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New Orleans Pelicans’ Trade Preference Between Trae Young, Dejounte Murray, Revealed

It’s no secret the Atlanta Hawks will only keep one of Trae Young or Dejounte Murray in the offseason. For the New Orleans Pelicans, though, they prefer pursuing the latter to improve their roster for next season.

The Pels’ roster this change that much as the current core of Zion Williamson, Brandon Ingram, and CJ McCollum was still used for most of the season. This resulted in an 11th-place offense and a defense that’s ranked seventh out of 30 teams in the league.

Although NOLA slowed down towards the end of the regular season, they still managed to escape the Play-In Tournament with a ticket to the playoffs and the right to face Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round. Unfortunately, they came up short and was eliminated by the Shai Gilgeous-Alexander-led squad via a clean four-game sweep.

Their recent loss highlighted the fragility of Williamson in crucial moments, Brandon Ingram’s inability to step up in his absence, and the need for a true point guard to run the team’s offense. These three factors all came together to end NOLA’s season and overshadowed the other promising details of their run, including the improvement of Trey Murphy II and Herb Jones as talented wings who have the potential to play on both ends of the court.

New Orleans Pelicans Prefer To Go For Dejounte Murray Rather Than Atlanta Hawks’ Trae Young
As noted earlier, New Orleans might need to scour the market for a point guard next season. Among those projected to be available are either Trae Young or Dejounte Murray from the Atlanta Hawks. In an article by Christian Clark for NOLA.com, the latter is shaping up to be the better candidate of the two.

“If the Pelicans reengaged the Hawks, they could look to pry away Murray or Young. Even though Young is the more talented player, the Pelicans seem to hold more interest in Murray, league sources said.

The 6-5 Murray is not as much of a defensive liability as the 6-1 Young can be. He is also on a cheaper contract; Murray will make $25.5 million next season, while Young is owed $43 million,” Clark wrote.

In the 78 games Murray played for the Hawks this season, the one-time All-Star averaged 22.5 points, 5.3 rebounds, 6.4 assists, and 1.4 steals per contest. He also shot 46 percent from the field, 36 percent from deep, and almost 80% percent from the free throw line. Furthermore, the Atlanta star can also play on defense, making him a valuable target for NOLA in the offseason.

It remains to be seen how the Pelicans can pull off trading for Murray if they decide to pursue him. In any case, getting him over Trae Young will be a huge win for New Orleans next season.

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