Only LeBron James has more playoff wins than Nikola Jokic without All-Star help

Irving, because of injury, didn't suit up for his first game of that season until Dec. 20 of that year, so he was snubbed of All-Star honors. And Kevin Love had a down regular season in general that year, shooting 41.9 percent from the floor and 36.0 percent from three, leading to his getting snubbed from the All-Star festivities that season.

Jokic, meanwhile, won 16 games in the 2022-23 postseason - and a ring - without a single All-Star teammate. In addition, that Nuggets roster had just one player outside of Jokic who had ever been an All-Star to that point, and that was DeAndre Jordan, who accomplished that feat exactly one time prior to 2023. Jordan played a whopping 14 minutes during Denver's 2023 title run, by the way, just to show you how much All-Star help Jokic received that year.

It speaks to Jokic's brilliance that he's so far up this list at just 31 years old. Does the big Serbian have some flaws in his game, namely on the defensive end? Sure. Is it concerning how much worse the Nuggets perform when the defensive Swiss Army Knife and Jokic's frontcourt partner, Aaron Gordon, has to miss time? Certainly.

But there's no question that Jokic has been asked to carry an unusually high amount of the load on the offensive end year in and year out due to his lack of All-Star help on the Nuggets' roster. And it's reflecting on the team's postseason record in the Joker era.

Other fun tidbits here....

• Although most remember Chauncey Billups as the head of the Pistons' snake during their 2004 title run, it was Ben Wallace who was the lone All-Star on that team that year. The only other Detroit player that season to even earn a vote for a regular-season accolade was Corliss Williamson, who finished 10th in the Sixth Man of the Year vote.
• Michael Jordan, meanwhile, racked up the majority of his playoff wins without an All-Star teammate early during the Bulls' dynasty run and towards the end of it, both before and after his sidekick, Scottie Pippen, had become the star version of himself.
• Pippen first earned All-Star honors in 1989-90, and he missed out on the distinction in 1990-91, when the Chicago Bulls won their first championship, giving Jordan 15 playoff wins that year without an All-Star teammate. The same happened in '98, when Pippen, due to injuries and perhaps a bit of a contract holdout, missed out on All-Star honors, giving Jordan another 15 wins and a title without an All-Star teammate.
• Hakeem Olajuwon, sixth in this exercise, won both of his championships without a single All-Star teammate, although he did have some strong help during the second title run in the form of Clyde Drexler, who was an eight-time All-Star by 1994-95.
• Dirk Nowitzki, likewise, won his only championship without a star teammate, though he did get solid role-player support from Shawn Marion and Jason Kidd, veterans at that point but ones who had earned All-Star recognition multiple times earlier in their careers.

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This article originally appeared on Hoops Hype: Only LeBron James has more playoff wins than Nikola Jokic without All-Star help