Dejounte Murray shares his first reaction after being traded to New Orleans

The Hawks are rebuilding their roster around star point guard Trae Young and they made a huge trade today by sending guard Dejounte Murray to the New Orleans Pelicans for Dyson Daniels, Larry Nance and two first-round picks. While they don’t get a marquee player in return, the Hawks do get one of the best point-of-attack defenders in the NBA (a huge need for Atlanta), a solid rotation piece in Larry Nance and two first-round picks in years they didn’t have one (2025 and 2027). For the first time since being traded to the Pelicans, Murray shared his reaction on social media:

I’ve said it before, but the Hawks have failed to build a capable roster around Young. Young’s biggest weakness is obviously his defense and size, which can make it difficult to build a winning team around him, but it’s not impossible.

In the summer of 2022, Atlanta traded Murray, sending a ton of future draft capital in the process. Murray was supposed to work alongside Young and improve the Hawks’ perimeter defense, as well as give Atlanta another playmaker and ballhandler.

It’s safe to say that hasn’t been the case since Murray arrived in Atlanta. Murray hasn’t been a bad player at all for the Hawks, but he hasn’t been the defensive stalwart they hoped he would be when they traded him. He’s been a good player in the locker room and a good leader for the franchise, but the Hawks are headed in a different direction, as this trade shows.

It was becoming increasingly clear that the Hawks team was not built to win around Trae Young and that they were going to have to make adjustments. It was a goal of Atlanta this offseason to improve on defense, get more size and have better defenders at the point of attack and so far, they are doing it. I would expect more moves from this team.