{"id":63432,"date":"2024-02-07T18:16:07","date_gmt":"2024-02-07T23:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=63432"},"modified":"2024-02-07T18:16:07","modified_gmt":"2024-02-07T23:16:07","slug":"nba-rumors-darkhorse-trade-destination-hawks-dejounte-murray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/02\/07\/nba-rumors-darkhorse-trade-destination-hawks-dejounte-murray\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Rumors: Darkhorse Trade Destination Emerges For Dejounte Murray"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to senior NBA insider Chris Haynes of TNT and Bleacher Report, the New Orleans Pelicans are a darkhorse trade destination<\/a> for Atlanta Hawks guard Dejounte Murray<\/a> (h\/t NBA Central).<\/p>\n

NBA Rumors: Darkhorse Trade Destination Emerges For Dejounte Murray<\/h2>\n

Dejounte Murray\u2019s secret admirer?<\/h3>\n

Murray has arguably been the hottest name<\/a> on the market with teams such as the Los Angeles Lakers, New York Knicks, Utah Jazz, and previously the Miami Heat tied to the seven-year NBA veteran. The Pelicans make sense for Murray as a hypothetical landing spot as well.<\/p>\n

New Orleans has been looking for point guard help since trading Lonzo Ball prior to the 2021-22 season. Though not the defender nor facilitator that Ball was for the Pelicans, Murray\u2019s length, athleticism, and upside as a two-way playmaker should be enticing.<\/p>\n

Having scored at least 20 points per game over the past three seasons, Murray would also take a lot of pressure off of CJ McCollum<\/a> in the backcourt.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s difficult to see a feasible trade between these two teams that wouldn\u2019t involve one of Herb Jones<\/a> or Trey Murphy III<\/a> though.<\/p>\n

With both multipositional wings, the Pelicans will be faced with a tough decision. In one corner, you have Jones. Jones is a premier perimeter defender that\u2019s developing into a respectable outside threat. In the other corner, you have Murphy, or \u201cTM3.\u201d Murphy is an elite 3-point shooter and noteworthy defender.<\/p>\n

With New Orleans\u2019 bevy of on-ball scorers, Murphy may be their choice. When considering Murphy\u2019s relationship with Pelicans vice president Swin Cash and his contract status, this appears even more likely. While Jones recently re-signed with New Orleans on an affordable four-year, $53.8 deal, Murphy is still on his rookie contract through next season.<\/p>\n

So, here\u2019s the trade:<\/p>\n

Hawks receive<\/em> \u2014 Herb Jones, Jose Alvarado, 2024 first-round pick<\/p>\n

Pelicans receive<\/em> \u2014 Dejounte Murray, AJ Griffin<\/p>\n

What it means for the Hawks<\/h2>\n

The Atlanta Hawks defense is ranked 29th in the NBA in opponent\u2019s points per game (123.9) and 28th in defensive rating (121.2). Numbers backing up the eye test, the Hawks are clearly in need of effective on-ball defenders. In Herb Jones and Jose Alvarado<\/a>, Atlanta gets two of the league\u2019s best.<\/p>\n

Jones, at 6-foot-8 and 210 pounds, is capable of guarding up and down the lineup. Using his length, effort, hands, and anticipation, the former second-round pick terrorizes opposing perimeter players, generating steals that lead to fastbreak opportunities. Jones is also a valuable defender in transition as well.<\/p>\n

However, what makes him even more of a viable option for the Hawks is his 3-point shooting.<\/p>\n

Jones only shot 28.8 percent from 3 at Alabama after four seasons, with a career-high of 35.1 percent. He shot just 33.6 percent from 3 his first two seasons in the NBA. Now in his third season, Jones is shooting a career-high 39.2 percent from 3.<\/p>\n

As he shot 35.2 percent on catch-and-shoot 3s as a rookie, his growth in that area is encouraging. Especially as he\u2019s taking 54.4 percent of his 3s from the corner this season, knocking down 43.0 percent of those attempts.<\/p>\n

Moving on to Alvarado, the defensive dynamo\u2019s quick hands and feet allow him to make a number of impact plays. His toughness is another factor that leads to his success, particularly against bigger players. That said, at 6-foot-0 and 179 pounds, plenty of players are bigger than Alvarado.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s one reason he\u2019s likely to come off the bench for the Hawks, even if he sees minutes beside 3-time All-Star, Trae Young<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Like Jones, the third-year guard is also enjoying a career season from 3, hitting 37.5 of his long-range attempts. Alvarado shot just 32.2 percent on his 3-point attempts his first two seasons, though he\u2019s never shot below 33 percent on catch-and-shoot attempts in any season. Furthermore, he\u2019s hit 41.2 percent of his corner 3s over the past two seasons.<\/p>\n

Both players also have notable secondary skills on offense. Jones is a capable passer. Alvarado has a nifty floater.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to senior NBA insider Chris Haynes of TNT and Bleacher Report, the New Orleans Pelicans are a darkhorse trade destination for Atlanta Hawks guard Dejounte Murray (h\/t NBA Central). NBA Rumors: Darkhorse Trade Destination Emerges For Dejounte Murray Dejounte Murray\u2019s secret admirer? Murray has arguably been the hottest name on the market with teams […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":63461,"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":[4721,4,1608,62,33],"tags":[1262,4112,3854,4774],"class_list":["post-63432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trade-rumors","category-hawks","category-basketball","category-nba","category-pelicans","tag-dejounte-murray","tag-herb-jones","tag-jose-alvarado","tag-rumors"],"modified_by":"Jacob Stephens, Associate Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63432","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=63432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}