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Murray is the face of the franchise
Seems like he puts in the work and actually wants to be great. Also sounds like he may want to remain a Spur throughout his career.
Murray is the face of the franchise
Nice article, thanks for sharing. It really gives pause to the thought of shipping out someone just as an effort to shake things up. Of course, they (the young guys) will learn it is a business but the potential impact on chemistry as they grow together is part of the equation.
Dejounte&white future all stars!
This is fake news according to Chinook.
Daniel Gafford stands out here, as the first unexpected name. He's a guy that popped for me with the eye test first, and advanced stats second.
No amount of facts can be used to sway his opinion (as with most folks here). Better to leave it alone.
Last edited by Dejounte; 05-12-2021 at 03:09 PM.
It's hard not to like this kid, he wants to be great and you can tell he wants to be the leader of this team going forward. Getting better each and every year, this is pretty much his first real year with no minutes restrictions and off Pops leash, I expect a huge jump next year for him tbh.
I'm still skeptical of Murray because of his lack of speed & strength, but even lately, I've seen some crossovers that look super quick, as well as his improved court vision & obviously his jumper to the point where I think he can be a decent 2nd option on a good team.
I too am impressed with how DJM has progressed. I see 2 guard written all over him. Still not fond of his decision making AND I think to save his energy and have him not worry so much about setting things up.
Also I have noted that he seems not to be able to jump off one leg like when he gets a pass on a fast break at the rim he just cannot explode up.
I was a little skeptical last year, but he was coming off an ACL. He's right at 16, 7and 5.5
That's pretty damn good numbers
He's never going to be a pure point guard, but pairing him with another ball handler works.
Murray needs to spend a LOT more time in the gym if he wants to chuck with reckless abandon like he does. He is way too inefficient to be calling his own number as often as he does. I partially blame this on the coaches(for not reining him in more often) and the senior players like Demar for being a bad influence on him.
He’s fine if he doesn’t fare or spin. Those two things cause 75% of his misses.
A tad more structure and discipline on the offensive end would go along way. I can’t hate on a guy who has as much heart as him and plays so hard on BOTH sides of the ball. His development to date is a hybrid between TP and Kahwi’s At a similiar stage in their respective careers. On average at best Spurs teams with a coach Pop who is a s of his former self.... not too shaby. Still has a mountain of upside and room for growth.
Curry dominating. Pretty damn good company. Nice to see Danny Green in there. Never understood how he was a throw in in the Kahwi trade. He alone was worth a first, maybe even a 1st plus Jak when you consider the cash.
no wonder we suck
He had a player option that he picked up when the Spurs no longer wanted him, so he was the salary ballast. I think he and pop had each had enough of each other.
I'm pretty sure that Pop had had enough of Danny; I've heard that before. I've gotten the impression it was mutual though.
danny suuuuuuuucked before they shipped him
part of that was pop trying to get him to grow as a player (ie dribble) and part may have been the fit on the team schemes and part may have been danny needed a change
love me some verde ftr
dett fast break defense tho
What a doofus to post about a guy who would eventually be traded. OP was way wrong on this one.Love him or hate him, this article has great insight into the Spurs and DJ's mind & history.
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Notable quotes:
"He’s also one of the league’s most refreshing and effective anomalies, a lead ballhandler who doesn’t take or make a bunch of threes; most of Murray’s damage is inflicted from the midrange—a space defenses are typically happy to concede—where he’s tirelessly honed a reliable jumper. “His pull-up now is basically automatic,” says Spurs guard Derrick White."
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"Today, he’s San Antonio’s most vital building block, with present-day two-way production that still barely sniffs what his ultimate ceiling can be. “This is my first year in the NBA being free to just, you know, play,” Murray says. “Coach Pop, he let me off the leash a little bit.” To compare Murray to the rest of the league, heading into this season only 11 players in the last 10 years averaged at least 15 points, seven rebounds and five assists per game for an entire season. All have made an All-Star team. Murray will likely finish his fifth season on the right side of that threshold, hinting at a very near future where triple doubles (of which he’s accrued four this year) are a regular occurrence."
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"“When I talk to Spurs people, there's a belief about Dejounte,” Borrego says. “They really believe ‘This is the guy that’s gonna lead us as our point guard into the future.’ ”"
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"“There is just an approach that he has. And I think people see that and gravitate to that,” Spurs general manager Brian Wright says. “In the spot that I sit in, you’re betting on the human, their willingness to work and how much it means to them. I know that he has all of the attributes, all of the desire and all of the commitment to be an incredible player in this league for a long time. And that’s what we expect him to be.”"
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"“He was in practice,” laughs Grizzlies forward Kyle Anderson, a former Spurs teammate who remembered how another ex-teammate, Mills, was a frequent victim. “Poor Patty.”"
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"For good reason, players don’t actively seek out the situation Walker found himself in. According to Synergy Sports, Murray ranks in the 95th percentile as an isolation defender this season. Taking him on without help isn’t advised and he knows it. “A lot of players are gonna call a pick-and-roll on Dejounte,” he says. “I just have that pride where you’re not gonna beat me one-on-one. It's not happening.” Before games, Murray’s teammates like to place bets on how many opponents he’ll rip."
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"To be most feared when the other team has the ball, as Murray is, subverts what it means to be a franchise player in today’s NBA. But while defense is the first paragraph of his game’s CV, it’s a steadily improving jump shot that’s shredding any preconceived notion about what Murray can eventually become. Entering the league, no part of his skill set created more doubt. Now, with long arms, a high release and a tight-enough handle to get where he’s comfortable whenever he wants, it’s a legitimate weapon. (Only Chris Paul, Brandon Ingram and Devin Booker have made more pull-up twos than Murray this season.)"
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"When Murray first landed in San Antonio, Chip Engelland, the team’s renowned shot doctor, laid out a long-term vision and told him, “You’re either gonna execute the plan or not.” Says Murray, “What he meant by that is, ‘We’re not gonna try to go be Stephen Curry overnight.’ ”"
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"The formula requires sweat, trust and patience. Do you want to be a great shooter or do you want to be a good shooter? is the question Engelland, Murray’s Yoda, asks over and over; it drives their relationship and all his progress."
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"The two began around the basket then worked their way to the free throw line, where both believe Murray can someday crack 85%. (He’s at 80.3 this year, up from 70.0 as a rookie.) They’ve since ventured out to the midrange and have sights set on conquering the three-point line, where he shoots just 31.8% on 3.0 attempts per game. From how far apart his fingers should be on the ball to where it needs to fit in the palm of his hand right before it’s released, Murray feels confident in his shot because he’s still learning how to do it."
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"“We still have a long way to go, but we’re on the right road to being what I know I can be one day,” Murray says. “Chip really wants to see me be great. Like, he’s a big reason why I want to wake up every morning and go to the gym and work.”"
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"There’s also a direct throughline here between Murray’s upbringing and self-belief as it relates to the slow erosion of weaknesses in his skill set. “When I came in a lot of people said, ‘He can’t shoot.’ S---, that’s fine with me. S---, I was never taught. My life wasn’t like these kids getting drove to practice, getting drove to the gym, getting drove to games. I wasn’t at the gym with a trainer telling me to lock my elbows, snap my wrists, use my legs,” he says. “It’s insane, the stuff I didn’t know. I was just playing raw in high school and college. The Spurs are the first people to really teach me how to play the game.”"
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"“I’m an offseason guy that really likes to take, you know, great, big, big jumps,” he says. “There’s guys who look like stars their first year, they fade away, or they look like stars a couple years, they fade away,” Murray says. “I like Kawhi Leonard’s development, not just because he was a Spur [or] a good friend of mine. I watched him a lot when I got here. If you go check the stats, he got better every year. It wasn’t just one year, then he waited three years. It was a jump every year, every category.”
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There’s one part of Murray’s game that Pop would like to see even more of, too: “He'll turn down threes from time to time and I’ve got to go to him and let him know that the worst thing that can happen is it doesn’t go in. You know, your family still loves you and you still get a paycheck. The with it. Shoot the next one.”"
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"“I know that there’s so much room for me to improve because I’m still playing catch-up with everybody in this league, damn near,” Murray says. “I had to go a whole totally different route than a lot of guys my age. On the basketball side of things I never had a trainer. Nobody knew the game to teach me the game. My uncles, we played it for fun at the parks. We were never taught it. We’d have no male figures around us. Male figures around us was drug dealers.”"
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When the Spurs draft a new player, Murray immediately asks the front office for his phone number. Dinner at Murray’s home is an unofficial part of the onboarding process. He goes out of his way to impart lessons, from why it’s O.K. to spend time in the G League early on to steps they can take to earn the coaching staff’s trust and know what’s going to be expected from Day One. Murray isn’t shy about assuming that burden, and when San Antonio missed the postseason in 2020 (for just the second time since he was born), he felt responsible.
https://www.si.com/nba/2021/05/11/de...ng-daily-cover
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