Nuggets rose-colored glasses post of the day - I was curious how slow Murray started the last few seasons as I know he is a notorious slow starter so I took a look at this season vs the last three (the trend held mostly true in 19-20 as well but 18-19 and 17-18 were even more apparent).
20-21 Season: First 18 - 19.1 PPG/4.4 APG/4.0 RPG on .456/.352/.783 (.557 TS%)
Full Season – 21.2 PPG/4.8 APG/4.0 RPG on .477/.408/.869 (.592 TS%)
22-23 Season: First 18 - 17.9 PPG/4.9 APG/3.7 RPG on .448/.380/.784 (.538 TS%)
Full Season – 20.0 PPG/6.2 APG/4.0 RPG on .454/.398/.833 (.571 TS%)
23-24 Season: First 18 – 19.8 PPG/5.7 APG/4.0 RPG on .470/.449/.906 (.587 TS%)
Full Season – 20.0 PPG/6.5 APG/4.1 RPG on .481/.425/.853 (.586 TS%)
24-25 Season: First 18 – 17.9 PPG/6.1 APG/4.1 RPG on .425/.337/.809 (.531 TS%)
Literally every year of his career other than last season he has has a slow start and worked himself into form by mid-to-late season. If the trend continues (and he builds of of the last game vs LAC), I think we could see something closer to borderline All-Star level Murray which may get the Nuggets back into title contention, especially if they can make a trade to give them a little bump as well.
Since I posted this, Murray has played 7 games with averages of 24.7/7.3/4.4 on .470/.432/.909 (.589 TS%) and raised his season averages to 19.8/6.4/4.2 on .440/.365/.842 (.551 TS%).
He still doesn't look
back but he definitely looks like he is on his way back - creating separation again and making a couple athletic moves a game.
Since I originally posted this, Murray has now played 16 games with 22.1/6.1/4.0 on .483/.438/.914 (.598 TS%). The last few games he has looked 100% back.
So I just saw where Aaron Gordon is coming off the bench for DEN now? How long has that been a thing?
As
@Major said, he has just gotten back from a calf injury that he originally had in November that kept him out 10 games then he returned for 10 and reaggravated it and was out for 9 more games. They have put him on roughly a 20 minute limit so it makes sense for him to come off the bench.
That said, I think there is a chance that he stays on the bench because he allows the bench to actually be effective and keeps Westbrook tied more to Jokic where he has been really good, as opposed to the non-Jokic lineups where Westbrook has been really bad (Westbrook is +12.4 per 100 with Jokic in 773 minutes and +2.6 overall in 1121 minutes so he is roughly something like -19.0 without Jokic).