The Denver Nuggets have had a very active offseason, adding pieces to the roster to help build a title contender around the young core.
It was obvious that the team is willing to do whatever it takes to become better when the team traded away longtime Nugget Will Barton and a solid guard in Monte Morris. The trade netted them Kentavious Caldwell-Pope who will bring valuable defense and good 3-point shooting.
The team then added the versatile Bruce Brown who will bring hustle, defense, and an improved 3-point shot.
With those additions and along with the return of Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr., the team looks better than the roster they had last season.
While Jamal took an entire season off to rest and recover after tearing his ACL, he’ll likely come back with some rust and Law Murray, The Athletic reported that he’ll have a minutes restriction to start next season.
The player playing in the backcourt with Murray will have a lot to take on. Let’s take a look at how the different backcourt combinations with Jamal Murray will play together and what their strengths will be.
Denver Nuggets: The combination of Jamal Murray and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
During Murray’s career with the Denver Nuggets, he mainly played in the backcourt with Gary Harris, a combination that will be rather similar to one with Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.
Jamal Murray isn’t the strongest perimeter defender and the assumed starting backcourt of him and KCP will let him take the easier guard assignment on most nights. We’ve seen this defensive formula work in the past for small guards.
Having KCP on the team will help Murray not have to guard those tougher matchups. Caldwell-Pope is a capable defender and is able to hold his own on defense while Murray can get back to his previous form.
On the offensive end, this duo could be a tough one to contain. With so much attention being on Nikola Jokic and Michael Porter Jr. hopefully coming back and scoring the ball efficiently, KCP will have more open looks and will have one of the best passers in the league giving him the ball.
Murray will have time to rediscover his form and will hopefully return as a 20-point-per-game scorer again. This tandem will have tons of chances to score the ball and will be able to put up 35 points a game together if they are both playing their best.
Time will tell if this duo will be able to play well together, but there should be no reason why they would not be a solid defensive backcourt and a good scoring duo.
Denver Nuggets: An offensive explosion of Jamal Murray and Bones Hyland
The difference between Murray playing with KCP and Bones Hyland is that the latter has a year of experience playing with the Denver Nuggets. He knows how to play on the court with Nikola Jokic and he will be able to slide into the offense without many problems alongside Jamal.
This duo will have plenty of scoring and would be a headache for most defenses to cover. When Michael Malone needs an offensive spark, this duo will be on the floor together and would get tons of open looks playing alongside one another.
One of the bigger problems for this duo will be their defense alongside each other. Going back to the point that Murray has not played basketball since the 2020-21 season, he might not be able to contain tougher defense assignments. With his smaller frame, Bones isn’t much of an upgrade there and he’ll be picked apart by opponents in bigger matchups.
The duo both are not known for being natural playmakers either, meaning they’ll likely have to play alongside Nikola Jokic.
While the scoring with this duo would be tremendous, there are plenty of question marks about what they will be able to do in minutes without Jokic, and how their defense will look alongside one another.
Denver Nuggets: Offense and defense with Jamal Murray and Bruce Brown
The Denver Nuggets got one of the biggest steals in free agency when they poached Bruce Brown from the Brooklyn Nets. Brown was arguably one of the best role players on the Nets roster the whole season, and got even better when the playoffs rolled around.
Pairing him up with Murray will take a lot of pressure off of him. Brown has improved as a 3-point shooter this past season and in the past, he has shown that he is a capable passer and is never afraid to drive to the basket and score. He will be one of Jokic’s favorite targets on the backdoor cuts.
Brown may not be someone that teams will focus on if he is playing with Jokic, Murray, and Porter, but he will make the defense pay if they give him an open look or not focus on him cutting to the basket.
On the defensive end, this duo will play together great. Brown will be able to defend the tougher matchups and make things hard for them from his tough tenacity and willingness to work. Murray would be able to guard the easier matchup and be able to conserve his energy for when he is on the offensive end.
The addition of Bruce Brown will be one of the moves that will be looked at as one of the biggest steals of free agency, and Jamal Murray will be happy that the Nuggets acquired him because he will make life easier for him when he returns to the floor.