{"id":393340,"date":"2026-01-07T15:41:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T15:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/393340\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T15:41:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T15:41:11","slug":"denver-nuggets-guard-jamal-murray-is-doing-more-than-just-hoopin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/393340\/","title":{"rendered":"Denver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray is doing more than just hoopin’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Denver Nuggets<\/a> guard Jamal Murray<\/a> is known for choosing his words intentionally. Such was the case when he described his career-best NBA season in progress.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just hoopin\u2019,\u201d Murray told Andscape.<\/p>\n

Murray\u2019s play has been of high importance for the Nuggets this season, especially with three-time NBA Most Valuable Player Nikola Jokic and the other starters dealing with injuries this season.<\/p>\n

Murray enters Wednesday\u2019s game against the host Boston Celtics (7 p.m. ET, ESPN) averaging 25.4 points, 7.2 assists and 4.6 rebounds while shooting 48% from the field and 44.7% from 3-point range \u2014 all career highs. <\/p>\n

A 10-year NBA veteran, Murray scored 52 points in a win against the Indiana Pacers on Dec. 3. Murray was also named the NBA Western Conference Player of the Week for games played Dec. 1-7.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just playing free, having fun,\u201d Murray said. \u201cTrying to get these guys organized. We have a great high-IQ team. So, it\u2019s easy to bring them along. I want to have fun and play free, and that\u2019s what the team is allowing me to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murray had an ankle injury and missed his second game of the season during Monday\u2019s 125-124 overtime win against the Philadelphia 76ers. While the 6-foot-4, 215-pounder has been primarily healthy this season, more than opposing defenders the biggest challenge of Murray\u2019s career has been his health.<\/p>\n

In his first three NBA seasons from 2016-19, Murray played in 82, 81 and 75 games, respectfully. Since then, the 28-year-old has never played in more than 67 regular-season games. Murray tore his left ACL on April 12, 2021, which caused him to miss the 2021 playoffs and the entire 2021-22 NBA season. In 2023, Murray played in all 20 of the Nuggets\u2019 playoff games en route to the franchise\u2019s first NBA title while averaging 26.1 points, 7.1 assists and 5.1 rebounds per game.<\/p>\n

\"DavidDenver Nuggets head coach David Adelman (left) says time away from basketball last summer has been key to Jamal Murray\u2019s success this season.<\/p>\n

Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just banged up and playing through it, kind of going under the radar with it, doing everything I can, and sacrificing,\u201d said Murray of his past injury woes.<\/p>\n

In 2024, the Nuggets lost to the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Western Conference semifinals in seven games to end their title defense. Murray followed that by playing for Canada during the 2024 Paris Olympics, which included a disappointing quarterfinals loss to host France. Last season, the Nuggets lost in the Western Conference semifinals in seven games to the eventual champion Oklahoma City Thunder.<\/p>\n

After last season, Murray said he took some much-needed time away from basketball. Nuggets head coach David Adelman said the time off has been key to Murray\u2019s success this season, physically and mentally.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was this summer. Him figuring out what he needed to be prepared for the season,\u201d Adelman said. \u201cIn other summers, maybe he worked too hard. And in other summers, he thought if I took time off like the old vets back in the day, \u2018I\u2019ll be fine.\u2019 This summer there was a really good balance. Not just the physical, the mental, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had a very clear mind. Leadership was great all summer. It just continued into the season. He\u2019s not fighting, he\u2019s playing. What is there is there. It\u2019s fun to watch him play out there. He just seems loose and free out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Said Murray: \u201cAfter the season ended, I didn\u2019t do anything for at least a month. Then I just got back into lifting, running. I started just taking care of my body without the basketball. So, [I tried to] kind of get my mind away from basketball, but still got my body in shape and just built my momentum. \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, now I\u2019m back healthy. I\u2019m good. I\u2019m in a good space and now I\u2019m just playing and it\u2019s noticeable.\u201d<\/p>\n

What is also noticeable is that Murray has never been an NBA All-Star.<\/p>\n

Murray was 16th (260,014) in the Western Conference in the second fan returns in All-Star balloting of 2026. Murray will most likely have to be voted in as an All-Star reserve from the West coaches to make the first-ever World Team roster. Under a new NBA All-Star Game format, two teams of U.S. players and one team of international players (the World) will compete in a round-robin tournament on Feb. 15 in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

When asked if he was still dreaming about making the All-Star Team, Murray said: \u201cAll-Star, everything. Scoring champ. MVP. All of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Nuggets are needing all of it from Murray due to their extensive injuries. Jokic, Aaron Gordon, Christian Braun and Cameron Johnson \u2014 all starters \u2014have missed time to injuries this season. Murray\u2019s leadership and Denver\u2019s depth have led the franchise to a 24-12 record, good for fourth in the Western Conference<\/p>\n

Murray is confident that a healthy Nuggets roster can get back to a championship level.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to take consistency, details, effort, just being dialed in on a nightly basis,\u201d Murray said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of good teams in the West, so I feel like we\u2019ve got to bring it every night. Once we bring it every night, everything will take care of itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marc J. Spears is the senior NBA writer for Andscape. He used to be able to dunk on you, but he hasn\u2019t been able to in years and his knees still hurt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Denver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray is known for choosing his words intentionally. Such was the case when he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393341,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-393340","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-nba","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}