Regardless of the playoff elimination, Jamal Murray’s summer season of basketball is simply getting began.
Following the Denver Nuggets‘ Sport 7 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday, the Kitchener, Ont. native confirmed his dedication to play for Crew Canada on the Paris Olympics this summer season.
The star guard didn’t get to go well with up with the staff in final summer season’s FIBA World Cup after his Nuggets received the NBA championship and he needed to spend the break resting as much as put together for subsequent season.
Nonetheless, he did participate in Canada’s coaching camps forward of the match and had time to acclimate to his teammates in pink and white, ridding basic supervisor Rowan Barrett of issues about having to combine new faces into the staff.
Murray, 26, will carry his robust offensive recreation into the fold because the guard averaged 21.2 factors, 4.1 rebounds and 6.5 assists this season in Denver. He shot 48.1 per cent from the sphere and 42.5 per cent from 3-point vary.
He’ll doubtless pair with famous person Shai Gilgeous-Alexander within the backcourt, because the Thunder guard was additionally eradicated from the playoffs in a Sport 6 loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday.
One other acquainted face becoming a member of him on the staff will doubtless be Nickeil Alexander-Walker, who he was matched up towards incessantly within the collection towards the Timberwolves.
“I’m gonna ask for that very same defence on Crew Canada,” Murray stated about Alexander-Walker after Sport 4 of their collection. “He’s nice, man. He simply performs with a lot power, exercise, doesn’t get drained it seems like. Simply does regardless of the staff wants.”
Nikola Jokic, Murray’s accomplice in crime in Denver, in the meantime, was non-committal about his plans to probably play for Serbia on the Olympics. He didn’t play for the silver medal-winning staff on the FIBA World Cup.
The preliminary spherical of the Olympic basketball match begins on July 27.