Page 24 - Sports Illustrated for Kids Magazine (December 2019)

Jamal MURRAY

team
Denver Nuggets

position
Point guard

spotlight
In a breakout season, the 22-year-old

was a high-scoring guard who ceded
playmaking duties to a 7-footer. How
he continues to grow into his role will

determine Denver’s fortunes.

BY ROB MAHONEY

he Nuggets have one of the best distributors
´
in the game. He’s Nikola Jokic , a 7-foot
center who could find the passing angles in
a corn maze. Denver wisely runs much of its
´
offense through Jokic , giving the big man
T the ball and letting him operate.
So where does that leave the team’s point guard, who
plays the position normally tasked with flinging passes
and generally making the offense go?
In a strange spot, to say the least.
But Jamal Murray is not your typical point guard. The
´
Nuggets knew that Jokic was going to be the focal point
of their attack shortly after he broke into the league in
2016. So when they scouted players to bring aboard, they
looked at prospects through the prism of how they would
fit alongside Jokic .
´
“We didn’t think we needed a ball-dominant, walk-the-
ball-up guy who’s going to play pick-and-roll and have the
ball in his hands 10, 15 seconds a possession,” says team
president Tim Connelly. So with the No. 7 pick in 2016,
Denver drafted Jamal Murray.
Some teams may have been torn by the fact that
Murray ran the offense for the Canadian national team
but played off the ball in his one season at Kentucky.

The Nuggets, however, saw that versatility as a plus.

22 / SPORTS ILLUSTRATED KIDS