Nuggets' Jamal Murray staying 'patient' as minutes continue to drop

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DENVER — After Michael Malone trimmed his rotation following the Nuggets’ Dec. 12 loss in Dallas, rookie Jamal Murray has seen his minutes decrease from where they were a month ago.

Just 13 minutes in Wednesday’s win over Minnesota, 12 two nights earlier in Denver’s loss to the Clippers, and 17 against Atlanta back on Dec. 23. Murray played 27 minutes in the Nuggets’ Dec. 20 loss to the Clippers but only played 14, 13, and 12 in the three games prior.

“Yeah, you’re not used to it, so you just got to be patient,” Murray told BSN Denver about his decreasing minutes. “Not everything’s going to come game-by-game. The organization, they don’t go by the day, they go by the week. Next week, let’s try this lineup or next month, let’s try that. So my expectation, no it’s not going to come immediately.”

Murray’s coming out party came in Denver’s late November win over Chicago. The No. 7 overall pick in this summer’s draft scored 24 points on 9-13 shooting, 15 of which came in the second quarter. Murray followed that performance up with a 23-point showing in Utah the next night in a season-high 35 minutes, still the most minutes Murray has played this season.

However, the 19-year-old’s 30+ minute nights came to an end when Gary Harris, who was sidelined with groin and foot injuries, and Will Barton, who missed time with a sprained ankle, both returned to the rotation in mid-December. Now, with a fully healthy roster, the minutes simply aren’t there for Murray.

“I had an opportunity with Gary and Will out, but now they’re back and we’re playing well and with these wins,” Murray said. “We just want to keep winning, so we got to put our ego’s aside and just focus on the main goal here.”

The Nuggets are 5-2 since Harris returned from injury and moved into the starting lineup, a change which coincided with Nikola Jokic and Wilson Chandler also moving to the starting unit. Now, competing with Barton and Jameer Nelson for minutes, two players who have played well for Denver this year, Murray is looking for every way to contribute in the limited playing time he’s seen as of late.

“I love Jamal’s activity on both ends of the floor,” Malone said after Denver’s win against Minnesota where Murray only played 13 minutes, scored seven points and had two key steals. “When he gets pissed, he plays well. I joke around, I got to start insulting him, doing something about making fun of Canada because he goes out there and he played hard tonight. Make shots, miss shots, he played really hard and gave great effort.”

Denver is still humming on offense since the lineup switch. The Nuggets rank second league-wide in Offensive Rating behind just San Antonio and a large part of that is because of their new starting lineup and refined rotation. Yet, Denver is ranked near the bottom of the league, 26th in defensive efficiency, over that same span.

“Offensively, we’re moving the ball, we’re cutting, we’re playing with trust and we just need to continue to do that,” Murray said. “On defense, on both ends of the court. We can’t just rely on strictly offense. We’ve had guys step up and got us big wins but as a team, we need to come together.”