Jamal Murray of the Denver Nuggets poses for a portrait on the Media Day in Denver, Colorado, October 2, 2023. /CFP
Jamal Murray of the Denver Nuggets poses for a portrait on the Media Day in Denver, Colorado, October 2, 2023. /CFP
The reigning NBA champions Denver Nuggets are expecting to sign a five-year, $303 million supermax contract extension with their starting point guard Jamal Murray in summer 2024, according to the team’s general manager Calvin Booth who talked to SportsKeeda.com.
Murray, 26, has two years and about $69.8 million left of his current deal with the Nuggets. He is eligible to sign a three-year, $145 million extension until October 23, but according to the player himself, there has been no conversation over the issue. Booth revealed that Murray and his agent Jeff Schwartz, founder and president of Excel Sports Management, would “rather play it out.”
In his sixth NBA season (he was ruled out for the entire 2021-22 campaign due to injury), Murray averaged 20 points, 6.2 assists and 2.6 triples at 39.8 percent per game in the regular season. These numbers were hardly impressive considering that he was playing along with Nikola Jokic, one of the top three centers in NBA history on the offensive end.
Jamal Murray (#27) of the Denver Nuggets shoots in Game 4 of the NBA Western Conference Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, California, May 22, 2023. /CFP
Jamal Murray (#27) of the Denver Nuggets shoots in Game 4 of the NBA Western Conference Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, California, May 22, 2023. /CFP
However, as Murray had shown more than once before, he lifted his game to another level in the playoffs, averaging 26.1 points, 7.1 assists and three triples at 39.6 percent per game. When the Los Angeles Lakers invested all of their efforts in slowing Jokic down in the Western Conference Finals, Murray tore the rest of the purple and gold’s defense apart with dominant isolation performance, averaging 32.5 points, 5.3 assists and 3.75 triples at 40.5 percent per game during the 4-0 series.
Then in the NBA Finals against the Miami Heat, Murray took over the orchestrating duty from Jokic, contributing an average double-double of 21.4 points and 10 assists per game and enabling Jokic to give full play to his scoring ability against the opponents’ undersized lineup.
If Murray is selected into any of the three All-NBA Teams in the 2023-24 season, he will be eligible to sign a five-year, $303 extension at most with the Nuggets, according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks. Since the All-NBA Teams will no longer be divided by positions under the new collective bargaining agreement, Murray may have a chance to be selected into one of them along with other star caliber guards like Stephen Curry, Luka Doncic, Donovan Mitchell, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Damian Lillard.
