Dejounte Murray's Trade Request: Pelicans Explore Options
The uneasy marriage between Dejounte Murray and the New Orleans Pelicans is racing toward an exit.
On Friday, the franchise confirmed it is exploring trade options for the 2022 All-Star after Murray requested a move, capping a turbulent week in which his frustration spilled out in public and then vanished in a trail of deleted posts.
Trade request caps a spiraling start
Murray, 30, arrived in New Orleans to be a cornerstone. Instead, he’s become the center of a crisis.
The Pelicans sit at 4-8, but the number that stings inside the building is this: they are 1-8 in games Murray has played. They’re 3-0 without him. That split has hovered over the locker room and, this week, over his social media feed.
Murray is in his third season with the Pelicans, averaging 13.4 points, 4.6 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 1.6 steals. On paper, it’s a respectable line. On the floor, the edges are rougher. He’s shooting just 29.6% from three and has already logged a pair of four-turnover games. For a lead guard expected to steady a young roster, those numbers cut.
He won’t have a chance to change the narrative Friday night. The Pelicans ruled him out of their NBA Cup group-stage matchup with the Memphis Grizzlies, citing a left ankle sprain. Behind the scenes, though, the injury is secondary. His agent, Rich Paul, and team officials have been working on a path forward, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania.
That path now looks like a ticket out of town.
Social media, film clips and a public fracture
The pressure didn’t just build on the court. It boiled over online.
After a 145-111 home humiliation against the 3-8 Brooklyn Nets, the X account for Pro Pels Talk, a Pelicans-focused podcast, posted a string of clips dissecting the loss and taking direct aim at Murray’s effort and decision-making.
One sequence showed him firing a low, off-target pass toward Saddiq Bey, who appeared to be calling for the ball at chest level. The play ended in a turnover and, soon enough, in a response.
"Ohhhhh let's talk about it," Murray fired back on X, in a post later deleted and reported by The Athletic. He challenged the criticism, questioned where post players are supposed to receive the ball and ripped into what he called a lack of understanding of the team’s internal issues. His message: outsiders have “no f***ing clue what we dealing with,” and maybe someone should ask “the whole team individually how they feel.”
The tone was unmistakable. So was the frustration.
Not long before that, Murray had engaged with an NBACentral post highlighting that the Pelicans are undefeated without him this season. He quote-posted the stat with crying-laughing emojis and a line that jumped off the screen: "From what's going on INSIDE This sounds like someone hit you to say this!! THE 'SABOTAGE' IS REAL!!!!!!"
That, too, disappeared from his feed.
On Friday, Murray apparently reposted Charania’s report that he wanted out of New Orleans. By the afternoon, that repost was gone as well. The digital trail keeps vanishing, but the message has already landed.
“He wants to go somewhere else”
Charania, speaking on "NBA Today," laid out the state of play.
In recent days, he reported, Murray met with the organization and made it clear he wants to leave and assume a meaningful, central role elsewhere. The social media exchanges weren’t just heat-of-the-moment outbursts; they were symptoms of a deeper disconnect.
"Clearly, it is not working out there," Charania said. He added that Murray is not expected to play for New Orleans “for the time moving forward here,” underlining the sense that this is no temporary flare-up.
One team is already circling. The Phoenix Suns have expressed interest in the guard, according to NBA insider Chris Haynes. For a contender searching for another two-way ballhandler, Murray’s defensive instincts and playmaking still hold obvious appeal, even if his shooting has dipped.
A new lead guard steps into the void
While the front office scans the market, the Pelicans have to keep playing. Their solution at point guard is already on the roster, and already making noise.
With Murray out, New Orleans is handing the keys to Jeremiah Fears, the No. 7 overall pick in the 2025 draft. The 20-year-old Oklahoma product has looked anything but overwhelmed in limited action, averaging 18 points and nine assists in the three games Murray has missed this season.
Those are small-sample numbers, but they’ve been loud enough. Fears has injected pace, vision and a sense of clarity into an offense that often bogged down with Murray on the floor. As Charania noted, the Pelicans plan to lean into that, giving Fears the lead guard role while the Murray saga plays out.
For a franchise trying to build around youth and continuity, the contrast is stark: a 20-year-old rookie thriving in a trial run, and a 30-year-old former All-Star pushing hard for the exit.
A tenure that never really took off
Murray’s time in New Orleans has been disrupted from the start. Since arriving ahead of the 2024-25 campaign, he has appeared in only 54 games. A torn Achilles in that first season derailed his momentum and cost him a large chunk of last year as well.
The Pelicans bet that he could return to his San Antonio and early Atlanta levels — a rangy guard who defends, rebounds, creates and scores enough to tilt playoff series. Instead, injuries, uneven form and now open friction have defined his stay.
Now the franchise is evaluating offers, Murray is pushing for a “meaningful, key role” elsewhere, and a rookie is auditioning as the future at point guard.
The only question left in New Orleans is not if Dejounte Murray moves on, but how quickly the Pelicans can turn this rupture into a reset.
