DENVER — Competitive impulse lured Jamal Murray and Jon Wallace into a gym together for the first time.

It was 2019, and the Nuggets had just hired Wallace as a basketball operations associate — “basically like an intern,” he said. Tim Connelly, his new boss and the roster architect who drafted Murray three years earlier, created a group chat to get them connected. He wanted to know who was a better 3-point shooter. Trash talk ensued.

Eventually, the two of them arranged to meet at a Lakewood gym: Murray, one of Denver’s most exciting young building blocks, and Wallace, a former Georgetown guard whose clutch 3-point shooting propelled the Hoyas to a Final Four in 2007. They were shooting around, as Wallace tells it, “and then it turned into some light-hearted one-on-one. Then it got to serious one-on-one.” The winner of the shooting contest is disputed. If Wallace claims to have won, Murray said, it’s because “I used my left hand or something.”

After the workout, they sat on the court and talked about family, similar interests, the NBA landscape. Wallace was new to the league after spending the last few years as an assistant coach at his alma mater. He wanted to understand how he could help Murray develop from his new position in the front office.

Impressed by Murray's talent and motor that day, Wallace also issued a challenge.

Why aren’t you an All-Star?

What little institutional knowledge Wallace possessed then of the Nuggets was nonetheless perceptive — and remains so six years later.

Murray is already a franchise icon for the brilliance he achieved in 2023. But the Nuggets have continued to live and die by him since they captured their first NBA title — as past accomplishments established loftier expectations, as money multiplied and pressure built, as professional rifts formed around him and jobs were lost. Now Wallace is back in Denver after a time away, re-hired alongside Ben Tenzer to serve as co-general managers.

Another chapter of the Nikola Jokic era begins Thursday (8 p.m. MT) when Denver opens its season at Golden State. Yet even after a coaching change, a front-office overhaul and a series of critically acclaimed roster maneuvers, the Nuggets see Murray as perhaps the most important variable in their organizational reboot. From a summer spent in the company of his young teammates to an impressive string of preseason games, the 28-year-old point guard looks re-energized as the Nuggets prepare for what they hope will be another long run into June.

"Everybody's got a competitive spirit, so I'm just channeling that," Murray told The Denver Post. "If that means challenging them to do something new in a game that's uncomfortable, then so be it."

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Wallace and Tenzer were overseas to watch centers Nikola Jokic and Jonas Valanciunas play for their national teams when Wallace started receiving calls from people around the league.

Did you guys make this mandatory?

Wallace’s response: “Huh?”

On the other side of the world, the rest of Denver’s roster had crowded into a UCLA gym for the most popular summer pickup game in the NBA. Colloquially named the “Rico runs” after Rico Hines, the 76ers assistant coach who oversees the operation, these first-to-seven games take place across three neighboring courts, with teams rotating out. The middle court belongs to the winners, while teams that lose are relegated to the surrounding courts (or the sideline to wait their turn).

It’s not uncommon for several players from the same team to show up together. But the arrival of more than a dozen Nuggets was an unusually vast assembly.

“My understanding (at first) was that it was going to be four or five of us,” Christian Braun said.

“It was just the players, man,” Wallace said. “The players took matters into their own hands.”

They stayed for half a week of runs, which lasted about 90 minutes to two hours each day. Other pros came and went. The UCLA men’s basketball team showed up one day. Aaron Gordon made room in his schedule despite having just finished a tour through Asia for his shoe deal. “AG was balling, definitely showing a lot of iso, step-back 3s and stuff like that,” two-way wing Spencer Jones said. “Jamal was playing really well. P-Wat was dunking all over the place.”

“We haven't done stuff like that since I've been here,” third-year guard Jalen Pickett told The Post. “... Just for Jamal to send out a text, or some of the vets to say they were going to come out and play, I thought that was cool.”

The display of unity represented an important component of Denver’s offseason reset — an increased emphasis from team management on camaraderie in the aftermath of a house-divided work environment that characterized last season. Among the many points of contention between former coach Michael Malone and general manager Calvin Booth, according to league sources, was where certain young players spent their time training in the offseason: in Denver with Malone’s player development staff, or elsewhere with a shooting coach hired by Booth.

After the Kroenke family fired both of them three games before the playoffs, then-interim head coach David Adelman’s ability to get his message through to the locker room emerged as the primary reason ownership was convinced to elevate him to the full-time job. That started in huddles, with a demonstrably more communicative Jokic. It continued into the summer when Adelman encouraged a handful of young players to get together outside of work.

“He says it every single day, that we need to be around each other and be in the moment,” Braun told The Post. “He didn’t try to force anything, but just understands our connection is going to be really big.”

“It just feels more like a team,” Gordon added.

Meanwhile, Wallace suggested the Rico runs to Murray as a way to work on his individual game while enjoying the Los Angeles summer. Murray was already training in Denver with some of the younger Nuggets who were obligated to be in town. Plans collided, and soon Murray was arranging team meals in LA for the team’s veterans, newcomers and rookies to intermingle.

“I've always thought you can over-coach (chemistry). When you have vets, you shouldn't be force-feeding them to do that,” Adelman said. “… If you add new pieces, it looks like 2K. It's really cool, but it doesn't mean anything if they can't actually coexist daily beyond the basketball court.

"... I don't know if that leads to a bunch of wins or whatever, but so far, the process has been very clean."

The pickup runs also represented an opportunity for Murray to attack the summer with a recharged battery, as opposed to playing his way into shape early in the season. Some team officials in past years harbored concerns that he arrived at training camp unprepared for the season physically, league sources told The Post, contributing to his trend of slow starts. Murray himself pointed out recently that he benefited from having more time to rest at the beginning of this offseason. “Jamal stands out to me,” Adelman said last week, “just because he made (conditioning) a goal.”

This will be his fourth season back from the torn ACL that sidelined him for two playoff runs as he was entering his prime — and his first with an open runway of preparation. In the summer of 2022, he was finishing up his recovery. In 2023, he was recuperating from the championship run that shortened Denver’s offseason. In 2024, he was attempting to play through lingering minor injuries at the Paris Olympics.

In the three seasons that followed those summers, he averaged 18.8 points and 5.8 assists through Christmas, shooting 44.3% (37.8% from 3-point range) and missing 27% of Denver’s games. His combined stats after Christmas in those years were substantially better: only 19% of games missed, with 22 points and 6.4 assists per game on 48.2% shooting (41.7% from 3).

“I’m just focused on having a great November,” he said at the team’s media day.

When Wallace was re-hired in June, part of his goal was to support Murray in that mission — as an executive and friend.

He felt that Murray could psychologically feed off his own leadership skills.

“It’s like, ‘All right, how do you turn up the mental level? What’s the small percentage that makes you a little bit better, that helps you kind of reinvent yourself or unlock another level of your attack?’” Wallace told The Post. “... That was the whole thing behind this summer. ‘I want you to be vocal, because when you’re vocal, you’re engaged, and when you’re engaged, your teammates look to you, and they revere you, and they respect you.’"

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Peyton Watson was fuming as he returned to the huddle.

Peyton, you've gotta be ready to shoot!

Agitated and embarrassed, his reflex was to bark back at Murray: “You ain’t been passing it over here, so I wasn’t ready.”

It was March 9, 2024, at Ball Arena — Watson’s second year in the NBA and first as an everyday rotation player. The Nuggets were up 102-88 on the Jazz, but the third quarter ended in disarray. Utah scored six points in the last minute, and Watson was unprepared for a pass from Murray on the final possession. Denver didn’t get a shot off before the buzzer.

“I wasn't ready to shoot,” Watson admits in hindsight. “But we got in a back-and-forth a little bit about that in the timeout.”

When Murray is at his sharpest as a leader, he assumes a bold and personalized style of empowerment toward young players. Those who’ve experienced it say that he has a natural ability to discern what motivates them.

In this case, Watson just needed a vote of confidence.

Denver had the ball to start the fourth quarter. “The first thing he did was call the play,” Watson remembers. Murray took a dribble handoff and passed to a cutting Watson underneath for a layup. Those were his first points of the game. He went on to score 12 in the final frame alone.

“To me, that symbolized a lot,” Watson said. “If he didn't believe in me, he would go away from me. If anything, it would push him further away, like, ‘I’m not passing to this kid again.’ But I think that him calling that play for me … I think that was a big moment between us.

“I think he saw that I was a naturally confident guy, but the ebbs and flows of the season my first and second years, he could tell that sometimes those would get to me. And he was like, ‘I know who you are, P-Wat. I know the confidence you possess in yourself, and don't ever lose sight of that.’”

For Murray’s backcourt partner in the starting lineup, confidence often came in the form of secret quests. Braun’s locker room stall was next to Murray’s early in his career, allowing Murray to issue occasional pregame challenges. He wanted Braun to expand his game by going rogue, within reason. On Nov. 17, 2023, Murray was recovering from a hamstring injury in New Orleans and dared Braun to take at least one step-back jumper. Braun knocked down three 3-pointers that night.

“We know he wants to get to the rim," Murray told The Post, "but when a guy goes under (a ball screen), shoot it. ... I’ll start counting how many step-back 3s he takes, how many midrange shots Julian (Strawther) takes, how many floaters Peyton takes. Everybody has something I try to keep on them.”

Braun and Watson have both developed into key role players during Denver’s pursuit of a second championship, despite both being drafted outside the lottery in 2022. Now Murray is pushing the next generation behind them. Pickett has grown fond of picking his brain. Lately, he’s been focusing on his change of pace with guidance from Murray to compensate for what he naturally lacks in speed.

Murray privately challenges himself in similar ways, making mental notes of “anything I find that’s a little defeating.” The minutiae was the priority in Los Angeles this summer, for him and his teammates. Watson has been "making himself uncomfortable" by attempting that floater more often this preseason, with Murray's encouragement.

“That’s why we’re there,” Murray told The Post. “Winning a game of pickup doesn’t really matter. Anyone can win a game. But what are we doing in the summer to get ourselves better? Putting ourselves in an environment against guys that are hungry, the UCLA guys, that’s to challenge everybody to get better and just play free. That’s what everybody did.”

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When Wallace followed Connelly to Minnesota for a front-office job with the Timberwolves in 2022, he tried to keep in touch with Murray. Occasionally, he watched or heard about a game that Murray took over with clutch shot-making and fired off a text.

It’s good to see that you’ve still got that killer inside of you.

“He’d laugh. But I would always try to make sure that resonated with him,” Wallace said. “Like, ‘You are in fact a killer within your own right, and you can't lose track of whatever that little nudge is inside of you that allows you to kind of turn it on and close games.’ Because his teammates respect him. The league respects him. And I think he’s such a good guy, such a good team player that it gets lost sometimes.”

Six years later, Wallace is back in Denver. Murray still hasn’t been named an All-Star. But Wallace still sees what he saw back in that local gym, where a friendship formed over regular training sessions starting with that day.

He made that clear this preseason when he referred to the Nuggets as not just Jokic’s team, but Murray’s as well. He told reporters he wants Murray to be “brutally honest” with the front office about how they can help him — a larger-scale version of his plea when they sat together after that first shooting contest.

“He just knows ball. He knows what it is,” Murray told The Post. “He knows we’ve got a core that was good enough to compete with anybody in the league, any given day, any given time. And now we’ve got the reinforcements to back that up. Now we’ve just gotta go put it all together.”

Part of that, Murray understands, is on him. On whether he can demolish his reputation for slow starts. Wallace’s 6-year-old All-Star challenge lingers like one of Murray’s motivational dares to a young teammate. “What’s understood didn’t need to be explained,” Wallace said. “He knows that, yeah, there is a little bit of disrespect in the league to where Jamal is not being talked about more, where he hasn't been regarded as an All-Star player.”

The Nuggets believe he can be. They have to believe he can be. The very act of hiring Wallace to join forces with Tenzer signaled as much as Wallace’s words: Denver is doubling down on the Blue Arrow amid all the change.

“Jamal Murray has a lot of skin in this game,” Wallace said, “and he’s a very, very important piece of that championship fabric."

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