METAIRIE, La. (AP) — Dejounte Murray's imminent return to the New Orleans Pelicans ' lineup comes amid swirling uncertainty that the veteran, former All-Star guard would just as soon ignore.
The front office regime that traded for Murray two summers ago is gone. The 29-year-old Murray has spent the better part of the last 13 months rehabilitating from a ruptured right Achilles tendon. And his rebuilding club sits near the bottom of the Western Conference
standings with little hope of postseason play.
“There’s a lot of excuses for a chump to be like, ‘Nah. I ain’t playing,’ And I’m the opposite of that," Murray said after practice on Monday, when he also stated he felt ready to play in Tuesday night's home game against the Golden State Warriors.
“What I’ve been through, what I go through, I use that all to fuel the fire," Murray continued, noting that he's getting paid either way, and could have opted for more rest and recovery by declining to play in the Pelicans' final 24 games.
“But for me, I love the game and I put myself in a position to be able to say I want to go out and play for not only my family and organization, but also the City of New Orleans,” Murray said, pointing his finger in an upward trajectory as he added, "I feel like my best basketball is ahead of me.
“I don’t care about the money. I don’t care about the fame, the lifestyle,” Murray said. “I love this game and I’m going to get everything I can out of this game until it’s over.”
New Orleans acquired Murray before least season in a trade that sent Dyson Daniels, Larry Nance Jr., Cody Zeller, and two first-round picks (2025 and 2027) to Atlanta.
That trade was executed by David Griffin, the Pelicans' former executive vice president of basketball operations, who was fired after last season and replaced by Joe Dumars.
Dumars proceeded to use his first draft pick to select Murray's heir apparent, Jeremiah Fears, who was taken seventh out of Oklahoma.
Murray doesn't sound conflicted about mentoring Fears while simultaneously seeking to re-establish himself as an elite NBA guard.
“He’s the future; he’s going to be great," Murray said of Fears. “My job is to continue to be a pro, work on my game and show him what it looks like. He’s a confident young man, but also he’s got to understand there’s a lot of ups and downs.”
Murray has had his share of those.
After his first two NBA seasons with San Antonio — his game still raw and his long-term pro prospects uncertain — Murray was sidelined by a major right knee injury for all of the 2018-19 season. Three years later, he was an All-Star who averaged 21.1 points, 9.2 assists and 8.3 rebounds per game.
Murray was traded in 2022 to Atlanta, where he averaged better than 20 points per game over two seasons before his trade to New Orleans in June 2024.
In his Pelicans debut, Murray broke his left hand. He returned for 30 more games last season before his Achilles injury on Jan. 31, 2025, against Boston.
Pelicans interim coach James Borrego said it might be premature to “have a conversation” about how Murray might fit the front office's long-term vision for the franchise. And while Borrego sounded inclined to play Murray on Tuesday night, he stopped short of saying for sure that he would.
But Borrego did compliment Murray's commitment to both basketball and the Pelicans.
“It speaks to his character — that he cares,” Borrego said. “I’m not saying that everybody coming off this injury would even play right now. This kid wants to play. He wants to be out there on the floor. He wants to compete. He wants to be out there with his teammates. He wants to win.”
Murray said he has a good relationship with Dumars and his staff, but added, “It doesn’t matter who’s in the front office, who’s the coaching staff. We’ve got to go out on the floor and play hard, and play the right way.”
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