Jamal Murray hacked away at the baseballs like he was wielding a scythe to cut through jungle brush.
The Denver Nuggets’ starting point guard, who was at Coors Field Friday to participate in the Healthy Swings home run derby to raise money for the National Stroke Association, never played baseball growing up in Kitchener, Ontario. It showed. He had a difficult time putting balls in play — let alone driving them into Coors Field’s massive outfield.
“That was my first time trying to hit the ball,” Murary said. “I didn’t do too bad in my opinion.”
The high standards Murray holds himself to on the hardwood apparently don’t apply when he’s on the baseball diamond. That’s probably healthy. At his exit interview last month, Murray said with a straight face “my three-point percentage should be my free-throw percentage.”
In the month since the Nuggets’ season ended, Murray has already spent considerable time in the gym in Denver and back home in Canada. Murray is taking advantage of the time off to add muscle and grow his game.
“I’m eating a lot more, like a lot lot more,” Murray said. “I’m just trying to stay consistent with that. My shooting percentage, I’m trying to up that a lot. I’m aiming for 50-40-90. I’m just trying to make sure I understand my shot more than I did last year.”
One of Murray’s goals for next season, he said, is to shoot 50 percent from the floor, 40 percent from three-point land and 90 percent from the free-throw line. Stephen Curry, who accomplished the feat in 2015-16, was the last player to hit all three benchmarks in a single season. Curry, Kevin Durant and Dirk Nowitzki are the only active players who are a part of the exclusive club.
“I’ve already got the 90 down,” Murray said.
Murray shot 90.5 percent from the free throw line, the fifth-best mark in the league. To achieve his lofty goal, he’ll have to improve his field goal percentage (45.1) and three-point percentage (37.8) considerably. It’s not absurd to think Murray could come close. He improved by leaps and bounds in year two, and he’ll finally have a whole summer to work out. Surgery to repair a double sports hernia cost Murray most of last summer.
“I think he’s a guy who has a chance to be special,” Nuggets president of basketball operations Tim Connelly said about Murray at exit interviews last month. “Very well publicized early struggles. The next step with Jamal is consistency. Some flashes of brilliance and some games where we knew he had more, which is to be expected for his age. The guy turned 21 this season. Super proud of Jamal. I think he’s everything we want him to be as a person and a player. I think he can be special as an elite guard in our league.”
The Nuggets have finished one game out of the playoffs in both of Murray’s seasons with the team. They went 40-42 his rookie year and 46-36 in 2017-18. Denver’s playoff hopes were on life support at the end of March, but it nearly snuck into the postseason by going 6-1 in its last seven games.
“We’re going to be a lot more focused I think,” Murray said. “The two years I’ve been here, we’ve missed the playoffs by one game. I think two years is a good learning curve. Next year there are no excuses. We’ve got to win the games we’re supposed to win.”
Next season is still a ways away. There’s still the draft and free agency to worry about. Murray will represent the Nuggets at the NBA Draft Lottery on Tuesday in Chicago. In all likelihood, the Nuggets will come away with the 14th selection. They have a 1-in-200 chance of getting to No. 1 pick and a 1.8 percent chance of landing a top-three selection.
“Why not? Just go there and have a good time,” Murray said. “Hopefully the No. 7 draft pick will bring some luck.”
