At the beginning of the summer, Jamal Murray and the Denver Nuggets agreeing to a four-year, $209 million max contract extension seemed a foregone conclusion. That despite how he didn’t play up to his standards in the 2024 playoffs – 20.6 points per game but shooting 31.5% from 3 – due to him playing through injury. However, the talks were postponed until after the Olympics. Then Murray wrestled in Paris with Team Canada.
After the Games ended and time passed without a deal inked, whispers began around the league. Were the money-conscious Nuggets having second thoughts about maxing out Murray? Can they delay giving him the extension until later this season or maybe after the season?
No, the deal is done, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, via Murray’s agents.
Murray is now locked up for five years — at a total of $244 million — and is with the Nuggets through the remainder of Nikola Jokic’s first. During the last season, Murray averaged 21.2 points, 6.5 assists, and shot 42.5% from 3, but he played in only 59 games.
Denver is betting big that once healthy, Murray will return to his 2023 playoff form, when he was one of the top guards in the league, hit clutch shots, was a top pick-and-roll combo with Jokic, and was the second. most important player in championship team of Nuggets. Where Denver has moved on from reliable role players in recent seasons like Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Bruce Brown, more fall on the core of the team to lift them up (Denver also relies on Christin Braun and Peyton Watson to be able to step up). go ahead and wear them).
This is the bet Denver had to make — Murray is both capable at that level of play and has a strong working relationship with Jokic, and it’s not like an elite point guard was in the wings to replace him. Murray and Jokic pair well. The key is for him to stay healthy, he had a torn ACL a few years ago that took him until 2023 to fully recover, then he battled through various injuries last season. These Nuggets don’t have that margin for error.
What they have is Murray locked in, and with Jokic, that makes them a contender for the foreseeable future.
