After a protracted point guard competition during training camp and preseason, Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone finally made his decision and named Jamal Murray the team’s starting point guard in their season opener against the Utah Jazz.

Malone told Harrison Wind of BSN Denver his rationale for picking Murray over Emmanuel Mudiay, and it basically came down to his shooting, which was a better fit with the other four starters.

After an up-and-down preseason, Murray didn’t have an overly impressive season opener as he finished with just eight points in 20 minutes. Meanwhile, Mudiay also had eight points in 19 minutes as Malone still split the minutes evenly among his two point guards.

While Murray struggled with his shot as a rookie, he is already a superior outside shooter than Mudiay and could get even better in his second year. As Malone noted, that shooting makes Murray the ideal point guard to play and space the floor alongside Jokic and the starting unit.

But even though he got the nod to start, Murray is not yet clearly the better point guard. He still needs to be more consistent with his shot and improve in other facets of his game in order to get more separation from Mudiay in terms of actual playing time.