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CanadaUprise wrote:You guys realize that Murray plays out of position on the nuggets right. He's a pure SG being forced to play PG because of Jokic which hurts his game a lot.

Last I checked Murray played PG in high school, for the Canadian national team, and for the Nuggets, with his only time at SG being at Kentucky when he was in the backcourt with 5'8" Tyler Ullis. So I guess you better let the staff with the Nuggets and the Canadian national team, as well as Jamal Murray and his father know that he is playing the wrong position, as you are obviously more qualified to make that decision than all of them.

As for Jokic making the game harder for Murray, even saying that just shows how low of a basketball iq you have. There is no legitimate argument that Jokic makes the game harder for anybody that has a clue how to play basketball. Jokic changes his own game to fit what the team needs at any given moment, and it is obvious to anybody that has played the game how much easier that makes it for everybody.

Now I will say that Jokic hurts Murray's ability to put up assist stats, but who cares about stats? Murray, Jokic, Harris, and the rest of the team as well as most of us fans do not give a crap about the stats we just want to win.

If I am understanding this 538 projection (WAR), Murray went from 1.7 to 4.7 in his last season. That's right up there with Ray Allen and Tony Parker.

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/carmelo/jamal-murray/

They also marked him down for his height which seems strange for 6'4" point guard.

TunaFish wrote:If I am understanding this 538 projection (WAR), Murray went from 1.7 to 4.7 in his last season. That's right up there with Ray Allen and Tony Parker.

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/carmelo/jamal-murray/

They also marked him down for his height which seems strange for 6'4" point guard.

The interesting thing to me is that all the comparisons were either in the league longer and/or older than Murray with the comparisons.

I also do not like that they project Murray to only get slightly better on offense and regress on defense, I think as Murray fills out his body more he will get better on defense, and I doubt his offense gets worse considering his growth last year.

While his shooting percentages declined last year, I thought he got much better at handling hard double teams, controlling the tempo when he had the ball, and picking his spots. HE also obviously got better playing off of Jokic. Overall I think his stats improve just by having Harris healthy and a decent SF on the floor.

Take a look at the following article:

https://www.nba.com/amp/nuggets/news/denver-nuggets-jamal-murray-ranked-sixth-bleacher-reports-best-23-under-23

Murray is called the 6th best player under 23.

Full article:

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2847644-ranking-the-nbas-best-23-under-23#slide7

Murray is going to be an all star. This season

Coeur wrote:Murray is going to be an all star. This season

I'd like that - and it's possible but probably a long-shot based on the guards in the West.

https://fansided.com/2019/09/18/25-under-25-2019-jamal-murray-nuggets-14/

Fansided listed Murray as the 14th best 25-under-25 player. Of course I don't agree with all of their rankings but I see Murray in the discussion in the middle of the top25 under 25. Nice article and spot on IMO.

NuggetsWY wrote:https://fansided.com/2019/09/18/25-under-25-2019-jamal-murray-nuggets-14/

Fansided listed Murray as the 14th best 25-under-25 player. Of course I don't agree with all of their rankings but I see Murray in the discussion in the middle of the top25 under 25. Nice article and spot on IMO.

I look above him and there are several I would put him above, especially some of the ones getting that big market bump. There are also a few behind him that I think are better. So I guess his ranking isn't to far off. I hope he makes a jump into the top 6-8 though, as you expect your max deals to at least be top 30-35 guys in the league every year.

I love this quote from Murray, and I like that he is joining the top stars in stuff like Kobe's camp, but I really hope they don't convince him to move on when he can.

While at the camp, which also included stars such as Kawhi Leonard and Kyrie Irving, according to The Athletic, Murray peppered Bryant with questions that acknowledged his shortcomings last season as the Nuggets made their first playoff run together.

“I asked him a lot of stuff,” Murray said. “I asked him a lot of post-work, post defense. Obviously Portland tried to take advantage of that, so this season I’m trying to be able to not be a guy that’s going to be scored on like that or thought of in that way.”

https://www.denverpost.com/2019/09/30/jamal-murray-kobe-bryant-invite-only-camp/

Jamal Murray; Nuggets' #2 player, but inconsistent on offense and not always effective on defense either. He's got 3 years behind him but he's only 22 years old. He has time to become more consistent but if he wants to be an All-Star caliber player, he needs to work on both ends of the court this year. His shooting was 44-37-85 and that's not terrible but he can do better. It seems to me he bypasses some open shots and ends up taking some difficult shots late in the clock.

He's definitely got a team attitude and I love watching him banging on a defensive switch onto a PF or center. Effort is not his problem.

He was one of the standouts at the Kobe Invitational, sure would like to think that will help his focus and shot selection. He was also supposedly working on his defensive prowess, noting how vulnerable he was during the POR series and closing out games in general.

NuggetsWY wrote:https://ca.nba.com/news/jamal-murray-denver-nuggets-offense-nikola-jokic/1nflqk25q294b1em1jaie137bd

I'm probably in the minority here but I've noticed it since last season that Jamal Murray doesn't play well with Will Barton. I'm not exactly sure why (could be usage?) but I'd be surprised if he got a 40 point game this year.

His top 2 scoring performances this year:

27 points 8/19 40min vs Phoenix Suns W by 1
39 points 14/24 31min vs Memphis Grizzlies W by 17

Will Barton those 2 games (also lowest minutes of season):
5 points 1/6 20min vs Phoenix Suns
6 points 2/6 23min vs Memphis Grizzlies

Last year Jamal Murray scored 30+ 5 times when Will Barton went down but only twice when he came back.

This is just extra stats to prove my point that I don't see Jamal Murray taking a leap with Will's heavy minutes.

Mind you, I haven't been a Will Barton fan since he's gotten here so take this as you so please. Lol.

So was contemplating Jamal over this season so far and have to say I have been disappointed in his progress, I expected much more consistency from him. IMO he’s gonna drop to the 3rd best player on this team, dropping behind MPJ by next season. His game is almost EXACTLY what is what it was last year but now he got the incoming new contract. Tell me I’m not being over critical here, what’s your take on The Blue Arrow ?

Even without improvement, Murray + Jokic is a top 5 offensive core. But we very obviously need help filling out the holes and some specialists will be expensive unless we can convince vets to hop on for a championship run. (and unfortunately, LA has a stronger case for those ring-chasing vets at least until LeBron's next free agency)

I'm personally disappointed that Brandon Ingram made the All-star team before Murray - Yes, there's a positional aspect to it, and he's not beating out Chris Paul or Westbrook or Harden or Lillard, but from the way I heard things he might be behind even Ja Morant and D'Aaron Fox... I resent the "future all-star" label.

This is a relevant tangent - what do you guys make of Gary Harris? If something similar happens to Jamal we will have a significant problem.

Rebel knows what I think about the actual contract.

skywalker33 wrote:So was contemplating Jamal over this season so far and have to say I have been disappointed in his progress, I expected much more consistency from him. IMO he’s gonna drop to the 3rd best player on this team, dropping behind MPJ by next season. His game is almost EXACTLY what is what it was last year but now he got the incoming new contract. Tell me I’m not being over critical here, what’s your take on The Blue Arrow ?

I just think Murray needs to assert himself. Jokic is the best player on the team and teams tend to take the attitude of their best player. Jokic is not assertive so if other players try to be assertive, they can be seen as too pushy or whatever. What we need is two or three players that assert themselves on the offensive end.

Does this seem assertive enough ??

Is Malone right, Jamal is turning into a Superstar ?? And on the biggest stage ??

Murray is in his 3rd playoff series. Against SAS he averaged 19ppg 4apg and 2.7rpg. Against POR 23.5ppg 5.2apg and 6rpg

This year he's putting up 30.8ppg 5.8 apg and 6.4rpg. Those numbers are incredible for a player that's only 23 years old ! Now granted he's not putting up 39.4ppg Mitchell is but he IS younger than DM, shoots more efficiently and is 3" bigger than DM

And while I'm not convinced we win this series, I'm getting a de ju vue vibe comparing Murry and the current Nuggets to a past team of Curry and the Warriors of a few years back.

Call me crazy but IF Murray can channel THIS type of production into the following season, a title can follow !!

Jamal Murray is a whole new monster...

He looks underpaid to me.