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After he was spotted practicing and looking ready to play after his ACL injury last season, Jamal Murray's return could really come sooner rather than later. Denver Nuggets president Tim Connelly hinted as much as well in his latest interview with 104.3 The Fan.
While the Nuggets are not pressuring Murray to hasten his return–with Connelly noting that the decision to play depends on the player “100 percent”–the Denver exec noted that the star guard is looking better than ever.
“We want him to feel no pressure, want him to know that the organization has his best interests in mind. … He’s done a great job in rehab, he looks really, really good,” Connelly added, per Mike Singer of the Denver Post.
Jamal Murray's potential return in the playoffs would be a welcome boost to the Nuggets, who have relied heavily on Nikola Jokic to keep them in contention. The team is set to finish the season as the fifth or sixth seed, which means they won't have a lot of homecourt advantage come the postseason. Every help they can get could go a long way in improving their chances of making a deep run and even possibly contending for the title–no matter how hard that may seem.
Jokic is playing out of his mind and is once again the favorite to win MVP. But the fact of the matter is he can only do so much. He will need another star alongside him in the playoffs, and while Will Barton and Aaron Gordon have done a great job in fulfilling a Robin-role, the impact that Murray brings is different.
Hopefully the 25-year-old guard will be able to feel confident and healthy enough to play at the highest level again real soon. It can be concerning thinking that he could return in the thick of the playoffs where there is a ton of pressure. Ideally, it would have been great if he could return in their last remaining regular season games, but that seems unlikely as of the moment.
The Nuggets can only have their hopes up that things will work the way they want it to.
