Jamal Murray and the Denver Nuggets have agreed to a four-year, $208 million contract extension, his brokers, Jeff Schwartz and Mike George, informed ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski on Saturday.
That is the richest extension the Nuggets may supply Murray. It’s going to kick in through the 2025-26 season and preserve him underneath contract by way of 2028-29. Murray will make $57.5 million within the closing season of the deal, per ESPN’s Bobby Marks.
Murray, 27, has spent his complete profession with the Nuggets since they drafted him No. 7 general in 2016. Final season, he averaged 21.2 factors, 4.1 rebounds and 6.5 assists in 59 regular-season video games.
Again in July, earlier than Murray performed for the Canadian nationwide staff on the Paris Olympics, Denver basic supervisor Calvin Sales space hinted that this was coming.
“Jamal’s been a staple of our program for the final eight years, basically, proper? So clearly we’re very involved in getting one thing completed with him,” Sales space mentioned in an interview on SiriusXM Radio. “The Olympics are an enormous deal. I believe having him deal with that and getting by way of that, and when he will get again, when that concludes, I believe it will be fairly simple. I do not suppose it will be a lot of a negotiation.”
Sales space added, “We take a look at Jamal as a star participant. While you take a look at him like that, he is in all probability going to finish up getting what he deserves.”
Murray has but to make an All-Star or All-NBA staff, however he has a protracted record of superstar-level performances on his résumé. Most notably, he scored at the least 30 factors in eight playoff video games through the Nuggets’ 2023 championship run and had two separate 50-point explosions throughout their first-round sequence in opposition to the Utah Jazz within the 2020 bubble (with a 42-point sport sandwiched between them).
This contract extension is successfully a wager on Murray having extra moments like these. Additionally it is a wager on him having the ability to keep wholesome for lengthy playoff runs. Final season, Murray missed time due to hamstring, knee, ankle and shin points. He appeared in all of Denver’s playoff video games, however performed by way of each a calf damage and an elbow damage. Whereas he made two game-winners within the Nuggets’ first-round sequence in opposition to the Los Angeles Lakers and scored 35 factors in Recreation 7 of their second-round sequence in opposition to the Minnesota Timberwolves, general Murray was clearly not himself on the finish of the season, as evidenced by his unusually poor effectivity numbers within the playoffs: 40.2% from the sector, 31.5% from deep, 47.4% true capturing.
Murray’s capturing percentages have been even worse on the Olympics. He got here off the bench for Canada, and when he was on the ground, he was unable to persistently create separation from defenders. For one of many sport’s premier one-on-one creators, this was alarming.
Evidently, although, Denver’s entrance workplace is just not nervous about how Murray has appeared not too long ago. Or at the least not nervous sufficient to jeopardize its big-picture imaginative and prescient, during which Murray’s two-man sport with three-time MVP Nikola Jokic stays the inspiration of the Nuggets’ offense. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, the staff’s stalwart 3-and-D guard, left the staff in free company this summer time, following the footsteps of Bruce Brown and Jeff Inexperienced and leaving Denver with some critical uncertainty relating to the wing rotation. There is no such thing as a uncertainty now, although, about Murray’s standing within the group: The contract indicators that he’s a franchise cornerstone, and that the Nuggets will proceed to construct round him and Jokic.
Had Murray and Denver not been in a position to work out an extension, he would have hit unrestricted free company following the 2024-25 season. With Jayson Tatum, Jalen Brunson, Donovan Mitchell, Lauri Markkanen, Derrick White and Ivica Zubac amongst those that have signed extensions this summer time, the record of big-name (and even medium-name) potential 2025 free brokers is dwindling by the day.
