While Nikola Jokic is the Denver Nuggets’ NBA All-Star player, Jamal Murray is their best playmaker and this team will go as far as Murray is able to take them. Murray has consistently been getting better year after year in the league, but he was on a whole different level for the Nuggets down in the NBA bubble.

In the playoffs, Murray averaged 26.5 points, 6.6 assists, 4.8 rebounds while shooting 50.5% from the floor and 45.3% from three-point range. Murray was arguably one of the toughest players to guard in the Orlando bubble and set some new records along the way.

The 23-year old guard made a total of 62 3-pointers in his 19-game postseason run, setting the all-time record for any player 25-years old or younger in a single postseason. Murray scored 40+ points in four games during the Nuggets postseason run, including two 50-point games in the first-round of the Western Conference playoffs against the Utah Jazz. Murray joined his opponent, Donovan Mitchell as two of the four players in NBA history to score 50+ points twice in the same playoff series, joining the likes of Michael Jordan (1988) and Allen Iverson (2001).

Losing Jerami Grant in the offseason definitely hurts this team moving forward and they have struggled to find offensive production this season outside of Murray, Jokic and Michael Porter Jr. Monte Morris has stepped up in the backcourt off the bench, but this team could still use a veteran leader in their backcourt. 

Derrick Rose is a player on the NBA trade market that is available for the right price and a veteran guard that could make a major impact with the Nuggets. Coming off the bench and being Murray’s backup can bring a sense of stability to this team and also give them a veteran leader next to Paul Millsap in the locker room. 

Let’s take a look at a potential trade that would send Derrick Rose and another experienced guard to the Denver Nuggets in exchange for a young guard with some potential.