Rookie forward Keegan Murray has already won a spot in the Kings‘ starting lineup, writes Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. Coach Mike Brown made the announcement after today’s practice that Murray will replace KZ Okpala for Thursday’s game against the Grizzlies.
Murray, the No. 4 pick in this year’s draft, has made a strong impression early in his NBA career. He’s averaging 17.5 points and 4.5 rebounds in his first two games while shooting 54.2% from the field and 43.8% from three-point range. The new starting unit of Murray, De’Aaron Fox, Kevin Huerter, Harrison Barnes and Domantas Sabonis has only played 11 minutes together, but it has a plus/minus rating of plus-55.3.
“I think it helps us tremendously,” Fox said. “When he gets on the floor, you feel the spacing increase. When you have somebody like Draymond (Green) not trying to help off of you, that’s the ultimate respect, so I think everybody in the league pretty much knows what he can do, and he can help us, not only with shooting, but just with his entire package.”
There’s more from the Pacific Division:
- Clippers swingman Norman Powell isn’t panicking about seeing so many of his shots misfire, according to Andrew Greif of The Los Angeles Times. Powell has gotten off to an unusually slow start, ranking second-worst in the league in effective field goal percentage and drawing shooting fouls about half as often as he did last season. “I think I’ve just got to relax a little bit and kind of let the game come to me and make the plays that are in front of me, not just for myself but for the team,” Powell said. “I’ll go back, continue to watch film, continue to find ways where I can be better not just scoring the ball but offensively, defensively, moving the ball, playing for others and continue just to grind.”
- Paul George insists that Kawhi Leonard is the team’s primary scoring option, but Law Murray of The Athletic believes George may have to accept that role for the Clippers to be successful. With Leonard working his way back from surgery for a partially torn ACL, there are going to be many nights when George has to carry the scoring load.
- The Lakers are already at a critical point in their season and need to make a move with Russell Westbrook, argues Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated. Mannix recommends calling the Pacers and completing the rumored deal that would send Westbrook and unprotected first-rounders in 2027 and 2029 to Indiana in exchange for Myles Turner and Buddy Hield.
Maybe I’m missing something, but I keep saying if IND includes Theis and the Lakers give up someone like Wenyen Gabriel. Theis’s contract isn’t great and I think he has two more years after this yr, so that helps IND and maybe that will help convince IND to take less. I really don’t care if the Lakers continue to be awful, just I thought I’ve had.
That is an absolutely awful trade for IND, why tf would they do that????
You cant just make up stuff like this and act like everyone agrees with you. The Lakers are just plain and simply f’d this season, they aren’t a playoff team, they aren’t a .500 team, and they have absolutely ZERO trade assets. They should trade both Bron+AD and start over.
2022-23 Lakers = 2019-20 Warriors – this Lakers team is THAT bad….
The Lakers aren’t that bad. They don’t need to tear it down. They just need to move Westbrick because he’s bringing that entire team down. I don’t know if they could still get Turner and Hield for him, but they’d be a low-seeded playoff team if they could. I’ll give you they lack the depth to win a championship, but they could be something without Westbrick.
If they won’t make a trade then they just need to buy Russ out. Get rid of the dude.
Lakers are bad! Russell Westbrook doesn’t fit, but he ain’t the problem. They were just as bad if not worse last night without him.
Why would IND do bad contract swap for bad contract swap?
1. Possibly creates trade exception
2. They get at least 1 unprotected pick out of the deal
3. 1 year of Westbrook ends after this year. Any multi year deals they send to the Lakers clears those contracts off their financial commitments long term.
There’s plenty of reason to opt for clearing cap room now instead of waiting for an unprotected 1st round pick in 5 or 7 years.
If I am the Pacers its 2 draft picks not 1 draft pick. If Lakers GM was smart just see if he will let them buy out his contract. Lakers will have money to spend on free agents next year but the problem is will Lebron be happy playing for a losing team.
Jung if they don’t understand this by now they never will (or don’t want to)
Lakers do NOT equal 2019-20 Warriors! Warriors still had their 1st round picks. Lakers have swapped their 2023 1st rounder with New Orleans.
Theis is a nice guy who helps with screens and decent defense but Lakers have bigger priorities. They need shooting and complimentary big who can rebound and defend. Mo Bamba would be better suited for them.
Bamba could be better, in theory, but he’s likely less attainable than Theis is with the Lakers limited assets.
I think a 3 and low post defender/rim protector like Bamba could be perfect for the Lakers, but idk if they’d be able to swing getting him.
(For what it is worth Orlando should do Bamba a favor and ship him out somewhere for a couple 2nd Rounders. Heck, if they aren’t going to use him, trade him to a team that will. It is clear and obvious, he is struggling this season because hes unable to find any rhythm in his absurdly low 13mpg.)
Anyways, I think the Lakers would greatly benefit from adding Hield, Turner, amd Theis though, personally. Theis is a career 33% 3pt shooter, and has been underrated his career as a very solid backup big.
From a talent perspective, I highly doubt the Lakers could really do any better than acquiring those three.
Right now, not having Schroeder and Bryant is really hurting the Lakers, if you add in Hield, Turner, and Theis they’d definitely help fill those voids, and then when those two are healthy you’re looking at a much deeper roster.
Nunn, Schroeder, Hield, Beverly, Reaves, Walker, LeBron, AD, Theis, Turner, Bryant.
That’s a much better 11-mam rotation than they have right now, and one that I think they’d be able to get into the playoffs with. At the very least, they should be able to get into the play-in tournament with that rotation.
However, if they continue messing around, waiting, playing Russ, and not getting this trade done, they aren’t going to have enough time to acquire these new players, get their rotations down, have them gelling together, and then start making up all the ground they’ve lost…It might be too late if they don’t hurry up and pull the trigger sometime in the next month or so..
Also, for the Kings, Murray was the perfect pick. He’s exactly what they needed, and if he continues growing his game, he very well could be an All-Star in a couple years.
He has the stroke, he just needs to continue working on his handles and his playmaking, and there’s no reason he can’t develop into an excellent top wing un the West…Maybe Klay-lite?? Only time will tell his tale, but he was an excellent pickup for Sac for sure..
What would Turner and Hield do for the Lakers? Get them to the first round of the playoffs?
Not even .500
Turner hasnt been good for a while and Hield is just a random shooter, the Lakers need like 8 upgraded players to get to the playoffs this year.
1st round in playoffs appearance is about all that adding Myles Turner and Buddy Hield will do for the Lakers.
Pretty much everything is wrong with the Lakers right now except LeBron. Jokic was grabbing rebounds over Anthony Davis like Davis was a 6’5 guard. Davis is now just a really good player. No longer elite. Roster has holes everywhere except LeBron.
The problem is, they don’t have a route to become really good, their best hope is to make the playoffs and they have no incentive to be bad bc they’d swap w. NO.
Not much Curtis
Turner resembles something more like ole Nessie these days than a NBA player. We know he exists and is potent in theory we just never see get to see it
That Norm Powell contract. Oof
If the Lakers stopped jacking 3’s and improved their shooting by 10% they would not be that bad.
If they shot +5% the first 4 games they would be 3-1 not 0-4.
Sounds easy. But, how do they magically do this. It’s a bad shooting team and a 10 pt improvement is a huge ask.
Take half as many 3’s per game. That’s 15 shots (last night) that automatically have a higher chance of going in. Even if only 5 go in that’s 10 points.
Doesn’t really matter when they even miss layups, but overall shot selection is atrocious.
The Lakers are a fundamentally flawed team, one in which that one trade is not going to matter
More likely they are sellers than buyers this year at the TD
Get a Ham a year of exp, he’s already got the D up to snuff, see some players, build off that identity and hopefully uncover a diamond in the rough along the way