Why Jamal Murray thinks the Nuggets can be the ultimate Disney World dark horse

It was about as bad of a regular season loss as the Nuggets have endured over the last several seasons.

In early March, the Nuggets fell 116-100 to the Golden State Warriors who that night were without Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green. The Nuggets on the other hand were fully healthy but succumbed to a 43-15 second-half run by the Warriors that put the game away. It was only the Nuggets’ eighth loss at home all season.

There was a familiar feel in the Nuggets’ locker room that night, one of disappointment but also reassuring confidence. Denver had dropped these types of games before, like a November loss to the Hawks and a January defeat in Washington D.C. in what many around team refer to as “the Ish Smith game.” Yet even after those losses, especially Denver’s home collapse against Golden State, the prominent voices in the Nuggets’ locker room remained confident about the team’s championship-level ceiling and playoff outlook.

Jamal Murray exuded that same level of confidence when speaking to the media on a Zoom call last week.

“Why not?” Murray responded when asked why he thinks the Nuggets can win the championship this season. “We’ve proven to be one of the best teams year in and year out since we started building. We’ve beaten good teams consistently. We shouldn’t have lost to Portland (last year), that was more on us, our inexperience. They’re a good team, but we don’t think there’s a team that can beat us in a seven game series when we’re playing at our best.”

“We know we can go win a title.”

Murray’s not alone in his thinking and an absence of basketball during the COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t cooked Denver’s confidence. They still believe.

It’s a belief centered around what Murray outlined in his remarks. The Nuggets believe in their resume, which includes high quality wins over NBA title favorites like the Bucks, Lakers, Clippers and other Western Conference playoff teams even if some of those wins came with key injuries to their opponent, but also losses to both Eastern and Western conference bottom-feeders.

With two wins over the Grizzlies, one in December and one in January, and victories over the Nets and Magic throughout the year, the Nuggets have beaten every current Western and Eastern Conference playoff team this season.

Nuggets Best wins

• Nov. 5 vs. Miami
• Nov. 8 vs. Philadelphia (without Ben Simmons)
• Nov. 20 vs. Rockets
• Nov. 22 vs. Celtics
• Dec. 14 vs Thunder
• Dec. 22 at Lakers (without LeBron James)
• Jan. 2 at Indiana
• Jan. 8 at Dallas
• Jan. 12 vs. Clippers (without Paul George)
• Jan. 26 vs. Rockets (without James Harden)
• Jan. 30 vs. Jazz
• Jan. 31 at Bucks
• Feb. 5 at Jazz
• March 1 vs. Raptors

Nuggets Worst losses

• Oct. 31 at Pelicans
• Nov. 12 vs. Atlanta
• Nov. 30 at Kings
• Dec. 25 vs. Pelicans
• Jan. 4 at Wizards
• Jan. 11 vs. Cavs
• Feb. 2 at Pistons
• March 3 vs. Warriors

The Nuggets believe in their chemistry too. Coming into this season, Denver had the highest continuity ranking in the league, returning 92% of their minutes this season. With what’s sure to be a somewhat limited training camp ahead of eight seeding games and the playoffs, will Denver’s chemistry enable its roster to come together and gel after the equivalent of a regular NBA offseason apart?

If the season does resume on July 31, there will have been 142 days in between games. There were 112 days in between Game 6 of the 2019 Finals and the first preseason game of the 2019-20 season. Murray said he thinks the Nuggets’ chemistry is one advantage Denver has over other teams when the season does resume.

It seems like ages ago now, but the Nuggets opened the 2019-20 regular season with an 11-3 record with much of their success attributed to roster familiarity and continuity. If the NBA’s restart at Disney World acts as the beginning of a new season rather than the continuation of this one, Denver could benefit.

“In terms of chemistry, we’ve probably got the best chemistry out of all teams in the league,” Murray said. “Just because we play so free, play so open, we look for each other, we’re not selfish, the ball moves, everybody touches it and it’s not just a couple possessions. We’ve found a lot of great clips where a lot of people touch the ball and a lot of people have fun playing…”

The Nuggets are confident in their top-end talent too and in an abnormal postseason environment talent may ultimately win out. It’s probably not a stretch to say the eight regular season games and NBA playoffs at Disney World could feature slightly simplified offenses. Teams will be rusty with their play calls after and the the crisp timing and rhythm that’s vital to offenses executing at their peak levels may come with time, but might not be on display from the start.

If that’s the case having an All-Star like Nikola Jokic, who has essentially clinched a second-straight All-NBA First Team selection, bodes well for the Nuggets especially if the rumors are true regarding the shape he’s kept himself in throughout the hiatus.

“He got a little four pack. I love it,” Murray said of Jokic. “You remember, my second year how skinny Joker was, and you could see him start to put on the weight. Now its like he put on a lot more and it’s just gone. It’s just gone. He just took it all the way off. It’s weird to see him like this where he’s a lot more athletic, he’s moving a lot better. We’ve been in Denver this whole time going to the gym every single day.”

Murray’s excitement about the season returning is obvious. He stayed in Denver for the entire hiatus and was one of the first participants to begin voluntary workouts at Pepsi Center once the Nuggets’ practice court opened for individual workouts on March 11.

Another positive for the Nuggets heading into the NBA’s restart is that the frustrating losses to sub. 500 teams that Denver suffered this season are a distant memory. The Nuggets will only be reminded of them if the inconsistency that they played with in those matchups resurfaces at Disney World.

“If we can just find that consistency and play at a high level, when me and Joker are on I don’t think there’s anybody that’s going to stop us, for real,” Murray said. “And if they do, then good game.”