And then there was one.
If you had told Jamal Murray in early October that he’d be the last Denver Nuggets starter standing by the time New Year’s Day arrived, and that so much of the weight of his title-contending team’s workload would be heaped up on him in this crucial midseason stretch, then perhaps his delightful mood might have been different. As if losing three-time MVP Nikola Jokić for at least a month to a left knee injury on Monday night wasn’t disastrous enough on its own, the Nuggets (23-10; third in the Western Conference) are also without guard Christian Braun (left ankle sprain suffered on Nov. 12), forward Aaron Gordon (hamstring injury on Nov. 21), small forward Cam Johnson (right knee bone bruise on Dec. 23) and backup big man Jonas Valanciunas (right calf strain on Wednesday).
When Murray and I spoke at UC San Diego during training camp three months ago — long before this rash of injuries wrecked the very plan they spent all that time putting in place — the 29-year-old had never seemed lighter. He was a man unburdened, with the messiness and (relative) mediocrity of the previous season having made way for a summer that left his mind and body revitalized.
In stark contrast to the offseason before, when the combination of his contract situation and physical ailments made his Olympic experience with Team Canada more challenging than he’d hoped for, Murray had found his balance again. He had time to travel, citing treks to Japan and the Cayman Islands as the top highlights in between trips back to his adopted home in Denver.
There was plenty of time to “just chill and take care of the family,” said Murray, whose young daughter is a regular at the team’s facility. He enjoyed a steady dose of his second-favorite sport: the UFC training he has taken part in for quite a few years now.
After all the chaos that they’d navigated in early April, when the Nuggets fired their general manager and longtime coach just days before the playoffs began and ultimately fell to eventual champion Oklahoma City in the second round, Murray was badly in need of a basketball break.
“(With) Team Canada, it’s in the middle of my summer, where I got to decompress for a week (after the NBA season), try to get in shape for Team Canada, and then try to decompress for the season,” Murray told me then. “It was just — I couldn’t do it. So this summer, just being done — and really being done — was an incredible feeling. There was the first week of just doing nothing, then two weeks of doing nothing. And then I just worked out. I didn’t really play basketball.”
Compared to the year before, when ankle injuries had hampered him in the 2024 playoffs and a sore Achilles quietly nagged at him during the Olympics, this was a desperately-needed change of pace.
“I didn’t have a great summer (training-wise) overall, and that’s what it was,” said Murray, who signed a four-year, $208 million extension in September 2024. “Now I get to come back fresh with a new mindset, and I could leave all that s— in the past. I was in a much more positive place. … My body was already good. I already felt refreshed. I got the chance to decompress and fully go back with a good spirit, instead of having to be like, ‘Oh, damn. I only have two weeks (to rest).’ That was good. That was probably the best part, just having no stress, no hoops to play.”
Little did he know how vital that revival would prove to be.
Murray’s play has been a much-needed bright spot for the Nuggets. (Kevin Sousa / Imagn Images)
If there’s one thing that should give the Nuggets hope that they can manage this injury crisis, to hold the line just enough to put themselves in good playoff position by the time April rolls around, it’s the fact that Murray’s offseason of basketball-less bliss has led to him playing the best midseason hoops of his 10-year career. That distinction is key in this conversation, of course, because the 29-year-old has long been known as a slow starter who saves his best for last. In turn, he earned the unwelcome honor of being one of the best players who had never been an All-Star.
Not this year, though.
Through Monday night in Miami, when Jokić’s injury changed both the Nuggets’ prospects and the entire landscape of the West, Murray was one of just five players averaging at least 25 points, seven assists and four rebounds (along with Jokić, Detroit’s Cade Cunningham, the Lakers’ Luka Dončić and the Clippers’ James Harden). The uptick in scoring was the most notable development of them all, as Murray has never averaged more than 21.4 points for a season. Add in the fact that he was the most accurate long-range marksman of the five-player bunch — 45.4 percent from 3-point range on 7.7 attempts per game — and you start to see why so many believe Murray’s All-Star fate is so likely to (finally) change.
But as was so evident in Denver’s improbable win in Toronto on Wednesday, when Murray faced an evening full of double teams that are about to become his nightly norm, he is about to undergo a much grittier sort of challenge. That legendary two-man game with Jokić that the Nuggets have enjoyed for most of a decade now, and which propelled them to the title in 2023, has now become a solo act of sorts.
“Just being aggressive, (with) maybe a little more freedom on the ball,” Murray told reporters in Toronto when asked about playing without Jokić. “The other team knows what they’re going to get from me. (It’s) just staying consistent with that. … Winning is the priority. But (it’s) just keeping my foot on the gas — not just to go against the other team but also for my team so that they understand and know what’s going to come behind (his) play. We can build this chemistry over the next month or two to get ready for the playoffs.”
The loss of Jokić is as brutal a blow as any team could face, as his greatness extends well beyond the incredible impact he makes individually. He is the ultimate floor-raiser, with the (jaw-dropping) on/off stats to prove it year after year. This season, with Jokić (29.6 points, 12.2 rebounds and 11 assists per game) on track to average a triple-double for the second consecutive season, the Nuggets’ net-rating swing was a whopping 17.6 when he came off the floor (plus-12.3 on to minus-5.3 off).
The Valanciunas injury, meanwhile, is pure salt in that open wound. When co-general managers Ben Tenzer and Jon Wallace landed the 33-year-old veteran in a trade with the Sacramento Kings in mid-July, it was part of their banner offseason in which the long-standing depth issue was meaningfully addressed. Now, with coach David Adelman running out of roster options by the day, it’s anyone’s guess as to who might take that center spot (the little-used Zeke Nnaji or DaRon Holmes II would appear to be up next).
The only saving grace for Denver? Help is on the way.
Adelman told reporters on Saturday that Gordon and Braun could return by the end of this current road trip, which ends in Boston on Wednesday (after games in Cleveland, Brooklyn and Philadelphia). Having Gordon back would be a lifeline for their battered frontline. As for Johnson, he won’t be back anytime soon (a reevaluation is slated for late January).
For Murray’s part, the secret to surviving this onslaught of Nuggets injuries — and to staying healthy enough to help at the highest level — can be found in the summer spent away from the game he loves.
“With basketball, I can always get shots up,” he said during our October conversation. “But it was working on my body, doing my hamstring curls, doing my knee stuff, doing all the stuff to get my body right. Throughout the summer, my body felt good. So when I went back to basketball, there’s no worry. I can just kind of go into the game free-minded, and knowing that I’ve already put in the work.”
With a whole lot more left to come.