Jamal Murray, Kentucky
Age: 19 years old Size: 6’4, 207 pounds
Last Season’s Stats: 20 points; 5.2 rebounds; 2.2 assists per game
Percentages: 45.4% from the field; 40.8% from three-point; 78.3% from the free throw line
Jamal Murray’s game has thoroughly been dissected. He is an absolute score-first guard, who has physical limitations offensively and defensively. His intangibles are through the roof and he brings with him a gym-rat mentality and a purely basketball focused mindset. He has extreme issues defensively, not because of effort but because of his lack of quickness, strength and size.
His fit next to Mudiay is undeniable. He can score in a variety of ways and is as pure from behind the three-point arc, 40.8 percent, as anyone in this draft class. He brings spacing and a score first mentality that would greatly benefit the offense. He needs to get slightly better in the pick and roll but that will come over time.
To me he will never be a difference maker for the Nuggets, especially as someone who is slated to go from third to sixth in the draft. Murray, in time, could win two or three Sixth Man of the Year awards and that is nothing to scoff at, but as the player that would fit with the Nuggets long-term plans he is not the player to trade up to get.
