Nba bubble6/10/2023 Jokic plays the screen at the level while Aaron Gordon tries to fight over the top of it. Towns and Gobert flow into a middle pick-and-roll. This next clip perfectly demonstrates his ability to execute rotations in a timely manner. But more than that, he also does a great job of flying around and fulfilling his duties within Denver’s organized scramble. Thanks to his experience as a floor general, Murray has no problem quarterbacking the team and communicating assignments to his teammates. And so, to mitigate the damage done by automatically conceding a 4-on-3 advantage, their communication and rotations need to be nearly perfect. Therefore, the team can’t afford to have a weak link out on the court.ĭenver often deploys that same at the level coverage we outlined earlier. He’s positively contributing to the team scheme.īecause of Jokic’s vertical and horizontal limitations, the Nuggets rely heavily on their team defense. But Murray is doing more than just not getting killed out there. The same can’t be said about Young, Garland, and Brunson. Maybe Minnesota is to blame for not being relentless enough, but so far in this series, you hardly ever see them manipulating the board to attack Murray in some sort of action. But the difference between him and them is that he’s a bigger body (measuring in at 6’3 while the tallest among that triumvirate is 6’1), which makes it easier for him to hold his own on defense. Murray is an offensive supernova at the point guard position, in the same vein as guys like Trae Young, Darius Garland, and Jalen Brunson. Much like Austin “Him” Reaves did in Game 1 against the Memphis Grizzlies, Murray decided to attack this weakness by spamming pick-and-rolls to close out the Nuggets’ Game 2 victory over Minnesota. The main issue with the coverage is that unless your team is armed with great screen navigators (Minnesota’s cupboard is a bit bare in this regard since the injury to Jaden McDaniels), you often concede lightly contested pull-up jumpers. For those unaware, drop coverage allows the defending big man to sink back into the paint to contain both the drive from the pick-and-roll ball handler and the rim run from the roller. The Timberwolves started the series off playing their bigs, Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns, in a drop. But he can also freelance when necessary and bail out stagnate possessions with his tough shot-making acumen. Yes, he can function within the Nuggets’ movement-heavy offensive scheme. One of the reasons why Murray has been such a great postseason performer is his ability to operate as an independent scorer. However, to make a deep run in the playoffs, you need multiple guys who can create their own offense. The reigning two-time MVP, Nikola Jokic, is probably the best offensive player on the planet. Murray is one of the rare players whose scoring actually improves amidst all the increased physicality and intensity of the playoffs, and his iconic run during the 2020 playoffs is the perfect encapsulation of that. Meanwhile, in the playoffs, that average balloons up to 24.4 PPG. For his career, Murray averages 16.9 PPG in the regular season. When the NBA returned from its four-month COVID-19 hiatus, Murray reintroduced himself as a human flamethrower, going on a historic scoring spree that pushed his Nuggets to their first conference finals appearance since 2009.Īccording to the Sunday night TNT broadcast of the Nuggets’ Game 4 first-round matchup against the Minnesota Timberwolves, no player in league history has seen a higher improvement in their regular season scoring average in the playoffs than Murray. What exactly is Bubble Jamal Murray? Why is he so important to the Nuggets’ success? And most important of all, based on what we’ve observed so far, is the Nuggets’ star guard capable of reaching that illustrious standard this postseason? What is “Bubble Jamal Murray?” This statement begs a couple of questions. If you follow the league at large, or at least keep tabs on the Denver Nuggets, you’ve surely heard some iteration of the phrase “the Nuggets need Jamal Murray to be ‘Bubble Jamal Murray’ if they are going to come out of the Western Conference this season.”
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