The Long Island Nets have added a guard who already knows the organization, and they’re giving Dwight Murray Jr. another crack at climbing the ladder toward the NBA.
Long Island acquired Murray and the No. 31 overall pick in the 2026 NBA G League Draft from the College Park Skyhawks in exchange for the No. 26 overall pick and Long Island’s 2027 second-round pick.
Murray, who spent time with Brooklyn’s Summer League team in July, now gets a more direct path inside the Nets’ system. The 6-foot guard played in two Summer League games, putting up 5.0 points, 1.5 rebounds and 1.5 assists in 15.7 minutes per game while shooting 33.3 percent from the field and 40 percent from three.
He arrives with plenty of G League experience already on his résumé. The 26-year-old has spent the last two seasons with College Park after starting his pro career overseas with KK Mornar in Montenegro. In 90 career G League games, including 51 starts, he has averaged 8.9 points, 3.6 rebounds and 5.0 assists in 23.5 minutes per game.
What stands out most is the way he can organize an offense. In the 2025 Tip-Off Tournament, Murray totaled 96 assists, which tied for ninth-most in the league. He also delivered one of his best playmaking nights in March 2025 against the Mexico City Capitanes, finishing with 17 points and a career-high 17 assists.
For this writer, the move hits a little differently.
I had the opportunity to know and work with Murray during my time at Rider University, where he established himself as one of the program’s best players and leaders. I was a student manager during his senior season, so I got to see firsthand the work ethic, competitiveness, and leadership that he brought to the program every day.
Murray capped his Rider career as a First Team All-MAAC selection after averaging 15.7 points, 5.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game in the 2022-23 season. He was the kind of player who could affect a game in multiple ways, but the leadership was what stood out most.
That’s why this move feels like more than a routine transaction. A player I knew at college is now with the G League affiliate of my favorite NBA team, and the path that once looked like a long shot has kept moving forward.
Murray had already suggested this kind of move might be coming. After Brooklyn brought him in for Summer League, I reached out to him in late June about his plans for the season and whether Long Island could be in the mix. He said he believed that was part of the reason Brooklyn had brought him in, while also making clear nothing was promised.
Now it is official.
There’s also a built-in comfort level waiting for him. Long Island head coach Shawn Swords was part of Brooklyn’s Summer League staff this summer, so Murray is stepping into a situation with some familiar faces around him.
For the Nets, the addition gives Long Island another experienced guard who can steady the backcourt and help guide a roster that is expected to include a lot of young talent. The group already includes two-way players Chaney Johnson, Tyler Bilodeau and Grant Nelson, along with Exhibit 10 players such as Nick Pringle.
The concern, as always, is size. At 6 feet, Murray has to keep showing that his basketball IQ, toughness, passing and competitiveness can offset the physical disadvantage he faces against bigger NBA-caliber guards.
That challenge has never seemed to scare him off. He went undrafted in 2023, started his professional career overseas, earned his way into the G League and landed a Summer League opportunity with Brooklyn. Now he gets another shot to move one step closer to the NBA.
In Other News...
Nets Have An Early Defensive Problem With Real Playoff Stakes
The Nets entered the offseason knowing their defense would need a reset, but the loss of Nic Claxton left a hole that is hard to miss when you look at the roster now. Brooklyn has plenty to sort through on that end of the floor, yet the biggest concern is still the one in the middle: who is going to protect the rim and make opponents think twice before attacking the paint?
For now, there is no obvious answer on the current roster, and that uncertainty could linger well into the season if the team does not find a way to address it. The Nets can survive a lot of things in a long season, but interior defense tends to be one of the first issues that shows up when the stakes rise, and this is shaping up as a problem they may have to confront on the fly. [Read more 🡒]
Nets Keep Getting More Out Of The Kevin Durant Trade
The Kevin Durant deal has only kept working in Brooklyns favor. After Durant asked out twice and the Nets moved him and TJ Warren to Phoenix during the 2022-23 season, the return gave Brooklyn a haul of players and future first-round picks that fit the front offices long rebuild. It was the kind of trade that immediately changed the direction of the franchise, but the benefits have not stopped at the initial package.
Brooklyn has since turned parts of that return into even more assets, using some of the players it acquired to keep stacking draft capital and maintain flexibility. For a team trying to reset without tearing everything down in one step, that matters, because the Durant trade is no longer just about what came back at the deadline - it is about how much the Nets have been able to keep extracting from it afterward. [Read more 🡒]
Nets Season May Hinge On One New Offensive Partnership
The Nets spent the offseason reshaping their offense, and the arrival of Julius Randle has quickly become one of the biggest reasons for optimism. Acquired from the Timberwolves, Randle enters Brooklyn with a clear sense of how he can fit alongside Michael Porter Jr., whose career-best season gave the Nets a scorer they can build around. The idea is simple enough: Porter stretches defenses with his shooting, while Randle brings the kind of physicality and versatility that can change how possessions are run.
What makes the pairing intriguing is how much it could ask of Randle right away. Brooklyn expects him to take on more ball-handling and shot-creation duties, which would free Porter to stay in more natural scoring positions and keep the offense from becoming too predictable. If the partnership clicks, the Nets could have a legitimate new foundation. If it does not, the questions around how the offense is organized could linger well into the season. [Read more 🡒]