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Nuggets must remember one key thing after Murray’s Olympic struggles

Ever since the Denver Nuggets season ended at the hands of the Minnesota Timberwolves in the 2nd round of the playoffs, there were talks about if Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic should suit up for their respective nations in the 2024 Summer Olympics. Both players understandably wanted to represent their countries, but were also coming off of two incredibly long seasons of NBA play. Ultimately, Jokic and Murray opted into their Olympic teams, but the two have had polar opposite experiences in the international scene.

By Tyler Key

Basketball - Olympic Games Paris 2024: Day 11
Basketball - Olympic Games Paris 2024: Day 11 / Daniel Kopatsch/GettyImages
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While Jokic has been dominating with Serbia and has arguably been the best player in the Olympics thus far, Murray struggled to find chemistry with his Canadian teammates. His role within Team Canada was very different than with the Nuggets and he was put into an off-ball role or bench role for the entirety of Canada’s run.

Additionally, he did not look fully healthy or in peak game shape contributing to their eventual exit without a medal. Regardless of the reasons, to put it bluntly, Murray had a horrible Olympics.

Murray averaged a mere 6.0 PPG on a pitiful 29.0% from the field and 14.3% from beyond the arc. Sadly, in Canada’s final game against France, the 6’4” Denver PG had one of his worst games as well, scoring seven points on 3-13 shooting. Team Canada eventually fell to the host nation 73-82. With a massive contract looming, what does this performance mean for Murray and the Nuggets’ confidence in him?

Despite struggling with Team Canada, Jamal Murray is still worth a max contract

Following Murray’s injury-riddled postseason and his abysmal Olympic performances, the popular take amongst NBA fans and media is that there is no way Denver can give him a $200+ million max contract. This take feels very much like an overreaction to recent events, especially considering that Murray is just barely a year removed from raising the Larry O’Brien trophy.

He was the 2nd best player on the 2023 NBA Championship team and was a top-10 NBA player in the postseason. To date, Murray is also still just one of four players to average 20+ PPG and 10+ APG in the NBA Finals (joining Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, and LeBron James).

Giving non-mega stars max contracts is always a bit uncomfortable, but the “Blue Arrow” is still a top-30 player in the NBA deserves every penny that is coming his way. Five important factors to remember when the Nuggets inevitably offer Murray a max deal:

  • He is only 27-years-old and will have another 3-4 seasons in his prime, if not more.
  • He just had a career year in the regular season, posting career-highs in FG% (48.1%), 3FG% (42.5%), PPG (21.2), APG (6.5), and BPG (0.7).
  • Despite a below-average 2024 playoffs, he still came up clutch numerous times, hitting two game-winners against the Los Angeles Lakers and scoring 35 points on good efficiency in the Nuggets game 7 loss to the Timberwolves.
  • He has incredible chemistry with Jokic after 7 seasons playing together and that is irreplaceable. Their two-man game is still one of the best offensive weapons in the entire NBA.
  • Max deals can sometimes bring the best out of a player. Look no further than Jaylen Brown, who many analysts and fans claimed had no right to the max contract he received. Not only did he prove that he was worth that contract, but he became the eventual ECF MVP and NBA Finals MVP for the Boston Celtics.

While the world of Nuggets basketball and their franchise PG is not all sunshine and rainbows right now, everyone simply needs to take a breath. Murray has not played well as of late, there is no refuting that. He is also still an amazing player, a playoff riser, a homegrown talent, and one of the greatest Nuggets of all-time. Calvin Booth and the front office should (and will) give Murray his max deal.

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