Dejounte Murray, San Antonio Spurs
Dejounte Murray showed great signs of growth and improvement in his second year with the San Antonio Spurs and looked to carry that momentum into year three where he projected to be the full-time starting point guard. However, a torn ACL in just the third preseason game caused him to miss all of last year and San Antonio surely suffered as a result.
Where Dejounte’s impact is felt most is on defence where he is already one of the best defensive guards in the league (he made an all-defensive team in just his second season). Assuming he’s back to full strength, he’ll still be a nightmare on that end.
And he’s also a fantastic rebounder for a little guy. In 2018, he pulled in 9.5 boards per 36 minutes which is just crazy for a guy of his stature.
Where he needs to make more strides is on the offensive side of the ball. He’s not bad on that end. He’s a decent finisher, has a quick first step and has the strength to take contact in the lane. He’s also shown flashes of a floater game. Although he’ll usually make the right play and is a decent passer, Murray is no star playmaker but he’s not quite as bad as his career 2.3 assist average would indicate.
He’ll likely never be an assist machine but as he gains more reps and experience that number will inevitably creep up. And playing in the Spurs system will help too.
The main weakness of Murray is his outside shot. So far in his career, he’s only nailing 31.6 percent of his triple tries and he’s only attempting one per game. His volume and efficiency are going to have to increase if he’s going to realise his offensive upside. And given the fact that he’s got a solid release and sound form, I think he can. He’s also not a terrible free throw shooter (71%) which is another encouraging sign.
And again, this is when it helps to play for the Spurs as they have a notorious reputation for helping players improve their shooting dramatically. The most famous case of this: Kawhi Leonard.
Assuming he’s back at 100 percent, I’d expect Dejounte Murray to put up numbers somewhere in the range of: 13 ppg, 6 rpg, 5 apg, 1.5 spg, 0.5 bpg, 46% fg, 34% 3 pt, 77% ft (and his impact will be even greater than the stats would indicate).