Dejounte Murray Shares His First Reaction After Being Traded to New Orleans

The Hawks are rebuilding their roster around star point guard Trae Young and they made a huge trade today, sending point guard Dejounte Murray to the New Orleans Pelicans for Dyson Daniels, Larry Nance and two first-round picks. While they don’t get a marquee player in return, the Hawks do get one of the best offensive defenders in the NBA (a huge need for Atlanta), a solid rotation piece in Larry Nance and two first-round picks in years they didn’t have one (2025 and 2027). For the first time since being traded to the Pelicans, Murray shared his reaction on social media:

I’ve said it before, but the Hawks have done a poor job of building a competent roster around Young. Young’s biggest weakness is obviously his defense and size, which can make it difficult to build a winning team around him, but it’s not impossible.

In the summer of 2022, Atlanta traded for Murray, sending out a ton of future draft capital. Murray was supposed to work alongside Young and improve the Hawks’ perimeter defense, as well as give Atlanta another playmaking player.

It’s safe to say that hasn’t been the case since Murray was in Atlanta. Murray hasn’t been a bad player for the Hawks, but he hasn’t been the defensive stalwart they were hoping for when they traded him. He’s been a good player in the locker room and a good leader for the franchise, but the Hawks are going in a different direction, as this trade shows.

It was becoming increasingly clear that the Hawks team was not built to win around Trae Young and that they were going to have to make adjustments. It was a goal for Atlanta this offseason to improve on defense, get more size, and get better defenders at the point of attack and so far they are doing that. I would expect more moves from this team.