The Denver Nuggets paid a hefty price to resign their starting point guard this summer. But according to former NBA star Gilbert Arenas, the four-year, $208 million contract he signed this offseason is actually well below what he’s worth.
“When you think about his career you’re gonna be like ‘Damn he never made an All-Star team?’ A guy who does so much for the team and he doesn’t get the accolades or awards. This is cheap for what they getting. You have a guaranteed closer, he hits big shots. For him him not to be an All-NBA player or an All-star and you get him at this price because he could’ve easily been signing $305-$325 million, and no one was gonna say that’s too much for him.”
The Nuggets extended Jamal Murray for the low 🤑 pic.twitter.com/CpsV5whpsc
— Gil’s Arena (@GilsArenaShow) September 10, 2024
In seven years in the NBA, Jamal Murray has never made an All-Star team and he’s never been selected to the All-NBA teams. As the sidekick to Nikola Jokic and starting point guard of the Nuggets, he plays a key role on a top team in the West but his value is still highly contested among league circles.
Internally, the Nuggets clearly know how important Murray is to their team, which is why they signed him to a four-year, $208 million deal this summer. They made the commitment even after their second-round defeat in the playoffs and after Murray’s anemic performance at the Paris Olympic Games.
The contract already made Murray the NBA’s highest-paid non-All-Star and it will see him make over $52 million at 31 years old. At $325 million, as Arenas suggests, it would make Murray one of the NBA’s highest-paid players in history, beating out even LeBron James (two years and $101 million) and Stephen Curry (one year, $62 million).
That type of salary is usually only reserved for the best of the best in the league and Murray does not qualify. Last season, he was a borderline All-Star with averages of 21.2 points, 6.5 assists, and 4.1 rebounds per game on 48.1% shooting but his play was not nearly good enough to warrant a historic pay rate.
The fact that the Nuggets lost to an inexperienced Timberwolves team doesn’t help Murray’s case either. As the West gets stronger and new teams join the elite, the margin for error in the West will become more narrow than ever and the Nuggets may need someone better than Murray to keep pace with the contenders.
Truth be told, if the Nuggets really wanted the most value for a title run, they would consider trading Murray for spare parts. In one trade scenario, we suggested a swap between the Nuggets and the Heat which would have sent Murray to South Beach in exchange for Tyler Herro, Nikola Jovic, Josh Richardson, and a 2029 first-round pick.
Whether it’s a trade like that or some other mutually beneficial swap, the Nuggets are more likely to trade Murray than to offer him a $325 million contract. Still, with Nikola Jokic in his prime, the Nuggets didn’t want to lose their starting point guard and you can’t blame them for investing millions on someone they trust than to risk letting him walk away for nothing in return.
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