Pelicans fans have spent two years waiting for Dejounte Murray to actually look like Dejounte Murray in New Orleans. That wait has been brutal. He has played only 45 games in his Pelicans career, and after two injury-hit seasons, the first real healthy version of him is finally about to arrive.
That matters because the Pelicans have been stuck in a miserable stretch. Over the last two seasons, they won just 47 games combined and missed the playoffs by a wide margin both times.
Injury trouble has taken plenty of the blame, and rightly so. But New Orleans also never got an extended run with an All-Star-caliber point guard healthy and steering the offense in his first two seasons there.
Now that Murray is back and positioned for a major return, the franchise finally gets to see what it has been waiting on through three offseasons.
And the payoff could be substantial.
The biggest thing Murray can give this team is order. He’s been around the league, shared the floor with a lot of high-level talent, and knows the point guard position inside and out. His processing speed and passing make him exactly the kind of guard you want handling pick-and-rolls, especially in an offense built around a player like Zion Williamson.
What makes him so dangerous in that action is simple: Murray can get downhill and finish at the rim, and that forces defenders into a bad choice when the roll man is involved.
That kind of control has been missing. The Pelicans often looked unsure of themselves when a possession broke down or when the game got tight.
Murray can help fix that. He can rescue a broken possession late in the clock, and he proved in his final season with the Hawks that he can also be trusted to take and make shots late in games.
For a team that lost nearly 20 games by five or fewer points last season, that kind of late-game stability is no small thing.
He brings value on the other end too. Murray is a strong on-ball defender with active hands, and he can create steals that turn into fast-break chances, which fits a Pelicans team that wants to run.
He’s also an elite rebounder for a guard, with a career average of 5.8 rebounds per game. New Orleans had issues at times finishing defensive possessions on the glass, and Murray can help there while also igniting the break right away.
His last healthy season showed just how much he can fill a box score. Murray averaged 22.5 points, 5.3 rebounds, 6.4 assists, and 1.7 stocks (steals plus blocks) per game while shooting 36.3 percent from three. If he comes anywhere close to that level for the Pelicans this season, his long-awaited healthy debut will be worth every bit of the wait.
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Pelicans Finally Have Real Reasons For Hope Again
After a stretch in which the franchise has had to talk more about what was missing than what was possible, New Orleans is finally heading into a season with a healthier core and a different voice on the sideline. Jamahl Mosley arrives with the chance to put his own offensive and defensive systems in place, and that matters for a roster that has spent too much time trying to fit together on the fly.
There is real athleticism here, and there are young players whose upside gives the Pelicans something to build around instead of simply patching over problems. Still, the same questions linger around shooting, size and overall roster construction, which means the path to a more competitive season is there without being clean or certain. [Read more 🡒]