Jamal Murray has created a legacy of stepping up in the playoffs in a way that far exceeds his regular season level of play. That, in no way, diminishes the quality he's provided over the course of an 82-game schedule, but instead highlights how the Denver Nuggets star raises his game when the lights are shining brightest.
2025-26 has been the proverbial bridging of the gap, with Murray reaching postseason levels in the regular season. The question is: Is that actually a good thing?
Between 2022-23 and 2024-25, Murray recorded averages of 20.9 points, 6.2 assists, 4.0 rebounds, 1.1 steals, and 2.5 three-point field goals made per regular season game on .470/.404/.859 shooting. He did a remarkable job of blending volume and efficiency.
Murray has averaged upward of 26.0 points per game twice during the playoffs, however, with Denver reaching the 2020 Western Conference Finals and winning a title in 2023 during that time.
Murray has found a superstar-level middle ground in 2025-26. With every starter battling injuries at some point in time, he's averaged 25.7 points, 7.3 assists, 4.4 rebounds, 1.0 steal, and 3.2 three-point field goals made on .484/.429/.879 shooting.
One simply can't help but wonder if Murray looking like the postseason version of himself in the regular season promises greatness in the playoffs or if it will mean emptying the tank before the definitive games arrive.
Playoff Jamal Murray arrived early. What does that mean for the actual playoffs?
Murray has been criminally underrated during his career, which was reflected by the fact that he'd never been an All-Star. The drought ended in 2025-26, however, as the NBA champion received the flowers that Denver fans knew he should've already been given.
For as undervalued as Murray was, there may be something to the theory that playing at a level just slightly below the ranks of the top players permitted him to conserve more energy for the playoffs.
Murray averaged 32.3 minutes per game during the 2019-20 regular season before leaping to 39.6 during the Nuggets' run to the Conference Finals. He then played 32.8 minutes per game during the 2022-23 regular season before averaging 40.0 during Denver's championship journey in the playoffs.
By comparison, Murray played 36.2 minutes per game during the 2024-25 regular season and 40.2 during the playoffs—and averaged 21.8 points per game in the postseason compared to 26.5 in 2020 and 26.1 in 2023.
Perhaps there's much ado about nothing, especially when statistics only tell a part of the story. What the numbers seem to reveal, however, is something of a correlation between increased playing time and responsibility in the regular season, and a potential inability to reach those levels in the playoffs.
Optimism remains, however, that Murray's 2025-26 leap isn't just the beginning of a string of All-Star nods—but the beginning of a sustained display of playoff brilliance.