{"id":39328,"date":"2025-05-17T14:25:31","date_gmt":"2025-05-17T14:25:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/39328\/"},"modified":"2025-05-17T14:25:31","modified_gmt":"2025-05-17T14:25:31","slug":"nuggets-jamal-murray-gamble-is-wasting-nikola-jokics-mvp-peak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/39328\/","title":{"rendered":"Nuggets’ Jamal Murray gamble is wasting Nikola Jokic’s MVP peak"},"content":{"rendered":"

A dynasty dies nastier by the day. Has an NBA team ever wasted greatness the way the Nuggets are wasting Nikola Jokic right now?<\/a><\/p>\n

The best player in the world is playing the best basketball of his career for a roster that doesn\u2019t play defense, doesn\u2019t listen to its coach and doesn\u2019t have the depth to weather the storm.<\/p>\n

This month, in games that matter for NBA playoff seeding, the Joker\u2019s averaged 45 points, 12.3 rebounds and 10.7 assists over three tilts. Denver is 0-3. The better he looks, the more it hurts.<\/p>\n

His Nuggets, meanwhile, look like a first-round exit just waiting to happen. Funny, isn\u2019t it? Steph Curry never won a title without Klay Thompson. Michael Jordan never won a ring without Scottie Pippen. The Joker won\u2019t win a second without a healthy Jamal Murray.<\/p>\n

Over the last four NBA decades, legends that landed a second parade, by and large, had superlative and reliable sidekicks helping carry the weight.<\/p>\n

At his apex, Murray is as superlative as they come.<\/a><\/p>\n

Reliable? Not so much.<\/p>\n

The Blue Arrow just isn\u2019t that guy. Oh, he can be that guy, and that\u2019s what drives you \u2014 and hopefully, him \u2014 a little nuts.<\/p>\n

When he\u2019s right, Murray is a video-game glitch come to life, a jump shot that\u2019s seemingly always on fire. His postseason work in 2020 and 2023 was so exquisite, it could hang from the Louvre.<\/p>\n

But he also missed the 2021 and \u201922 postseasons entirely to a torn ACL and subsequent recovery. He limped through the 2024 playoffs. And who knows what happens at the end of this month?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time to keep your blue-and-gold rosary beads in one hand and a bottle of Pepto Bismol within reach of the other. Head coach Michael Malone told reporters before Sunday\u2019s game vs. Indiana that he hoped to have Murray back to begin the playoffs. His teammates then honored the Blue Arrow\u2019s absence by dropping a fourth straight contest.<\/p>\n

What was it John Elway liked to say about Garett Bolles?<\/p>\n

Availability\u2019s an ability, too.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s be clear: The Nuggets don\u2019t win a title two years ago without Murray dropping daggers for fun.<\/p>\n

But let\u2019s be real, too: The Nuggets may not win another championship with Jokic, in part, because of the franchise\u2019s loyalty to No. 27.<\/p>\n

The Nuggets could use an enema. Everything that isn\u2019t Joker or Aaron Gordon has gotta go. But Murray\u2019s four-year, $208.5-million extension through 2029<\/a> makes his contract about as easy to move<\/a> as a baby grand up 12 flights of stairs.<\/p>\n

Hindsight isn\u2019t just 20\/20, of course \u2014 it\u2019s 5-10, which is Denver\u2019s postseason record since 2019 without Murray in the lineup.<\/p>\n

They need him. Badly.<\/p>\n

They just can\u2019t count on him to be healthy. Not anymore.<\/p>\n

Nor is it all on the Arrow\u2019s tab. It took several hands to sully a Finals winner, some of them long gone. Tim Connelly\u2019s max contract for Michael Porter Jr. seemed premature then<\/a> and looks borderline painful now. When you ride The Russell Westbrook Express, those tickets are non-refundable.<\/a> Is it Murray\u2019s fault that the Nuggets rotate on the defensive end with all the speed of an old battleship? Or that the bench is invisible?<\/p>\n

This league is a grind \u2014\u00a0 the mileage catches up with everybody, eventually. But it\u2019s also worth noting that Pippen played in at least 72 regular-season games in each of his first 10 NBA seasons. Point of comparison: Murray\u2019s done that just three times, all before the age of 22. Since the 2019-20 season, the Ontario native\u2019s averaged 49 regular-season appearances.<\/p>\n

When it comes to the Arrow\u2019s accessibility, it\u2019s not a bug anymore. It\u2019s a feature.<\/p>\n

Stan Kroenke splashed the cash. Josh Kroenke rolled the dice. They lost.<\/p>\n

Jokic\u2019s losing, too. And that\u2019s the part that kills you.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s 30. The front office needs to surround the Joker ASAP with more shooters he can feed; more perimeter defenders who can stop or slow traffic before it gets to him; and at least one rim protector. Not in two years. Not whenever Julian Strawther or Peyton Watson turn another corner. Today.<\/p>\n

Instead, Jokic is a savior and a prisoner. An icon trying to shield a dysfunctional franchise from the claws of its collective demons. An MVP looking for help that may never come.<\/p>\n

When the Nuggets extended Murray last fall, it looked like a bargain. Flash forward seven months, you start to wonder if that bargain was actually with Mephistopheles.<\/a> And if the bill\u2019s about to come due.<\/p>\n

Want more Nuggets news? Sign up for the Nuggets Insider to get all our NBA analysis.<\/a><\/p>\n

Originally Published: April 7, 2025 at 8:13 PM MDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A dynasty dies nastier by the day. Has an NBA team ever wasted greatness the way the Nuggets…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39329,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3781],"tags":[877,7,765,301,187,3943,766,762,3787,763,165,4231,764,252,6,253,302,1146,254,66,198,4713,3994],"class_list":{"0":"post-39328","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-denver-nuggets","8":"tag-aaron-gordon","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-colorado","11":"tag-denver","12":"tag-denver-nuggets","13":"tag-denvernuggets","14":"tag-front-range","15":"tag-jamal-murray","16":"tag-josh-kroenke","17":"tag-julian-strawther","18":"tag-latest-headlines","19":"tag-michael-malone","20":"tag-michael-porter","21":"tag-more-nuggets-news","22":"tag-nba","23":"tag-nikola-jokic","24":"tag-nuggets","25":"tag-peyton-watson","26":"tag-russell-westbrook","27":"tag-sports","28":"tag-sports-columnists","29":"tag-stan-kroenke","30":"tag-tim-connelly"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114523637256562705","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}