This hasn't been a great spring/summer for Jamal Murray. On the latest Mortcast Jeff talks about how Jamal can be a bit of a jerk and how people will ignore that as long as your play backs it up. In the last year it hasn't.
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CSG Podcast
CSG #688: Jamal Murray and the diminishing returns of being a jerk
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Thank you for joining me on the latest broadcast part of the CSG Network. I'm of course your host, Jeff Morton. Today's all about Jamal Murray. This might be a shorter podcast today. I haven't decided. I always say that. My podcasts are always a half hour, so we shall see. This doesn't need to be a tremendously long one, but I want to respond to some things that has been happening and swirling around Jamal Murray. We kind of addressed that in the second half of the last podcast, and I kind of want to, after he had a poor game for Team Canada in the friendly against the United States last night, Troy Rank asked him about the contract situation and all that stuff with the nuggets, and of course Jamal Murray had a bitchy answer, but we'll get to that in the due course in this podcast. But first, I want to talk to you about Bett Online. 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Actually, you could even argue it began the previous summer when Jamal Murray made the bet on yourself move with rejecting the first extension offer to him. And I'm not going to tell a guy how to do his business. So the rejection of the extension, which I've talked about several times on this podcast, where I've talked about how it contributed to some weirdness last year, particularly with Jamal himself. He bet on himself in nine games into the season. He couldn't bet on himself anymore. Because he was once again injured. So it goes on about how you interpret Jamal Murray and how you want to accept certain things that are part of Jamal's personality that people have ignored when he was better. It was interesting following last night how Jamal just kind of looked out of shape. He looked heavy. He looked now everyone including Team USA. I mean, freaking enjoying beat fouled out like 20, less than 20 minutes into that game last night for minutes played for him. So I mean, obviously not everyone was at their best. So I'm not going to take this one game sample size, but you know, Jamal did look a little on the on the out of shape side and he was slow and he looked like he needed more conditioning. Now that could be he could be growing into that as the Olympics progress, but this has been a thing that's been stated repeatedly by people around the nuggets and other things and coming into this last season, Jamal bet on himself and then didn't come into the season prepared and in like nine games into the year or 10, Jamal has a hamstring problem and is basically destined to play. What was it 59 games last year? And it was a poor move. It was poor move for him financially because he was wanting the Supermax. So he wanted an all pro and all star game in all NBA all pro not that mean all NBA all star game slash thing. He wasn't eligible for any awards because he only played 59 games and when he played he was off and on good. And this has been this has been the story of Jamal. You know, Jamal has been showing up in the playoffs generally. And when he hasn't been the nuggets haven't been as good. They need a guy and I keep coming back to that that. Nicole Yokech cloned myself comment and I keep thinking about like if Jamal Murray was even three court, maybe even three quarters of himself. They probably I wouldn't say they probably beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, but they likely do. And I don't know if they had enough left to beat the Mavericks. I'll be honest with you. People are kind of diluting themselves with saying the nuggets work on their way to another title. This nuggets team was clearly exhausted and I think the revisionist history that you know all it was was just Jamal wasn't if Jamal was better. The nuggets would have been better. It's not that simple. The nuggets were exhausted and it was very clear that they all the entire team hit a wall the game six and then it carried on into the second half of game seven. But I digress. Jamal Murray has also been a bit of an asshole through most of his career. Now you don't have to be a nice guy to be a NBA basketball player. No one's asking that to be quite honest with you. The only time it really comes up is when you are an asshole and you're not playing that well. And while Jamal Murray had an okay 20 23 24 season. It wasn't at the end of the time when he's playoff Jamal. Didn't really happen other than two games against the Lakers and a half court shot against the Minnesota girls. Really outside of that Jamal really did not have a great play playoffs did not have a great season. And when you are like that and you're still an asshole people will call you an asshole. And that is who Jamal has been an asshole. Now I don't tend to think that matters. I have dealt with players who are assholes before. I don't personally deal with Jamal anymore. But when I was covering him intently down at the arena Jamal was a surly bastard. And but you kind of accept that because of the good play in the locker room didn't it didn't affect the locker room. But lately Jamal is getting more and more bitchy and he's not backing it up with his play. And this is the dangerous territory for Jamal. You know he has really tried to like and I've said this before to other people. It's like Jamal every fiber of his being you could tell is being put onto the court. Because he's not as athletic as some of these other guards. So when he's out there you can he's out working them. There's some there's talent there but it's a nexus of talent and really working extremely hard. That's one of the reasons he gets these injuries injuries. I don't think necessarily that it's always him coming into the year out of shape. But sometimes it is. And you can see every fiber of his being going into play. And when you do that and when you put that much pressure on your joints and your soft tissue. It's something's going to happen. You're going to get these annoying injuries that result from overworking. I have a relative right now who's dealing with something very similar to that. It was just from overworking. So there are things that happen that will translate into injuries and stuff like that. Like I said in the past Jamal was able to issue a lot of the complaints about his personality. While he was playing better and what I'm informing people of is the nuggets. The nuggets are in a position right now where they need to decide a lot of different things with the roster. And as time goes on if you aren't backing up your your demeanor with on the court stuff. People start pointing out that you're an asshole. And that is what the fundamental part of Jamal's personality is he's a dick. And there was no further, no better explanation of that than him watching that fight while people were asking him questions. It was extremely dismissive and disrespectful. Now people obviously the media is not exactly popular. People will point out that you know who cares. Look that's in the grand scheme of things. How you treat the media is not is not doesn't really matter. But it is part of a piece of a puzzle and it is part of a of of the whole picture that makes someone up. If you if your play and your ability to not let your personality affect the locker room is still part of the deal. Then people will ignore being a dick. But if certain things are not being backed up with play like Jamal this last year. Outside of a couple moments then people will start pointing out this guy's a dick. And that's been really been Jamal's problem. Jamal has struggled this this year to to kind of back up the attitude. And the ledger went pretty significantly in favor of this guy's an asshole. And he needs to adjust this. I mean look we all have our moments and anyone who's listened to this podcast the last 11, 12, 13 years. 13 now shit. It can tell you them I could be an asshole. And everyone can have a moment they have a moment of weakness and these things happen. You know some people are more like that than others and Jamal's more like that. And I think this is all piling up and it could be some stress on Jamal due to how the nuggets end of the year. Calvin Booth's end of season presser the things he said. All of that could be coming into focus and being some pressure on Jamal that he otherwise didn't have. But I understand that it happens. I think that what I would advise Jamal if I was if I was you know giving him kind of life advice right now is I just say like put your nose to the ground. Do what you need to do because his answer to Troy rank after the game against the US was really terse and bitchy. And it wasn't necessary. It wasn't necessary. All you had to do was say like look I honestly I'll let my representative handle that now I'm just focused on this which is kind of what he said but the way he said it was just clearly annoyed right. But it is what it is Jamal's Jamal is who he is and I think we are now at a point where Jamal needs to be where that the side of the ledger that his personality is on doesn't overwhelm his play on the court. And he's got another year left on his contract supposedly there's an extension on the table that will be extended to him post Olympics supposedly. So you never know you never know if Jamal will just kind of overcome this have a great Olympics and then triumphantly come to the other side and have a contact contact extension and be ready to play at the level he was in 2023 playoffs. Right. That's what we can hope and I hope he gets there in the second half the podcast I'm going to talk to you about this Russell Westbrook thing just briefly going to mention it. 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At Moss Adams, that question inspires us to help people and their businesses strategically define and claim their future. As one of America's leading accounting, consulting and wealth management firms, our collaborative approach creates solutions for your unique business needs. We leverage industry focus insights with the collective technical resources of our firm to elevate your performance, uncover opportunity and move upward at Moss Adams.com. So the Russell Westbrook thing is interesting. I do believe this plays into some of the nuggets weirdness, and I discussed the weirdness in the last podcast. The nuggets are very weirdness here. Some people took offense to that, but it's true. The nuggets have been bizarre this year, and it just extends from Calvin being not exactly great with the front facing part of being a GM. And some of it is just the typical cronky stuff, which we're going to have to deal with as nuggets fans. But the Westbrook thing is weird because people have been pointing out over and over. There's two things that have happened. DeAndre Jordan has not been officially signed yet. It was announced pre-free agency that DeAndre Jordan was going to sign a minimum contract for one year. And it hasn't been officially yet. And two, Russell Westbrook is not on the nuggets. So there could be some possibilities of why that is. I do think it's pretty straightforward as to why things are being held up right now. A lot of transactions being held up right now because the NBA is just at a bizarre place. Some teams are treating actually most of the teams are treating the second apron as a hard cap, and others are not like the Boston Celtics. So there's this kind of this weird nebulous middle ground. And now that we I think I know it was reported that the media deal is official now. Now that that is there, I think it'll be easier knowing that the cap will jump 10% this next year. So the teams will officially know what the cap will be next year and the year after and the year after. It'll be predictable along with growth and league revenue. So, you know, you'll have a baseline at 10% with because of the media deal. That'll loosen things up a bit, but there's other factors here. And with Russell Westbrook, it really comes down to the nuggets from it's the same problem they had prior to the draft when they were projecting to everyone they wanted to run homes. Nuggets have such a hard time with subterfuge. I don't I don't I don't get it. They just state who they want. And then they end up overpaying. I just don't think this front office is very good at playing game. It's another added to the list of the weirdness with this nuggets team. But part two of that is that the clip the Los Angeles Clippers have no incentive to help out the Denver Nuggets. None. They really don't have any incentive to do the nuggets of financial solid, which is essentially what that would be. The nuggets are are really looking to have Russell Westbrook out of minimum contract for one year. And that would require him being waived either traded and waived to another team or waived by the Clippers and the Clippers. I think like with any other team would just prefer that he be traded for assets. And I think that that that the nuggets kind of through their lack of subterfuge have kind of backed themselves into a weird corner where the I believe the only way unless the Clippers were lent. The only way the nuggets are going to be able to give Russell Westbrook is if they trade for him and then that gets into a weird situation. I do think the nuggets would rather sign him for the minimum vet deal. And why the nuggets are held up in the DeAndre Jordan thing? I don't know. Maybe that plays a factor to it. I'm not reporting anything. I just don't know. So where we're at right now is that the nuggets are just kind of waiting for the Clippers to do them a favor. Essentially is what it is. Trade them to a team so you can be cut or cut them themselves themselves so they can sign them for minimum. I don't think the Clippers, as I said before, I don't think the Clippers are inclined to do the nuggets a favor. Now they could still do something and the Clippers could still do something and trade Westbrook to a team that he likes and the nuggets are lose out. And then we're back to the nightmare scenario of Jalen Pickett being the backup point guard for the nuggets. I think that is unlikely, but I do think that the hold up is people just need to understand the NBA. It's just the Clippers have no incentive to help the nuggets out. Truly. There is no reason for the Clippers to do the nuggets a favor with their finances. And there's also no incentive for the Clippers to base. I wouldn't say I'd make the nuggets better is a nebulous thing. So I'm not going to go there. But I think they don't have any incentive to make the nuggets backup point guard more amenable. And there's other options that the nuggets could trade for. But the Westbrook thing is part of the Stulu. And also the nuggets are the ones who signed Zignagi to a ridiculous contract last year and that is hampering their flexibility. And there's all these things going on at the same time. So, you know, like, look, I'm not going to say that this is hopeless or anything like that. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that people need to understand there's a delay and the delay is probably, I would say, 90% because the Clippers have just have no incentive to help the nuggets out. And I think that all the trade scenarios for the Russell Westbrook to acquire the, you know, to acquire Russell Westbrook, the nuggets don't really have the requisite draft picks. Are they going to trade their 2031 first round pick just to get a one year deal for Russell Westbrook? That's not going to happen. So, the nuggets don't really have any incentive to trade with the Clippers for Russell Westbrook. The nuggets would have to give up some of Calvin Booth's precious picks that he's drafted the last couple of years. I don't think he's inclined to do that. So, the nuggets are at this weird nebulous situation. And I think that that part is going to play itself out over time. I don't know. I honestly do not know what the nuggets are going to do, how this will resolve itself. I mean, after I post this podcast, it could suddenly be up. Only I was with you. I thought that's happened before. So, maybe my podcasting will be the thing that gets the nuggets motivated towards something else here. I don't know. But where we're at at the very present moment is the Denver nuggets are in a state of holding because they don't have all the roster spots together. They don't have all the other stuff together. And it's just going to be really, really difficult to kind of navigate this new CBA landscape. And I think the nuggets at this point are kind of highly motivated to get at least something behind Jamal Murray, depending on what that is. And we shall say, I don't know. I honestly don't know. I don't know how this will resolve. I think we need to get to a better point with this nuggets team because as I pointed out in the last podcast, people are weird about the nuggets because the nuggets have been weird. And maybe you need to buy you and the fans need to look at this and say, you're just going to have to be patient here because it takes two to tango. And the nuggets Tango partner has no incentive to help the nuggets out. So we all need to keep that in mind. All right, this didn't end up being a short podcast today. And that's how I think you all probably appreciate that sort of thing with me. All right, thank you all for joining me on the latest more cast. I'm going to be back in probably on Saturday with another episode. Oh, by the way, it's going to be ridiculously hot here in Denver if you're listening to this. And try to stick cool because it's going to be absolutely insane this weekend over 100 each day. So be safe out there. Hopefully, if you have air conditioning your house, be safe. And hopefully this thing doesn't get too bad and we all make it through this ludicrously hot weekend so we can all have a better week next week. Thank you all for joining me on the latest more cast. I'll be back on Saturday with another episode. Goodbye. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Why wear a seat belt? The math speaks for itself. You have a one in 40 chance of being in a crash this year. But wearing a seat belt reduces your risk of serious harm by 50%. And a rollover crash more than three out of five deaths are from those who weren't wearing theirs. Seat belts save lives, over 370,000 in fact. 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This hasn't been a great spring/summer for Jamal Murray. On the latest Mortcast Jeff talks about how Jamal can be a bit of a jerk and how people will ignore that as long as your play backs it up. In the last year it hasn't.