Denver Nuggets: 3 Expectations for Jamal Murray

Murray has a nasty streak.

We love Jamal’s semi-beef with Lonzo Ball but more importantly, we love having a guy that opposing teams have on their mind.  Beyond Murray’s skill set, there’s an underlying edge to his game that works for the young Nuggets star.  It’s not nasty like Kenyon Martin was nasty, it’s not cheap like Matt Barnes.  It’s a competition thing, not a peacock thing.

Denver Nuggets

Dribbling around Lonzo and getting in his ear when the Nuggets play the Lakers is a nice test-run for bringing that game and that competitiveness to Chris Paul, Curry, Damian Lillard, Devin Booker and all of the top-flite guards Murray will face night-in and night-out.  Just like it’s time for the Nuggets team to graduate to the next tier of Western Conference elites, it’s time for Murray to join the group at the top of the PG list.

At 21, it’s too early to ask this of Murray but he’s shown a wisdom beyond his years.  There’s not a lot of volatility to Jamal’s game and he seems constitutionally fit for the next step.  It’s also a different time, it doesn’t take players years to mature, particularly players that come through one of the big-five Universities (Kansas, Duke, North Carolina, Kentucky, UCLA).  Murray’s game was halfway NBA mature when he was drafted.

So, the Blue Arrow with an edgy competitive nature that drives him to further heights.

What more could we want to see?