January 12, 2025 to March 15, 2025 were an incredible couple of months of basketball for New Orleans Pelicans forward Trey Murphy.
Murphy averaged 22.4 points, 5.6 rebounds, 4.3 assists, a steal and nearly a block per night. His usage rate was up around six percentage points to 23.5%.
This was the vision for Murphy. He was playmaking, shooting threes and driving to the basket. He looked the part of the alpha on offense that everyone who had watched him for years knew he could be. He had back-to-back 40-point games following a 30-point game at one point.
Then, he went down with a torn labrum and partial rotator cuff in his right shoulder. It cost him the final couple of weeks of the season. Then, David Griffin got fired. Then, new president of basketball operations Joe Dumars shook up the roster.
Murphy is back to full health and won't miss any of this season. He should be the same player that he was before the injury. But will a new situation allow him to remain at the new heights he had reached last year?
"[I have to have] the same mindset. Get the ball. Make good plays. Try to get to the basket and try to get a good shot up every time," said Murphy after the first day of training camp.
Suffering an injury is never fun, but in the midst of an overall down season for the team, Murphy could have actually benefitted from some time away.
"It was tough, but I think it helped me because it made me sit down and actually give my body some rest," said the forward during media day. "Gave myself some time away from basketball, made me miss it a little bit more and it gave me a new little hunger for this next season."
For the Pelicans to reach whatever the ceiling for this team will end up being, Murphy will need to be a big part of that. Not only matching his performance from last year, but reaching new heights.
As confident as the forward is in himself, it appears that his coaches and teammates are matching that same energy.
"We saw him a little bit more on the ball [down the stretch last season], creating off the dribble. We want him to have some of that, but we also don't want him to lose what he does really well," said head coach Willie Green.
What Murphy has done really well in the past is off the ball, getting open and shooting threes at a lights-out rate. The only thing that went down for him last season was his three-point rate.
He shot 39.2% over his first three years and then dipped to 36.1% last season. There could have been a number of reasons for that, but more responsibilities and creating opportunities for himself certainly added to that.
"Finding the balance for him is what he's doing now," said Green. "And then the real key is that he's guarding prime time guys on the opposite end of the floor. Rebounding the ball at a high level. All things we know Trey Murphy can do. He's more than capable and we're expecting a huge year for him."