ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — This isn’t just Jamal Murray casting aside questions about his health and downplaying his recent injuries.
In fact, as if he had a definitive display of athleticism for the media planned to perfection, he pounced at the rim Friday for a contested slam dunk — moments after the doors had been opened allowing a throng of reporters to watch the last 30 minutes of Denver’s practice.
Point taken.
“I feel good,” a curt Murray said during the team’s media day at Ball Arena, rejecting any notion that he was dealing with lingering injuries as training camp began.
One week later, and on the opposite side of the globe, his emphatic dunk supplied some meaningful evidence. Then his coach vouched for him.
“Knock on wood,” Michael Malone told reporters from The Denver Post and Altitude Sports in Abu Dhabi. “I have seen a healthy Jamal Murray. I’ve seen a guy that, as you pointed to that play, (has been) explosive. Making plays. And that’s always a micro-goal of any game that you go into during the preseason, is making sure you have player health.”
The dunk isn’t the only example. In limited opportunities to see Murray in practice settings, his explosiveness and ability to create separation off the dribble have stood out. The Nuggets scrimmaged Monday morning (and into the afternoon) at Ball Arena to wrap up their last practice before flying to the Middle East. When the last of the scrimmages went to overtime, Murray stepped up. He made two clutch midrange shots in the last 90 seconds, including one with two seconds left to force a tie. (The game ended with that result.)
If he is still nursing any injuries at this point, he at minimum can still locate his talent for overcoming them when a game is on the line. The point guard who made those shots was, at worst, the version of Murray from the Lakers series — not the Timberwolves one.
“You read reports from around the league and you see different players having some of those soft tissue injuries, which can linger for a long time,” Malone said. “Like Peyton Watson (hamstring) is dealing with right now. But right now it appears to me that Jamal is in a really good place mentally (and) physically. And I know that bodes well for us.”
Can all that change in an instant? Of course it can, for Murray or anybody else. But the Nuggets felt this summer that his upside was still worth betting on with a max contract, even after that upside was mostly absent from the NBA playoffs and Olympics.
Murray had a mostly quiet night in Denver’s first preseason game at Etihad Arena, but he wasn’t trying to do much offensively. He made a corner 3-pointer off the catch during his abbreviated minutes, an encouraging sign after shooting poorly at the Olympics.
More importantly, he felt confident enough — and healthy enough — to dive after a loose ball during the meaningless exhibition. That might’ve been even more encouraging than the dunk.
Malone doubles down on lack of stagger
Malone, unprompted, addressed critics of his perceived over-reliance on one precise lineup while speaking with local media outside the Nuggets locker room.
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Malone, who’s entering his 10th season as Denver’s coach, staggered his first and second units less frequently than other coaches last season. The Nuggets lost one of their starters from that lineup, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, in free agency this offseason.
The loss leaves Denver trying to establish renewed cohesion within the lineup as a replacement starter becomes necessary. (Christian Braun handled that role Friday.)
“There is no KCP,” Malone said. “So we’ll have different guys out there with our starting unit, getting minutes with them, and those minutes are important because the last two years, we’ve had the best starting unit in the NBA. People say, ‘Why do you play your starters so much together?’ Because they’re really good.”
The lineup including Caldwell-Pope, Murray, Michael Porter Jr., Aaron Gordon and Nikola Jokic played 958 minutes together during the 2023-24 regular season. No other five-man lineup in the NBA played 800 minutes together.
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