Denver Nuggets: 5 goals for the 2018 offseason

5. Continue to develop Jamal Murray as a combo guard

Denver was fortunate in the 2017-18 with the emergence of several players. It was also lucky enough to draft Jamal Murray with the seventh pick in the 2016 NBA Draft. After a reasonable rookie campaign, the team decided to move Murray to the point guard position full-time this season.

Overall, the transition worked well. Murray averaged 16.7 points, 3.7 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game while increasing his 3-point efficiency to 37.8 percent. He was 33.4 percent from behind the arc in 2016-17.

Murray’s progression at the point guard position worked so well, the team ended up trading away Emmanuel Mudiay, the former seventh overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft, to the New York Knicks. It just goes to show how easily replaceable players become when they can’t do more than one thing.

Once Mudiay was traded, Murray’s assist average went up to 4.1 per game in the season’s final 28 contests. The key for Murray is to lead this team to victory. Finding balance shouldn’t be too difficult for Murray and company this offseason, they finished fifth in the league in assists per game (25.1). At the same time, they’ll still need to sign their biggest asset off the bench as well.