There are a ton of popular NY Knicks NBA draft targets whose names have swirled around the league’s rumor mill, one of which is University of Virginia product Trey Murphy III.
As the draft approaches, some prospects start to pick up more steam and rise up boards as they come off meeting and workouts with NBA teams. Trey Murphy is certainly one of those prospects.
NY Knicks: Trey Murphy III is rising up NBA Draft boards
For good reason. Murphy is one of those prospects where really, the strengths are always talked about and the weaknesses don’t end up in the discussion. What it boils down to is that his playstyle and the role he fills, really, would fit on any NBA team.
He’s a 3&D wing who excells in a complementary role. At 6’7.5 with a 7-foot wingspan, NBA teams are going to love Murphy’s size, and all signs point to him being at the very least, an efficient shooter in the league.
On offense, Murphy’s game is all about the shooting. One of the best knockdown shooters in the draft – Murphy shot 120 3-pointers this past season and connected on 43.3% of them.
A lethal catch-and-shoot player, Murphy was assisted on 94.2% of those 3-pointers.
As of now, that elite level of catch-and-shooting is all you’re going to hear about Murphy’s offense. He’s not a volume scorer or a player who creates much with the ball in his hands.
However, Murphy is also a very athletic player. He hasn’t quite unlocked many skills as a ball-handler, but his size, coupled with his speed and terrific balance, could have teams thinking that there is some untapped potential for him to grow into.
As teams bring him in for workouts, I think that’s what they’re starting to see. Not only is this guy a lights out spot-up shooter, he’s an NBA athlete. The NY Knicks are one of the teams that have brought him in, per Knicks Film School’s Jonathan Macri.
For New York, bringing in Murphy III makes sense.
Not only can he be deployed as another excellent perimeter option around Julius Randle – he has some defensive upside to turn into a lockdown wing defender.
It’s unclear what the NY Knicks will do with the rest of their roster this offseason, but if the team elects not to bring Reggie Bullock back or not bring in a defensive-minded wing, Murphy III can certainly help fill the void.
Trey Murphy’s rock-solid floor of being a tall, sharpshooting wing along with his athletic upside make him one of the most popular mid-late first round prospects in this NBA Draft, and he very well may be a New York Knick on July 29th.