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Dejounte Murray is one of the better young players in the league.
Murray is a defense-first All-Star guard with a 6-foot-10 wingspan. But he made excellent improvements as a passer and on-ball scorer last year. Only back-to-back MVP big man Nikola Jokic recorded more triple-doubles last season.
Although he just completed his sixth professional season, Murray is still only 25 years old. That makes him the same age as Chris Duarte, who earned All-Rookie honors last season.
Advanced stats love Murray. I keep a composite tracker of how well each player scores in each catch-all metric. Overall, Murray ranks top 25 in the entire league. He is still on a relatively affordable contract, too, collecting a bit less than market value for an All-Star.
So why would the Spurs, as recent rumors suggest, want to trade him?
My guess is that they would want to get as young as possible in their rebuild. Their core would include Keldon Johnson (22), Devin Vassell (21), Josh Primo (19), Jeremy Sochan (19), Malaki Branham (19), and Blake Wesley (19).
That’s a lot of young talent! However, it’s not a roster ready for the playoffs. But with Murray on the team, they will end up winning games. Without him, though, they could be in prime contention for the top overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft.
The best prospect in the draft next season is France’s Victor Wembanyama. Why is that important? Wembanyama plays in the Euroleague for ASVEL, an organization owned by longtime Spurs guard Tony Parker.
Murray is good, sure. But we’ve seen San Antonio perform poorly for a season, land the No. 1 pick in the draft (selecting Tim Duncan), and then immediately re-join the contending ranks. Perhaps they will look to do this again with Wembanyama on the horizon.
The Tip-Off
When the Grizzlies were on the clock in the 2022 NBA Draft, I realized there was a theme with their picks.
“By reverse-engineering statistical profiles, we noticed some notable trends that may intrigue the front office and the scouting department in Memphis. The results for this year yielded three college basketball players who reached the following thresholds last season:
EFFICIENT SHOT SELECTION: EFG% above 57%
VALUE BEYOND SCORING: D-REB% and AST% both above 14%
DEFENSIVE PLAYMAKING: BLK% and STL% both above 2%
Those players (of course) were Wake Forest’s LaRavia, Colorado State’s Roddy, and VCU’s Williams. The Grizzlies literally drafted all three. We also featured all three in our pre-draft interview series!
That’s mind-blowing stuff right there.
Shootaround
— Fans turned Kyrie Irving’s weird quote about staying with the Nets into a hilarious meme
— Russell Westbrook appeared to celebrate using his player option by singing Beyonce in his car
— Sixers Wire ranks the worst free agency moves in franchise history
— HoopsHype’s Michael Scotto discusses the latest free agency rumors