Well, it’s official. ESPN’s Shams Charania reported Friday, Nov. 13, that New Orleans Pelicans point guard Dejounte Murray has requested a trade and that the franchise is working to find a resolution.
Murray has already effectively been replaced in New Orleans by second-year point guard Jeremiah Fears, and with Murray wanting out, the Phoenix Suns should certainly be in the conversation as a possible fit.
Suns should at least consider targeting Dejounte Murray via trade
Though the Suns have won four of their past five games to right the ship somewhat early on after a 5-6 start, the fact remains that Phoenix is thin at the point guard spot. The starting lineup of Jalen Green, Devin Booker, Dillon Brooks, Miles Bridges and Khaman Maluach was among the worst five-man lineups in all of basketball, but the Suns are now 4-1 since reinserting Oso Ighodaro back into the starting five.
The backcourt, however, remains an issue.
Green is averaging a career-worst 11.8 points per game on 41.9 percent shooting while making a career-low 27 percent of his 3-point tries. The dueling banjos tandem of him and D-Book does not look like a long-term fit, and adding more of a floor general and ball-handler to the mix could be exactly what this team needs to shake things up in a positive way.
Now that Murray has officially asked out, Phoenix needs to at least kick the tires on trade packages to address a starting unit that’s frankly been a convoluted mess to begin the 2026-27 season.
Our own Luke Duffy made the case last month that a Green for Murray swap could interest the Suns, and it’s a swap that could stand to benefit both sides.
Both Green and Murray have been mired in the worst production of their respective careers in 2026-27 after averaging more than 20 points per game in previous seasons.
Murray could immediately slot in as the starting point guard in The Valley to take ball-handling responsibilities away from Booker, who has always functioned better as a pure shooting guard.
Green, meanwhile, could play alongside Fears in New Orleans’ backcourt and, in theory, get back to the type of player he was in Houston with the Rockets as a 20-plus-point-per-game scorer.
The troublesome part for the Suns is they’d be trading a 24-year-old former No. 2 overall pick for a 30-year-old former All-Star whose best basketball may already be behind him. If the Phoenix front office still believes in Green’s potential, and that he and Booker can ultimately figure out a symbiotic relationship in the backcourt, then trading him for Murray wouldn’t make much sense.
At the same time, though, Phoenix doesn’t have much to lose. Both Green and Murray are under contract for this season with a player option for 2027-28 — at roughly $30.7 million for Murray and $36 million for Green.
Both players may opt in to that final year of their respective deals after not playing up to their usual standards to this point, but there’s not much long-term commitment needed from either side.
Murray has taken away a lot of the leverage the Pelicans had in trade talks by demanding he be moved. So, if the Suns want to pull the plug on the Green era after an injury-ravaged campaign a season ago and a tough start to 2026-27, now wouldn’t be a bad time to do so.
As an added bonus for the Suns — the worst rebounding team in the league at the time of writing — Murray has proven over his career to be among the better rebounding guards in the sport. For his career, he averages 5.8 rebounds per game and reached a career-high 8.3 rebounds per contest during his All-Star season with the San Antonio Spurs back in 2021-22.
The added rebounding chops, fit as a point guard, and Green’s struggles to begin his Suns’ tenure may all point to Phoenix making a high-risk move to shake up the roster.
Again, the Suns don’t have much to lose, but we’ll have to wait and see.
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