2 Things the Denver Nuggets Need to Survive and 1 They Don’t

Jamal needs to work out his shooting woes.

Ok, this is dependent on the health of the Denver Nuggets third-year point guard.  Let’s get the disclaimers out-of-the-way;

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Jamal Murray is just 21 (and far ahead of the curve). Murray is playing well and has had some nagging injuries.  There’s a video of Jamal hitting consecutive shots from half court in Atlanta.  Super neat but his in-game distance shooting has been streaky and that’s generous because I like Murray a lot.

So, the time is up.  It’s a bum deal but it’s what the Nuggets need.  Murray needs to step up his game.  He needs to protect the ball and he needs to hit his three-point shots.  When Denver is healthy, there’s time for players to work through issues.

At this point, now, for the Nuggets there is no time.  They’ve worked too hard, overcome too much to be taken down by injury.  We know what Nikola Jokic will give us and the Nuggets will be in contention every night because of The Joker.  To fulfill the promise of this team and the possibility of a season that still may be the Nuggets best, they have to absorb this wave of bad luck.  It can’t put them back into the fringe and that insurance has to come from Murray.

The good news on this front is that if we know anything about Jamal, he wants this and expects it from himself far more than we do.  We know he’ll be fine but he is needed right now.

There’s a whole group that’s going to need to rise to the occasion as well: