{"id":611323,"date":"2026-02-23T21:51:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T21:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/611323\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T21:51:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T21:51:13","slug":"dejounte-murray-is-eager-to-make-his-return-to-the-struggling-pelicans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/611323\/","title":{"rendered":"Dejounte Murray is eager to make his return to the struggling Pelicans"},"content":{"rendered":"

METAIRIE, La. (AP) \u2014 Dejounte Murray\u2019s imminent return to the New Orleans Pelicans<\/a> ‘ lineup comes amid swirling uncertainty that the veteran, former All-Star guard would just as soon ignore.<\/p>\n

The front office regime that traded for Murray<\/a> two summers ago is gone<\/a>. The 29-year-old Murray has spent the better part of the last 13 months rehabilitating from a ruptured right Achilles<\/a> tendon. And his rebuilding club sits near the bottom of the Western Conference standings with little hope of postseason play.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of excuses for a chump to be like, \u2018Nah. I ain\u2019t playing,\u2019 And I\u2019m the opposite of that,\u201d Murray said after practice on Monday, when he also stated he felt ready to play in Tuesday night\u2019s home game against the Golden State Warriors.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019ve been through, what I go through, I use that all to fuel the fire,\u201d Murray continued, noting that he\u2019s getting paid either way, and could have opted for more rest and recovery by declining to play in the Pelicans\u2019 final 24 games.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut for me, I love the game and I put myself in a position to be able to say I want to go out and play for not only my family and organization, but also the City of New Orleans,\u201d Murray said, pointing his finger in an upward trajectory as he added, \u201cI feel like my best basketball is ahead of me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t care about the money. I don\u2019t care about the fame, the lifestyle,\u201d Murray said. \u201cI love this game and I\u2019m going to get everything I can out of this game until it\u2019s over.\u201d<\/p>\n

New Orleans acquired Murray before least season in a trade that sent Dyson Daniels, Larry Nance Jr., Cody Zeller, and two first-round picks (2025 and 2027) to Atlanta.<\/p>\n

That trade was executed by David Griffin, the Pelicans\u2019 former executive vice president of basketball operations, who was fired after last season and replaced by Joe Dumars<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dumars proceeded to use his first draft pick to select Murray\u2019s heir apparent, Jeremiah Fears, who was taken seventh out of Oklahoma.<\/p>\n

Murray doesn\u2019t sound conflicted about mentoring Fears while simultaneously seeking to re-establish himself as an elite NBA guard.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s the future; he\u2019s going to be great,\u201d Murray said of Fears. \u201cMy job is to continue to be a pro, work on my game and show him what it looks like. He\u2019s a confident young man, but also he\u2019s got to understand there\u2019s a lot of ups and downs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murray has had his share of those.<\/p>\n

After his first two NBA seasons with San Antonio \u2014 his game still raw and his long-term pro prospects uncertain \u2014 Murray was sidelined by a major right knee injury for all of the 2018-19 season. Three years later, he was an All-Star who averaged 21.1 points, 9.2 assists and 8.3 rebounds per game.<\/p>\n

Murray was traded in 2022 to Atlanta, where he averaged better than 20 points per game over two seasons before his trade to New Orleans in June 2024.<\/p>\n

In his Pelicans debut, Murray broke his left hand. He returned for 30 more games last season before his Achilles injury on Jan. 31, 2025, against Boston.<\/p>\n

Pelicans interim coach James Borrego said it might be premature to \u201chave a conversation\u201d about how Murray might fit the front office\u2019s long-term vision for the franchise. And while Borrego sounded inclined to play Murray on Tuesday night, he stopped short of saying for sure that he would.<\/p>\n

But Borrego did compliment Murray\u2019s commitment to both basketball and the Pelicans.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt speaks to his character \u2014 that he cares,\u201d Borrego said. \u201cI\u2019m not saying that everybody coming off this injury would even play right now. This kid wants to play. He wants to be out there on the floor. He wants to compete. He wants to be out there with his teammates. He wants to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murray said he has a good relationship with Dumars and his staff, but added, \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter who\u2019s in the front office, who\u2019s the coaching staff. We\u2019ve got to go out on the floor and play hard, and play the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/NBA<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"METAIRIE, La. (AP) \u2014 Dejounte Murray\u2019s imminent return to the New Orleans Pelicans ‘ lineup comes amid swirling…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":611324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[1339,276,212646,262352,160296,25876,102372,107738,39972,361,181308,353,1260,6326,3579,21461,3137,62,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-611323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-basketball","tag-california","tag-cody-zeller","tag-david-griffin","tag-dejounte-murray","tag-dyson-daniels","tag-james-borrego","tag-jeremiah-fears","tag-joe-dumars","tag-la-state-wire","tag-larry-nance-jr","tag-louisiana","tag-nba","tag-nba-basketball","tag-nba-playoffs","tag-new-orleans","tag-new-orleans-pelicans","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116122162833436738","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}