NBA Trade Idea Sends Nuggets’ Jamal Murray to Trail Blazers

The Denver Nuggets finished 54-28 and locked up the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference, but none of that mattered much after the Minnesota Timberwolves knocked them out in six games during the first round.

Jamal Murray had the best regular season of his career, putting up 25.4 points, 7.1 assists and 4.4 rebounds while earning his first All-Star selection.

Then the playoffs happened.

Murray shot 35.7 percent from the field and 26.2 percent from three against Minnesota, and now Bleacher Report's Grant Hughes is floating a trade proposal that would send him to the Portland Trail Blazers.

The Nuggets would receive Jrue Holiday, Scoot Henderson, a 2028 first-round pick from Milwaukee (top-4 protected) and a 2029 first-round pick from Boston. Portland would get Murray in return.

Hughes wrote that Murray "wasn't nearly good enough on either end to get the Nuggets out of the first round" and added that he "was particularly vulnerable on defense at the point of attack, which was fatal to a Denver team that had no rim protection on the back line."

Murray is owed an average of $54 million per year through 2028-29, and the playoff numbers did not help his case.

Denver's front office watched him go 4-of-17 with zero points from three in the series-ending Game 6 loss.

The Nuggets have already committed to Nikola Jokic long term with a reported four-year, $278 million extension expected this summer, and adding Holiday would give them a guard who can actually defend at the point of attack.

Henderson, meanwhile, is a young swing who could energize Denver's bench or even push for a starting spot.

Henderson only appeared in 30 games for the 42-40 Trail Blazers this season because of a preseason hamstring injury, but he averaged 14.2 points and 3.7 assists and looked like a different player in the postseason, shooting 47.5 percent from the floor and 46.4 percent from three against San Antonio.

The former No. 3 overall pick is still just 22. Two incoming first-round picks would also help Denver rebuild a draft stockpile that has been picked apart in recent years.

The playoff exit was ugly, but Denver's leadership has already expressed confidence in the current roster and pointed to injuries as the biggest factor.

The starting five of Jokic, Murray, Christian Braun, Aaron Gordon and Cameron Johnson barely played together all year, missing a combined 136 games between them.

That context matters when thinking about trades.

Murray put up one of the best offensive seasons in Nuggets history, and a healthy version of this team might look nothing like the group that lost to Minnesota.

Trading a 29-year-old first-time All-Star coming off a career year because of one rough playoff series feels a lot like selling low, and the regular season gave Denver plenty of reasons to believe in what this roster can do when the health breaks go their way.