LaMelo
DeRozan
VanVleet
Conley
Klay
Beal
Herro
Cunningham
Cam Thomas
Garland
Lavine
Clarkson
J.Green
Coby White
D.Murray
A.Simons
McCollum

I'd feel pretty good about all the guys in bold. So 16 guys.

[Peregrine01]

On offense, Murray is a great off-the-dribble shooter but he's not a guard that gets to the rim at will. He has questionable shot selection at times but damn does he have the cajones to keep shooting. He runs the pick and roll well but the caveat is that he plays with the best pick and roll big man to ever play. So in a vacuum, I feel like a lot of guards can do what he does on offense or better. But with the Nuggets, you don't need a great playmaker or someone that can single-handedly put pressure on the defense because you already have the best guy in the league at doing that.

It's on defense where I feel the list narrows a lot. Murray is a big guard and doesn't get bullied around easily by bigger players. So the Nuggets have a lot of versatility on defense by switching him on bigger guys and not having to send their defense into rotation. You can't say the same for guards like Dame or Steph.

You put it all together and I think there's probably less than 10 guys that could replace him and make the Nuggets better. Of them, I would have:

Luka
SGA
Curry
Haliburton
Kyrie
Booker
Maxey

Maybes:

Ant
Mitchell
Fox

[EmpireFalls]

The thing with Denver is they truly are a starting 5.

One of my least favorite NBA gimmicks is how everyone breaks things down into “the top 2 guys”. Like no, AG has been a monster, so has Porter, KCP is a great defender and spaces the floor really well. They need all 5 of them for it to work.

[TheNG]

The thing with Denver is they truly are a starting 5.

One of my least favorite NBA gimmicks is how everyone breaks things down into “the top 2 guys”. Like no, AG has been a monster, so has Porter, KCP is a great defender and spaces the floor really well. They need all 5 of them for it to work.

It just something that almost never happened in history, for a team without a great 2nd player to win the championship. All teams in history had at least 2 players in their lineups that were previously selected to the All-Star.

[Peregrine01]

The thing with Denver is they truly are a starting 5.

One of my least favorite NBA gimmicks is how everyone breaks things down into “the top 2 guys”. Like no, AG has been a monster, so has Porter, KCP is a great defender and spaces the floor really well. They need all 5 of them for it to work.

It just something that almost never happened in history, for a team without a great 2nd player to win the championship. All teams in history had at least 2 players in their lineups that were previously selected to the All-Star.

I think we're way too fixated on individual talent. It's about how well that talent meshes. It also helps that Denver has a guy who makes his teammates better in a way like no other player ever has.

[AleksandarN]

Not many.

[Manimal]

There are a number of guards better individually than Murray, but I'm not sure how many of those would have the personality and willingness to buy into the team concept Denver has that makes them so great.

[Peregrine01]

There are a number of guards better individually than Murray, but I'm not sure how many of those would have the personality and willingness to buy into the team concept Denver has that makes them so great.

People talk about Heat Culture but Nuggets Culture is as big of a thing. When you have Jokic (a guy who can literally get whatever numbers he wants) who plays for others the way that he does, how is it possible for anyone else on the team to not do the same?

I loved what he said last year in the playoffs in response to what he's playing for - it was something to the effect of "I'm playing for Jamal and Jamal's playing for Michael and Michael's playing for AG, etc. etc."

[Sgt Major]

Depends on if they would be willing to adapt their game to Nuggets ball.

[NZB2323]

Doncic
SGA
Curry
Brunson
Mitchell
Fox
Booker

Young is terrible defensively. Haliburton was great the first month of the season. Morant is injured. Ant wants the ball in his hands and doesn’t have the same off-ball threat/chemistry with Jokic. Harden isn’t great off ball, is past his prime, and might not show up for a big game. Dame seems past his prime and terrible defensively. Kyrie is a wildcard. Maxey I’m not sure.

Also, do these guys get a training camp with Jokic and years to develop chemistry with him or are they just swapped out right now?

Murray benefits from playing with Jokic, but we should also give credit for developing chemistry with him.

[LaLover11]

How about Lakers simply swap Murray & DLo

Lakers would win the series 100%

[Riko]

The disrespect for J. Murray has not limit. The only one who can take the same load offensively and defensively is SGA, Edward is good but let see him winning first... Fox is lesser version of murray, morant has not his mid range quality and all the other one are huge defensive liability.

[Asianiac_24]

Given that the guard have years to mesh with Jokic and the rest of the team:

Curry
SGA
Luka
Harden
Brunson
Booker
Mitchell
Fox
Haliburton
Kyrie
Maxey
Ant
Morant

[Deshaun Taden]

Guard is loaded. People that voted 0-2 are crazy.

It's at least 9-11 where it's not even controversial.

Who are these people that legit don't think ANT, Curry, Luka are outright improvements? Let's be rational please. Even if you don't like these guys you have to admit they are great. There's at least several more that you shouldn't have a real argument for, but whatever, I'll even give all the rest up, I just can't fathom how anyone can make a good faith argument that those 3 at the least aren't at minimum the same quality. Steph Curry the GOAT shooter, Luka an MVP contender, and ANT a 2-way player at the age of 20 that is in the top 3 polled by GMs as who you would pick first to start a franchise (Joker was one of the other 3, getting two of the top 3 is pretty much unfair). lol 0-2 come on.

[Hoop Hunter]

People still underestimating how good Jokic is. He makes everyone better.

[nomansland]

There's maybe 3 or 4. Sure there are more physically talented guards out there but very few have the killer mentality that Murray has when it comes to the playoffs. Chemistry with Jokic and the rest of the team is also incredibly important. It's taken 7 years to get to this point and you're not going to just plug some other talented guard in and get the same results.