Why GM Calvin Booth believes that Jamal Murray of the Nuggets “wore down” against the Timberwolves
How the Nuggets can possibly manage Jamal Murray’s health
Because dynasties are more prevalent in basketball than in most other major sports, it is easy to take for granted how difficult it is to sustain excellence in the NBA. The Denver Nuggets showed signs of vulnerability throughout the 2023-24 season and even in the first round of the playoffs, but they were still understandably viewed as the team to beat in the West. Ultimately, however, they could not recapture that championship spark.
The inconsistent play of Jamal Murray was an undeniable factor in the Nuggets being eliminated by the Minnesota Timberwolves. He did his part and then some in the 98-90 Game 7 loss (35 points on 13-of-27 shooting), but he was invisible, or rather painfully visible, in several crucial moments during the series.
While his place in postseason history is tough to question, Denver needed more from Murray in order to keep their back-to-back title hopes alive. Injuries likely contributed to the 27-year-old’s lulls, as he incurred a calf strain and elbow issue in these NBA Playoffs.
With the franchise’s offseason officially underway, the inevitable period of rumination can now begin. The front office is specifically pondering what it could have done to preserve the long-term health of its star point guard.
Should Nuggets have been even more cautious with Jamal Murray?
“This year {Murray} was a little bit more up and down,” Nuggets general manager Calvin Booth said, according to Bennett Durando of The Denver Post.
“Missed a lot of games with some soft tissue injuries and injuries of other sorts. I think to {head coach Michael Malone’s} point, we all have to study and look at what we can do better. Maybe look at past history…Do you look at what other great players have done, other great guards have done after they won a championship?”
Booth believes it is important to do “some investigating” in terms of seeing how a high-usage backcourt talent typically responds to a long playoff run. Jamal Murray is a special case, though, considering he suffered a torn ACL in 2021 that kept him on the sidelines for 18 months. He reclaimed his past postseason form, but it might have come at a cost.
Nothing should be taken away from the Timberwolves, for they displayed incredible tenacity in Game 7, but the Western Conference Semifinals could look a bit differently if Murray is 100 percent. Calvin Booth seems to think so.
“If Jamal is in shape and in condition, he’s a totally different beast,” the executive said. “He obviously wore down a little bit at the end of the playoffs. Anthony Edwards is maybe the best on-ball defender in the NBA. He was gonna have to be in condition to get off the ball and move around a lot more, run him around. I don’t know if playing since last June, coming off the ACL, some of the soft tissue injuries he had, if he was in condition to do that in this series.”