Trae Young on playing with Dejounte Murray: 'It just sucks that it didn't work'

Dejounte Murray: STEPHHHHHH TOP 5 EVER I REPEAT TOP 5 EVERRRRRR!!!!! 👨‍🍳 -via x.com / August 10, 2024

“I think we probably underestimated how important he was going to be, just from a vocal-leadership standpoint,” Pelicans Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations David Griffin said of Murray’s immediate impact while being interviewed Friday on ESPN2. “He’s come in and been very alpha right from the beginning. He’s recruiting free agents for us, he’s doing a great job of bringing the veterans together, and sort of being a conduit for everybody in our organization. We feel incredibly blessed that he’s with us and it worked out really well.” -via NBA.com / July 13, 2024

Come the fall when the NBA kicks into high gear and teams begin training camp, Dejounte Murray will provide New Orleans with a floor general from the point-guard position, something the Pelicans lacked in recent seasons, despite climbing from 36 to 42 to 49 regular season wins. Murray should also help teammates be in the right spots and fit into the club’s attack, delivering vital leadership on and off the court. The latter already seems to be happening. During Friday’s Pelicans summer league opener in Las Vegas, Murray gathered with a group of New Orleans veterans at courtside, chatting at length with the likes of CJ McCollum, Herb Jones, Trey Murphy, Matt Ryan and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl. -via NBA.com / July 13, 2024

“No disrespect to the guys that got drafted, from the out looking in, and some guys might surprise us, but a lot of us look at them as role players coming in anyway,” Young said on Podcast P with Paul George. “You name the last three No.1 picks, you’ve got Victor (Wembanyama), you got Ant Edwards, you’ve got some big-time names. None of these guys whether it’s Reed (Sheppard), who is going to be a hell of an NBA player or Alex (Sarr), who didn’t play well in Summer League, but is going to be a hell of an NBA player, a lot of these guys could be just role players, so you’re really just trying to figure out who is going to be the best role player for their team.” -via Clutch Points / August 12, 2024

ClutchPoints: “Who won that game for Team USA?” Paul George: LeBron James absolutely… I think Bron took it as the initiative, like we not losing this game.” Trae Young: “If Steph Curry didn’t have 17 in the 1st quarter, they would have been down 20 plus.” -via Twitter / August 10, 2024

Jake Fischer: Jonathan Kuminga is entering the final year of his rookie deal where the word around the league from various sources is that Kuminga and his representation are looking for a full max extension, which as we just talked about with Brandon Ingram and Jamal Murray and whoever, like if you’re not an absolute All-Star, Scottie Barnes type of guy for Toronto, Lauri Markkanen for Utah you know, Trae Young for Atlanta back in the day, because look at what happened to Trae Young and Atlanta since then, it’s really hard to get that number. -via YouTube / August 9, 2024