Keegan “KEEGAN MURRAY” Murray
- Thread starter Tetsujin
- Start date
You have to hand it to the Kings' coaching staff and Mr. Fox for the drastic improvement in defensive abilities from his rookie season to now. Murray has improved notably even since the beginning of the season. We all concentrate on the strategies and rotations game to game, but player development is paramount to building a winning team.
Well, he has a twin brother playing a little up North. Perhaps we can trick Portland into parting with him for a reasonable price, and have at least one more of him 
We rag on Ham but I don't think that was the worst take in the world. I don't think many of us were watching Keegan tape from Iowa thinking he's the guy we need on Curry for half the game. He's surprised nearly everyone with his newfound ability to stay with faster guys despite not looking very quick laterally. Ham was way too quick to say that Keegan couldn't play the 3 because we knew he was a 3-4 wing but I'm not gonna point and laugh at anyone for thinking that he wasn't going to be able to keep up with 1s and 2s on defense all game because I didn't think he could either.
Incredible stats. The team obviously retooled tons of roles since last year, but we're still keeping pace - we're now 1 game ahead (27-18 vs 26-19). Feels like we maybe turned a corner w HB and Huerter figuring it out. We're in a prime spot to make a great late season push. 23-14 gets us to 50 wins. Too early to start counting that but I'd be ecstatic if we get close.
Those were some of Ham's milder misses on Keegan. He said that he wouldn't even go in the lottery in a "normal draft" (as if that was a super weak draft class?) along with several other really poor takes. I mean, I don't have any issues with Ham other than that he doesn't seem to know basketball at all, doesn't seem to have any actual connections within the front office, across the NBA, or throughout college basketball, and that he certainly comes across as an unlikable sneaky weasel. But beyond that, he's pretty good.
I actually like Ham - mostly due to his output (and his podcast with Sean Cunningham is a good listen). BUT - you are not wrong. He thought the Kings were making a massive mistake in drafting Keegan - rated him around 13th in the draft. I was way off with Keegan ( I was thinking Cedric Ceballos, not jumbo Klay Thompson) - but nobody pays me to talk basketball.
Yeah Im not sure how many top 5 prospects have EVER drastically changed their player profile like Keegan has. He was kind of like this big wing/post/transition scoring dominator that had one good year of elite spacing. And defensively, he was more about being a weak-side rim protector than perimeter wing stopper. Astounding that his biggest questions coming in were: could he defend the perimeter and could he shoot? And those somehow have been by far his best qualities as an NBA player lol.
It appears to me that Keegan's game suffers from having to defend an opponent's best player. It is not that he can't do it well but rather that the effort and inevitable fouls takes him out of the game. He rides the bench in foul trouble for quite some time while losing whatever offensive momentum he had at the start. The Cleveland game is a prime example of this point.
His game might be better served if guarding a lesser player. There is enough switching on defense that his skills will be evident without being taxing. However, this would favor starting a defensive expert at the other forward, such as Edwards, and that is not going to happen.
His game might be better served if guarding a lesser player. There is enough switching on defense that his skills will be evident without being taxing. However, this would favor starting a defensive expert at the other forward, such as Edwards, and that is not going to happen.
