David Adelman has quickly grasped this season that part of an NBA head coach’s job is to lobby for your players to win awards.
Adelman said that’s not even necessary in Jamal Murray’s case.
“I really hope All-NBA is something that is obvious and not an argument,” the first-year Nuggets coach said recently.
Murray set his sights on one of the 15 All-NBA spots this February, immediately after he was named an All-Star for the first time in his career. He seems to be closing in on accomplishing that goal, especially as other candidates have lost their eligibility late in the season. Murray has already secured his place on the ballot by appearing in 65 games. He ranked seventh in the league in total minutes played, with 400 more than his next-closest teammate as of Friday, before Denver (52-28) hosted Oklahoma City.
In addition to buoying the Nuggets through months of injuries, Murray has played in eight overtime games. He logged 38 or more minutes for the 23rd time on Monday in a comeback win over Portland.
“His game has kind of spoken for itself,” Christian Braun said. “His approach every night has been amazing. … He’s been amazing for us. He’s been available for us. Seems like every night, he’s on the court. He’s a killer. That’s just who he is. I don’t think there’s any debate that he’s an All-NBA player this year.”
Braun described it as Murray’s best individual year. The numbers continue to agree. He’s averaging career highs in points (25.4), rebounds (4.4) and assists (7.1) as the regular season winds down. He’s one of nine players with five 40-point games. The Nuggets have won every one of them.
He reached another milestone in a recent win over Utah. With 1:15 to play, the 29-year-old guard broke Denver’s franchise record for 3-pointers in a single season, previously held by Michael Porter Jr. (220). It gave the Nuggets a 129-126 lead over the Jazz and inspired Murray to break out his “Blue Arrow” celebration for just the second time this season. When asked if he knew about the record, Murray said that Altitude’s Katy Winge had informed him he was close to passing Porter during a halftime interview.
Make no mistake, though, he added: The celebration was for a go-ahead shot, not a record-breaking shot.
“I just wanted to win,” he explained. “We were down. I wasn’t even (thinking about the record). We had a lot of season to break that.”
Murray and Hornets rookie Kon Knueppel have been way ahead of the pack as the NBA’s two best volume 3-point shooters, locked in a race for the most efficient season. Among the 71 players who had taken 350 or more 3s as of Friday, Murray’s 43.5% clip was the best in the league, on 563 attempts. Knueppel was second at 42.9% on 624 attempts.
“I’m just chucking them,” Murray said, smirking, when asked what’s gone right.
“The work he’s put in, the ability to step back off both hands and make 3s is such a big deal,” Adelman said. “Certain guys can do it with one hand. They have to manipulate the play to get to their left or their right. And he’s gotten to the point where it doesn’t matter which side he goes to. Not to mention the transition 3s. The off-the-bounce stuff is just unbelievable.
“… Such a weapon to have a guy who can make 3s in all situations, not just a specialist that can make it in certain situations.”
All-NBA selections became position-less in 2024 after a new collective bargaining agreement went into effect, meaning Murray won’t be inhibited by the disproportionate number of guards to bigs among the candidates. Under the current rules, All-NBA basically celebrates the 15 best players in a given season, as long as they’ve played at least 65 games.
All-Stars such as Cade Cunningham and Anthony Edwards have been out recently, eliminating their chances of making the threshold. Nuggets center Nikola Jokic has been on the edge of eligibility since he returned from a knee injury at the end of January.
Lakers star Luka Doncic is asking the league to grant him an exception after falling one game short of the minimum, his agent announced recently. An “extraordinary circumstances” clause in the CBA permits arbitration in certain cases; Doncic argues that the two games he missed due to the birth of his child in Slovenia shouldn’t count against him. However, he was also suspended recently for what would have been his 65th game after picking up his 16th technical foul of the year.
Meanwhile, Murray has avoided the drama of rulebook semantics. He has entered another red-hot stretch in April — 44 of 86 from 3-point range (51%) in his last nine games.
“When he gets in a rhythm and he lets that kind of take over his flow, there’s certain things that he does as a shooter that lends really well to being able to recreate the environments of shooting that he wants,” Nuggets sharpshooter Cam Johnson marveled. “He’s able to get under the ball. Get arc on it. So there’s a lot less variance with his shots. It’s very repeatable. Which just means he’s a very good shooter. He’s been that way his whole career. He’s very comfortable here, in this building, and he’s been doing it a long time.”
