Former All-Star Dejounte Murray is joining All-Star-caliber duo Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram in New Orleans.
The New Orleans Pelicans are loading up.
A team with three go-to guys has added a fourth, trading two players and two picks for Dejounte Murray, a former All-Star who could help the Pels on both ends of the floor.
The Atlanta Hawks, of course, are pulling the plug on the backcourt duo of Murray and Trae Young after two disappointing seasons in which they won just two playoff games.
Here are some numbers to know about the 27-year-old guard as he returns to the Western Conference with four more years on his current contract:
In exclusive company, career year
1. Murray is one of only three qualified players — Luka Doncic and Nikola Jokic are the others — to have averaged at least 20 points, five rebounds and six assists in each of the last three seasons.
2. This past season, Murray registered career-high marks in points per game (22.5), effective field goal percentage (52.8%) and true shooting percentage (55.5%). The latter still ranked just 38th among 48 players with a usage rate of 25% or higher.
A disruptive defender
3. Murray has averaged 1.6 steals over the last five seasons, fourth-most among 203 players who’ve played at least 250 total games over that stretch.
4. This past season, he ranked seventh with 3.0 deflections per game, though that was down from 3.1 (11th) in 2022-23 and 4.0 (first) in ’21-22.
5. Opponents shot 50.7% on shots Murray defended this past season, compared to an expected mark of 47.1% on those shots. That differential (+3.6%) was the 14th worst mark among 225 players who defended at least 500 shots, according to Second Spectrum tracking.
Master of the mid-range
6. Murray’s 2-point percentage has risen every season he’s been in the league, from 44.1% as a rookie to 51.8% this past season.
7. He’s one of four players — Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Joel Embiid are the others — who have shot 45% or better on at least 250 mid-range attempts in each of the last two seasons.
8. This past season, he shot 192-for-372 (51.6%) on pull-up 2-pointers, the fourth-best mark among 45 players with at least 200 attempts.
9. He took 18% of his shots from mid-range, down from 27% in 2022-23 and his lowest rate since his rookie season (when he played just 321 total minutes). The percentage of his shots from 3-point range (37.9%) was a career-high mark by a wide margin.
Prolific in the clutch
10. Murray is one of eight players who have scored at least 100 clutch points in each of the last two seasons.
11. This past season, he was tied for second with eight buckets (on 16 attempts) to tie or take the lead in the final minute of the fourth quarter or overtime. He was just 1-for-4 on those shots in 2022-23.
12. But he shot better in the clutch from 2-point range, 3-point range and the free-throw line ’22-23 than he did in ’23-24.
Dejounte Murray clutch shooting, last three seasons
| Season | 2PM | 2PA | 2P% | 3PM | 3PA | 3P% | FTM | FTA | FT% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-2022 | 32 | 67 | 47.8% | 3 | 14 | 21.4% | 21 | 31 | 67.7% |
| 2022-2023 | 35 | 73 | 47.9% | 6 | 19 | 31.6% | 26 | 32 | 81.3% |
| 2023-2024 | 32 | 75 | 42.7% | 8 | 28 | 28.6% | 18 | 28 | 64.3% |
| TOTAL | 99 | 215 | 46.0% | 17 | 61 | 27.9% | 65 | 91 | 71.4% |
Clutch = Score within five points in the last five minutes of the fourth quarter or overtime
The whole was not greater than the sum of the parts
13. Over their two seasons together, the Hawks were outscored by 2.5 points per 100 possessions in 2,779 total regular-season minutes with Murray and Young on the floor together. But they were a plus-0.6 per 100 in 4,401 minutes with one on the floor without the other.
14. That differential was much bigger this past season when the Hawks were outscored by 6.5 points per 100 possessions in 1,172 minutes with Murray and Young on the floor together. That was the worst mark among the team’s 26 two-man combinations that shared the floor for at least 500 minutes.
15. The difference this past season was about even on offense (3.9 points per 100 possessions better with only one of the two on the floor) and defense (4.0 better).
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John Schuhmann is a senior stats analyst for NBA.com. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.
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