Goal #2: Having a Better Defensive Rating Than Team Average
Denver has not been good on defense the last few years. Last season, only four teams had a worse defensive rating, according to NBA.com. This Nuggets’ team (for the foreseeable future) will be outscoring opponents to win games. That’s fine, but individual defense by its best players has to improve. Murray’s issues defensively are a prime reason for their breakdowns, and he needs to fix some of those.
He placed just 89th out of 97 qualified defensive point guards in ESPN’s Real Defensive Plus-Minus metric. That is far from exceptional, and he has a long way to go to be a plus defender in the Association. Facing the grocery list of great point guards in the West, Murray has to at least hold his own on that end going forward.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBYsS3fW_c8
Damian Lillard is no easy cover for anybody, but this sort of quick subtle jab step after a Murray half-hearted closeout can’t be sending him into another dimension if Denver is going to get better at the point of attack. Murray only graded out in the 11th percentile against spot-ups, in the 29th percentile against pick-and-roll ball-handling scorers, and in the 10th percentile in defensive isolation, per Synergy.
It’s not as if Murray is going to be a lockdown defender, but if he can at least be marginal and force opponents into long contested two’s more often in pick-and-roll coverage and isolation, it would contribute to more wins and a lower overall defensive rating. He needs to be more disciplined with his closeouts after rotations, too. Ryan Blackburn of SB Nation’s Nuggets’ blog, Denver Stiffs, demonstrated how Denver was much better with him off the floor on defense.
“With Murray on the floor, the Nuggets posted a 109.7 defensive rating, compared to the 107.3 defensive rating with him off the floor. Each of Denver’s other starters had the opposite trend.”
His career defensive box plus-minus is an ugly minus-2.0, according to Basketball Reference. With Thomas potentially getting a lot of run as the other point guard off the bench, Denver could have a ton of problems against perimeter players after opponents snake pick-and-rolls to go at Murray or Thomas at will.
Yes, playing defense on opposing guards is really hard, but Murray has the potential. This sort of deflection on Stephen Curry was a flash of his potential as a solid perimeter defender, at least in spurts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG93aAUm51U
His athleticism and hustle should allow him to make positive strides there, though, and averaging 1.0 steals per game last season was a good sign that he has quality basketball IQ. He can get some hustle blocks as well.
Now, moving to the fun stuff.
Goal #3: Joining the 50-40-90 Shooting Club
