Dejounte Murray to Atlanta Hawks

The spurs appear to finally be going all in on rebuilding through the draft, which you could argue they should have done when they traded Leonard in 2018. You have to wonder how much longer popovich is committed to coaching this team.

The hawks got an all-star caliber player on a very reasonable deal, so it’s hard to argue that they made out well here. It will be interesting to see how the dynamic of the trae-Murray backcourt works though. Is trae going to willing to accept more of an off-ball role as he will surely need to accommodate Murray’s strengths? And will that take away some of his overall effectiveness? We’ll see. This definitely makes them better defensively.

As I said on another post any Spurs deal Pops would need to sign off as Team President but I do feel now if it is a 3 year plus rebuilding plan that he maybe gets a younger HC from his Coaching Tree in but absolutely stays on either as Team President or at least in a consultant role.

Brian Wright has been GM for 3 years after RC Burford was promoted to CEO and Brent Barry is VP of Baketball Operations so you have a logical choice between those two as the next Team President when Popps ever stepped down from that role.. So getting a new HC in now while Popps is still Team President would make sense and Pops, Brian, Brent and RC are all there to oversee the draft and development of the team.

Manu Ginobli is back on the Spurs staff so could he be an option to replace Pops as HC in the near future. If Pops did carry on as Coach for another year or so which might make sense as who better to lead a young roster then the likes of Quin Snyder comes into play. Quin took a developimng Utah team into the play offs and would be a proven coach to replace Pops.

The Windhorst report about Murray’s reps telling the Spurs that Murray would not sign an extension this summer changes things a bit. If Murray wanted out, and kind of demanded a trade without demanding one, then I guess it is defensible. I would hope San Antonio extends Keldon Johnson this summer, because his usage figures to explode next season. I assume Tre Jones will run the point, though his outside shot will have to show some signs of improvement to keep it.

I will wait to see what Atlanta does with John Collins before going in on them. My concern is that I don’t think Trae Young wants to play off the ball, nor do I believe Murray wants to take a step back in how he was used (25-9-8) following the Derrick White trade. Add to them Bogdan, Collins, and Huerter, and there is a lot of guys who are not going to be happy having fewer shots and maybe minutes. Also, other than Murray, I don’t think they are good defensively, and Murray was more than willing to punt on the defensive end when San Antonio was playing out the string in the second half of the year. It might be a move that looks better in the summer than the season.

I’d guess Trae as the star man keeps rhe ball in his hands. The Hawks will likely look to extend Hunter this summer and he’ll be due a sizeable second contract. As regards rim protectors they are probably hoping Onyeka Okongwu will pan out if Collins and Capela are more offensive frontcourters.

If Murray was reluctant to extend or was going to test FA at least the Spurs probably decided to cash in whilst his value was high and he still had two years on a very attractive deal for an All Star..

I wonder if this trade was in the offing on draft night as the Hawks have held onto AJ Griffin who might be a very useful player for them as we had him a lot higher than he was actually drafted and the Spurs might have liked him. Also the Spurs might have gone all in to get a PG unless they think Ty Jones can do a job or they are banking on a shot at someone like Scoot next summer.

Brett Brown is taking Becky Hammonds open spot my guess is he is Poppovich successor if they hire within.

Brett Brown was part of the “process” so he would be an excellent choice to lead a Spurs rebuild. But i don’t see them hiring Sam Hinkie too.

As regards the dynamic of who handles the ball I agree teams figure it out or in the case of LBJ going to Miami it must have been discussed, Sometimes the issue can be if a pass first Pg ever went to a team who had a dominant scorer/ball handler does the star relinquish the ball and play off ball or does the PG have to play D and shoot 3 pointers. The Kobe and Nash dynamic never got tested. The Boston big 3 all played off the ball and the GSW super team often had Green as the ball handler.

Really not sure if this backcourt fits.

Murray looked good on a bad team, no way he is putting up 21ppg again. Maybe 15ish