Murray Has Left Them No Choice...

On Friday afternoon, as I was making my way to New Orleans, Shons reported that DeJounte Murray had asked the Pelicans to trade him. That wasn't a rumor anymore. The Pelicans put out a statement saying his representatives had informed him of his request to be traded. It came right after he went online, said the sabotage is real, and some other wild comments some folks believe were left by his burner account on our YouTube page, then deleted it. That same night, with Murray not even in the building, New Orleans lost to Memphis by 31. That's five losses in a row, and four of them by 16 points or more. So the question isn't whether Murray gets moved anymore. It's who actually takes a $32.8 million guard right now and what the Pelicans could possibly get back for him. Murray told the team he's ready to play a key role in meaningful basketball somewhere else. His agent, Rich Paul, and Pelicans officials have already started working on a resolution. Before the Memphis game, Jamal Mosley was asked where Murray was, and he said he's not in the building from what I've been told. Officially, the team had him out with a left ankle sprain. The part that stings or... What doesn't really sting is that we've seen this before and we kind of saw it coming. Back in January, Clutchports reported Murray and his camp wanted a change of scenery. In February, Murray posted that he and his agent had never requested a trade. He came back from his Achilles on February 24th with the Pelicans sitting at 16-42. Less than nine months after saying he never asked for a trade, now he wants a trade for real. What changed is how this season has gone for him. In his first four games, Murray averaged 17.8 points and six assists. In the last four, he scored 30 points total, 7.5 a game. On the season, he has made eight of his 27 threes. The team went one and eight in the nine games he played. Without him, they're three and one, and the one came against Memphis on Friday night. After the 34-point loss to Brooklyn on Wednesday, a Pelicans podcast account, Propels Talk, posted clips of his mistakes. Murray answered one of them with, oh, let's talk about it, and asked whether post plays are supposed to catch on the block or the three-point line. Then he replied to a post about the Pelicans going 1-8 with him and 3-0 without him and wrote, the sabotage is real in capitals. Both posts came down, but not before everybody knew about them. I'm quite sure what he meant by sabotage is he feels like there's people in the organization that's trying to make him look bad. As opposed to what's really going on as not having this team winning right now and why if he thinks there's a better way, there should be a better way and he should lead that better way. But here we are. He hasn't hidden how he feels about New Orleans either. On a pivot, he called his Achilles recovery his worst experience in the NBA and said he never expected to play here. Shams put it plainly on NBA Today, Murray is not going to be playing basketball in New Orleans for the time moving forward. So on Friday night, the Pelicans got their first look at life after Murray. Before we get to that game, this video is brought to you by Cowsheet. Cowsheet is a prediction market where you can trade on the outcome of real events, and that includes sports. Instead of just arguing about whether this losing streak ends against Denver, you can put your read on the game to work. It makes even a rough week of Pelicans basketball a lot more interesting. Head over to Cowsheet, see what the market thinks, and see if you agree with it. Big thanks to Cowsheet. Now, back to Friday night against Memphis. Memphis came into New Orleans 5-0 on the road and walked out 6-0, the best road start in franchise history. The Grizzlies scored 35 in the first quarter, 35 in the second quarter, 35 in the third quarter, and then 37 in the fourth. It broke open in the second quarter when Memphis scored 13 straight points in 67 seconds to go up 62-46. Seven of those came from Jeremy Grant in seven seconds. Two threes. Plus a free throw after Zion was called for an illegal closeout. Grant finished with 22 on 7 of 10 shooting and only left late after colliding with Herb Jones on a drive. It was 70-58 at the half and New Orleans held the lead for 3% of the whole game. From three, Memphis made 18 of 45 as they got multiple chances to shoot threes all throughout the night due to the Pelicans' poor switching on defense. The Pelicans made 7 of 31. That's 33 more points from behind the arc in a game they lost by 31. Memphis also had 10 different players score double figures, which matches the NBA record. They moved it to 36 assists to New Orleans 23. Cam Spencer came off the bench and was plus 35 in 24 minutes. On the other side, Sadiq Bae carried it with 30 points and six threes. The rest of the team went one for 22 from three. Zion added 22 and went eight of eight from the line. Jordan Poole made one of his seven shots from the field and got 10 of his 13 points at the free throw line. Derrick Queen had five turnovers in 23 minutes and Jeremiah Fields running the offense with Murray gone went 0 for 5 from 3 and New Orleans was outscored by 24 with him on the floor as well as the Pelicans bench which had rear rotations getting blown out 76 to 27. It was an NBA Cup game too, and the Pelicans are now 0-2 in their group. That's five straight losses from a 4-4 start to 4-9. And last night wasn't just one bad night either. This has been going on for a minute now throughout this losing streak. Over the last four games, the Pelicans have given up 564 points. That's 141 a game, and Murray played in three of those four. But Murray might have picked a bad time to ags out of his deal with New Orleans because this doesn't help his price tag at all. Every team that Mike called just watched the Pelicans lose by 34 and 51 with him and by 31 without him. Go back to what New Orleans gave up to get him. In June 2024, the Pelicans sent Atlanta Dyson Daniels, Larry Nance Jr., EJ Liddell, and two first-round picks. Since then, Murray has played 54 games for them in three seasons. He broke his hand in his first game, then ruptured his right Achilles in January 2025. He didn't play again until February 24th of this year, about 13 months later. And the fit with Zion never clicked. With Zion on the floor this season, Murray made 23.5% of his threes and 44.4% without him on a small sample. Now he's 30 and he owe him $32.8 million with a player option for $30.8 million the year after. There's also a 15% trade kicker in his deal, which bumps his cap number for whoever takes him. On their side, the Pelicans are hard capped at the first apron, which is $209 million with a $196.4 million payroll. So any deal has to keep them under that line. One executive told Amico Hoops, I think they're going to be stuck with each other for a while. Murray is a nice player, but probably not a guy who you change your season for at this point. Even before the season, Sports Illustrated figured a Murray trade was unlikely to bring back a haul, more likely a middle round draft pick or two. So who is actually calling? Right now, most reports say it's Phoenix. Chris Haynes reported that the Suns have registered interest in Murray. Murray reportedly has strong interest in Phoenix too, and his camp is hoping for a swap built around Jalen Green. Rival teams see the Suns as motivated to move Green for a proven point guard per the Atlantic. Green makes $36.3 million this season, about $3.5 million more than Murray. Both deals end with a player option in 27-28, so neither team takes on money past next season. The catch is how Phoenix answered. A Suns official called the reports of talks with New Orleans fabricated. We remain very high on Jalen Green. That denies the talk. Probably not the interest. We've seen this before and we know how this goes down. And it usually is the kind of talk that happens before a deal is actually made. The second path runs through Miami or Milwaukee, which Bleacher reports named as Fitz, with Murray setting up Giannis and Bam in Miami. Neither team has reported interest either. This is just speculation at this point. The third path is the one that an executive that we told you about earlier was describing. Take back cheaper or expiring money with a pick or two and just move on. The Pelicans already own their own first-round picks for 28 through 33, so the salary room might matter more to them than the pick. That's the real choice in front of Dumars and company, a player back or a clean break. The last path is waiting until the trade deadline on February 11th. Murray ain't going to be playing all that time, and I'm quite sure Gail Benson don't want to be playing somebody that ain't going to be working, even though she's probably already doing that for a bunch of other people already. The Pelicans still have to play through all of it, starting tonight at home against Denver. Trade him now, not in February. Green is the only deal with a real player coming back, so take it if it's there. In the three games without Murray before Friday, Jeremiah Fears averaged 18 points and nine assists. Fears is the point guard now, so go ahead and invest in the kid. Even though he had one bad shooting night, the future is still him. The trade doesn't fix the defense, though. That's a Dumars and Mosley problem. And if we're being honest here, Fears needs to work in that department as well. If he is your point guard or your future and you really believe in him, every game Murray would have started is now a game Fierce learns from. And if Green does come, the Pelicans add a score next to Zion while they're adding a year's salary past 27-28. The worst outcome? The one we talked about earlier. Both sides just sitting here stuck with each other until February. So if you're Joe Dumars, what would you do? Do you go ahead and take Jalen Green from Phoenix or take the picks and move on? Let me know in the comments. I'm going to be back in the Smoothie King Center again tonight for the Denver game, and the Nuggets have already beaten them twice this season, 141-135 in overtime and 104-91. Then Golden State comes in on Monday, the team that just beat you by 51 last Monday. If the defense looks the same, Murray will be the smallest problem this team has. And whatever Dumars decides, He can't keep waiting for this to just fix itself. If you want this whole story on what happened with Murray and his post, you can go check out this video right now next.