The Atlanta Hawks are trading All-Star guard Dejounte Murray to the New Orleans Pelicans, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
In return, the Pelicans Reportedly returning first-round picks in 2025 and 2027, center Larry Nance Jr. and guard Dyson Daniels to Atlanta. The 2025 pick is the unprotected pick of the Los Angeles Lakers acquired via the Anthony Davis trade, while the 2027 pick will be the least favorable pick of the Pelicans and Milwaukee Bucks.
Murray is entering the first season of a four-year, $120 million contract he signed with the Hawks last offseason.
The trade is another big twist in the NBA midseason, with the Pelicans looking to upgrade a core that already includes Brandon Ingram, Zion Williamson and CJ McCollum. As for the Hawks, they are leaving behind a player who should have helped them take the next step.
Can Dejounte Murray help the Pelicans?
Since trading Davis, the Pelicans have slowly rebuilt themselves into a playoff team. That effort led to a 49-33 record last season, but that still left them needing the play-in tournament to reach the playoffs.
The Pelicans’ season ended with a first-round sweep by the Oklahoma City Thunder, and it was hard to look at their performance and think that extra experience was all they needed to stand out in the West.
In Murray, the Pelicans get a player who should slot in fairly well next to McCollum in the backcourt while also bolstering the team’s defensive identity. Thanks to Herb Jones’ and coach Willie Green’s strong defensive principles, the team ranked sixth in the NBA in defensive rating last year at 111.9.
Murray and McCollum are capable ball handlers who remain a threat on the perimeter, and that will serve as the foundation for the Pelicans’ new offense centered around Trey Murphy, while Williamson attacks the paint. It’s Ingram’s role that could change with the addition of Murray, as he’ll be a free agent next season.
The Pelicans still have some figuring out to do this offseason, however, as standout center Jonas Valančiūnas is an unrestricted free agent. With Nance also gone, there’s a significant hole in the paint for New Orleans, which partially addressed it by selecting Baylor big man Yves Missi with the 21st overall pick of the 2024 NBA Draft.
Dejounte Murray trade was a long time coming for Hawks
The Pelicans made a big push by trading for Murray, which didn’t exactly work out for the last team to do so.
The Hawks acquired Murray from the San Antonio Spurs in the summer of 2022, parting with a package larger than what the Pelicans gave up (three first-round picks, a pick swap and Danilo Galinari). At the time, the hope was that Murray would be an ideal complement to Trae Young, a player with major defensive deficiencies who needs the ball in his hands to be useful.
It’s hard to argue that Murray didn’t try, but the overall result was frustrating at best. The Hawks went 41-41 in Murray’s first season and 36-46 in his second. The team’s defense was a shambles, and a full season of head coach Quin Snyder didn’t help.
Atlanta is hitting the reset button, in part. Unless the Hawks want to tear the team down to its core, Young probably isn’t going anywhere. He, De’Andre 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 thus far.
Still, it’s hard not to see this transaction as an admission that paying for Murray was a mistake in the first place.
