One of the reasons why the The New Orleans Pelicans acquired Dejounte Murray from the Atlanta Hawks This offseason, it’s the organization he’ll bring to this team’s attack.

Last year, too often, the Pelicans lacked a playmaker or facilitator to put the team into successful sets late in games. team struggling with terrible times of crisisbecause they were counting a lot on CJ McCollum, Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson to lead their offense.

With Murray in charge, they now know who will have the ball in their hands to make the late-game decisions. He’s a great playmaker who should blossom into the undisputed playmaker.

But there will be times during every game where heroics will be required. For example, late shot situations are difficult to handle.

Some players don’t want to ruin their shooting percentage and would rather take a shot clock violation than throw the ball at the end of a quarter. Unfortunately, at certain points in the game, someone has to take a “grenade.”

This is the term some people use to refer to shot attempts that occur toward the end of the shot clock. Typically, this is when the ball is put into the hands of the team’s best shot creator, hoping that he can make something out of nothing.

It turns out that New Orleans has two players who excel in these unique situations.

According to NBA University, McCollum is the NBA’s most efficient shooter with 0-4 seconds remaining on the shot clock.

He is far from being the one who attempts the most shots at the end of regulation time, but he succeeds with a percentage higher than 50%.

Ingram is also visible on the chart.

He attempted about 15 more shots than McCollum and had a percentage above 42%, which is considered average.

While most players are grouped between 90 and 140 attempts, it’s no surprise which two players lead the pack in attempts; The New York Knicks point guard Jalen Brunson and Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets.

Both players are the offensive pivots of their team, having the ball in their hands for an exorbitant amount of time. What’s even more impressive is that their opponents know they’ll have the ball and still can’t stop them.

Brunson and Jokic are both well above league average in shooting efficiency with 0-4 seconds remaining in possession and are the only players with more than 150 such shot attempts.

For the Pelicans, it’s a good thing to have both Ingram and McCollum on a roster like this, something that could come in handy in big late-game situations in the playoffs.

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