Nuggets' Jamal Murray: Not ruled out for road trip

Head coach Michael Malone said Thursday that Murray (hamstring) is getting closer to a return and will join the Nuggets for their five-game road trip, which begins Friday in New Orleans, Harrison Wind of TheDNVR.com reports. "I don't know if on this road trip he'll play or not," Malone said, when asked about Murray's status.

Murray suffered a right hamstring strain Nov. 4, and though the Nuggets never put an official timeline on the star point guard's return to the lineup, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reported last week that Murray was expected to remain sidelined through the end of the month. Though Malone is leaving the door open for Murray to potentially play during the road trip -- which runs through Nov. 24 -- it's more likely than not that the Nuggets will take a cautious approach and give him the recommend 3-to-4 weeks off for his hamstring to properly heal. At the very least, Malone's comments Thursday would seem to indicate that Murray has made progress on some level in his recovery.