For Trey Murphy, the hardest part of his recent shooting slump has nothing to do with losing confidence, adjusting his mechanics or even dealing with mental obstacles.
Those were all the questions he needed to answer about this.
“I felt like every day someone was trying to come up to me and talk about it,” Murphy said. Athleticism. “I’m like, ‘Dude, my dog isn’t dead. I’m doing well.’ I have so many other things to do in life. Missing a few shots won’t bring me down.
The third-year forward has never lacked confidence. This is one of the traits that attracted the New Orleans Pelicans to take him with the No. 17 pick in the 2021 NBA Draft.
Murphy’s unwavering confidence has helped him establish himself as one of NBAthe best snipers early in his career. In his first two seasons, Murphy shot 40 percent from 3-point range on 683 attempts. Only nine other players with 650 or more attempts during this period have exceeded 40%, and only one (PhiladelphiaIt is Tyrese Maxey) was younger than Murphy. The 6-foot-9, 206-pound Murphy offered exactly the skill set the Pelicans needed to modernize their offense and was poised to become the perfect complement to the stars. Zion Williamson And Brandon Ingram. After a slow start to the season, Murphy gradually improved in all aspects of his game, with a few hiccups along the way.
That is, until his shot suddenly stopped falling.
Murphy, 23, missed the first 21 games of this season so recovering from off-season surgery to repair a torn meniscus in the left knee. When he returned, he felt physically well. He just couldn’t do anything on offense. In Murphy’s 21 games played from January 5 to February 25, he shot 38.3 percent from the floor and a modest 30.8 percent from 3-point range. He was still averaging 7.4 long-range attempts per game, but the shots weren’t going in.
“I was taking good shots. A lot of the photos I took felt good right out of my hand,” he said. “I just wasn’t doing them.”
Now he is. Starting with an exceptional performance on February 27 against the New York Knicks, Murphy went from the guy who couldn’t buy a bucket to the guy who made 32 of his last 65 attempts from deep. He is tied with ClevelandIt is Garland of Darius for the most 3-pointers in the NBA during that stretch, except Garland played two more games.
Unsurprisingly, the Pelicans caught fire as a team at the same time Murphy was finding his rhythm. They are 5-1 in their last six games, including wins by 23 points over the Knicks, 27 points over the Pacers and 41 points on the Raptors. They have led by at least 20 points in each of their last four games, all wins.
And after a 116-103 victory Sunday against the Atlanta Falconsthe Pelicans (39-25) hold a two-game lead over the sixth seed Phoenix Suns and are just 2 1/2 games back of the fourth seed Los Angeles Clippers, who come to New Orleans on Friday. Hopes of avoiding the Play-In tournament suddenly turn into dreams of home-court advantage in a first round for the first time since Chris PaulIt was the peak 16 seasons ago.
“It’s devastating for our opponents. When Trey makes shots, they have to burn timeouts. They have to figure out how to protect him,” coach Willie Green said. “His ability to shoot paves the way for the rest of the team.”
A few weeks ago, as the misses piled up and frustration began to mount, Murphy refused to do anything outside of the norm to get back on track. He stuck to his daily routine. He took the same number of shots in training. He tried to play exactly the same way he always has throughout his career. He thought it would be an overreaction to make any significant changes to his shooting form or normal work process.
“It wasn’t really complicated,” Murphy said. “The last thing I wanted to do was overcomplicate things.”
There was one thing Murphy did that was at least somewhat out of the ordinary: He asked former Pelican and current ESPN analyst JJ Redick for help.
Murphy was a guest on Podcast “The Old Man and the Three” last year and has since enjoyed a close relationship with Redick, who played 15 years in the NBA and ranks No. 20 on the all-time 3-point list. In the past, Murphy has received advice from Redick on how to grow as a shooter and act like a professional off the court. This time, he wanted to encourage Redick to get back on track when the shots weren’t falling.
Redick’s advice was simple: keep piling up small wins until the pile is too high to neglect.
“He often told me that, as he was coming off a streak of colds, the first game is not always going to be 10 out of 12 out of 3,” Murphy recalled. “Sometimes it’s a 3 for 7, then a 5 for 12, or something like that. You don’t get everything back at once. Sometimes you have to accept the small victories and accept that.
So Murphy stopped worrying about the 3-point column in the box score and focused on his impact everywhere else. He stepped up his efforts on defense. He chased rebounds. He sprinted consistently in transition.
Over time, these other parts of his game began to flourish. He had three blocks and three steals in a win against Houston on February 22. He tied his career high with 10 rebounds in a loss to Chicago on February 25. He set a career high with seven assists in a loss to the Pacers on February 28.
“That was one of our messages (to him) during our interviews. There are many ways to influence victory. If you stop focusing on your shooting and focus on defense and rebounding… it will come,” Green said. “The ball generally finds energy. When you play with that kind of energy, it leads you to make shots.
Then the floodgates finally opened, and not in the way Redick expected. The Pelicans manhandled a short-handed Knicks team 115-92 on Feb. 27, and Murphy finished with 26 points, seven rebounds and four assists while shooting 9 of 14 from the floor and 6 of 11 from 3.
After making his final shot of the night, his fourth in a row in a decisive fourth-quarter stretch, Murphy rushed to make eye contact with Green as he left the floor. Green held out his arms with a big smile and shouted, “Welcome!” » to Murphy before the two exchanged a quick hug.
You can see Willie telling Trey “Welcome” ???? pic.twitter.com/8VJbsUQoY4
– Pelicans Movie Room (@PelsFilmRoom) February 28, 2024
“The biggest thing for me was to start having fun out there again,” Murphy said. “After the All-Star break, my main goal was to always have fun playing basketball. I try to play the right way every time I go out there – play hard, get rebounds and stuff like that. When you play the game the right way, it will always reward you in the end.
The rewards have been plentiful for Murphy of late. Three games after his breakthrough against the Knicks, Murphy scored 34 points in 29 minutes while shooting 10 of 14 from 3-point range in a 139-98 road win over the Raptors. He became just the seventh player in NBA history to have multiple games with at least 10 3-pointers in his career, having also done so last March in a win over the Clippers.
On Sunday, his 28 points in 30 minutes spearheaded a wire-to-wire road victory over the Hawks to push the Pelicans 14 games above .500 for the first time since finishing the 2017-18 season with a 48-34 record.
“When he makes shots, the defense has to space the floor. They have to choose their poison,” Ingram said Athleticism. “It opens up pathways for me and Z to go down the hill. It’s very difficult for defenses to decide if they want to prevent us from getting to the basket or leave it open to knock down all 3 balls.
It’s pretty simple: When Murphy makes shots, this team is out of control. Since entering the league, the Pelicans are 27-6 when Murphy makes at least four 3-pointers in a game, including wins in each of the last 11 games where he has reached that number. If the Pelicans have any chance of winning at the highest level, Murphy needs to play a big role in that equation.
As he leaves, so do the Pelicans.
(Top photo: Tim Nwachukwu / Getty Images)
