JeebusThere's 62 players in the league that have taken 100 or more 3's so far this season. Keegan Murray is 61st among them in 3p%. With only Kevin Huerter having a worse percentage lol
JeebusThere's 62 players in the league that have taken 100 or more 3's so far this season. Keegan Murray is 61st among them in 3p%. With only Kevin Huerter having a worse percentage lol
Jeebus
The amount of excuses fans come up for Keegan are crazy. Name a player in the NBA who doesn’t have to play defense too?? The fatigue excuse is lazy.
Just because he has the toughest defensive assignment out in the perimeter does not excuse him on forgetting how to shoot the 3 ball.
It’s not like we’re trotting him out there and asking him to take over games. We just ask him to make open shots.
How come defense has never affected the way guys like Kawhi, Artest, JJJ, BAM, or Butler play offense?
He’s not right mentally on offense right now and his shot is slumping hard.
Just look at more than half of this thread and most of the past month.Nobody is making excuses. They're trying to figure out what the heck is causing the slump. But go off I guess
Nobody is making excuses. They're trying to figure out what the heck is causing the slump. But go off I guess
Just look at more than half of this thread and most of the past month.
I think answers are blatant. He’s mentally frazzled, going through a shooting slump, and his 3pt shooting was likely never as good as his rookie year advertised.
He overachieved in his rookie year when he broke the record and shot 41.1% from 3pt. You take a look at his college shooting percentages, and it’s very abnormal to see any player take a 10% jump in 3pt shooting from one year to another. In Keegan’s case, he went from 29.6 to 39.8. However, his FT shooting actually slightly decreased and was very mediocre going from 75.5 to 74.7. With his mediocre FT shooting and sudden jump in 3pt %, this highly suggested that Keegan’s true 3pt shooting was somewhere in the middle at an average around 36%.
In his rookie year, all of the stars aligned for him to break the rookie 3pt record:
All of the stars aligned for our team that year. We even saw Huerter have his best 3pt shooting year ever. The entire Kings, not just Keegan “overachieved” by taking advantage of what was in front of them. Of course we all saw what happened down the stretch in the playoffs that year where we were completely found out in the DHO, and then exposed the following year by the Pelicans. But all of this was to make the argument that Keegan’s rookie 3pt % was a complete outlier and not a true representation of his 3pt shooting.
- The entire league was completely banged up
- The Kings had a completely unknown that was being led for the first time ever by Sabonis and Mike Brown
- Because of reasons 1 & 2, the Kings had a historic “best offense ever”
- Keegan was designated to being a spot up shooter
- Keegan was the 5th option in the starting lineup with a ton of wide open shots because teams left him wide open and dared him to make shots
What happened the following year? We saw a sharp and drastic decline from 41.1% to 35.8%. That’s completely unheard of if you truly are an elite shooting player in this league. I don’t know how many times I’ve had to say it took Klay and MPJ at least 5+ seasons before their 3pt % every dipped below 40% (just barely), whereas Keegan took a nosedive immediately in his 2nd year. Teams no longer saw him as an unthreatening and unproven rookie shooter in the league. His shots that were wide open, weren’t as open anymore. Teams weren’t doubling and triple teaming Sabonis anymore.
As the Kings, you kinda hoped that 35.8% was his floor… but narrowing in his 2nd year, Keegan showed a bit more with his shots creating and ball handling, but I don’t think it was to the level that anyone hoped for. He never looked comfortable. He showed small flashes, maybe once a game, but it was never consistent.
Fast forward to his 3rd year, he’s no longer an unproven rookie that teams dare to shoot. The Kings also hope that bringing in DeMar, allows pressure off Keegan to be the #3 guy, and instead build on what we saw from year 2. However, we’ve seen no improvement in ball handling. No improvements in shot creating. And now what are you left with? A frustrated 3rd year player that defenses are now forcing him to be 1 dimensional scorer as a shooter who teams force to pick up his handles, teams stop him in the paint, and now he’s in his own head about his shot.
It’s almost reverting back to his rookie year where teams make him uncomfortable by turning him into a jump shooter, but now, they are cutting off his on-ball plays, and limiting his off-ball plays to the basket. When he’s not successfully converting those easier shots that he’s used to, he starts to second guess himself as a player. He loses confidence in himself, and he’s already more of a quieter guy. That loss of confidence expands to his 3pt shot.
Having the toughest defensive assignments can hinder your offensive production, but we’re talking about our 4th/5th option here. That’s why I think the excuse is lame. There’s plenty of 2-way players.
It’s a mental block more than it is a physical muscle gain or fatigue. Mentally frazzled and lacks confidence in himself. He doesn’t have the alpha mentality to shoot his way back into games. I think this is something he has to do outside of our regular season games.
To put it lightly, Keegan is playing scared on offense, and he was never really as good of a shooter as his rookie year suggested.
He’s going to eventually get through this, but we literally need him to start playing well in order for the Kings to win… This feels very discouraging and disappointing if you’re the FO.Keegan seems to be broke mentally right now. I'm not sure if anything other than some success will break him out of it.
He's last on the team in VORP. Basically this year's Davion Mitchell.
Clearly we extend him but probably let him get a market value contract offer rather than max him unless he puts it all together.
I think that's not far off.Murphy got 4 for 112. Id have to think that’s the kinda deal he is heading for
If he continues this type of play, I think he’d be lucky to get that.Murphy got 4 for 112. Id have to think that’s the kinda deal he is heading for
If he continues this type of play, I think he’d be lucky to get that.
Murphy got that contract while playing good ball and he very well may be the better player between the two today.
Keegan Murray, who's in his 3rd season with the Kings, has played more minutes (6,074) than Zion Williamson (6,043), who's in his 6th season with the Pelicans.
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) December 10, 2024
How will Zion's injury struggles shape his role moving forward? pic.twitter.com/zQhRKL9Xtt
Keegan Murray, who's in his 3rd season with the Kings, has played more minutes (6,074) than Zion Williamson (6,043), who's in his 6th season with the Pelicans.
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) December 10, 2024
How will Zion's injury struggles shape his role moving forward? pic.twitter.com/zQhRKL9Xtt
Another way to look at this is that Keegan has played 189 out of 196 possible games in his career, including playoffs (96.4%).
Zion has played 190 out 415 possible games in his career (45.8%) and has never made the playoffs.
They basically average the same number of minutes when they do play (32.3 for Keegan, 31.8 for Zion).
Zion is 44 days older than Keegan. Zion is amazing when he plays, but it would be interesting to see the betting line for who ends up with the most career Win Shares. Keegan is well behind right now, but he might be the smart bet to win.
In the last 13 games, since Doug Christie was named interim head coach, Keegan has averaged 6.2 rebounds per game, second on the team. That includes 2.0 offensive rebounds, many of which have been in the fourth quarter.
And has anyone noticed that he has been dunking the ball a lot lately, with authority? Mostly they have been on drives to the basket or fast breaks.
this guy has been making the rounds because he has a new book out. He works with a bunch of the top players in game including Giannis and Tatum. He also works with lower level guys like Trey Murphy who has taken a huge leap this year. This guy is a bit full of himself but he is known as a great motivator and truth teller. I’d like to see Keegan work with a player development coach outside of the team this summer. He has played with the select team and worked with Herb Jones now I’d like to see him branch out even more. He doesn’t have baby sitting duties anymore and won’t be able to lean on Fox to improve. The dude has it in him, it’s all about the belief and trusting the work. He could have an expanded role next year if traded are made for This Drew guy says it’s mostly mental with guys and I believe it