Dejounte Murray – San Antonio Spurs
At full-strength, there is no doubt that this Celtics team is a playoff team in the Eastern Conference, but whether or not they can make it out of the first-round remains a big question mark right now. Tatum and Brown are great, but adding another high-level backcourt talent is going to be essential for this team to have a chance at contending for a title.
Dennis Schroder has stepped up in a big way this season, as has Marcus Smart, but they need a true facilitator that can do a little bit of everything on the floor.
The guy they need is Dejounte Murray.
Now in his 6th season with the San Antonio Spurs, Murray is looking really strong to begin the 2021-22 season and is the perfect match for the Boston Celtics because of the impact he has both on offense and defense.
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Through 19 games, Murray is averaging 19.1 points, 8.5 rebounds, 8.1 assists, 2.0 steals and is shooting 45.1% from the floor, 32.8% from three-point range. He is not much of a perimeter shooting threat, but at 25-years-old and being as athletic as he is, Dejounte Murray is the key to Boston possibly making it back to the Eastern Conference Finals.
However, the Spurs have shown no signs of giving Dejounte Murray up and he is currently one of the faces of their rebuild. San Antonio has missed the playoffs for back-to-back seasons for the first time in their franchise’s history and they are currently trying to create a path for future success.
Murray has been a big part of their rebuild to this point and he currently leads the team in scoring, assists, steals and ranks second in rebounding. Do the Celtics really have the ability to pry away the young guard from San Antonio?
If they are to have a shot at trading for Dejounte Murray, not only would the Celtics have to give up a couple first-round draft picks, but they may have to be willing to trade away some young talents like Aaron Nesmith and Grant Williams. It is possible that Marcus Smart may even have to be on the move in said trade!
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Being the triple-double threat at the point guard position that he is, Murray would take a lot of pressure off of both Brown and Tatum to do everything for this team and if the Celtics were to trade away Smart for him then Dejounte Murray would replace Marcus Smart as the team’s lead defender.
It would definitely cost the Boston Celtics a lot to acquire a player like Dejounte Murray, but being just 25-years-old and starting to look like a dark-horse candidate for this year’s Most Improved Player award, he could be the third key talent this team is missing next to Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown in their championship pursuit.
Verdict: Pursue
