Zion Williamson here at the Dejounte Murray intro presser.
— Christian Clark (@cclark_13) July 9, 2024
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Zion Williamson here at the Dejounte Murray intro presser.
— Christian Clark (@cclark_13) July 9, 2024
Basketball.
Zion Williamson and Dejounte Murray embrace in a hug before we get started. pic.twitter.com/ypIVC8FYmr
— Oleh Kosel ���� (@OlehKosel) July 9, 2024
David Griffin said Rich Paul told him at Klutch Pro Day earlier this summer that the Pelicans “needed to go get Dejounte Murray.”
— Christian Clark (@cclark_13) July 9, 2024
Murray says he's grateful to be in the league because though it's a business, you can build relationships. Says you ''win games, lose games, you make money, but it's the relationships that matter the most''.
Says ''watching New Orleans play, how they compete, from when I was in San Antonio to Atlanta, you see how competitive they are and they work with each other and how it's a brotherhood, and that was easy for me to be a part of. I work hard, I stand on trust, loyalty, and wanting to be in a great environment and this is one that I wanted to be in.''
Says he ''doesn't want to say too much'' but it's ''all about hard work''.
"That's our superstar,"
— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) July 9, 2024
Dejounte on Zion pic.twitter.com/5G5SVdvX8v
''That's our superstar. I'm excited to push him. I told him I'mma push him, and this goes back before I was joining the team. We exchanged numbers and had conversations and it was never about 'come to New Orleans' or this or that, he was somebody that reached out and he wanted to learn certain things. And you want that from somebody that's young, they know they don't know everything and they're willing to be a sponge. That just shows who he is as a person and how much he wants it. And when I say that, how much he wants to win and be great as an individual but also for his team. So I'm excited to push him, whether that's learning who he is as a person, cause that's most important, off the floor, or on the floor because we both love the game. When it comes to drills, if I see something he could be better at or he sees something in me, we're gonna be open to that. Making sure we're both in the film room, studying the game, studying opponents, and prepare. Preparation is everything. I'm excited to push him to the next level because he has a bunch of levels he could reach.''
Well, that's a killer statement.
I'll be honest, didn't know that Dejounte was this good as an interview.
"I'm a leader, natural-born leader... I'm excited to see our guys in summer league. I'll be there supporting the young guys... I don't know how to fake it or be anything else."
— Pelicans Film Room (@PelsFilmRoom) July 9, 2024
-- Dejounte Murray on what he brings off the court pic.twitter.com/Wg70EwKYNT
Dejounte says he didn't actually get to ask Herb for #5, he just asked Herb if ''you like it, or love it'' and Herb just offered it up. Adds he's not going to go into detail but he'll ''make sure he's taken care of'' for it.
"Shout out to Herb Jones,"
— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) July 9, 2024
Dejounte Murray discusses how he got No. 5 from Herb Jones (Jones will be No. 2)#Pelicans pic.twitter.com/9Pczpqqwcn
Dejounte on playing alongside Herb:
— 5 (@jarrettreed_) July 9, 2024
“I want to be on first team all defense with him”
Gonna be honest, Dejounte is absolutely killing this introductory presser. Giving every right answer, fantastic vibes.
If we can get San Antonio level DJM on defense with the added shooting of last year's DJM, it's a legitimate game changer for the team.
His last year in San Antonio: 21/8/9 with 2 steals a game
Last year from 3: 36.3% on 7.1 attempts a game.
Obviously there's more offensive talent on this squad, he won't have to carry such a heavy burden in terms of scoring and - especially if BI stays - I don't want him having that much of a burden. But if he can give us 16/6/8 and keep up that volume from 3 on decent efficiency, that would be incredible.
He didn't have anything even close to that defensive impact in Atlanta, but there could be other reasons for that rather than him just being bad now, and he's the one who mentioned defense. He set the standard for himself. So I'm keeping fingers crossed we can get that back.
So who is the leader of the team now?
"Built for it, that's all I can say... It doesn't have to be me taking the shot, I can create the shot... That's just who I am."
— Pelicans Film Room (@PelsFilmRoom) July 9, 2024
-- Dejounte Murray on clutch situations pic.twitter.com/bdLTRPRghf
Well, last year CJ was the vocal leader but everything really depended on Zion. We went as far as he took us, and once he went out, it was over.Originally Posted by Fedupfan
Same will probably be the case this year, except instead of CJ, I can imagine it being DJM as the vocal leader. At the end of the day it'll still come down to Zion (hence why DJM called him ''our superstar'') but in terms of the voice in the locker room, DJM seems happy to take that role.
If you wan the defense to compensate for a lack of bigs, the best way to beat that is to stop the penetration at its source. If D-money can be the guy that keeps guards from slicing us like Swiss cheese, it can improve us tremendously in preventing those big runs we tend to give away.
Dae, how does he compare with Dyson defensively? Maybe comparing Dyson's time here and DM's best years in SA?
I know he had 1 super amazing year. But if we can get similar defense from him as Dyson but adding his scoring and playmaking ability things could get really interesting. At least once we find a starting center lol
Much, much worse man defender. But that's not surprising because Dyson is already all-league at point of attack defense and screen navigation.
Better at playing the passing lanes, probably. DJM was an absolute monster in the passing lanes on the Spurs. Slightly better at help on rolls and stuff, diving/recovering.
I'd have to go back and rewatch though to remember more, it's been a while.
Okay, well I'll take 75% of Dyson's defense with the added offensive ability.
so we have to thank rich paul for this trade...
i believe ingram will be traded but i do want to see for half a season...murray, ingram, herb, zion, and center starting lineup....
cj, hawkins, trey, bench unit...
David griffin made it seem like Brandon staying
Which is exactly what he should do, whether BI is staying or not.
We all know the most likely outcome is that BI is staying. That is always the most likely outcome of any situation - stasis. Trades are unusual, by and large.
But even if Griff was 100% determined to trade him (which he isn't!), the public presentation should always be that you are intending to keep him. It keeps whatever leverage you have intact and, if the trades fall through, it leaves the public relationship with the player intact too. It would be very very very stupid of any executive to come out and act like they were desperate to move someone.
Yep. It doesn’t seem like the market panned out for him and other teams were in agreement with us that BI wasn’t worth the risk especially based on last season. The best case scenario is we get CJ off the books and BI either caves with his demands or we find another destination for him. It will be rough, but if I can say one thing this team should be really exciting this year. Lots of offensive weapons and Griff took away Willie’s tools. If CJ goes to the bench (as he should), this could be a very interesting team.
This team, as currently constructed, is going to be extremely rough at times. It will win 45 games out of pure talent but it is going to be ugly sometimes. The fit is abominably bad in places. There is one player on the entire roster over 6'9, and it's Yves Missi, a raw rookie. We are going to lose the rebounding battle every game by 20.
Griff needs to do something. If we just go into the season the way we are now, we will have a rough, rough time of it.
Obviously the market is cold for BI (as it should be, he is absolutely not worth the contract he wants) and we're trying to move him too late, and everyone else knows we're in an awkward spot because if we go into the season with him, his value will just continue to drop further. It's bad.
It may be a trainwreck, but it can’t be any worse to watch than last year with some of those lineups Willie would wheel out. But yeah we should be looking for a big stat and at the very least a dump for CJ or a trade for BI that works.
Good mini interview here. Some quotes from DJM:
On defense and 1st team aspirations:
''I value playing the right way, and playing the right way is defense, defense wins championships. Obviously you gotta score the basketball too but it's something for me, because I know when I'm playing defense and you have a group of guys playing defense, and it's something you can't teach. The feeling of that, just knowing that we're competing on who's guarding the best guy, knowing you have your team mate's back, that's important. I love defense. But it's a team thing, you can have one guy playing defense or two and the rest not, and nothing happens. So I'm excited, this group all competes, everybody wants to defend, everyone shares the ball, I pay attention to everything. Their interviews after the game, it's a brotherhood, they're all smiling, lighting each other up. That's something I want to be a part of.''
Competitive nature:
''When it's time to step on the wood, if you're not wearing the same jersey as me, we're trying to take each other down,. That's an easy thing. You want what I want, I want what you want, that's to win the game. That's easy to me, I'm just being myself.''
What to expect:
''What you can expect is, as I said, we're a team that competes at a high level already and adding someone who competes and works as if I'm still trying to make it to the NBA, I feel like I fit right in with this team.''
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