The long nightmare for Nuggets fans is over as Jamal Murray has finally put ink to paper and signed a four-year, $208 million max extension to stay in Denver. The team was headed for a bit of a disaster scenario with Murray entering the final year of his deal.
But now he’s locked up and this means Murray and Nikola Jokic will be together with the Nuggets for the rest of their prime years. The Nuggets have seen multiple key players leave for nothing via free agency in recent years and they simply couldn’t afford to play that game again, let alone with one of their stars.
The positive spin of the Murray deal
The good news is simple; the Nuggets’ two best players are under contract. Murray, when healthy has proven to be a perfect partner for Jokic and they were the catalysts in winning the 2023 title. Those guys aren’t going anywhere and now the team can focus on keeping their young role players and working on an extension with Aaron Gordon.
As long as the team stays healthy, they should be in the mix to contend for championships for at least the next few seasons. This should also be the end of any trade rumors surrounding Murray. Now that he’s locked up, there is zero reason to believe the team would consider trading the star guard.
The negative spin of the Murray deal
On the other hand, this is A LOT of money to guarantee for a player who is constantly plagued by injuries and has never made an all-star game. Murray had a rough playoffs and an even worse Olympics. What if this is the beginning of the end for Murry as we know him?
He’s only 27, but there’s a chance that his body has just gone through too much and will never get back to the player we saw in 2023. If that’s the case, the Nuggets are essentially screwed and have just locked themselves into a core rotation for the rest of Jokic’s prime that simply may not be good enough.
The verdict on the Murray deal
The bottom line is that the team had to make this deal. Murray is too important to the team and there’s no way they could have replaced him. Sure, the deal comes with some risk, but it’s a necessary amount of risk. The Nuggets had to do this deal and ensure they kept Murray in Denver.