Denver Nuggets: Jamal Murray suffers a devastating torn ACL

Talk about bad luck. Once again, the Denver Nuggets got hit with another injury. This time, Jamal Murray — who suffered a strained elbow earlier this season — goes down with an ACL tear in his left knee.

It’s gut-wrenching to see when he was having such a great season, and the Nuggets were bouncing back into playoff form.

Jamal Murray tearing his ACL devastates the Denver Nuggets’ chances of making a deep playoff run even with Nikola Jokic’s MVP caliber season.

Earlier this season, there were discussions about whether Murray would take his talent to the next level because he had a stellar performance in the Orlando bubble playoffs. During that run, Murray averaged 26.5 points, 6.6 assists, 4.8 rebounds, a slash line of .505/.453/.897 during 39.6 minutes per game. However, this season he had a slow start and leading to doubt amongst the critics that Murray would attain that next level of stardom.

But Murray’s slow start this season is understandable. As documented by Jackie MacMullan, Murray was going through hardship from the beginning of the pandemic through the 2020-21 NBA season. Between the charged social justice environment, his inability to see his family because of the global pandemic, and his plight fighting his way back from injury, Murray has had his fair share of challenges.

Yet with all the adversities, that didn’t stop him from turning his season around once February came. From the start of the season until the end of January, Murray averaged 18.9 points, 4.4 assists, 4 rebounds, a slash line of .455/.351/.783 during 35 minutes per game. And from February until now, he averaged 22.7 points, 5.1 assists, 4.1 rebounds, a slash line of .491/.441/.925 during 38.5 minutes per game. But Murray’s bounce back is emblematic of the resilience he has demonstrated throughout his career.

As a child, Murray would train with his father and do pushups in the snow, dribble on sheets of ice, and balance hot tea on his thigh during deep knee squats for 12 minutes. This youth developed into the same person that found his way in the Toronto Raptor’s practice facility at 2 a.m. after the Raptors defeated the Golden State Warriors during the 2018-19 NBA Finals. Given his level of intensity, folks were amazed when Murray said he didn’t touch a basketball for five days during the All-Star break.

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Sadly, Murray won’t be practicing basketball for a while. We probably won’t see Murray back on the court for another year, given the length of time to recover from an ACL tear on average. Yet his track record suggests Murray will overcome this hurdle as he’s done other obstacles in the past. As Murray has said himself, “When things are at their worst, I’m at my best.”

But with Murray gone now, what does this mean for the Denver Nuggets? Offensively, Denver was really taking the league by storm after trading for Aaron Gordon because they had a 127.1 offensive rating with the Murray, Jokic, Gordon, Michael Porter Jr., and Will Barton lineup. But without Murray, who is the Nuggets’ secondary scorer and playmaker, it’s more than likely that the team’s offensive production will drop take a hit. Although it’s a tall order, we’ll see if Nikola Jokic, Michael Porter Jr., and Aaron Gordon can try and fill Murray’s vacancy.

The Nuggets were expected to be a dark horse candidate to make another Western Conference Finals appearance after fighting back from being down 3-1 twice in the bubble to face the Los Angele Lakers — the 2020 NBA Champions. But with the loss of Murray, it will be a steep climb to make another appearance.

People will probably count the Nuggets down and out. But as we’ve seen in the NBA, it ain’t over until the final bell rings. Hopefully, Mike Malone and the Denver Nuggets are up for the challenge.