The Atlanta Hawks have traded All-Star guard Dejounte Murray to the New Orleans Pelicans, according to the Daily Mail. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
In contrast, swans are It said Returning first-round picks in 2025 and 2027, center Larry Nance Jr. and guard Dyson Daniels to Atlanta. The 2025 pick is the unprotected Los Angeles Lakers pick acquired in the Anthony Davis trade, while the 2027 pick would be less favorable than the Pelicans and Milwaukee Bucks’ picks.
Murray is entering the first season of a four-year, $120 million contract he signed with the Hawks last season.
The trade marks another major swing in the NBA offseason, as the Pelicans try to upgrade a core already led by Brandon Ingram, Zion Williamson and C.J. McCollum. The Hawks are moving on from a player who was supposed to help them take the next step.
Can Dejounte Murray help the Pelicans?
Since trading Davis, the Pelicans have been slowly building themselves back into a playoff team. That effort led to a 49-33 record last season, but that left them needing to play in the championship to reach the playoffs.
The Pelicans’ season ended with a blowout first-round win at the hands of the Oklahoma City Thunder, and it was difficult to watch their performance and think that a little extra experience was all they needed to excel in the West.
With Murray, the Pelicans will be getting a player who is expected to slide in well alongside McCollum on the back line while adding a defensive identity to the team. Thanks to the strong defensive principles of Herb Jones and coach Willie Green, the team ranked sixth in the NBA in defensive rating last year at 111.9.
Murray and McCollum are ball-handling players who are threats on the perimeter, and they form the core of the Pelicans’ new offense with Trey Murphy and Williamson attacking the paint. Ingram’s role could be in flux with the addition of Murray, who is a free agent next season.
The Pelicans still have some catching up to do this offseason, with star center Jonas Valanciñas becoming an unrestricted free agent. With Nance also gone, there’s a big hole in the penalty box for New Orleans, which they partially addressed by selecting Baylor’s big man Yves Macy with the 21st pick in the 2024 NBA Draft.
A Dejounte Murray trade has been long expected for the Hawks
The Pelicans are betting big by trading Murray, something that didn’t quite work out for the last team to do so.
The Hawks acquired Murray from the San Antonio Spurs in the summer of 2022, parting ways with a larger package than the Pelicans gave up (three first-round picks, trading picks and Danilo Gallinari). At the time, the hope was that Murray would be the perfect complement to Trae Young, a player with major defensive shortcomings who needed the ball in his hands to be useful.
It’s hard to say Murray didn’t give his all, but the overall result was underwhelming at best. The Hawks went 41-41 in their first season with Murray and 36-46 in his second season. The team’s defense was a mess, and head coach Quin Snyder’s full season didn’t help.
So Atlanta is partially hitting the reset button. Unless the Hawks want to destroy the team to the hilt, Young is likely not going anywhere. He, DeAndre Hunter and Bogdan Bogdanovic are all under contract for at least two more seasons, and parting ways with Murray could be a way for the team to recalibrate a formula that hasn’t worked so far.
However, it’s hard not to view this trade as an admission that paying for Murray was a mistake in the first place.
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