Nuggets exec’s honest claim about Jamal Murray’s woeful Olympics run

It was a tough run for Team Canada at the Paris Olympics. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Co. ran into a fairly determined French squad that had Victor Wembanyama at its center. They unfortunately got bounced in the quarterfinals with an 82-73 scoreline which meant the end of their run. A lot of expectations were put on this squad before the tournament. No one got blasted the most because of these than Jamal Murray from the 2023 NBA Champions, Denver Nuggets. Even Josh Kroenke was brutally honest about the situation.

Look, Jamal Murray was supposed to be the secondary scoring option when Shai Gilgeous-Alexander went cold. However, that plan was not at all executed well. The Nuggets guard was absolutely abysmal on all fronts. He was given 20.5 minutes of playing time per night. However, he was a negative on the court nearly every second. His supposed superstar expectations were marred by an average of six points on a horrid 29% clip from all three levels of scoring.

Josh Kroenke saw this and made a tough observation about his guard in the Nuggets system, via Bennett Durando of The Denver Post.

“When you’re going against the best in the world, whether it’s in the NBA playoffs or in the Olympics, you’re going to get an opponent’s best shot. And if you’re not 100% and you know you want to be out there still, you’re gonna try to fight through it like Jamal is. But I know he wasn’t 100%. I know getting him back there is a big step toward seeing the Jamal who was throwing up triple-doubles in the NBA Finals,” the Nuggets president declared.

Was the Nuggets president right about Jamal Murray’s injury before the Olympics?

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The Nuggets guard has had a nagging ankle injury. This has hampered him from properly performing both in the late stretch of the postseason and in the Olympics. However, Kroenke noted that Murray can definitely use this as firepower for his next run alongside Nikola Jokic.

“Jamal’s a great player, one of the best in the NBA. However, he felt personally that the Olympics were for him. Just reading some of his quotes, I know he was frustrated a little bit. So I have no doubt that he’ll use that the right way for motivation going into the season,” he added.

There are a lot of lessons that Murray can learn from this Olympics stint with Team Canada. Hopefully, it pushes him to be a more efficient scorer come the Nuggets’ 82-game regular season campaign.