Have you seen Stars Wars Episode Four? Remember the part where all the heroes are trapped in a trash compactor, with the walls closing in, and some strange creature lurking in the depths? That’s supposed to be what the NBA playoffs feel like.
The playoffs are supposed to be a crucible wherein the fraudulent are burned away and only the hardened emerge. Only obvious superstars like LeBron James (2020), Kawhi Leonard (2019) or Kevin Durant (2018) are supposed to dominate with ease. Yet there’s another archetype of player who quietly thrives in the playoffs.
There are stars who aren’t as complete, aren’t as dominant as some of the greatest players of this generation, yet still see improvement in the playoffs. They’re flexible, able to mold their games to fit the situation. They’re shot-makers, able to create something out of nothing at relatively efficient rates. They’re good at pretty much everything on the court: passing, shooting, screening, cutting. You name it. And as a result they rise above, play better than they do in the regular season.
Let’s call them the under-the-radar superstars. They’re strong enough not only to keep the walls from closing in, but also to emerge better in such cramped scenarios. In a double feature this week on Minute Basketball, we’re highlighting two of the best such stars: Jamal Murray and Jimmy Butler.
We’re getting as nuanced as possible in describing just how these guys rise to the occasion: deceleration, jump passes, and defensive chaos. If you’re here, you’re reading or hearing about Jamal Murray. You can find our Jimmy Butler feature here. But for Murray, read on, and discover the minute yet major angles of his game.
Folk
Slamming on the Brakes
You hang on with gritted teeth through a defensive possession. Your shoes grip, your quads flex, and you keep your feet active to try and keep the gate closed to your opponent. Then it happens. They slam on the brakes and you catch the whiplash. Against Jamal Murray, you careen backwards with limbs flailing like an inverted Scooby-Doo villain. Murray’s body tilts and jerks aggressively, but he remains in control. He’s horizontal, for a moment, and an instant later he’s squared up for a jumper. His behind the back dribble stays perfectly in place, representing a save point. He returns to the ball after he sheds his defender, and does it with remarkable consistency. Murray has shown improvements in every area of the game this year and in these playoffs. However (comma) the jumper is still his most dangerous weapon. The brake check he unleashes is the precursor to a bomb from downtown. A force to be reckoned with.
And this isn’t meant to be taken lightly, either. No matter how many ESPN employees insinuate that the Nuggets have remained in the WCF because the Lakers “forgot to take them seriously”, remember, they’re here because they play an incredibly unique brand of basketball that the Lakers haven’t figured out how to dominate. Maybe they can, maybe they can’t. But, the duo of Jokic and Murray is dangerous as hell. Jokic is the league’s largest offensive hub, and Murray’s shot-making has been unrivalled so far in these playoffs. He is at the heart of every single late game bucket, be it as a threat in relocation, making an incredibly creative pass, or pulling out showstopping shot-making.
For the record, this is exactly how you keep a defense on its toes. Murray lets Caruso fly by and calmly hits a triple. Then on the next DHO he uses the same setup with a drastically different finish. That change of pace move isn’t against some scrub either - Dwight Howard has been a radically affecting defender this year and he’s not easy to shake. Murray put the Lakers defense in the mixer. When talent and decision making coalesce like this you can’t do anything except for marvel at it.
In the NBA we see lots of different types of players. It’s rare though, to see players who combine the efficiency of classic spot-up shooters with the unhinged pull-up game of the Dion Waiters and Mike James’ of the world. Jamal Murray is that combination as a shot-maker. The balance he possesses in that body of his allows him to transport himself all over the floor and rise up for a jumper at the drop of a hat.
We’ve seen teams falter in these playoffs, the Bucks for example, because they don’t possess a guy who can take a pick n’ roll possession and score with regularity from the three different levels of defense. The Raptors, who were great and fun, were flummoxed by the Celtics defense because they didn't really ask their guards to score in the pick n’ roll and when that became necessary, Kyle Lowry was the only player capable and the load to carry was immense. Murray has always been a shot-maker, he’s built for it, but these playoffs have necessitated more offensive punch from him and he’s responded by burning this thing to the ground. A rogue shot-maker who can bail out any possession, but is also symbiotic with his incredible running mate, Nikola Jokic. A lead guard, engulfed in flames, and ready to counterpunch against Kawhi Leonard, LeBron James and the rest of the league’s best. And it’s all built on balance, brakes, and shooting touch. Murray has flipped the script.
Zatzman
Jump Passes
If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a thousand times: don’t get caught in the air. Well for Murray, what is usually a weakness for most players is actually a weapon. He uses jump passes as a tool to manipulate the defense in the same way that he decelerates; by slowing and creating space, he opens windows and angles not available to traditional passers.
He jumps, knowing what will open as a result.
Despite receiving career-long criticism from old heads for his passing, Murray has always been better than advertised. Sure, he’s never averaged 5.0 assists per game in a regular season. But in the playoffs his assists per game have jumped to 6.5, which is middling for a point guard, but extremely good for a shoot-first player of Murray’s ilk. Teammate Nikola Jokic has actually led the league in passes per game in the playoffs, and his work in the high post is Denver’s base offense.
More of Murray’s passes actually end up as assists than those of Jokic, however. Murray has always been a funky passer, and he’s become adept at every angle, beat, and release with either hand. The majority of his assists are full-fat dishes; he’s a gourmet, not a gourmand, at passing the basketball.
He’s able to leverage those spaces because he’s so adept at shooting from any angle. His release is a clap of lightning. His legs are exceptionally strong, meaning he’s always a threat to twist his hips towards the rim and launch, on-balance no matter the circumstance. Over the playoffs, he’s been devilish in the midrange, shooting 52.3 percent from the field within the 10-14 foot range. He’s shot over 50 percent from 2-point range no matter the number of dribbles he takes leading into the shot. As Samson noted, balance is the key to everything. As a result, defenders must respect him no matter where he is. And when he jumps, defenders show their hand, allowing him to win the pot time and again.
Chaos Redux
This isn’t the first time we’ve written about chaos here at Minute Basketball. Samson used chaos -- whether calming it or creating it -- as a line of demarcation between Kyle Lowry and LeBron James. Clever stuff, certainly. And Lowry’s ability to manufacture insanity is a skill well represented in Jamal Murray.
He’s an off-ball terror, always humming and screening and cutting and moving. Like Steph Curry, he sets screens to manufacture cracks into which he launches himself, drawing help, and then creating for others.
He runs off screens as well as anyone in the game.
But he is most underrated at leveraging chaos, perhaps, on the defensive end.
Look, Murray makes defensive mistakes. It’s often because of his propensity to jump around, trying to confuse offenders. He fakes stunting too often, which has resulted in LeBron James finding easy layups when Murray has recovered to the corner too early rather than fully committing to stopping the drive. Murray gets caught on screens sometimes, though he’s much improved at dancing around them this year.
But Murray has great size for a guard, and the Nuggets trust him against almost any matchup in a switch. He can last against centers for a few beats until help arrives, and his willingness to cheat and improvise often leads to pick sixes going the other way.
Murray is a high-ceiling low-floor defender, but he’s been raising that floor with every game in the playoffs. He is a plus-defender at this point in his career, reputation be damned.
Murray has been critical to Denver. He has the highest net rating of the starters, and the largest gap between the team’s offensive rating with him on versus off the court. Murray has emerged during these playoffs, raising his stats and efficiency while dropping his turnovers. That’s the value of big, flexible shot-makers in the playoffs. As long as Murray plays like this, the Nuggets have a chance against anyone. In game two against the Lakers, the Nuggets won Murray’s 44 minutes by 16 points. They lost the other four minutes by 18 points.
Behind Murray, the upstart Nuggets are behind the Los Angeles Lakers two games to one. They have a chance in a series that no one believed they would win. Murray may not currently have the reputation of a superstar, but on the largest of stages, he’s offering the impact of one.
Minute Basketball: Jamal Murray