Hawks trade All-Star Dejoute Murray to Pelicans

Atlanta Hawks trade All-Star guard Dejounte Murray to New Orleans Pelicans, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

In exchange, the Pelicans are would have returning 2025 and 2027 first-round picks, 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 of the Pelicans and Milwaukee Bucks selections.

Murray is entering the first season of a four-year, $120 million contract he signed with the Hawks last offseason.

This trade is another big turning point of the NBA offseason, with the Pelicans attempting to upgrade a core already consisting of Brandon Ingram, Zion Williamson and CJ McCollum. As for the Hawks, they are parting ways with a player who was supposed to help them take the next step.

Can Dejounte Murray help the Pelicans?

Since the Davis trade, the Pelicans have slowly rebuilt their team into a playoff team. That effort led to a 49-33 record last season, but it still required them to participate in the play-in tournament to reach the playoffs.

The Pelicans’ season ended with a first-round sweep at the hands of 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.

With Murray, the Pelicans get a player who should fit in quite nicely alongside McCollum in the backcourt while also contributing to the team’s defensive identity. With long wings like Ingram and Herb Jones leading the way, the team ranked sixth in the NBA in defensive rating last year at 111.9.

Murray, Ingram and McCollum are all capable ball handlers who remain threats on the perimeter, and that should form the basis of the Pelicans’ new offense as Williamson attacks the paint.

The Pelicans still have some unfinished business this offseason, as standout center Jonas Valančiūnas and guard Jose Alvarado are unrestricted free agents. With Nance now gone as well, there is 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 in the 2024 NBA Draft.

Ingram will also be a free agent next offseason, making an extension likely the team’s next priority.

Dejounte Murray trade took a long time to happen for Hawks

The Pelicans are betting big by trading for Dejounte Murray, which didn’t really work out for the last team that did it.

The Hawks acquired Murray from the San Antonio Spurs in the summer of 2022, parting with a larger package than the one given up by the Pelicans (three first-round picks, a pick swap and Danilo Galinari). At the time, there was hope that Murray could 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 give his best, 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 disaster, and a full season of head coach Quin Snyder didn’t help.

So Atlanta is partially hitting the reset button. Unless they want to destroy the team down to its cleats, Young is probably not 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 so far.

Still, it’s hard not to view this trade as an admission that paying for Murray wasn’t a mistake to begin with.