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As the Atlanta Hawks struggle with consistency in the Eastern Conference, they have reportedly decided to stay the course and keep Dejounte Murray in the backcourt.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported Atlanta will not trade Murray ahead of Thursday’s 3 p.m. ET deadline, which comes after he was connected to the Los Angeles Lakers and other teams at times.
The Hawks paid a steep price when they acquired Murray from the San Antonio Spurs in June 2022. They sent first-round draft picks in 2023, 2025 and 2027, plus a pick swap in 2026 to the Spurs.
It was a move designed to provide Trae Young with a strong backcourt running mate and improve their defense and rebounding.
The Ringer’s Seerat Sohi noted in November 2022 that Murray ranked in the 92nd percentile among all combo guards in steal rate and 100 percentile in rebounding opponent misses.
Murray has maintained his scoring, rebounding and stealing ability since joining the Hawks and averaged 20.5 points on a career-high 46.4 percent shooting with 6.1 assists and 5.3 rebounds per game during his first season in Atlanta.
After a playoff appearance last season, the Hawks rewarded Murray with a four-year, $120 million extension in July that runs through the 2027-28 campaign.
The Hawks have continued to struggle with a 22-29 record this season, 10th in the Eastern Conference, but Murray is having one of the best years of his career. The 27-year-old is averaging 21.4 points on 37 percent three-point shooting, 5.2 assists and 1.3 steals per game.
Considering what Atlanta was probably hoping to become by pairing Murray and Young, another season spent fighting for a spot in the play-in tournament isn’t a great spot to be in.
Those two unprotected first-round picks still owed to the Spurs look incredibly valuable right now.
That led to plenty of speculation about whether the Hawks would trade Murray and attempt to get some value in return that they could use to build out the long-term future for the organization.
They ended up deciding against it and will instead pursue at least a play-in tournament spot with the Murray and Young backcourt.