Strike 1: Another NBA All-Star “game” has come and gone, and for the seventh time in a row, only future Hall of Famer Nikola Jokic was in the “contest” representing the Denver Nuggets. It’s become a familiar sight.

The west leading Oklahoma City Thunder had two All-Stars, but pretty much all the other teams that are in the playoff mix with the Nuggets this season also had just a single rep in San Francisco on Sunday night.

The 2010 NBA All-Star game was the last time Denver had more than one representative when both Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups were chosen. Since then, only Anthony and Jokic have been selected. Then there was 1976, when the entire first place Denver Nuggets team faced the rest of the American Basketball Association standouts in an “All-Star” game.

Much more recently, Nuggets fans could rightfully complain about guys like Jamal Murray and even Aaron Gordon being overlooked. There have been seasons, like the COVID shortened 2020-21 campaign, when Murray had an All-Star worthy first half of the year. He was coming off that sensational playoff performance in the bubble and after a shortest NBA offseason ever, he kept it right on rolling. Still, he was bypassed.

Same with AG. He was arguably Denver’s second best player last year, and coming off an NBA title, you might have thought more than a single Nuggets player would get recognized. Didn’t happen.

This season, while the Nuggets have gotten very important contributions from a number of players, there hasn’t been any other single individual player who would have been worthy of even being an injury replacement in 2025. The fact that Denver is once again near the top of the NBA’s Western Conference standings and in the thick of the playoff race is still due in extra-large part to the Joker of course.

That’s what makes him MVP worthy once again. But that’s for another discussion.

The question coming out of this All-Star break is simply, who will be the Denver Nuggets next All-Star either with or after Joker? Will the three-time MVP ever play alongside another All-Star? Thus far in his brilliant career, he hasn’t.

Murray, who’s been terrific as of late, would be an obvious choice, assuming he can get enough rest and rehab during a non-Olympic offseason. That might allow him to get off to and maintain a fast start, something that he hasn’t been able to make happen the last couple of years. Safe to say a lot of things have to go right for Denver’s second highest paid player to earn a future All-Star designation.

Denver’s third max contract player, Michael Porter Jr. might be a better bet. MPJ – who many of us have pushed for Denver to trade at one point or another – may be coming into his own. He was smoking hot prior to skipping the final two games of the first half of the season. If he comes out post-All-Star break and continues to play the way he did when we last saw him, then MPJ can most definitely become a future All-Star.

Gordon could do it as well, if he stays healthy and productive for the first half of a season at some point very soon. But the hourglass isn’t in his favor in that regard.

What about this year’s Nuggets Rising Stars rep, Julian Strawther? Is he a future All-Star? It’s TBD on that one. Same with Christian Braun. Someday, perhaps.

Or maybe we just have to resign ourselves to the idea that it’s going to be Joker and a cast of non-stars for the rest of the big man’s time in Denver? Maybe the next Denver Nugget All-Star isn’t even a Denver Nugget yet. If the Nuggets win another title at some point during Joker’s Nuggets career, it won’t really matter.