After a summer season filled with potential and intrigue fell flat for Jamal Murray following a disappointing Olympic marketing campaign, it’s beginning to grow to be clear that he wasn’t firing on all cylinders.
The Kitchener, Ont., native entered coaching camp with the Canadian males’s basketball crew this summer season below the concept that he would kind a dynamic backcourt pairing with Shai Gilgous-Alexander, but that dream situation shortly vanished as Murray required a ramp-up interval heading into Paris that included a minutes restriction and struggled as soon as the motion acquired underway.
He averaged simply six factors on 29 per cent taking pictures from the sphere and 14.3 per cent taking pictures from past the arc via 4 video games. This was a stark distinction in comparison with his 2023-24 NBA season averages of 21.2 factors on 48.1 and 42.5 per cent taking pictures over 59 video games.
Much more stunning was Murray being basically a no-show in Canada’s quarterfinal loss to host France as he completed the sport with seven factors on 3-of-13 taking pictures and three turnovers. This was in distinction to his trademark skill to step up when the lights have been the brightest, as evidenced by a 2023 title run with Denver by which he averaged 26 factors a sport and shot practically 40 per cent from three.
Following his lackluster play whereas donning a red-and-white jersey for the primary time since 2015, and Canada’s disappointing exit, some speculated that Murray’s unusually timid play and hesitancy may’ve been the results of accidents.
And that notion was all however confirmed on Wednesday by Denver Nuggets president Josh Kroenke from the Gardner Hendrick Professional-Am, a part of the BMW Championship at Fort Pines Golf Membership, to the Denver Put up.
“Whenever you’re going towards the very best on the planet, whether or not it’s within the NBA playoffs or within the Olympics, you’re gonna get (opponents) finest shot,” Kroenke stated, per Bennett Durando of the Denver Put up. “And in case you’re not 100 per cent and you wish to be on the market nonetheless, you’re gonna attempt to struggle via it like Jamal is … however I do know he wasn’t 100 per cent.”
Heading into Olympic coaching camp, Murray was coming off a second-round playoff exit by the hands of the Minnesota Timberwolves by which he was visibly hampered by a left calf pressure. Throughout the post-season, as he battled a number of illnesses, he averaged 18.4 factors per sport on 40.3 per cent taking pictures from the sphere and 31.5 per cent from three-point vary — a streak of inefficiency he carried into Paris.
In the meantime, looming over the 2023 NBA champ and the Nuggets via all this can be a contract extension he’s eligible to signal this low season, forward of the ultimate 12 months of his present deal.
Murray is eligible for as much as a four-year, $208.5-million max extension, and though it was beforehand reported the 2 sides had been working towards getting it achieved, no extension has been confirmed.
Final month, Nuggets basic supervisor Calvin Sales space stated he believed an settlement with the star guard was going to be “fairly straightforward” and that he didn’t assume it could be “a lot of a negotiation.”
But two seasons faraway from an ACL tear and one other season crammed with accidents to his ankle, hamstring and calf, “amongst others” as Kroenke recognized, it seems the group has extra to ponder than beforehand anticipated.
“For me, particularly, as a lot as I’d like to focus in on the tip of the season or the playoffs or the Olympics, I normally assume even type of one step larger. You concentrate on it (by way of) over type of the final couple of years,” Kroenke stated, when requested how he’s weighing Murray’s poor stretch of play into contract concerns. “The quantity of video games that he’s performed, the quantity of video games that each one of our guys have performed, and the damage and tear on their our bodies. So, I feel that confirmed up towards the tip of the common season.
“It positively trickled into the playoffs. And Jamal was additionally fairly banged-up. I feel that’s one thing that will get underestimated due to how robust he’s as an individual. He was enjoying via some dings, some fairly good dings, that in all probability would preserve most individuals out of video games.”
For what it’s price, Kroenke believes that his level guard can bounce again from his poor play and up to date harm luck.
“Jamal’s a fantastic participant, top-of-the-line within the NBA, and nevertheless he felt personally that the Olympics had been for him … I do know he was pissed off slightly bit,” Kroenke stated. “So, I’ve little question that he’ll use that the correct method for motivation going into the season.”
