Nuggets Film Room: Jamal Murray is elevating others with his playmaking

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Jamal Murray is a shooter and there is no question about that but there is a lot more to his game that hides beneath the surface. It is his playmaking and passing ability that is drastically understated. Murray has shown proficiency passing in the pick and roll, in transition, and has shown a medley of creativity mixed with his outstanding basketball IQ with the ball in his hands.

Murray’s play was initially foreshadowed back at the Nuggets’ press conference following the 2016 NBA draft.

“We have Jamal as primarily on the ball,” General Manager Tim Connelly said of Murray. “I think his experience with the Canadian national team you saw him play quite a bit on the ball but he is the definition of a combo guard.”

Pick-and-roll Passing

Murray has done a solid job of proving his ability to be a pick and roll ball handler throughout his rookie season. He plays with a methodical mindset that is almost quarterback like.

In the clip below you can see Murray use the screen from Nikola Jokic and slice into the paint. Once he clears the elbow he takes a step towards Rudy Gobert‘s far shoulder and forces Gobert to turn his hips away from Jokic, who is rolling to the rim, and focus on the penetration of Murray instead.

The pick leads to Jokic ending up with Dante Exum trailing him setting up a mismatch for the Nuggets to exploit. Murray then uses one additional step away from the rim that Gobert has to cover to create slightly more room for Jokic to receive the perfectly placed bounce pass and go up for the easy layup. That type of methodical and premeditated thought process rarely exists in a 19-year-old guard.

In another pick and roll with Jokic, seen below, Murray uses the screen from Jokic to get one step in from the elbow with Brandon Knight on his back. Murray then hop-steps horizontally and forces Alex Len to step up and contest a possible pull-up jump shot.

Instead of pulling up from just inside the free throw line Murray uses the extra space to drop another bounce pass that leads to a rare Jokic dunk. Murray, again, used his body and angles as the pick and roll ball handler to create even more space that, in this case, led to a highly efficient shot.

What makes Murray’s pick and roll game so exciting is the fact that he is doing these little things instinctually. These are not forced passes and he is using his own angles as the initiator in the pick and roll to add more space than his shooting ability already created.

His comfort level and execution in the pick and roll is beyond his years.

Mixture of creativity and passing IQ

Murray also has shown that he is a willing playmaker on isolation dribble-drives and when swinging the ball around the perimeter. His creativity and overall understanding of everything that is happening around him had led to his vision being much better than advertised out of college.

The clip below shows off Murray’s IQ and creativity passing out of a basic dribble-drive. Emmanuel Mudiay initiates the high pick and roll and the ball gets swung around the perimeter and into Murray’s hands. Murray then attacks the closeout and forces the defense to react.

He then jump-stops as if he is going to force a tough pull-up jumper drawing in the weak-side help defense. Murray fakes like he is going to make the simple pass to Jokic by using a head and ball fake and gets Chandler Parsons to attempt to jump the passing lane. Murray whips a bounce pass to Gary Harris across the court for a wide open three, which he converts. The fact that he went through all of these options within one long step makes for a pretty dime from the rookie.

This clip was after a break and was a set-play. Murray shows off his basketball IQ by reading Allen Crabbe the whole way. The Nuggets runs double screen with Faried and Jokic on Damian Lillard that frees up the vision of Murray who immediately begins eyeing Crabbe.

Once Crabbe rotates late on the Juancho Hernangomez screen he already knows where he is going with the pass. Hernangomez comes open on the perimeter, catches the pass from Murray, and nails the three. The Nuggets have struggled running set plays after breaks in the game and for their second youngest player to execute at this level speaks directly to his already high-level basketball IQ and nearly perfect timing.

The Nuggets have long lacked a player who can create their own shot or create a shot for others out of a set play and Murray seems capable of doing both. The best basketball players on the planet make everyone around them better while still being able to take over a game individually. While it is far too early to say if Murray is a player of that caliber he does show a skill-set that may evolve into that type of force for the Nuggets.

Transition Passing

Murray’s ability to control the pace and assert the tempo as the Nuggets see fit may be the most underrated aspect of his ability with the ball in his hands. For a player that was labeled as “slow” and “lacking quickness,” Murray has shown a multitude of different passes at different speeds in transition.

In the first clip, you get a look and Murray’s timing and creativity. He leaks out early and ends up with Zach LaVine guarding him on the perimeter. Murray already knows that Nurkic is streaking down the court and that Karl-Anthony Towns is too far behind to block the shot while trailing.

After catching Mudiay’s outlet pass Murray slows down his momentum and uses a singular dribble to force Lavine to stay tight to him and then puts down a one-handed bounce pass leading to a Nurkic dunk. Murray could have easily rushed the pass which would have allowed LaVine to contest the shot at the rim. The premeditated thought to use one dribble to keep LaVine from sagging into the paint while still knowing that Towns won’t be able to alter the shot is a special thought process from a player as young and inexperienced as Murray.

Not only does he use bounce passes with his dominant right hand but can also flip the script and shows off similar timing and creativity but with his left hand. Murray again shows his understanding of where everyone is around him, looks off Nemanja Bjelica and threads the needle with a left-handed bounce pass to Chandler. The only way this play works is if he places this pass perfectly and uses his sight line to look off Bjelica.

Below Murray puts on the afterburners after collecting the rebound and crosses up not just Kris Dunn but LaVine as well. His handles have looked better than expected and it shows on this transition opportunity. After clearing the steal attempt of Dunn he uses the crossover on LaVine to cross the face of Wiggins, who is trying to defend Faried in transition, and in turn clears out the entire right side of the paint for Faried who receives the perfect dump pass while trailing.

Faried’s dunk was set up by Murray’s IQ and his understanding of the situation around him. Without the forethought from Murray to pass across Wiggins’ face after crossing up Dunn, there is no way Faried comes away with such an easy dunk attempt.

Murray is looking more and more like the combo guard that Michael Malone and Connelly described in the press conference after drafting the Kentucky sharpshooter. His silky shooting stroke in combination with his plus passing ability separates him from the rest of the rookies in his class. Connelly described Murray perfectly when asked what separated him from other possible candidates with the Nuggets 7th overall selection:

“Jamal’s shooting in a league that is so shooting hungry right now,” Connelly said describing Murray, “And I think it is rare you see a guy who can slide both on and off-ball and be an elite shooter.”