Mountaintop Monastery of Dejounte Murray

[The Truth #6]

He seems like a child that needs constant unconditional love.

He’s a hardworking skilled player. But I don’t think he could be part of the Beautiful Game type of approach.

[poopbox]

It’s still a good trade for us. If anything it makes future trades possibly more enticing. “The Spurs really develop their players “, et cetera. Whatever. Let DJ be. Still happy he’s off the team. Keldon is a way better leader.

We legit might not see half of the picks we traded him for. That Hornets pick is top 16 protected meaning all they have to do is not make the playoffs. The pick swap is only useful if the hawks are actually worse than us in 2026. So we might only get the 2025 and 2027 unprotected hawks picks. Maybe the hawks laker themselves in one of those years tbh.

[The Truth #6]

We legit might not see half of the picks we traded him for. That Hornets pick is top 16 protected meaning all they have to do is not make the playoffs. The pick swap is only useful if the hawks are actually worse than us in 2026. So we might only get the 2025 and 2027 unprotected hawks picks. Maybe the hawks laker themselves in one of those years tbh.

It’s a valid point. Nothing guaranteed. But it’s paved the way for Devin and Keldon to thrive, two players that won’t cause drama (assuming their gym shorts don’t malfunction et cetera). And DJ just seems like a diva in the making so it’s hard for me to retroactively wish he was still here.

[KingKev]

It’s a valid point. Nothing guaranteed. But it’s paved the way for Devin and Keldon to thrive, two players that won’t cause drama (assuming their gym shorts don’t malfunction et cetera). And DJ just seems like a diva in the making so it’s hard for me to retroactively wish he was still here.

It’s not drama. It's business. You don’t think Keldon might grow resentful when he realizes he is an AS on a value contract and PATFO already let clutch know they don’t value him as a max player for his next extension?

Same situation. I’m not advocating one way or another and DJ could be more mature with but this is how the game works.

so if your team isn’t winning, you are taking money off the table out of loyalty (in many cases that loyalty is owed) but you put all this hard work in and now the situation changes that doesn’t make you some ignorant, unloyal person no matter what your up bringing was.

[The Truth #6]

The stuff in Summer League makes me think he has a personality disorder, potentially. But I hear ya about San Antonio and name recognition and business decisions et cetera. We’ll see.

[KingKev]

The stuff in Summer League makes me think he has a personality disorder, potentially. But I hear ya about San Antonio and name recognition and business decisions et cetera. We’ll see.

Managing personalities is never easy, especially when this amount of money is involved.

[The Truth #6]

Managing personalities is never easy, especially when this amount of money is involved.

Fair. And focusing on money in almost all issues related to the NBA is never a bad idea, not to go full Marxist here…

[poopbox]

It’s a valid point. Nothing guaranteed. But it’s paved the way for Devin and Keldon to thrive, two players that won’t cause drama (assuming their gym shorts don’t malfunction et cetera). And DJ just seems like a diva in the making so it’s hard for me to retroactively wish he was still here.

Who is to say they wouldn't have thrived with Murray? I actually think Murray got the short end of the stick.

He was a good soldier and waited behind Parker until he couldn't even consistently score 10 points a game.
He was a good soldier and played his part while Demar, Lamarcus, Patty, and Rudy didn't do but jack up a bunch of shots in hopes of getting one last nba payday.
He was a good soldier when Pop refused to play him and Derrick together when he came back from his acl injury for who knows what reason.
They finally give him the keys to the offense and in his one opportunity to be "the guy" he is an all star and played at a fringe all nba level.
And he did all of this not even making 16 million a year. Guys like Beal are making more than 40 mil a year and can't even get their teams to the play in.
Then when his stock is at an all time high the spurs want to talk about an extension...aka a discount..which in business...and that is what every nba team is...a business...is a bad faith conversation. You don't try to talk contract with a person when they are on a meteoric rise because the only reason you would do that is to try and get them for below market value, which they are already playing on a contract WELL below market value. I am sure that was a complete turn off for Dejounte and Klutch. He is already hilariously outperforming his contract and now you trying to get him on another one that unless its anything other than a max, is below market contract. We have to remember that players don't get paid based on made up numbers in our head but they get paid based on how they perform against their peers and Dejounte was definitely performing at a max level, as he is right now for the Hawks.
Then all of a sudden they start touting Primo as the face of the franchise and the guy of the future and they want to make him the point guard. Imagine you Dejounte and you hear all of this and you just made the all star team as a point guard. By the way it turns out that the guy they essentially wanted to replace you with can't keep his in his pants. I wonder if this is what Dejounte was talking about when he said the spurs had problems "bigger than basketball"?

I don't get the whole "seems like a Diva" thing. Why? Cause he post some cringe stuff on social media? Other than that what trouble has he been in off the court? What player on the team did he have an issue with? When did he ever NOT play hard for the spurs? When did he ever not show up for some off the court event? I think people don't know what a "diva" is. Pau Gasol is a "diva" cause when he lost his spot to Poeltl he just said trade me or let me go cause I am not getting the minutes I want. Lamarcus Aldridge is a "diva" cause after he had the most team success of his career he asked to be traded cause he wasn't getting to play the way he wanted, and then he did it again when he lost his spot in the starting lineup, he played one game off the bench, complained, and then just went home until he was finally released. Kawhi Leonard is a "diva" cause he said pay me the super max after I only played 9 games and the spurs said no and he said trade me. Outside of some social media quotes what "diva" thing has Dejounte done?

This dude played next to Bryn ing Forbes, one of the worst players in the league by every metric except shooting wide open 3's, and didn't complain. He should get some sort of award for that alone

[timvp]

Looking at Murray’s contract and man that contract is Keldon level value. $16m this year and $17m next. 5th highest paid Hawk this year and 6th highest next year when Hunters extension kicks in . Young, Capela, Collins, Bogdanovic all on more $ than Murray.

It's amazing that less than a year ago, a lot of Spurs fans were saying it was a bad contract

[R. DeMurre]

There are a lot of amazing things happening. It's amazing that a week ago, Primo was an example of uncanny maturity and high character. The Dejounte/Primo dichotomy reminds me a bit of the Richard Pryor/Bill Cosby situation a few decades ago. Pryor was funny, some said, but too dirty and not a good role model. Bill Cosby, by contrast, was a model citizen and a scholar. It's nearly impossible to judge the character of people you don't know first hand because most secondhand assessments are just rehashed accounts of other secondhand opinions. They ultimately mean next to nothing a good percentage of the time. , it's hard to be spot on sometimes even with first hand experiences. People are tough to figure out.

[rjv]

There are a lot of amazing things happening. It's amazing that a week ago, Primo was an example of uncanny maturity and high character. The Dejounte/Primo dichotomy reminds me a bit of the Richard Pryor/Bill Cosby situation a few decades ago. Pryor was funny, some said, but too dirty and not a good role model. Bill Cosby, by contrast, was a model citizen and a scholar. It's nearly impossible to judge the character of people you don't know first hand because most secondhand assessments are just rehashed accounts of other secondhand opinions. They ultimately mean next to nothing a good percentage of the time. , it's hard sometimes to be spot on sometimes even with first hand experiences. People are tough to figure out.

well, in the case of pryor and cosby, they were both misogynistic d-bags.

[John B]

There are a lot of amazing things happening. It's amazing that a week ago, Primo was an example of uncanny maturity and high character. The Dejounte/Primo dichotomy reminds me a bit of the Richard Pryor/Bill Cosby situation a few decades ago. Pryor was funny, some said, but too dirty and not a good role model. Bill Cosby, by contrast, was a model citizen and a scholar. It's nearly impossible to judge the character of people you don't know first hand because most secondhand assessments are just rehashed accounts of other secondhand opinions. They ultimately mean next to nothing a good percentage of the time. , it's hard sometimes to be spot on sometimes even with first hand experiences. People are tough to figure out.

And Lonnie is J.J. Got it

[Atl Spur]

It's amazing that less than a year ago, a lot of Spurs fans were saying it was a bad contract

It was the cool thing to do I suspect…..

[exstatic]

well maybe you know this guy Keldon Johnson who did the exact same thing one year prior

Year three, when he shot 60% in 17 games as a rook , vs. year SEVEN. People could see that Keldon could shoot. His poor year two was as much an aberration as Dejountes scintillating year seven.

[exstatic]

We legit might not see half of the picks we traded him for. That Hornets pick is top 16 protected meaning all they have to do is not make the playoffs. The pick swap is only useful if the hawks are actually worse than us in 2026. So we might only get the 2025 and 2027 unprotected hawks picks. Maybe the hawks laker themselves in one of those years tbh.

There are three years for us to collect that CHA pick, so I’m pretty sure we’ll pocket it. CHA and ORL have been two of the saddest franchises over the last 10-15 years. Steve Clifford has coached those two for a total of 8 years and made the playoffs 4 times. He’s a really good coach who gets the most out of his guys.

[The Truth #6]

Who is to say they wouldn't have thrived with Murray? I actually think Murray got the short end of the stick.

He was a good soldier and waited behind Parker until he couldn't even consistently score 10 points a game.
He was a good soldier and played his part while Demar, Lamarcus, Patty, and Rudy didn't do but jack up a bunch of shots in hopes of getting one last nba payday.
He was a good soldier when Pop refused to play him and Derrick together when he came back from his acl injury for who knows what reason.
They finally give him the keys to the offense and in his one opportunity to be "the guy" he is an all star and played at a fringe all nba level.
And he did all of this not even making 16 million a year. Guys like Beal are making more than 40 mil a year and can't even get their teams to the play in.
Then when his stock is at an all time high the spurs want to talk about an extension...aka a discount..which in business...and that is what every nba team is...a business...is a bad faith conversation. You don't try to talk contract with a person when they are on a meteoric rise because the only reason you would do that is to try and get them for below market value, which they are already playing on a contract WELL below market value. I am sure that was a complete turn off for Dejounte and Klutch. He is already hilariously outperforming his contract and now you trying to get him on another one that unless its anything other than a max, is below market contract. We have to remember that players don't get paid based on made up numbers in our head but they get paid based on how they perform against their peers and Dejounte was definitely performing at a max level, as he is right now for the Hawks.
Then all of a sudden they start touting Primo as the face of the franchise and the guy of the future and they want to make him the point guard. Imagine you Dejounte and you hear all of this and you just made the all star team as a point guard. By the way it turns out that the guy they essentially wanted to replace you with can't keep his in his pants. I wonder if this is what Dejounte was talking about when he said the spurs had problems "bigger than basketball"?

I don't get the whole "seems like a Diva" thing. Why? Cause he post some cringe stuff on social media? Other than that what trouble has he been in off the court? What player on the team did he have an issue with? When did he ever NOT play hard for the spurs? When did he ever not show up for some off the court event? I think people don't know what a "diva" is. Pau Gasol is a "diva" cause when he lost his spot to Poeltl he just said trade me or let me go cause I am not getting the minutes I want. Lamarcus Aldridge is a "diva" cause after he had the most team success of his career he asked to be traded cause he wasn't getting to play the way he wanted, and then he did it again when he lost his spot in the starting lineup, he played one game off the bench, complained, and then just went home until he was finally released. Kawhi Leonard is a "diva" cause he said pay me the super max after I only played 9 games and the spurs said no and he said trade me. Outside of some social media quotes what "diva" thing has Dejounte done?

This dude played next to Bryn ing Forbes, one of the worst players in the league by every metric except shooting wide open 3's, and didn't complain. He should get some sort of award for that alone

I see some of your points. On the court he grinded and was a warrior. Off the court he was a diva and it turned me off.

Back to on the court stuff. I don’t see him getting a short stick overall. Pop started him early over Parker and may have led to Parker not retiring here. He got better each year. He waa given room to grow. But at some point they didn’t trust him to be the face of the franchise. They didn’t even trust him to be in HEB commercials. But is that getting slighted or they just didn’t like his vibe? In the end both sides won, which is a rare thing.

You brought up a great point about “problems bigger than basketball”. Hard to say then but sounds prophetic now.

[John B]

I see some of your points. On the court he grinded and was a warrior. Off the court he was a diva and it turned me off.

Back to on the court stuff. I don’t see him getting a short stick overall. Pop started him early over Parker and may have led to Parker not retiring here. He got better each year. He waa given room to grow. But at some point they didn’t trust him to be the face of the franchise. They didn’t even trust him to be in HEB commercials. But is that getting slighted or they just didn’t like his vibe? In the end both sides won, which is a rare thing.

You brought up a great point about “problems bigger than basketball”. Hard to say then but sounds prophetic now.

I agree. If ever DJ was favored over Derrick who was the better PG and facilitator of the two. People complains of Pop egalitarian system, and that they are not getting recognition by the media. Well maybe if they start putting in W’s. Just ask the Big 3 who could’ve inflated stats playing elsewhere but I wonder if they would’ve gotten 4-5 rings. Well maybe Timmy in a big market team who could’ve paired him with another Tier 1 player(s) year after year, but that’s for another thread.

[RC_Drunkford]

Year three, when he shot 60% in 17 games as a rook , vs. year SEVEN. People could see that Keldon could shoot. His poor year two was as much an aberration as Dejountes scintillating year seven.

the you talkin about, stop twisting things. KJ shot 33.1% in year 2 on 2.6 attempts, than shot 40% on 5.3 attempts from 3. outtahere

[poopbox]

I see some of your points. On the court he grinded and was a warrior. Off the court he was a diva and it turned me off.

Back to on the court stuff. I don’t see him getting a short stick overall. Pop started him early over Parker and may have led to Parker not retiring here. He got better each year. He waa given room to grow. But at some point they didn’t trust him to be the face of the franchise. They didn’t even trust him to be in HEB commercials. But is that getting slighted or they just didn’t like his vibe? In the end both sides won, which is a rare thing.

You brought up a great point about “problems bigger than basketball”. Hard to say then but sounds prophetic now.

I don't really get him being a "diva" off the court. Other than angsty stuff 20 year old's post on they social media isn't enough for me to label someone as a "diva".

[KingKev]

DJ was ready and willing to stay here for max money on his next deal… probably more loyal than he needed to be.

[jjspur]

It’s a valid point. Nothing guaranteed. But it’s paved the way for Devin and Keldon to thrive, two players that won’t cause drama (assuming their gym shorts don’t malfunction et cetera). And DJ just seems like a diva in the making so it’s hard for me to retroactively wish he was still here.

My guess is he plays about as well as he did here last year which is fine but it will get to his diva head. At that point he becomes a bit of a head case and then complains and gets traded to the knicks because he wants 40 million plus per year like super stars get - which the hawks probably can't afford along with the other large contracts on the team. Don't get me wrong , he's good he just isn't 40 million plus good and his is still a diva.

[The Truth #6]

I don't really get him being a "diva" off the court. Other than angsty stuff 20 year old's post on they social media isn't enough for me to label someone as a "diva".

I could just be older than you. No big deal. This is not a hill I’m going to die on.

[The Truth #6]

DJ was ready and willing to stay here for max money on his next deal… probably more loyal than he needed to be.

I agree he would have stayed for a max, but I don’t see that max anywhere else, but maybe in a few years. He is improving. To me, if we kept him he is an upgrade over DDR in turns of efficacy, yes, but still puts as around a play in to 7th round team. That’s my gut feeling.

Now, prioritizing Primo was something I was always against, so I don’t see it as a dichotomy though Dejounte likely saw it that way, comparing himself to this con artist with loose gym shorts.

[KingKev]

8 threes tonight and 39 points in a losing effort.

[slick'81]