New Orleans Pelicans guard Dejounte Murray fractured his left hand during Wednesday’s season-opening win over the Chicago Bulls, the team announced Thursday. Murray will be out indefinitely.
Murray’s injury appeared to occur with a little more than two minutes left in the fourth quarter against Chicago, which was Murray’s first game with the Pelicans. The former All-Star went up for a 3-pointer with his team leading by 12, but was contested by Zach LaVine and took a hard fall.
In addition, the Pelicans announced that Trey Murphy III, who strained his right hamstring on Oct. 2, has cleared the necessary benchmarks to start the “return-to-play conditioning phase” of his rehab. There will be another update on his status in approximately two weeks, according to the team. Murphy signed a four-year, $112 million contract extension just before Monday’s deadline.
New Orleans was severely shorthanded in Murray’s debut. In addition to Murphy’s injury, Zion Williamson was out with an illness. It overcame those absences to beat the Bulls 123-111 in part because it got 14 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds out of Murray.
The Pelicans landed Murray in an offseason trade with the Atlanta Hawks. In that deal, they gave up two key reserves in Larry Nance Jr. and Dyson Daniels. Starting center Jonas Valanciunas also left in free agency, and so did key wing Naji Marshall. The front office consciously sacrificed depth for a more top-heavy roster this season. That plan can work if the players at the top of the roster stay healthy, but, one game into the season, New Orleans is already struggling on that front.
If there is a silver lining to Murray’s injury, it is that the Pelicans still have plenty of playmaking, provided that Williamson gets over his illness in relatively short order. On Wednesday, Brandon Ingram led them in scoring with 33 points on 13-for-23 shooting, and CJ McCollum contributed 23 points on 9-for-19 shooting, plus five assists. Both of them will get more opportunities to initiate the offense in Murray’s absence, and backup point guard Jose Alvarado, who logged only 13 minutes against the Bulls, is more than capable of playing big minutes.
In a way, Murray’s absence actually makes things simpler for New Orleans. For the time being, it doesn’t have to worry about how comfortable Williamson, Ingram, McCollum and Murray are sharing the floor. If the goal is to make those pieces fit as soon as possible, though, then this is obviously a setback.
