It’s hard to imagine there could be this much smoke around Trey Murphy III without there being fire, but alas, the Pelicans are a confusing organization. Considering the sky-high asking price for Trey Murphy III and his similarities to Paul George, it suddenly makes very little sense for the Celtics to go all-in on a trade.
Despite all the trade rumors, Shamit Dua reported that New Orleans is content to keep TM3, that they’re not shopping him, and will only listen to offers if they are “blown away”.
That was on Tuesday. Then on Wednesday, Jake Fischer reported that the trade rumors had blown out of proportion and that the Pelicans want to keep Murphy. As weird as the Pelicans have been lately, this actually makes sense. Why would they want to trade a potential young building block on a great contract?
Pelicans' asking price for Murphy should be prohibitive for Boston
This also lines up with some of the reporting that the Pelicans wanted three or four first-round picks, which would certainly qualify as the type of offer that should blow them away for a player who’s already 26 years old and hasn’t sniffed an All-Star game.
Given this intel, there’s really no reason for the Celtics to keep up any pursuit at this point. Yes, the Celtics are flush with some new assets and draft capital, but that doesn’t mean those picks should be burning a hole in their pocket. They don’t need to turn around and turn this newfound pick surplus into a deficit for the first player on the market.
Paul George and Trey Murphy III are pretty similar players
The Murphy fit made perfect sense for Boston a few weeks ago, but with Paul George in town, the need is somewhat alleviated. Of course, Murphy is a decade younger and costs about half as much, but on the court, the two players do pretty similar things. TM3 has a little more bounce, more upside, and can attack the rim. But George is right there with the movement shooting, while being a better defender, and someone with proven playoff experience.
In a perfect world, I’m sure the Celtics would have rather gotten Murphy than George, but the difference is pretty negligible. Considering PG is already on the roster and came with picks, it seems silly to turn around and send out more picks for a player who fills such a similar role.
On top of the picks, the Celtics would have to dump more salary like Sam Hauser and others to absorb Murphy with their traded player exception, and that would put them right up against their first apron hard cap. It may not be what fans want to hear, but realistically, it makes much more sense to see how George looks in this system, duck the luxury tax to reset the repeater tax, and reassess the trade market at the deadline with a plethora of assets to play with.
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