Whether you have seen a young Jamal Murray playing at the Nike Hoop Summit, the Pan American Games, or his freshman season at Kentucky, one thing becomes abundantly clear: the 19 year old kid can score.
Silky smooth ball handling skills combined with a bullseye jump shot from deep allows him to create scoring opportunities for himself as well as others. This is perhaps why coming into the draft he was considered a combo guard even though he was playing exclusively off the ball at Kentucky next to Tyler Ulis after playing point guard in high school. So why exactly did the Denver Nuggets draft him at No. 7 overall in the 2016 NBA Draft?
The Nuggets have been a franchise looking for a primary scorer since Carmelo Anthony’s departure to the Knicks. They have had talented but inconsistent combinations of incongruent players that never quite got over the hump because when push came to shove late in the fourth quarter they did not have an answer. Danilo Gallinari was the most interesting piece in the return package they got from the Knicks, and he has been willing to carry a good portion of the scoring load. But unfortunately his body has not held up to the rigors of a full NBA season. That leaves Emmanuel Mudiay, Gary Harris, Will Barton, Wilson Chandler, JaKarr Sampson, Kenneth Faried, Joffrey Lauvergne, Jusuf Nurkic, and Nikola Jokic on the roster currently supplementing Danilo’s scoring.
Mudiay is a nice young explosive guard but will clearly never develop into a primary scorer. Gary Harris looks like a nice rotation player, Wilson Chandler is an established versatile wing, JaKarr is an energy role player, and their big man rotation is certainly very promising. Unless Will Barton can make another seismic leap in his offensive game he seems best suited as a scoring punch off the bench. This leaves the roster missing a key piece: a guard that will consistently provide 20+ points per game and be willing to take over the game in the fourth quarter. Say hello to Jamal Murray and pencil him in to this role immediately.
Jamal will have to establish and prove himself in the summer league and preseason, but the proof will be in the pudding. At the Nike Hoop Summit, he took home the MVP trophy, scoring 30 points and distributing six assists while carrying the World Team which included the likes of Ben Simmons over an American team featuring Jaylen Brown, Brandon Ingram, and Luke Kennard among other highly touted prospects. What was most impressive was not only his all-around offensive play but the willingness to take over a close game and come through in the clutch with shot after shot resulting in a two-point win for his team. Keep in mind that coming into the game Jamal was certainly not the most highly touted of all the prospects on the court, but his performance established him as someone to really look out for.
In the Pan-American games as an 18-year-old playing backup point guard against grown men, Jamal was consistently Canada’s best player, making the most of his opportunities. He became a game changer to the point where the coach would restrain himself from taking him out once he came into the games. Against the USA he came into the fourth quarter with zero points and his team down five. He went on to put on a spectacular show, scoring 22 points and leading his team to victory. At Kentucky, he was his team’s clear leading scorer, averaging over 20 points per game, and he made the second most three’s in the NCAA as a freshman behind only a current two-time MVP and NBA Champion named Steph Curry. Jamal has proven that he will score wherever he goes and has the moxie to carry his teams offensively in crunch time.
No prospect comes into the NBA fully developed and ready to carry their franchise, not even a young LeBron James. With Jamal’s propensity to score, there are still questions with regards to his defensive ability and potential. Similarly, Steph Curry and Damian Lillard came into the league with an offensive arsenal lacking defensive competence. Lillard had more natural athleticism and explosiveness, and Curry is on such a high level of shooting efficiency that is unfair to compare any 19-year-old kid to him. This leaves Jamal’s package of nonchalant smoothness seemingly more susceptible to being taken advantage of in a league with elite athletes. However, NBA coaching has shown that guards can be hidden in proper defensive schemes if the wings and bigs are mobile and active to help on rotations. Murray may never set all-time NBA records for three’s in a season and he may never posterize NBA centers, but if he can combine a little bit of Curry with a little bit of Dame on offense while proving to be serviceable enough on the defensive end to stay on the court, Denver will look back at the 2016 draft as a day when they uncovered a very special Nugget.
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