Pelicans Are Destroying Teams With Dejounte Murray On the Court

When Dejounte Murray returned to action on February 24th after missing 13 months of action, many expected him to be slowly integrated into the New Orleans Pelicans rotation. The 29-year-old guard had suffered one of the more devastating injuries possible, a ruptured Achilles, and would understandably need time to play himself into shape.

Since then, Murray has played nine games and has looked better than anyone could have imagined. He has arguably been more impactful and productive than he was as a Pelican before the injury. The former All-Star guard is in the midst of an incredible offensive stretch, averaging career-highs in usage rate (28.2%) and True Shooting (65.6%). In fact, this is the first season in his career that Murray has a higher True Shooting than the league average.

Pelicans Have League's Best Net Rating When Dejounte Murray Is Playing

The way Murray hit the ground running upon his return has been nothing short of remarkable. He deserves a ton of credit for immediately starting games and averaging over 27 minutes per game while carrying a big offensive load. Putting up 19.4 points, 5.3 rebounds, 5.9 assists, and 1.7 steals per game is one thing, but Murray is actually a massive part of the Pelicans' recent surge. In fact, New Orleans is an elite team with Murray on the floor, and numbers support this fact.

In the 246 minutes Murray has played this season, the Pelicans have completely dominated their opponents. New Orleans has a +12.4 net rating in those minutes, better than the league leaders, the Oklahoma City Thunder, for the season, per Cleaning the Glass. The 121.0 offensive rating and 108.5 defensive rating would both rank second in the league, highlighting the two-way potential of the lineups with Murray.

With Murray sidelined, the Pelicans have a net rating of -5.0, which is more in line with the league's 24th-best team, the Milwaukee Bucks. This +17.4 on/off swing is not only the best mark on the team, but is also only behind two players (among those who have played at least as many minutes as Murray) in the league for the season.

This is obviously unlikely to sustain. There will be regression to the mean, and the Pelicans will not be the best team in the NBA when Murray is available. At the same time, the impact Murray makes is clear. Going from a backcourt of rotation of Jeremiah Fears and Jordan Poole to Dejounte Murray starting and playing almost 30 minutes per game is bound to give the team a boost. He has done everything the Pelicans could have asked from him. Whether that means his future belongs in New Orleans or makes it more likely he will be traded in the offseason, however, remains to be seen. For now, Pelicans fans should enjoy the wild ride.