Rankings are all the rage in NBA media these days, and with the regular season still weeks away, ESPN rolled out its rankings of “Big 3s”, or each team’s top three players. They put the Nuggets’ trio of Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, and Aaron Gordon all the way up at number two on the list.
If you’re just judging the aggregate rank of all three players, it makes some sense, as Jokic alone vaults the ranking quite a way. But it’s odd and feels wrong to view these guys as any kind of “big 3”. It’s usually Jokic then everyone else, sometimes Jokic and Murray plus everyone else, but very rarely Jokic, Murray, and Gordon plus everyone else.
The NBA’s “Big 3” era feels over to an extent, as teams have proven it’s more about depth and versatility than a top-heavy roster of superstars. Even still, it feels like there are plenty of teams with a more star-studded top three than the Nuggets. Murray and Gordon have never even made an All-Star, All-Defense, or All-NBA team, and they’re not exactly getting any younger.
Jokic, Murray, and Gordon not a conventional "Big 3"
They are good to very good players, sure, but this whole ranking feels almost disrespectful to Jokic. If anything, it could be argued that Cam Johnson and Christian Braun are creeping up on Gordon’s turf for the right to be called the third-best player on the team.
That may be premature and harsh to AG, but it should underscore the point that this team is about Jokic, Murray to a lesser extent, due to his role, then everyone else. When people think of “Big 3s” in the NBA, they think of Bird, Parish, and McHale, Pierce, Garnett, and Allen, LeBron, Wade, and Bosh, KD, Harden, and Russ, and on and on.
But those players above were all among the best of their generation, and they’ll all have a place in the Hall of Fame when it’s all said and done. That’s not the case at all when it comes to guys like Murray and Gordon, at least not at this point in their respective careers.
Now, if this team goes on a run over the next few years and rattles off a couple more championships with this core, then maybe this becomes a very different discussion. But for now, it feels odd to characterize this crew as a “Big 3”, a star trio, or anything of the like. It’s a testament to Jokic that his team can’t be left off the list, but otherwise, it just feels wrong.