Are Nuggets getting cold feet about star guard's extension?

In June, Shams Charania reported that the Denver Nuggets were prepared to give Jamal Murray a four-year max extension. Two months later, there's still no deal for the 27-year-old guard.

Murray is eligible to sign a four-year extension this summer for up to $209M, a deal that would keep him in a Nuggets uniform through the 2028-29 season. But he's been eligible for this deal since the season ended, and he's been in the city of Denver for two weeks with no deal yet.

$209M for four years is the maximum that Murray can get, having failed the criteria for a supermax because he's never made an All-NBA team. He's never even made an All-Star team, though he's played at a superstar level during the playoffs, namely in 2020 and 2023 when he helped the Nuggets win a title.

Murray signed a max-level rookie extension in 2019, a deal that expires at the end of the upcoming season. Should the Nuggets not reach a deal with Murray, he'd become an unrestricted free agent next summer, though GM Calvin Booth told Sirius XM he thought the two sides would reach a deal quickly after Murray played for Canada in the Olympics.

"When he gets back and that concludes, I think it will be pretty easy," Booth said. "I don’t think it will be a bunch of negotiation."

But apparently there is some negotiation, which implies that the Nuggets may not want to give their point guard upwards of $50M per season. Murray had a disappointing Olympics for Canada and a disappointing playoffs for the Nuggets, shooting only 40 percent from the field and 31.5 percent from three-point range. His 20.6 scoring average was the lowest of his playoff career as he battled injuries to his calf and elbow.

Still, even if Murray is going to miss 20 games per season — he played 65 games in 2022-23 and 59 games last season — the Nuggets aren't going to be able to replace him with some other free agent. It would look especially bad to refuse to pay Murray after the team lost Bruce Brown and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope in free agency in consecutive seasons.

Would Murray settle for less than a max deal? Perhaps, but doing so wouldn't give the Nuggets much more flexibility. Denver isn't going to be under the cap with Nikola Jokic making over $50M a year and Michael Porter, Jr. and Aaron Gordon making nearly $60M combined. Plus, Gordon can become a free agent next summer.

Giving Murray a max might be an overpay, but he likely has most of the leverage in this negotiation. Unless Denver is prepared for a season full of questions about Murray's impending free agency or is willing to trade Jokic's running partner, they need to get a deal done soon. It's becoming suspicious that they haven't done it yet.