Jamal Murray’s offensive rating is more impressive than people think.
Jamal Murray seems to be one of the clear proponents to stay intact for the Nuggets in the long term future along with Nikola Jokic. While he only has one year under his belt, Murray had a great season.
He was a great rookie offensive threat this year and is showing promising signs for the future. There is one advanced analytic that really makes one do a double take when looking at his statistics from his rookie year. Jamal Murray finished his rookie campaign with an offensive rating of 103.
Denver Nuggets
For those that are wondering, offensive rating is the estimate of the points produced per 100 possessions from that particular player. While the 103 offensive rating is not something that screams superstar, one needs to take how it compares to his fellow rookie counterparts into consideration. Buddy Hield, the player selected ahead of him in the draft, possessed an offensive rating of 105 which was only slightly better than Murray’s.
Plus, one must bear in mind that Murray is playing on a team with many players in their back court that includes the likes of Will Barton, Emmanuel Mudiay, Jameer Nelson, and Gary Harris. All of those players given more opportunities this year than Murray.
Hield was traded to a Sacramento Kings franchise that looks like a train wreck right now and had plenty of chances to showcase his offensive talent. When you take these facts into consideration, it is clear that Jamal will only improve his already impressive offensive rating going forward in his career.
He possesses so much offensive potential, it would be an eye opener if his offensive rating is lower than his rookie year rating of 103.
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Jamal Murray had a great rookie season and his offensive rating was one indication of that. All stats were verified per basketball-reference.com.