Trey Murphy III Goes for 40+ Again, Most Improved Player in the NBA?

Matt Newton | Feb 4, 2025

New Orleans Pelicans/X

The Trey Murphy III breakout year continues. For the second game in a row, Murphy went for 40+ points and this time, the former UVA basketball star matched his career-high of 41 points.

Yet again, though, Murphy's stellar performance shooting the ball and willing his overmatched team to stay in the game against a superior opponent wasn't enough to get the win, as the New Orleans Pelicans fell to the Denver Nuggets 125-113 on Monday night in Denver.

Murphy shot 13/21 from the floor and a sizzling 8/12 from beyond the arc and also converted all seven of his free throw attempts. He chipped in three rebounds, three assists, two steals, and a block and didn't turn the ball over a single time. It was an almost flawless performance from Murphy, who has transformed from just a sharpshooter and high-flying dunker into a polished all-around scorer.

Watch the highlights' from Murphy's career-high 41-point game in the video below.

This performance, which matched his career-high of 41 points scored against the Portland Trail Blazers on March 12th, 2023, came just three days after Murphy went for 40 points in the Pelicans' loss to the Boston Celtics. In that game, Murphy shot an identical 8/12 from beyond the arc and an even better 15/20 from the floor. In the game before that, Murphy scored 32 points against the Mavericks.

In his last three games, which came against last year's NBA Finals runner-up Dallas Mavericks, the reigning NBA Champion Boston Celtics, and the 2023 NBA Champion Denver Nuggets, Trey Murphy III has scored 113 total points on 41/58 shooting from the floor (70.7%) and 21/33 from beyond the arc (63.6%). Naturally, the Pelicans lost all three of those games to extend their losing streak to six games and drop their overall record to 12-38, the third-worst record in the entire NBA.

The lack of team success for the New Orleans Pelicans is directly attributed to the health of the team, as they have been without stars Dejounte Murray and Brandon Ingram for most of the season and Zion Williamson has missed considerable time as well. That vacuum has given Murphy the opportunity of a lifetime and he has fully taken advantage, scoring 20+ points in 20 games this season and averaging career-highs in points (22.6 ppg), rebounds (5.0 rpg), assists (3.1 apg), steals (1.2 spg), and minutes (35.4 mpg). His scoring improvement is particularly notable, as Murphy has raised his scoring average by nearly eight full points, from 14.8 to 22.6.

Unfortunately, Murphy's recent surge did not happen in time for him to earn reasonable consideration for the 2025 All-Star Game. The voting for the 2025 NBA All-Stars wrapped up in the last week of January and Murphy was not selected. Each All-Star candidate receives a score based on 50% fan vote, 25% player vote, and 25% media vote. Trey Murphy III received 15 player votes, good for 13th among Western Conference front court players, 44,256 fan votes, which was 32nd among Western Conference front court players, and he did not receive any media votes.

So, Murphy will not make an All-Star Game appearance this season, though his career trajectory would certainly suggest that an All-Star selection is in his future. But he also could still work his way into contention for an NBA award at the end of the season. According to Bet365, Trey Murphy has the ninth-best odds to win the NBA Most Improved Player Award. He is actually tied with fellow former Virginia basketball star De'Andre Hunter in that spot.

There is plenty of season left to play, so we'll see if Trey Murphy III can continue his rise to stardom in his fourth season in the National Basketball Association.

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