Knicks’ rival gets huge boost in trade for All-Star guard Dejounte Murray
The hype around Dejounte Murray potentially being traded to the New York Knicks lasted for a couple of days. Minutes after Marc Stein reported that the Knicks, Atlanta Hawks, and Minnesota Timberwolves were suitors for the All-Star guard, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Atlanta had completed a trade for him.
It was well known that the San Antonio Spurs were asking for at least three first-round picks in exchange for Murray. The 25-year-old led the Spurs in points per game (21.1), assists per game (9.2), and steals per game (2) in 2021-22.
And unfortunately, the Hawks were the ones to pull off the trade for Murray. Per Woj, Atlanta sent San Antonio a 2023 first-round pick via Charlotte, a 2025 first-round pick, a 2027 first-round pick, a 2026 pick swap, and Danilo Gallinari.
New York currently has an arsenal of nine first-round picks over the next five years and the Knicks could make more moves before the start of free agency on Thursday at 6 p.m. ET.
The Atlanta Hawks are trading Danilo Gallinari and multiple first-round picks to the San Antonio Spurs for All-Star guard Dejounte Murray, sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 29, 2022
Knicks miss out on Dejounte Murray to Trae Young and the Hawks
The Eastern Conference is going to be extremely tough in 2022-23. New York finished fourth in 2020-21 and 11th in 2021-22. RJ Barrett said that one of his goals for the upcoming year is to lead the Knicks back to the playoffs, but that’s not going to be an easy task in a stacked conference.
Outside of the Atlantic Division, the last team that fans should’ve hoped that Murray would end up on is Atlanta. We’ll have to wait and see how Trae Young and Murray intend on sharing the ball. Maybe the Hawks will be able to have a better regular-season record than 3-1 against the Knicks next year (lol).
Fans were dreaming of seeing Murray play at Madison Square Garden, although those dreams were short-lived. And maybe for good reason considering that it’d be tough for him and Brunson to operate together on offense. The majority of their scoring comes from inside the arc. Murray has a career 33% 3-point average and Brunson’s average is 37.3%.
The main focus has been on signing Brunson in free agency, but potentially trading for Murray was something that had been thrown into the mix. Now, things have shifted solely back to Brunson.
In exactly 24 hours, the fun will begin.
