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  • Grading The Week: Nuggets’ Jamal Murray sure looks like NBA All-Star to us

    It’s Jamal Murray’s Team World. The rest of us are just living in it.

    Or rather, living in the glow of what might be the Nuggets guard’s best-ever start to a regular season — best statistical start, at any rate.

    While the Nuggets themselves are coming off a schizophrenic and inconsistent week, to put it kindly, after home losses to Sacramento and San Antonio, the Blue Arrow has quietly been tying a bow around his most productive November ever.

    Friday night’s 37-point performance against the Spurs at Ball Arena pushed No. 27’s scoring average over his first 12 games of the month to 23.2 per contest — easily his best clip for the month of November since the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Jamal Murray: budding All-Star — A-minus.

    From Nov. 1-Nov. 28, Murray was connecting on 48% of his attempts from the floor and 40.4% from beyond the arc. As of Saturday morning, his November averages were 23.2 points, 7.3 assists and 3.0 treys per tilt.

    If that sounds like a healthy jump from a year ago at this time, that’s because it is. Murray in November 2024 averaged 17.8 points, 6.7 dimes and 2.2 3-point makes over 10 games. In November 2023, Maple Curry averaged 12.5 points, 6.3 assists and 1.5 treys over just four appearances.

    Given that Murray is a historically slow-(ish) starter, Team Grading The Week (GTW) wanted to pause form stuffing our respective faces with turkey sandwiches and tip some collective caps in the Blue Arrow’s direction.

    For one, Murray promised that a dedicated summer of good health plus a intense workout schedule would lead to a better opening two months of the regular season. He’s been true to that word — so far, so good.

    For another, here’s hoping that yet another tweak in the NBA’s All-Star game format opens up a window for Murray to finally make the cut at age 28.

    Instead of conference-vs.-conference matchups, the main competition on ASG weekend will be a Team USA vs. Team World tourney. Only instead of two teams, there will be three teams comprised of eight players, with no positional restrictions, who will face off in a round-robin format.

    With Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (32.6 points, 6.6 assist per game as of this past Friday) almost a lock to take up at least one Team World backcourt spot, Murray is going to have to keep this pace up to join his fellow Canadian at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif., come mid-February. But with each passing week, Murray gets that much closer to crossing the threshold from almost to All-Star.

    Tad Boyle’s still got it — A.

    New DU men’s hoops coach Tim Bergstraser sure got the GTW crew’s attention earlier this month by beating CSU Rams and Ali Farokhmanesh in FoCo. Steve Smiley’s UNC Bears men’s basketball team improved to 6-1 this past Wednesday with a victory at Air Force. Thanksgiving weekend means we’re going to finally get some meaty inter-conference matchups on the hoops front, and no local men’s team has stepped up over the past few days the way GTW’s old pal Tad Boyle has with CU.

    Between Nov. 21-28, the Buffs (7-0) knocked off UC Davis at home by 16, then went to Palm Desert, Calif., for a holiday tourney — taking out a good San Francisco team by 10 and following that up with an 81-68 victory over Washington on Friday thanks to Bangot Dak’s 15 points and 11 boards.

    It’s too early to draw deep conclusions on the men’s hoops front locally, but not too early to dream. As of late Friday night, CU’s good week had moved the Buffs up to No. 65 on KenPom.com’s computer rankings, just ahead of CSU at No. 68. With both rivals needing a “name” win on their respective resumes before Christmas, the Rocky Mountain Showdown at Moby Arena on Dec. 6 figures to be, to paraphrase Russell Wilson, awfully spicy.

    Sean Keeler

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  • Grading The Week: Ex-Broncos RBs Audric Estime, Javonte Williams would love to have J.K. Dobbins’ problems right now

    Where there’s a Williams, there’s a whoa.

    As in former Broncos running back Javonte Williams, the Dallas Cowboy who somehow managed to have a rougher week than his successor, J.K. Dobbins, did in London.

    For the first time since Week 1, the Javonte Train finally went off the rails. Despite what the fantasy experts on the Grading The Week team saw as a (makes finger quotes in the air) “favorable” matchup at Carolina last Sunday, the ex-Bronco was held to a season-low 29 rushing yards on 13 carries and 5 receiving yards on five grabs.

    Context: Despite a banged-up, messed-up offensive line in front of him across the pond, Dobbins still managed more rushing yards (40) and more total yards (also 40) on far fewer touches (14).

    Life of an ex-Broncos RB — D

    And yet Williams’ statistical stumble was cupcakes and rainbows compared to the week of his former teammate — and backfield mate — Audric Estime.

    Estime, the Broncos’ fifth-round pick out of Notre Dame in the 2024 NFL draft, was waived by Denver this past August after falling behind Tyler Badie and Jaleel McLaughlin on the depth chart. The Philadelphia Eagles signed Estime a few days later and stuck him on their practice squad.

    On Tuesday, our man Audric became unstuck. The Eagles released him.

    The ex-Irish runner remained inactive for all six games with the Birds, including the Broncos’ 21-17 win at Philly back on Oct. 5.

    Burning through two franchises over your first 18 months in the league makes for something of an auspicious NFL start for Estime, no question. But there’s one thing on the dude’s side: Time. He just turned 22 this past Sept. 6. If Estime can land on his feet, with head, heart and hands all pointing the same direction, he’s got time to re-write his narrative.

    Wedgewood’s start for Avs — A

    When the kids at the GTW offices can’t trust our eyes, we trust the math. After its first five games a year ago, the Avalanche had given up 28 goals (5.6 GAA) and had lost four times. After five games this fall to open the 2025-26 season, the burgundy and blue had surrendered just nine goals (1.8 GAA) while winning four of those five contests. Avs faithful may not know what a good power play looks like, but they know what it’s like to have a grown-up — Scott Wedgewood — keeping watch between the pipes.

    Meanwhile, our old pal Alexandar Georgiev — the man in net here to start last season — just cleared waivers in Buffalo and was spotted in recent days practicing with the AHL’s Rochester Americans.

    Sean Keeler

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