The Pelicans have officially signed No. 17 overall pick Trey Murphy III to his rookie scale contract, according to the team’s transactions page at NBA.com.
The 21-year-old wing, who was selected by the Pelicans after the team traded back from the 10th pick, was a highly-coveted prospect in the middle of the first round due to his combination of athleticism, size, defense, and shooting.
After transferring from Rice University to Virginia, Murphy averaged 11.3 PPG and 3.4 RPG while posting a hyper-efficient 43.3/50.3/92.7 shooting line. While there were questions about Murphy’s ability to create his own shot, the 6’9″ combo forward was a perfect fit for a Pelicans team desperate for shooting and defense.
Murphy had maybe the most impressive rookie debut of the Las Vegas Summer League on Monday, putting up 26 points, nine rebounds, two assists, and no turnovers while shooting six of nine from three, all in just over 27 minutes.
As our breakdown of 2021 rookie salaries shows, assuming he signs for 120% of his rookie scale amount, Murphy’s four-year contract should be worth about $14.8MM, with a first-year salary of $3.05MM.
My first time seeing Trey Murphy was his 26 point Summer League debut. And man this kid has a sweet stroke he’s the type of wing that my Pels was looking for he has the size, the length, the defense and the shooting that both Zion and BI can benefit from.
Yeah Knicks were looking at him hard. Once he was gone is when they traded down. Hope I don’t regret passing on J Johnson. That’s who I wanted. Trey is long and plays D. He’s a good addition to Pels . Pels season is going to depend on how PG play is. I like the trade they made. I can see them in playoffs. They are a deeper and better team.
Pels traded down and stiil got him. Not sure if he was the target or not, but a great result. Murphy was very possible at #10 but went at #17. MEM traded up for Giddey, missed, and took the Stanford forward instead.
It will be hard not to compare Murphy & Zaire William over the years.
Spot On !
I wonder of Zhaire would have made 17 himself under neutral settings….I thinnnkkkk yesss??
New Orleans badly needed wing help, and Murphy should definitely help there. They also grabbed some more defenders with Herb Jones. I am a bit curious why they kept Hernangomez, after getting Valanciunas, and how they’ll use their depth at the 4 in conjunction with Zion. Naji Marshall and Herb Jones are both 4s, although maybe they might be able to play different spots depending on the rest of the lineup. I cpuld see Marshall as a 4/3, and Jones as a 4/5. That also brings up the question of smaller lineups with Ingram at the 4. I also liked what I saw from Moses Wright as a 5/4 with their summer league team, and think he would be worth the add, but Hernangomez taking up that roster spot makes that less likely. I still think they need to retain Josh Hart, and then it just becomes figuring out their rotation and how they use Zion b/c I feel like that will help everything else fall into place…you could tell they loaded their summer league team with guys that could defend b/c that has been an issue for a good while now
Well I kind of like Hernangomez offensive game for a big but Jaxson Hayes got better after he was benched. So JH should be the back up C and hopefully he’s been working on his game and it all depends if he’s facing some kind of punishment from the law or the league for his offseason issues.
Hernangomez is fine as a scoring big off the bench that takes possessions, but there is redundancy with him and Valanciunas, and Valanciunas is pretty much better at everything than him