For the first time in seven years, a Nugget not named Nikola Jokic has been crowned Player of the Week in the Western Conference.
Back in those prehistoric times, Paul Millsap earned the weekly honor once. Now, the NBA has anointed Jokic’s longtime running mate, point guard Jamal Murray, for his efforts in the first week of December 2025.
The accolade doesn’t mean much in a vacuum. But symbolically, to be saluted by the league is the latest validation of Murray’s outstanding start to the season. He averaged 29.8 points and 7.5 assists for the week in question — despite spraining his ankle and being unable to finish the first of Denver’s four games.
The Nuggets ended up going 3-1 for the week. Murray returned from his minor injury with a 52-point performance at Indiana. He was on his way to a remarkable 59.5% field goal percentage for the week, including a 62.1% clip from 3-point range.
On the season, Murray is averaging 25 points, 4.5 rebounds and 6.8 assists per game to buoy the Nuggets (17-6), who have three days off to begin this week after extending their franchise-record road win streak to 10 on Sunday. He’s the 10th-leading scorer in the Western Conference and one of four players in the NBA averaging 25 or more points on 50% shooting from the floor and 40% shooting from three.
The other three are Jokic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Giannis Antetokounmpo, each a perennial MVP candidate.
Jokic has already been awarded Western Conference Player of the Week honors twice this season and Player of the Month for November. He has earned the weekly honor 19 times in his career. This was a career-first prize for Murray.
When their two stars share the court together, the Nuggets have a 131.7 offensive rating this season, further distinguishing Jokic and Murray as one of the most efficient offensive duos in the history of the sport. Denver’s offensive rating when Jokic plays without Murray so far is 10 points per 100 possessions fewer.
In addition to his scoring heroics in Indiana, Murray spearheaded a bench unit that went on a 20-0 fourth-quarter run without Jokic’s assistance last Friday. It helped the Nuggets pull off their third-largest comeback win in franchise history, a 134-133 victory over the Hawks. Murray finished with 23 points, 12 assists and consecutive game-saving defensive plays (a steal and a block) in the last 30 seconds.
He has a 3.4 assist-to-turnover ratio in his last eight games, another statistical uptick from his history of slow starts that have prevented him from making an All-Star team. At his current pace, he’s positioned himself to make it for the first time in his career this season. Jokic has never had a teammate join him at All-Star weekend.
The Nuggets will continue to rely heavily on Murray this month with starters Aaron Gordon and Christian Braun out. Both are dealing with multi-week absences due to injuries.
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