Keegan Murray
- Thread starter Tetsujin
- Start date
iowamcnabb
Hall of Famer
Keegan is one of the main reasons to be excited about the second half of the season. He is showing flashes but has been one of our more inconsistent players. If he can get his shot back on track it will open up his drives and he showed a nice pull out mid range last night. Maybe he needs to work that in when his threes aren’t falling. Hopefully he can continue to tighten the screws on defense as well
macadocious
Starter
I’ve never had less concern about a young player in my life. The fact we are playing as well as we are with just “ok” play from him is silly.
Considering a lot of the off-court things that he's gone through already(Health protocols to start the year. I'm assuming Covid?) and then his grandma suffering a stroke while at the game during his first professional road trip? That's a lot for anyone to handle, much less a 22 year old rookie beginning his career.
At the same time, the Kings starters have been the 2nd best 5-man unit in basketball by a fairly significant margin:
So while Keegan isn't showing up in the boxscore nearly as much as earlier in the year, there's still real impact there. Now just think once he does find the groove again....
macadocious
Starter
100%
He plays the right way. He doesn’t force. His shot hasn’t been there post Gmas issue. It’s ok. You don’t shoot and move the way that young man did for months and then not play well. He’s the 4th to 6th option. Which is awesome!
He plays the right way. He doesn’t force. His shot hasn’t been there post Gmas issue. It’s ok. You don’t shoot and move the way that young man did for months and then not play well. He’s the 4th to 6th option. Which is awesome!
A willingness to mix in a little more mid-range has helped HB turn his offensive woes around. We're used to seeing him pretty exclusively shooting from 3 or at the rim. He's still not doing anything special from 3, but more midrange and getting to the line more has amped up his efficiency to the level we're used to even w/out big improvement from 3. Keegan might be doing the same and I like it. Make 'em defend you at all three levels. Certainly is working for Foxy right about now.
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iowamcnabb
Hall of Famer
Kris went off for 30 and 7 tonight. Hawks had the National player of the year two years ago, Keegan last year and now Kris. Makes you wonder if Fran could have utilized them better when he had them at the same time.
Maybe. But I think that Kris is most likely a much better player now than he was last year, in no small part due to the workouts he did with Keegan when his brother was getting ready for his rookie season.
iowamcnabb
Hall of Famer
surely didn’t hurt any but I think he could had a bigger role last season.
PorchSurfin
Starter
In no small part also knowing it was his team and only going as far as he takes them. I dont think Fran is the issue, I think Fran does an excellent job developing talent.
As far as Keegan is concerned, I look at his rookie season like his first season at Iowa. Finding his way, probing, doing the things asked of hin while he computerizes the league in his head. I would expect him to have a reverse rookie season, one where his "wall" is at the beginning (like Steph Curry) and in the latter parts of the season you see him take off as he figures things out.
PorchSurfin
Starter
Who says no to our 23rd pick and Holmes to drop to 14th to nab this guy?
Only problem is he is going to play his way in to the top 10.
iowamcnabb
Hall of Famer
I don’t think it’s a question of developing talent, but I will question why a team with Garza and the Murray twins didn’t make a little more noise in the tourney.
iowamcnabb
Hall of Famer
Last 9 games from 3
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1-4
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4-7
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5-9
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1-6
0-4
Even if you are a cyborg it’s a bit hard not to play with hesitation when you can’t buy a bucket.
Im glad Mike has looked to get him some post touches but I think they need to go to that more for now. Move him around a bit and find him some different looks.
HB lost his shot through the first what 9 games? Look at him now. I think Keegan can snap out of this
1-5
1-4
1-4
4-7
0-3
5-9
0-2
1-6
0-4
Even if you are a cyborg it’s a bit hard not to play with hesitation when you can’t buy a bucket.
Im glad Mike has looked to get him some post touches but I think they need to go to that more for now. Move him around a bit and find him some different looks.
HB lost his shot through the first what 9 games? Look at him now. I think Keegan can snap out of this
That's what's really kind of crazy about our offense. We have yet to have Keegan and Barnes play to expectation at the same time. Basically when Keegan started struggling, Barnes picked up what Keegan was doing early in the year.
I'm not worried. Keegan is getting good shots and overall I do think he's mostly playing pretty good defense for a rookie.
Davion and Keegan finding their shots will be awesome for us, whenever it eventually happens. Everyone says those guys are the hardest workers on the team so I can't imagine their slumps lasting the whole season. In this last game Keegan's shots were coming up short or rimming out which just seems like a rhythm issue -- the legs and arms aren't quite synched up yet and he is returning from a back injury so it's not surprising if he doesn't have his full range of motion back. It's significant to me that he's out there playing through his issues and trying to help the team win in other ways instead of sequestering himself with his trainers. As long as he continues to take good shots, I don't mind him slumping a bit. It happens to everyone.
I think it helps, we've already seen Keegan pop for most of the summer too. He was awesome in SL, he was awesome in preseason, he was awesome the first 5 games of the year. Maybe you'd be getting worried if he struggled in those opportunities too, but I think the fact that he's shown what he can be lets us be more patient as fans.
Section 101
All-Star
Not worried about Keegan at this point. Looks like he's rushing his shots and not in a flow.
Davion on the other hand has never been a shooter. Fixing his shot during the season is difficult. Hopefully this off season someone can work with him to improve otherwise he is what he is at this point. I think people tend to forget he was basically a 5th year senior when he was drafted. Yes he can play defense, but you don't want the ball in his hands when trying to run an offense. He's basically only got a drive to the basket that hopefully doesn't get blocked.
I think he's just lost his confidence and may have a slight touch of the yips on his shot right now. Hopefully he gets his mojo back. A bunch of those misses have been the rim in and out variety. Same with Davion. Just gotta keep shooting until the ship corrects itself. I'd much rather him shoot the ball than do any type of ball handling this year.
Disagree about Davion. His step back and mid range off the hesitation generate decent looks. Dude’s 3 ball will be fine. He seems like he’s in his own head too much (and trying hard to play within Brown’s system). And he doesn’t get enough looks to get in rhythm.
macadocious
Starter
Right?
Literally this cannot be understated enough! Who we thought might be our 2nd best scoring option is like 6 or 7 right now. Lol
The thing I noticed about Murray that has been pretty consistent is that once he misses his first couple of shots he would just go cold the rest of the night. Not sure if that's because he's more of a rhythm shooter or he's thinking too much. Shooters must shoot though. He's too good a shooter to just stop shooting. Would also like to see him get something closer to the basket. He has been more aggressive in taking it to the hoop, but it hasn't translated to good results yet. It's still nice to see and will eventually pay off.
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BUST
iowamcnabb
Hall of Famer
I brought this up in the game thread but I’m wondering if a stint down at Stockton would make sense for Keegan? He is still having a positive impact on the floor based on advanced metrics but he just can’t get the shot to fall and is not being asked to do much more at this point. I wonder if 3 or 4 games down there to rebuild confidence plus maybe a visit home is the remedy. When his Gma had a stroke none of his teammates even knew about it. They found out from reporters. He clearly isn’t the type to air it out. He said he has been home just once since the draft. That could be hard on a kid when struggling and isn’t ready to open up to his teammates yet. Get him home, get him to Stockton and see if he can turn this around. We will need him this year
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ShastaKingsFan
All-Star
I'd try not starting him for a while. Trey Lyles is playing better right now. Change things up and see if it makes any difference in his game. I get why they didn't want to change anything during the win streak
I think my lean would be no. If he hadn't shown in SL, in preseason, and the first 5 games of the year, then maybe you'd think about it, but we know what the upside is when he has it going. The nice thing with depth is we have the pieces that if Keegan can only play 22 MPG one night, guys can fill in.
Maybe start Lyles for a few games and let Keegan come off the bench vs weaker defenders. He could also be more of a feature offensive option. That was the whole idea with KZ in the first place, but the way Keegan started off made it impossible for them to keep that plan.
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