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Jamal Murray was healthy enough to feature in the 2022 NBA playoffs for the Denver Nuggets. However, the combo guard revealed that he chose not to participate to avoid the risk of reaggravating his injury.
Murray tore his ACL towards the end of the 2020-21 NBA season and has been on the sidelines ever since. Nikola Jokic has done an outstanding job leading the Nuggets, even winning two MVP awards, in Murray's absence. However, Jokic's efforts alone have not been enough and the team has certainly missed Murray.
ESPN's Kane Pitman recently had an interview with Murray where the player revealed that it was tough sitting on the sidelines for that long. He said:
"It was tough, but I just wanted to wait until I was healthy until I could play the game without thinking about it. I didn't want to be doing both out there, especially in the biggest time of the year for basketball.
"It was smart of me to miss the playoffs and get my knee right, now I can go into the next season with a lot more confidence."
Murray stated that he has been able to improve every day and that his game is a lot more fluid:
"It was challenging, but it got easier. I felt every month I could do something new, strength wise, agility wise, I just saw constant improvement every month.
"Even now, I'm healthy but I can still see improvement in my game, what I'm comfortable to do and what and how I want to move on the court, it's much more fluid than before."
The Nuggets star added:
"Early on, I wasn't able to move at all. I had to figure out what I was going to do in a pick-and-roll, if I have to see the pass earlier, hit a guy a step earlier, not getting to the paint as deep to hit a floater, just little details you study.
"That's what I've been doing, studying how to land, all of that stuff goes through your mind. It's been interesting, you get to learn more about yourself and more about your game as time goes on."
In his last active season, Murray averaged a career-high 21.2 points, 4.0 rebounds, 4.8 assists, and 1.3 steals per game.
Can the Denver Nuggets contend for the title with Jamal Murray?
The Denver Nuggets have found relative success in the last three years. In 2020, they reached the Western Conference finals but lost to the eventual champions LA Lakers.
Since then, they have not made it past the conference semifinals.
In 2021, they were swept by the Phoenix Suns in that very stage. Things got worse for the Nuggets in 2022 as they lost Murray and Michael Porter Jr. to injury. They lost in the first round of the 2022 playoffs against the Golden State Warriors in five games.
With Murray, the Denver Nuggets could once again become one of the heavyweights in the West. Their conference has gotten a lot more competitive and getting Murray and potentially Porter Jr. fit and firing will certainly help their aspirations.
Guess the Lakers players!
