New Orleans Pelicans Guard Inside Top 50 NBA Players Entering 2024-25 Season

The New Orleans Pelicans are less than a week away from what is shaping up to be a promising 2024-25 season for the organization.

After finishing the 2023-24 campaign with a record of 49-33, the Pelicans set out in the offseason to improve their roster in the best way that they could, and that meant bringing in a true point guard that could facilitate their high-powered offense.

Enter seven-year veteran Dejounte Murray.

Murray, 28, has already proved this preseason that he is more than capable of being the facilitator that New Orleans sorely needed by averaging 5.0 assists per game across three games.

He has been so good throughout his career and is expected to be even better in the coming season, with ESPN ranking Murray 43rd in their top 100 player rankings, after ranking 60th ahead of last year.

"[David Griffin] saw his playmaking skills as a major need," writes Michael Wright of ESPN, "especially down the stretch of tight games, which is why New Orleans traded for him."

Bringing Murray into the fold allows guys like Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson to focus more on scoring, as opposed to the facilitating that they were doing on their own last year.

While they have had veteran CJ McCollum listed on the roster as a point guard through his tenure with the team, he is much better suited in a shooting guard role, letting someone else take the reigns and lead the offense down the court while scoping out the defense and calling the plays that can lead to more points.

Murray is more than capable of being that guy.

In the 2021-22 season, Murray's last with the San Antonio Spurs, he averaged a career-high 9.2 assists as well as 8.3 rebounds and a league-leading 2.0 steals across 34.8 minutes in 68 games.

The defensive ability is another aspect of Murray's game that should see improvement with the Pelicans.

Herb Jones is expected to be in the starting five alongside Murray, with Jones being one of the best defenders in the Association.

Jones will draw the opposing teams' best offensive threat, leaving the second-best for Murray, greatly improving New Orleans' defensive metrics as a whole, as well as Murray's stats.

It was a match made in heaven for the Pelicans, and it is beginning to come to fruition as the season draws ever closer.

With the improvements the organizations made to the roster, and Murray being but one of the players on said roster inside the top 50 NBA players entering the year, New Orleans has a fantastic opportunity to improve upon their 49-33 record from last year.