We continue our Season Review series, in which we look back at how the season went for each Sacramento Kings player. Today we look at Keegan Murray.
Domantas Sabonis and De’Aaron Fox are the faces of the Sacramento Kings, but there may not be a more important player for the near future of this franchise than one Keegan Murray.
Keegan Murray had an excellent rookie year. Murray was drafted with the expectation that he could come in and help out both now and in the future. Unlike most other lottery picks who got given a ton of freedom to find themselves and play through mistakes on bad teams, he was asked to step in and play a very specific role on a team trying to break a 16 year playoff streak. The Kings needed Murray to excel in his role as a spot-up shooter to complement Domantas Sabonis and De’Aaron Fox and he delivered. In his rookie season, Murray started 78 of 80 games and set the NBA record for most threes made by a rookie in a season with 206, and did it with extreme efficiency, shooting 41.1% from distance. However he was a fairly one dimensional player, which is fine for a rookie.
Murray’s growth was a huge focus for the Kings coming into this season. While it was fine for him to be fairly one-dimensional as a rookie, his growth hinged on becoming more of a well-rounded player. That meant being able to create shots for himself and others as well as playing defense. We saw him play in Summer League at the California Classic where the Kings had him play the role of primary scorer. De’Aaron Fox took Murray under his wing over the summer and spent the offseason training with him and playing games of one-on-one to hone his two-way game. All that hard work in the summer paid off this season.
Whereas Murray was asked to focus mostly on one thing (shooting) as a rookie, his sophomore season saw him become more of a jack of all trades. He was still relied on to hit his outside shots, but now he was also asked to create a bit more offense for himself. In his rookie season, 60.6% of his total shots were just catch and shoot, while only 10.7% were pull ups. 74.4% of his total attempts came with no dribbles at all. That changed dramatically in his sophomore season. Only 46.4% of his total attempts were catch and shoot, and his pull up percentage increased to 25% while just 56.9% of his shots come with no dribbles.
He also focused more on developing the midrange. In his rookie year, only 6.9% of his total attempts came from between 10 feet and the 3 point line. This year that went up to 18.7%. Murray’s three point efficiency took a hit as he made just 35.8% of his total three point attempts (a decrease of almost six percentage points from his record setting rookie season), but his 2P% went up from 52.7% to 56%. His finishing at the rim, which was an issue during his rookie season, also improved as he opted to finish with authority instead of trying to finesse his way around the basket. He ended up with 72 total dunks compared to just 39 as a rookie and his FG% at the rim went up almost 5% as a result.
Murray’s expanded offensive game led to more extreme performances. In his rookie season, Keegan scored 20+ points just 13 times and only scored 30 once. This season, Murray scored 20+ 18 times, including three times over 30, none better than his 47 point effort against Utah where he made 11 consecutive three pointers (an NBA record), including 12-15 overall.
But Murray wasn’t just asked to contribute more offensively, he was also tasked almost nightly with the toughest defensive matchups. Right from the start of the season it seemed clear that Murray was going to be asked to be a stopper. We saw it as early as the first week of the season when the Kings switched him on to Steph Curry as the primary defender. Just six months earlier, the Warriors had hunted that matchup in the playoffs, but Murray’s offseason work trying to stay in front of Fox paid off and Murray made life as tough on Steph as anyone possibly can.
Keegan Murray drew the Steph Curry assignment on Wednesday night and did about as great of a job as you could ask for. Cannot overstate how impressive his development has been. pic.twitter.com/Ypy0RUPKz2
— Skyler (KFR) (@SacFilmRoom) November 3, 2023
Throughout the season we continued to see this defensive growth, which proved particularly effective when Keegan was matched up against guys smaller than him as his length allowed him to bother their shots. Per NBA.com, opponents shot 2.7% worse against Keegan once inside the three point line, and 5% worse when they were within 10 feet. Murray also ended up leading the Kings in blocks (59) and finished 2nd in steals (79).
It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows for Murray though. There would be many games where his shot just wasn’t falling. There were 30 games this season where Murray hit one or fewer three pointers. That’s not a huge issue in itself, but it is when he’s often tasked with shooting three pointers at volume. Many of those games weren’t just 1/2 from three, but instead 1/8, or 0/7. In those 30 games, he shot 20 of 147 (13.6%). That’s a lot of empty possessions that add up over a season where the Kings missed the playoffs by one game. Murray particularly got into trouble when shooting threes on the move or off pullups, where he made just 26% of his total attempts, whereas he shot a respectable 37.5% on set catch and shoot threes (still lower than last season but still good).
Murray also has a ways to go to develop himself as a ballhandler, particularly with a defender nearby. While not exceedingly turnover prone, Murray could get in trouble when having to dribble through traffic. Better ballhandling will lead to better quality shots and also open up the ability to make plays for others, something he has rarely done in his first two seasons. There was a funny moment late in the season against the Clippers when Keegan found Domas for a dunk with a bounce pass off a drive and Domas reacted as if he didn’t know Keegan had it in him.
“What a pass!”
Domantas Sabonis is all smiles after this dime from Keegan Murray! pic.twitter.com/gRhHuTkZac
— Matt George (@MattGeorgeSAC) April 3, 2024
Murray’s importance to the Kings future cannot be understated. His growth could mean the difference between this team being a true contender or merely just a good team that shows occasional flashes. Against the Warriors in the first Play-In game, it was Keegan Murray that was the hero, not Domantas Sabonis or De’Aaron Fox. Murray scored a game-high 32 points to go with 9 rebounds while also guarding Steph Curry for a large part of the game. But the following game against the Pelicans, Murray struggled, scoring 11 points on just 4-12 from the field.
Consistency will be the name of the game for Murray in year three. Depending on what happens with Malik Monk this summer, Murray could be tasked with even greater offensive responsibility. Murray has shown flashes of stardom over his first two seasons but now it will be up to him to turn those flashes into something that the Kings can rely on night in and night out.
(Statistics sourced from NBA.com and basketball-reference.com)
