The Denver Nuggets have agreed to a five-year, maximum-salary extension with guard Jamal Murray, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic. The extension won’t take effect until after next season, meaning it kicks in at the start of the 2020-21 league year.
Denver Nuggets rising star Jamal Murray has agreed to a five-year, $170M maximum contract extension, agent Mike George of OneLegacy tells @TheAthleticNBA @Stadium.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 1, 2019
The value of the extension is not yet known, but NBA cap projections would likely have deal starting at $29.25 million in year one and increasing to $38.61 million by year five.
Murray, 22, has quickly become the centerpiece of the Nuggets roster since being selected with seventh overall in the 2016 draft. Last season, he set career-highs in points per game (18.2), rebounds per game (4.2) and assists per game (4.8) over the course of 75 games (averaging 32.6 minutes per game). Murray helped lead Denver to the second seed in the Western Conference but fell one game short of an appearance in the conference finals.
As Luke Adams of HoopsRumors.com explains, while Denver wanted to lock up a Murray before it was too late, extending him now rather than during the 2020 restricted free agent period will limit the team’s financial flexibility next season. Adams writes, “Murray would have had a cap hold of approximately $13.3 [million] as a restricted free agent. Now that he has been extended, his new cap hit (projected to be $29 [million]) will hit the books right away, eating into the Nuggets’ potential cap room.”
