The long-beleaguered Nuggets' shaky playoff hopes may have faded on the road in February, but Antonio McDyess, the team's indispensable power forward, continues to be one of the NBA's finest players -- as evidenced by his selection to the 2001 All-Star team. The 6'9", sixth-year man out of Alabama remains in the top five or six, league-wide, in field-goal percentage (over .500), and his defense is impeccable. If Dan Issel's road-battered troops are ever to return to the NBA playoffs, it will be McDyess and guard Nick Van Exel who get them there.