Jamal Murray reminds Nuggets' fans about their clearest path to success

All season long, the media and fans have bemoaned the Nuggets’ roster issues, their lack of depth, and the lack of talent around Nikola Jokic. The Joker has been a rock, having arguably his best season, but the rest of the team has felt just a bit short.

There have been trade rumors and speculation all season about what the Nuggets should do to improve the roster and vault back into contender status. There have been many theories about what the team should do, with ideas ranging from trading Michael Porter Jr. for a “star” to using salary and a draft pick to add one more solid veteran rotation player.

There was no clear consensus on what the Nuggets should have done, but there was an overriding belief that the team needed to get better to actually win a title. That seemed to be more true than ever as the team got off to a slow start while Jokic carried them to mediocrity.

They owe it to Jokic to be as competitive as possible in his prime when he is playing so well, but there was no move to be made. Past mistakes and years of asset mismanagement rendered the team unable to be active in the market and left them essentially stuck with who they have for the rest of this season.

Secret to contention for Nuggets was always Jamal Murray 

The truth is, with all of this speculation and conjecture, the most realistic path to contention for the Nuggets has always been for Jamal Murray to regain his form from the 2023 championship run. For better or worse, the Nuggets have locked themselves into their core of Jokci, Murray, Michael Porter Jr., and Aaron Gordon.

By extending those players, they are committed to that foursome and to playing through the two-man game of Jokic and Murray on offense. One of the biggest issues facing the team last season and early in this campaign was Murray’s drop-off and inability to stay healthy.

He had a brutal offseason and started this year very slowly after signing his extension. Many were wondering if Jamal would ever be the same, or if he had simply faced too many injuries to ever play to his peak again. Even though he’s just 27, there were serious concerns that his regression, health, and contract could prove to be disastrous.

The Nuggets could have made a million moves on the margins to improve their depth, but at the end of the day, in this era, teams aren’t going to be able to contend if their second-best player isn’t performing. It’s not even worth splitting hairs over the rest of the roster; the Nuggets need Murray to play like a star for the team to have a real shot.

Murray puts up career-high 55 points against Blazers

Luckily for the Nuggets, Murray has turned it around over the past few weeks and is rounding into form. He has quietly started to look like his old self with some outstanding performances recently.

This was on full display Wednesday night when the Nuggets crushed the Trail Blazers, 132-121 and Murray went for a career-high 55 points. He was on fire, shooting 20/36 from the field and knocking down 7/15 from three-point range.

This game was obviously a bit of an aberration but it speaks to how well Murray has been playing lately and how locked in he has been. He’s playing some of the best basketball of his career and if he can continue this trend into the playoffs, we’ll have to reevaluate the Nuggets’ chances as title contenders.