Dejounte Murray has been firing some shots at the Atlanta Hawks after they traded him to the New Orleans Pelicans. In a now-deleted post on X, Murray blasted a fan who called him one of the most horrible perimeter defenders in the NBA and claimed his former head coach Quin Snyder wouldn’t allow him to guard the best players in the opposition.
“Another Casual That Don’t Watch Hoops Or Really Know What’s Going On With His FAVORITE TEAM!! Ask Your Head Coach Why When I Begged Him For Me To Guard The Best Players I Was Told They Wanna Save My Energy For Scoring!!! Hahahaha. You Will See A MONSTER On Defense 24-25 SZN.”
Murray certainly considers himself to be one of the finest defenders in the NBA, but he didn’t quite excel at that end of the floor for the Hawks. They had acquired the one-time All-Star from the San Antonio Spurs in 2022 in the hope that he would help transform their defense, but he couldn’t.
In his first season, the Hawks had a defensive rating of 115.4, which ranked 22nd in the NBA. Then this past season, the defense got even worse, as their rating of 118.4 ranked 27th.
There is plenty of blame to go around for that, but Murray, who made the NBA All-Defensive Second Team in 2018, didn’t really stand out as this great defensive presence either. Perhaps that’s why Snyder wanted the 27-year-old to just focus on the offensive end.
While Murray and his star backcourt partner Trae Young weren’t a great fit together, the former still managed to be effective on offense in his time with the Hawks. Over those two seasons, he averaged 21.5 points, 5.3 rebounds, 6.3 assists, 1.5 steals, and 0.3 blocks per game.
Those were some fine numbers, but that poor fit with Young meant one of the two had to go this offseason. With Murray not quite having that defensive impact while being the inferior offensive player of the two, the Hawks chose Young as the one to retain. They received Larry Nance Jr., Dyson Daniels, and two first-round picks for Murray, and that was a decent haul.
Dejounte Murray Said Defense Is A Team Effort
That Hawks fan whom Murray blasted, was reacting to some interesting comments the guard had made during a recent interview. He had stated during his introductory press conference that he wanted to make the NBA All-Defensive First Team next season and was asked if he valued defense over offense.
“I value just playing the right way,” Murray said. “… When I know I’m playing defense but you’ve got a group of guys playing defense, its something you cant teach… 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.
Dejounte Murray: I value playing the right way… When I know I'm playing defense but you've got a group of guys playing defense, its something you cant teach.. 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 pic.twitter.com/UCAEFMKNfh
— Pelicans Film Room (@PelsFilmRoom) July 9, 2024
That was certainly viewed as a bit of a shot at his former teammates. It will be interesting to see if Murray will be able to back up all this talk next season. He will be playing alongside an outstanding defender in Herb Jones and if his defense is still mediocre, then he would have run out of people to blame.
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