Dejounte Murray

The Hawks will send Danilo Gallinari to San Antonio as part of a deal that will pair Dejounte Murray and Trae Young in an all-star backcourt.

Murray had teased the possibility of a trade on social media in recent days, and both players appear excited about their new partnership. For San Antonio, parting with Murray, who was taken with the 29th pick in the 2016 draft, couldn’t have been an easy decision. San Antonio ranked 30th in the league in clutch offense with Murray at the helm, often struggling to generate good opportunities due to his poor outside shooting and his limited supporting cast. Gallinari, 33, averaged 11.7 points and 4.7 rebounds off the bench last season and is on a $21.5 million expiring contract that is partially guaranteed. Young will continue to serve as the lead option late in games, freeing Murray to be an off-the-dribble threat when defenses load up on Atlanta’s closer. Murray’s arrival will give Young, one of the NBA’s top playmakers, a reliable secondary ballhandler and creator on offense.

The Atlanta Hawks reportedly are landing Dejounte Murray from the San Antonio Spurs for Danilo Gallinari, three future first-round picks and a future pick ...

The pick swap will be in 2026. For San Antonio, the picture is clear: The team is in full rebuilding mode. Devin Vassell, the Spurs’ lottery pick in 2020, also made significant strides on both ends last season, so the youth-led movement in the organization has a structure with future first-rounders to follow.

Boston Celtics fans can quit daydreaming about a potential trade for Dejounte Murray. The San Antonio Spurs reportedly have traded the All-Star point guard ...

Instead, the rising star will form a scary Hawks backcourt alongside Trae Young. Forsberg: Daydreaming of a fast track to Slo Mo The San Antonio Spurs reportedly have traded the All-Star point guard to the Atlanta Hawks for forward Danilo Gallinari, three first-round draft picks, and a pick swap.

Dejounte Murray is now a member of the Atlanta Hawks. And the San Antonio Spurs are now, as a result, the proud owners of a significant chunk of Atlanta's.

On the not-so-bright side: Why would the Spurs want to max out Ayton now when they're in the infancy of a total rebuild? Jakob Poeltl is one of the league's top rim protectors, wields a nifty floater and has just one year left on his deal. It still has the option of bringing the big man back and figuring it out later. Regardless, the likely absence of the Spurs from these proceedings complicates any potential resolution for both Ayton and Phoenix. And no matter what, his legacy as one of the greatest to ever do it is infinitely secure. There seems to be an energy about Pop, both on the sidelines and in the huddle, that can only be described as a rejuvenation of sorts. There is value in both that immediate clarity and the unpredictability of what comes next. The Hawks are a better team than the Spurs on paper. The same may go for Keldon Johnson (more on him in a second). Dealing Dejounte Murray also allows the Spurs to move free and clear into a total rebuild. The idea of displacing Trae from the ball and leveraging his shooting into off-ball mayhem is drool-inducing. Murray is a more talented table-setter and self-creator—and, recently, even a more efficient finisher around the basket—than Delon Wright. The latter is a more-than-capable backup and running mate.

San Antonio reportedly lands multiple future Draft assets in exchange for the All-Star guard.

Gallinari, meanwhile, averaged 11.7 points, 4.7 rebounds and 1.5 assists last season for the Hawks, which finished 43-39. The 29th pick of the 2016 NBA Draft, Murray, 25, earned his first All-Star nod in 2021-22, averaging a career-high 21.1 points to go with 9.2 assists, 8.3 rebounds and 2.0 steals. • 2025 first-round pick

In a move that no one could have seen coming weeks ago, the Spurs have agreed to trade Dejounte Murray to the Hawks in exchange for Danilo Gallinari, ...

While it’s fair to wonder why it took the franchise this long to commit to a rebuilding style, at least now it’s clear what the future has in store. They could patiently add young players through the draft until they get one or two All-NBA-caliber prospects, or they could make a big move for a true franchise star in the future by using all the assets they have accrued. Perhaps that’s what actually motivated the trade, as the front office simply figured that it made no sense to go forward with Murray as the team’s best player, but it sets San Antonio back nonetheless. Four years ago, Murray was coming off his first season as a rotation player, in which he had shown enough promise to take over the starting spot from Tony Parker. Had the Spurs moved Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge for picks and young players then, they would have spent the past years trying to build around Murray with players his age. The Spurs failed to make the playoffs last season, despite Murray’s leap, and would have likely been in the race for the play-in again, at best, in 2022/23. The All-Star point guard is entering the second to last year of his very team-friendly contract, so this was arguably the last and certainly the best chance San Antonio had to get a good haul back for him, since it would have been harder to retain leverage as Murray’s free agency got closer. It simply never felt like the Spurs were going to be motivated to move Murray unless they could get a king’s ransom back, which the good-but-not-contending Hawks would have understandably been hesitant to provide.

On Wednesday, reports indicated that the first major move of the offseason had been undertaken and it involved the Atlanta Hawks and the San Antonio Spurs.

Murray averaged a career-high 21.1 points, 9.2 assists, 8.3 rebounds and 2.0 steals last season, earning All-Star honors for the first time in his career. The Hawks' backcourt next season will be a problem for opposing defenses to handle. The same could be said for the pick coming from the Hornets. Essentially, the Spurs received three picks that project to be in the late teens to mid-20s and a veteran expiring contract for a 25-year-old All-Star. The Hawks are sending a 2023 first-round pick via Charlotte, and their own 2025 and 2027 first-round picks to the Spurs in the deal. The Spurs sent their All-Star guard Dejounte Murray to the Eastern Conference in exchange for the Hawks sending back Danilo Gallinari and three first-round picks, and a pick swap in 2026.

The Hawks have one of the best backcourts in the league; the Spurs have a better chance at Victor Wembanyama.

The 2023 pick via the Hornets is likely going to be in the middle of the first round, and the 2025 pick via the Hawks figures to be toward the back half of the first round as well. Of course, the Spurs know all of this, just as they know that by keeping Murray (and White) they would be left spinning their wheels in mediocrity. The 2026 pick swap and 2027 first via the Hawks are too far off in the future to discuss with any certainty, but there's a good chance neither are particularly meaningful. If the Spurs' tank succeeds, and they wind up with the No. 1 pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, then this could go down as a league-altering trade. You could have the worst record in the league by 10 games and still easily wind up picking No. 3. That brings up perhaps the most interesting aspect of the trade, which is that it would seem to necessitate Young playing off the ball more than he ever has in his career. Wembanyama, a 7-foot-2, 18-year-old Frenchman, is one of the most intriguing prospects to come across the world stage maybe ever. Murray, who led the league in steals last season, is one of the best perimeter defenders around thanks in large part to his incredible 6-foot-10 wingspan. His ridiculous combination of size, length and coordination make him a destructive defensive force who can challenge every shot at the rim and more than hold his own on the perimeter. Now, though, we can view it as the first step in a teardown. At that point it was clear that whatever ended up happening over the final few months of last season, the Hawks were in for a transformational summer. Murray, a late first-round pick back in 2016, is coming off the best season of his career, in which he led the league in steals and made the All-Star Game for the first time.

By trading for Dejounte Murray, the Atlanta Hawks are about to fire up a basketball experiment the likes of which we haven't seen before.

Murray is tied for seventh among active players in career steal percentage, and opponents have generally had a higher turnover percentage when he's on the floor. The San Antonio Spurs played at a pace of 101.6 possessions per game when he was on the floor. Though he and Young were in the top 10 for both time of possession and touches per game, there's reason to believe this can work because of those subtle variations in their styles. You don't need all 13 minutes to get the gist, and you've seen plenty of that from Curry for over a decade. That should lead to more layups and open threes. If he sees Murray snag the ball, he can just take off. The comparisons to Stephen Curry were natural for Young. As an undersized guard who put up gaudy numbers and hit 30-footers in college, it was easy to see traces of Curry's game. And when things break down, he'll generally hit the player with an advantage. Even with Murray's below-average three-point shooting potentially cramping things up a bit, Young can still dominate the middle-of-the-floor funnel that pick-and-rolls often create. When a devastating outside shooter moves around without the ball the way Curry or Joe Harris or Duncan Robinson does, it bends defenses. If the help doesn't commit, he'll finish inside (he shot 65.9 percent within three feet of the rim over the last two seasons). If it does, he typically finds the open shooter outside or the dump-off option in the dunker's spot. If you sort individual seasons by threes made from beyond 30 feet, each of Trae's four campaigns is in the top eight.

ATLANTA – The Atlanta Hawks have acquired All-Star guard Dejounte Murray and center Jock Landale from the San Antonio Spurs, in exchange for forward Danilo ...

Murray became the only player in the NBA this past season to record a 30-point triple-double while registering zero turnovers and became one of just seven players in NBA history to do so. Per Elias Sports, Murray and Hawks All-NBA guard Trae Young will be the first pair of teammates in NBA history who each averaged at least 20.0 points and 9.0 assists per game in the previous season. The 6-4 guard became the first player in NBA history to average at least 20.0 points, 8.0 rebounds, 9.0 assists and 2.0 steals in a single season. Against Houston on January 12, 2022, the Seattle, Washington, native recorded a triple-double of 32 points, 10 rebounds, 11 assists and zero turnovers in 37 minutes. “The opportunity to acquire a player of Dejounte’s caliber, just entering his prime, doesn’t come along too often,” said Hawks President of Basketball Operations Travis Schlenk. “He has developed into one of the elite two-way guards in the league and we’re thrilled to add him to our group. Acquired by Atlanta on November 24, 2020, Gallinari appeared in 117 regular season games (22 starts) with the Hawks over two seasons, averaging 12.4 points, 4.4 rebounds and 1.5 assists in 24.7 minutes (.434 FG%, .392 3FG%, .915 FT%). The Sant'Angelo Lodigiano, Italy, native also saw action in 23 postseason games with Atlanta (three starts), compiling 12.3 points and 4.0 rebounds in 24.1 minutes of play (.420 FG%, .384 3FG%, .952 FT%). Murray appeared in 68 games (all starts) during the 2021-22 season, averaging career bests in points per game (21.1), assists per game (9.2), rebounds per game (8.3) and steals per game (2.0) in a career-high 34.8 minutes of action (.462 FG%, .327 3FG%, .794 FT%). Landale saw action in 54 games (one start) for San Antonio during his rookie season, chipping in 4.9 points and 2.6 rebounds in 10.9 minutes (.495 FG%, .326 3FG%, .829 FT%). The former Saint Mary Gaels center poured in 10-or-more points on 10 occasions during the 2021-22 season, including a career-high 26 points on 12-15 shooting from the field against the Indiana Pacers on March 12. Over his five-year career, Murray has appeared in 320 games (249 starts), owning averages of 12.5 points, 6.0 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 1.4 steals in 25.8 minutes (.455 FG%, .330 3FG%, .771 FT%). He became the youngest player to be named to an All-Defensive Team, after earning the nod in 2018. A 2022 NBA All-Star, Murray led the league in steals per game (2.03), while finishing fourth in assists per game (9.2) this past season. The University of Washington product recorded 13 triple-doubles during the 2021-22 season, the second-most in the NBA. Per Elias Sports, Murray is one of only six guards in NBA history with 13-or-more triple-doubles in a single season within his first five NBA seasons, joining Oscar Robertson (five times), Magic Johnson (twice), Michael Jordan, Fat Lever and Luka Doncic. ATLANTA – The Atlanta Hawks have acquired All-Star guard Dejounte Murray and center Jock Landale from the San Antonio Spurs, in exchange for forward Danilo Gallinari, a conditional 2023 first round pick (from Charlotte via New York), Atlanta’s 2025 and 2027 first round picks and a 2026 first round pick swap, it was announced today.