2018 Player Reviews: Jamal Murray's path towards 'alpha' status is clear

If you want a peek behind the curtain at how the confident and sometimes cocky Jamal Murray is approaching his offseason regimen, look no further than a comment the 21-year-old made at his exit interview last week.

“My free throw percentage should be my three-point percentage,” Murray said with a straight face.

Murray’s declaration was met with nervous laughter. It wasn’t because the media in attendance thought the 6-foot-4 guard was joking. Because he wasn’t. It was because the uber confident Murray has the ridiculous amount of self-belief necessary to talk himself into thinking he can reach such an impossible goal.

Murray converted 90.5 of free-throw attempts last season. He shot 37.8 percent from three-point range. Shooting the same percentages from the charity strip and from distance is unobtainable even for a dead-eye three-point shooter like Murray. But after playing through two hernias during his rookie year and undergoing surgery last offseason to repair core muscle-related injuries, Murray enters this summer fully healthy and more focused than ever.

He can’t wait to get back to work.

“It’s my first summer that I’ll actually be able to work on my body, work on my game,” Murray said. “Last year, injuries, surgery, the year before that, Team Canada.”

After a rookie season where he came off the bench and played mostly off the ball, Murray established himself this past year as Denver’s point guard of the future. He’s not a prototypical NBA point guard, but his playmaking and score-first mentality fits well in concert with Nikola Jokic’s pass-first philosophy.

In his first season as a starter, Murray averaged 16.7 points, 3.7 rebounds. 3.4 assists and 1.0 steals per game. Murray took a lot of pride in playing all 82 games despite two hernias during his rookie season. This year he missed one game because of a concussion. He also came off the bench once due to disciplinary reasons.

“Going into the season, a 20-year-old starting point guard in the Western Conference, I thought he was unbelievable this year. I really do,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “How much he grew. Not afraid of the moment. He’s not perfect, none of us are. And myself and our players, we use this offseason to come back better.”

Not being afraid of the moment is a perfect way to sum up Murray’s second professional season.

On a team devoid of an ‘alpha,’ Murray is ready to step into that role. He wants the ball at the end of games and showed an ability this season to make big-time shots late in fourth quarters. Murray took the second-most field goal attempts on the Nuggets to Will Barton in what NBA.com defines as the “clutch,” when there are five minutes or less remaining in regulation and the score is within five points.

Murray shot 45.6 percent in “clutch” situations — a higher conversion rate than Barton, Jokic and Gary Harris. Murray also shot 8-22 from three in the “clutch,” which was a team-high.

In what was arguably the Nuggets’ best win of the season — a 127-124 overtime win over the Thunder on Feb. 1 — Murray finished with a team-high 33 points. He went 5-9 from the field for a team-high 10 points in a tightly-contested final period

“I haven’t seen a 20-year-old do that on a national stage many times in my career,” Malone said after the win.

“I’ve been working to get here, coming from a small city in Canada, trying to get my looks, trying to get my attention,” Murray added. “All I can do is break more ankles and score more points to do that. I’m not going to stop and I don’t see no one else stopping me either.”

The edge Murray plays with was also evident in March across two games against the Lakers where Murray embraced the trash talk and banter between himself, Lakers coach Luke Walton and point guard Lonzo Ball. Walton said Murray acted in a “disrespectful” manner towards his bench. Ball said he’s not going to feed into Murray’s “circus stuff.”

“I can’t control what the other team’s gonna feel,” Murray said. “I’m just gonna go out there and hoop, and whoever takes it to heart and takes their losses salty, I can’t do anything about that.”

Murray’s next step is consistency. He admittedly had too many 1-5 or 1-6 shooting nights when Denver needed consistent offense from its point guard.

The Kentucky product made a substantial leap from his rookie season last year and enjoyed an encouraging sophomore campaign. A bigger jump should be in store for Murray next year with a full offseason to work on his craft.

“I just can’t wait for next year now. I can’t wait for the summer,” Murray said a mere 30 minutes after Denver was eliminated on the last night of the regular season in Minnesota. “Just knowing it’s my second year. My first year I came off the bench playing shooting guard … I know the game now. I know what it takes to win.”

FINAL LINE: 16.7 pts, 45.1 FG%, 37.8 3P%, 3.7 rebs. 3.4 asts, 0.3 blks, 1.0 stls, 2.1 tovs