At this point in the offseason, most basketball fans are locked into the Olympics and enjoying some excellent international basketball games. This tournament is a nice change of pace from the NBA season but still offers high-level action with many of the best players in the world.
For Nuggets fans, the Olympics were supposed to offer a nice pallet cleanser after a disappointing playoff exit and a chance to watch Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray on the world stage.
Jokic and Murray on opposite ends of the spectrum
Jokic looked great in his first game for Team Serbia, holding his own against the mighty Team USA and battling valiantly despite being overmatched. Murray, on the other hand, didn’t look so great even in a winning effort for Team Canada.
On the one hand, it’s great to see that Murray wants to represent his country and help them try to medal for the first time in almost a hundred years. You can tell how much it means to him and to all of Canada to be out there.
This is a golden age for Canadian basketball and Murray is a big part of the reason for that. He’s part of a group of NBA stars who have committed to this Canadian program and resurrected something that hasn’t been seen in many years - if ever. It’s admirable, to say the least.
Murray doesn't look to be 100% healthy and in shape
But on the other side of the coin, Murray simply does not look right. He’s been plagued by injuries throughout his career and he was clearly not healthy in the playoffs. He was hampered by lower body issues and they were impacting his play.
On top of that, Murray is entering the final year of his contract and seeking a max four-year extension this offseason. The team needs Jamal and he’s certainly earned that deal with his playoff performances in the past. But it would be nice to see Murray fully commit to getting healthy and coming into next year motivated to play more and be more durable
But so far, from what we’ve seen in Olympic qualifying and the first pool play game, Murray looks far from healthy. His lateral movement has been bad, he doesn’t seem to have his usual bounce and energy on offense, and he’s basically a traffic cone on defense.
Again, it’s great that he’s out there battling for his country. But it would be nice to see him resting and rehabbing, committing to getting in the best shape of his career, and gearing up for a run at another title. Instead, he looks to be hobbling through games where he’s never really finding a rhythm.
Hopefully, these games won’t hamper Murray and will actually help him start getting into shape earlier. But it would be nice to see him look a little better in the tournament going forward. Ideally, this becomes a non-story once training camp rolls around, but based on what we’ve seen so far, Nuggets fans are at least justified in feeling some frustration and annoyance with the situation, even if it’s an understandable one.