{"id":890238,"date":"2026-10-22T02:16:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T02:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/890238\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T02:16:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T02:16:10","slug":"jamal-murray-unfulfilled-by-first-all-star-all-nba-nods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/890238\/","title":{"rendered":"Jamal Murray unfulfilled by first All-Star, All-NBA nods"},"content":{"rendered":"

Life has been good to Jamal Murray<\/a>, but it can always be better.<\/p>\n

After becoming a father and NBA champion a few years ago, Murray is coming off his most decorated individual season. His best start was rewarded with his first All-Star selection; his body of work over the course of the season earned All-NBA third-team recognition.<\/p>\n

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\"041926-dg-s-nuggets-wolvesDenver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray (27) controls the ball during game 1 of round 1 of the NBA Championships at Ball Arena on Saturday, April 19, 2026. The Nuggets won the game 116-105. (The Gazette, Jerilee Bennett)<\/p>\n

\u201cJust to do it all over again and more.\u201d Murray said of this offseason\u2019s motivation after the Nuggets<\/a> practiced Wednesday at Ball Arena. \u201cI thought I could\u2019ve made All- (NBA) second team. I\u2019m striving for that, and obviously want to keep the All-Star up, which means I\u2019ve got to have a good start.\u201d<\/p>\n

The quest for more starts Thursday in Oklahoma City. Denver\u2019s season-opener comes off the longest offseason Murray has experienced in a while. Last season\u2019s six-game defeat against Minnesota was the first time the Nuggets lost a first-round series with Murray on the court. That created additional time for a physical and mental reset.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe ended in May, so that was a start, a longer break,\u201d Murray said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really just mental. The physical stuff, I like to do MMA. I get my mind off basketball and train something else I love, but it\u2019s just really having the time off to relax and decompress and not watch basketball, not touch it, not really think about it, so that when I come here and I\u2019ve got to put the work in, it\u2019s fresh. I want to do it. I want to stay longer. I want to get my shots up. I want to play one-on-one.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DenverDenver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray (27) walks off the court after the Nuggets lost to the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 6 of a first-round NBA basketball playoffs series, Thursday, April 30, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo\/Matt Krohn)<\/p>\n

Nuggets coach David Adelman<\/a> has no complaints about the results of Murray\u2019s offseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s in a great head space. He was last year; he is this year,\u201d Adelman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith him, I just think it\u2019s his body feels good. His mind is good. He\u2019s got the cutest daughter. He\u2019s doing good things right now, so he\u2019s in a good place.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Thunder\u2019s rotation of physical defenders has limited Murray\u2019s efficiency in the past, and even though Lu Dort is no longer one of them, Oklahoma City has plenty of depth on the defensive perimeter. Establishing supplementary ball handlers has been a point of emphasis this preseason. The hope is that more time off the ball will help Murray stay fresher for longer and make the Nuggets more difficult to defend.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nice, for sure,\u201d Murray said. \u201cObviously, I would like to go get the ball and call the play for myself, but it\u2019s fun to take a deep breath and get into the set \u2014 whatever is happening \u2014 and just take a second to be a decoy or whatever it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to be confused with the Nuggets wanting to limit how much the ball is in Murray\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n

\u201cJamal is a complete basketball player. He\u2019s one of the best offensive players in the world. He just happens to play with the best offensive basketball player in the world. Jamal\u2019s passing has always been great,\u201d Adelman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat two-man game, that means there\u2019s two men. I think people forget that. It\u2019s not one guy passing to himself. Jamal Murray has been really good at that for a decade plus.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old has been doing it for long enough. Aaron Gordon gleefully wondered how much better Murray could really get at the team\u2019s media day after posting career highs in points, rebounds and assists last season.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as skill level goes, he\u2019s a master. This is a master at his craft. He can\u2019t shoot the ball any better. He can\u2019t dribble the ball any better. Everything is maxed out,\u201d Gordon said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is one of, if not the best shot makers in the game today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murray has seen a lot over the first 11 years of his career. There was a three-season build-up before he and Nikola Jokic got to the playoffs for the first time in 2019. A year later, Murray established himself as a premier playoff riser in the 2020 bubble and helped the Nuggets reach the conference finals for the first time in more than a decade. Then came the torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee that halted his progress toward All-Stardom and forced him to miss the 2021 and 2022 postseasons before his luck in life changed for the better. He\u2019s taking all the good and bad he\u2019s experienced into his 10th season opener in a Nuggets uniform.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a lot more relaxed, I think, just a little bit more ready. I think I was a lot more excited and had a lot more energy to go out there and play as fast as possible without reading the game,\u201d Murray said. \u201cNow, I just try and settle in and understand what the team needs, time and score, the crowd \u2026 the tone, the moment, all that stuff, I have a better feel for everybody\u2019s emotions and where my emotions are supposed to be as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Injury report<\/p>\n

Denver<\/p>\n

Spencer Jones \u2014 questionable (bilateral hamstring injury management)<\/p>\n

Julian Strawther \u2014 out (left knee sprain)<\/p>\n

Oklahoma City<\/p>\n

Otega Oweh \u2014 out (right Achilles tendon repair)<\/p>\n

Thomas Sorber \u2014 out (right knee surgery)<\/p>\n

Nikola Topic \u2014 out (low-back surgery)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Life has been good to Jamal Murray, but it can always be better. After becoming a father and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":890239,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[1750,3832,4134,1840,1753,1754,355,1756,4140,99],"class_list":["post-890238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-aaron-gordon","tag-colorado","tag-david-adelman","tag-denver","tag-denver-nuggets","tag-jamal-murray","tag-nba","tag-nikola-jokic","tag-nuggets","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890238","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=890238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/890239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=890238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=890238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=890238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}