L.A. Clippers head coach Doc Rivers believes Denver Nuggets point man Jamal Murray will lead the league scoring one year, a hot take that surprised president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank when he first did.
“It's funny — his rookie year he couldn't make a shot,” said Rivers, according to ESPN's Jackie MacMullan. “I told Lawrence Frank, ‘That kid is going to lead the league in scoring one year.' Lawrence looked at me like I was crazy. He said, ‘Why would you make that comment?' I said, ‘Because he's fearless. He's going to give himself a chance because believes he's the best scorer out here.'”
Murray did have a horrid start to his rookie season, shooting merely 37.7 percent through the early stretch of the season. Embarrassingly so, Murray went his first four games without making a single basket, going a phantasmagoric 0-for-16 from the floor before hitting his first-ever NBA bucket against the Detroit Pistons.
The Canadian turned a corner at the All-Star Weekend as part of the Rising Stars Game, named MVP of the game after putting up a game-high 36 points and making 9 of his 14 3-point attempts. He rode that momentum into the second half of the season, which set up a competition for the starting point guard spot the next year.
Even from that time, Murray showed signs of catching fire and flaming out, an inconsistency that the Nuggets have learned to bear through his two-and-a-half seasons with the team.
Yet Rivers' claim for a scoring crown is still far to come, as his career-high 18.8 points per game are still far from reaching what it takes to be the top scorer in the league.
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