Why Nuggets are using lineups with Jamal Murray, Russell Westbrook together early in season

This is more discomfort than the Nuggets are used to feeling in their stomachs.

Their three-time MVP isn’t saying much to calm it. After his 41-point outburst went to waste Saturday afternoon, Nikola Jokic was asked by what point in the season he feels the Nuggets need to have themselves figured out. He responded, with the same frankness that he used this week to call them a bad shooting team, “probably yesterday.”

Meanwhile, Jokic’s longtime point guard recommends Pepto Bismol.

“I have a more in-depth picture of us than everybody looking from the outside in, but we won a championship with most of the guys that have been here,” Jamal Murray said after Denver’s 109-104 loss to the Clippers. “We’ve been here together for a while. We have trust in everybody. … I think we’re gradually getting better; it’s just not translating into wins yet.”

This is only the second season of Jokic’s career that Denver has started 0-2. After Saturday’s games, the Nuggets ranked last in the NBA in team offensive rating at 97.4, albeit still with a comically small sample size. And now the comforts of home will be abandoned as they try to correct course on a three-game road trip, starting Monday night in Toronto.

Murray’s health, production and lineup deployment are major aspects of the uncertainty surrounding the 2023 champions. But he came to his team’s defense — particularly regarding its depth and 3-point shooting — after an individual performance that was up to standard. He went for 22 points and five assists on 7-of-14 shooting, including 3 of 6 from outside.

“P-Wat (Peyton Watson) is coming back from injury, and we know he can make, and we know what he’s capable of on both ends,” Murray said. “CB (Christian Braun) is taking the leap.”

Braun’s fit in the starting lineup has been low on the list of problems. He has scored in double figures both games while providing impressive on-ball defense against Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and James Harden. In its 48 minutes together, the slightly new-look starting five has a net rating of 14.1. Michael Porter Jr.’s shooting slump aside, it has mostly picked up where it left off with Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.

The hole left behind in the second unit by Braun’s promotion is another story.

Denver’s bench has started the season 10 for 46 from the field (21.7%). The four rotation players behind Michael Malone’s starting lineup combined for just five rebounds against Los Angeles, accentuating the unit’s lack of size. Defensively, it has been inconsistent. Dario Saric struggled to size up to his countryman Ivica Zubac, a more traditional center, who amassed 24 points and 15 rebounds for the Clippers.

“A lot of it’s coming from chemistry,” Murray said of the slow start. “I remember I was running the break today, and I didn’t know if I should go to the two or the three. … We were talking about some of that stuff in the locker room.”

Murray has played in the second unit both games, though to a lesser degree on Saturday. In 11 minutes during the season-opener, a bench lineup featuring Murray as the lone stagger registered a minus-37.3 net rating, 37.9% rebounding rate and 38.3% true shooting percentage.

Staggering Murray is nothing new in Denver, but the fit has been awkward so far this season with only one ball to share between him and Russell Westbrook (who defended respectably Saturday but missed all eight of his shot attempts).

The Nuggets’ interest in Westbrook this summer was in part associated with his potential to push Murray competitively in practice. Whether they complement each other in games remains to be seen, but their first 21 minutes together have been a minus-28.9 net.

“Jamal’s a guard. He’s been a one. He’s been a two,” Malone said after the opener, reiterating what he has long believed. “In college, he was a two. It’s just that, for his Nuggets tenure, Jamal has been a guy that can be a starting one, and he can play with a point guard in the second unit. I think Russ and Jamal have a lot of potential to be really good together.”

Malone eased off the Murray stagger minutes in the second game, introducing a pinch of Porter as well. But the best second-unit minutes of the season so far were the handful featuring both Porter and Murray — perhaps not a coincidence, seeing as two starters were involved instead of one.

If that continues to be the case as the Nuggets hit the road, it would only go to show the precariousness of their depth this season.

Even if they figure themselves out soon, each game might simply be an exercise in holding breath and crossing fingers for no injuries.

“I just play with whoever’s out there in the 15-man group that we’ve got,” Murray said when asked about the lineups. “That’s a question for the head coach. I just work here.”

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