{"id":129313,"date":"2025-03-18T01:36:03","date_gmt":"2025-03-18T05:36:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=129313"},"modified":"2025-03-18T01:36:03","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T05:36:03","slug":"trey-murphy-iii-season-cut-short-whats-next-for-pelicans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/03\/18\/trey-murphy-iii-season-cut-short-whats-next-for-pelicans\/","title":{"rendered":"Trey Murphy III\u2019s Season Cut Short; What\u2019s Next For Pelicans?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Exiting Monday night\u2019s game after just 49 seconds, New Orleans Pelicans forward Trey Murphy III<\/a> has been diagnosed with \u201ca season-ending torn labrum in his right shoulder<\/a>,\u201d according ESPN insider Shams Charania.<\/p>\n

Trey Murphy III\u2019s Season Cut Short; What\u2019s Next For Pelicans?<\/h2>\n

Prior to his injury, Murphy was averaging 21.6 points, 5.2 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 1.1 steals, and 0.8 blocks per game. Save his steal rate, which ties his average in 2022-23, these are all career-highs. Murphy, nicknamed Trigga Trey, has also converted 36.1 percent of his 3s. This marks the fourth consecutive season that he\u2019s been able to make at least 36 percent of his 3-point attempts.<\/p>\n

With Murphy ranking second on the team in points per game, total 3-point conversions (158), total rebounds (268), and total blocks (39) while leading the team in free-throw conversions (204), the numbers capture his impact well. At 24 years old, he\u2019s already a franchise cornerstone, perhaps only behind Zion Williamson<\/a> in importance. His upside is among the reasons that the Pelicans felt comfortable moving on from the talented Brandon Ingram<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That being said, this is another enormous loss for N\u2019Orleans.<\/p>\n

Entering 2024-25 with playoff aspirations, New Orleans has dealt with injuries to several key players. In fact, rookie Yves Missi<\/a> is their only player to miss fewer than 15 games this season. Multiple standouts and stars have missed more than 20 games. Now, the Pelicans are 18-51, the second-worst team in the West.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unlikely to get much better from here. Well, not until the offseason. They won\u2019t have the money to be major players in free agency. However, the trade and free agent markets could be kind to them.<\/p>\n

Trade Talk<\/h3>\n

New Orleans may be hesitant to make a slash move this summer with how the Murray trade has turned out for them.<\/p>\n

Given that he was never able to establish his footing, it\u2019s difficult to give the Seattle native too harsh of a grade. Nonetheless, Dyson Daniels<\/a> \u2014whom they included as part of their package for Murray \u2014has transformed into a Defensive Player of the Year favorite<\/a>. For a team that\u2019s struggled defensively all season, that\u2019s a tough pill to swallow.<\/p>\n

Trading Williamson could wind up even worse<\/a>. Though he\u2019s been particularly injury-prone, players like him don\u2019t just fall out of trees. There could always be an offer that they can\u2019t refuse; it would be irresponsible not to pick up the phone. Still, the time isn\u2019t ripe for a Williamson trade, at least it doesn\u2019t seem that way.<\/p>\n

McCollum on the other hand? The veteran remains an elite scorer, which New Orleans has relied on on several occasions. However, the Pelicans do need to improve their defense. Moving him for a longer wing, particularly one in the 3-and-D mold, would go a long way.<\/p>\n

NBA Draft<\/h3>\n

As of now, the Pelicans have the fifth-highest odds of getting the prized No. 1 pick. Because of their mounting injuries, they have a fair chance of increasing their probability. Even a tank job meets its match when facing a team that\u2019s truly down on their luck.<\/p>\n

With that in mind, there are multiple prospects that should be of interest to New Orleans. They don\u2019t necessarily need Duke forward Cooper Flagg, but they could possibly flip the No. 1 pick for a more fitting player. They could also see him as their next face of the franchise<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rutgers guard Dylan Harper could be seen as a replacement for Murray or McCollum down the line. Baylor guard VJ Edgecombe has the potential to be a lockdown perimeter defender and has otherworldly athleticism; the antithesis of McCollum. Texas wing Tre Johnson, who\u2019s 6-foot-6, shoots like he\u2019s at the Alamo.<\/p>\n

Any of those prospects could truly be game-changers for the Pelicans.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Matthew Hinton-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Exiting Monday night\u2019s game after just 49 seconds, New Orleans Pelicans forward Trey Murphy III has been diagnosed with \u201ca season-ending torn labrum in his right shoulder,\u201d according ESPN insider Shams Charania. Trey Murphy III\u2019s Season Cut Short; What\u2019s Next For Pelicans? Prior to his injury, Murphy was averaging 21.6 points, 5.2 rebounds, 3.6 assists, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":129317,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33,1608,62,3],"tags":[1934,1262,98,4745,4557,1382,4382,1684],"class_list":["post-129313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pelicans","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","tag-cj-mccollum","tag-dejounte-murray","tag-nba-draft","tag-nba-injuries","tag-nba-offseason","tag-nba-trade","tag-trey-murphy-iii","tag-zion-williamson"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129313"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":129318,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129313\/revisions\/129318"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}