Nuggets' Jamal Murray to undergo surgery Thursday

DENVER — Nuggets’ general manager Tim Connelly, in an appearance on Altitude Radio, said point guard Jamal Murray will undergo surgery Thursday morning.

Murray, 20, averaged 9.9 points on 40.4 percent shooting from the field and 33.4 percent from three, to go with 2.1 rebounds, and 2.6 assists during his rookie season. The No. 7 overall pick in the 2016 draft saw action in all 82 games (9 starts) for Denver and reportedly played the entire season through a sports hernia.

Connelly noted that Murray played through “a couple of injuries that most guys in the NBA wouldn’t play with,” last year.

A sports hernia is a tear in the soft tissue of the groin and is usually extremely painful and limits quick changes of directions and explosion. Sometimes hernias can be healed over time without surgery but it seems that the severity of Murray’s injury will require him to undergo a procedure. In 2016, Brandon Knight and Deron Williams both had their seasons end prematurely after suffering sports hernias. Both players opted for offseason surgery and were healthy for the start of training camp.

Connelly also discussed Danilo Gallinari‘s impending free agency once the swingman declines his player option, which he’s expected to do, and Connelly went out of his way to say that retaining Gallinari was a “goal” of his. Gallinari averaged  18.2 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 2.2 assists over 63 games last season. It was the most games Gallinari’s appeared in since the 2012-13 season.