Can Dejounte Murray Unlock Trae Young 2.0?

By trading for Dejounte Murray, the Atlanta Hawks are about to fire up a basketball experiment the likes of which we haven't seen before.

Big-time scorers have teamed up in their primes. LeBron James and Dwyane Wade famously came together in 2010. The Boston Celtics added Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen to Paul Pierce three years earlier.

Atlanta is building on a different, unique foundation.

Trae Young and Murray both averaged north of 20 points per game in 2021-22, but it was their assist numbers (9.7 and 9.2, respectively) that make this new partnership so intriguing.

They were two of the league's very best playmakers in 2021-22 (Young finished first in points generated by assist, while Murray finished fifth), and they tallied those numbers in different ways.

Young had plenty of drive-and-kick dimes, but the most dangerous form of creation in his arsenal came out of the pick-and-roll, where he plays at his own pace and with nearly unparalleled vision.

His entire game, but particularly his playmaking for others, relies heavily on cunning, craftiness and the need to respect his absurd range. If you sort individual seasons by threes made from beyond 30 feet, each of Trae's four campaigns is in the top eight.

Murray, meanwhile, is the bigger, more athletic 1. His assists come from a variety of play types, but he's more likely than Young to generate buckets out of sheer relentlessness.

He can blow by most perimeter defenders. If the help doesn't commit, he'll finish inside (he shot 65.9 percent within three feet of the rim over the last two seasons). If it does, he typically finds the open shooter outside or the dump-off option in the dunker's spot. He was sixth in threes assisted in 2021-22 (Trae was fourth).

Though he and Young were in the top 10 for both time of possession and touches per game, there's reason to believe this can work because of those subtle variations in their styles. And while some of Young's individual totals may dip a bit, having such a prolific creator to occasionally move him off the ball will make him and the Hawks better in the long run.

The comparisons to Stephen Curry were natural for Young. As an undersized guard who put up gaudy numbers and hit 30-footers in college, it was easy to see traces of Curry's game. But he was always more of a high-volume-scoring Steve Nash. To this point, he's never shown a willingness or ability to play like Curry without the ball.

Now, he has an opportunity to change that.

Watch the clip above. You don't need all 13 minutes to get the gist, and you've seen plenty of that from Curry for over a decade. When a devastating outside shooter moves around without the ball the way Curry or Joe Harris or Duncan Robinson does, it bends defenses.

At least in part, the cuts, screens and relocations are about finding an opening for the off-ball mover himself, but the best ones know that tireless commitment will at least create an opportunity for a teammate.

At some point, the rotation will break down, somebody will scramble out of position and the botched assignment will leave someone open.

Young isn't the shooter or mover Curry is, but now he can try.

Bogdan Bogdanovic and Delon Wright were decent table-setters, but they're not on the level of Murray. He can be trusted to run possessions while Young manipulates the opposition. And when things break down, he'll generally hit the player with an advantage.

Of course, this won't eliminate Young's high pick-and-roll game altogether. Such a decision would be silly. Even with Murray's below-average three-point shooting potentially cramping things up a bit, Young can still dominate the middle-of-the-floor funnel that pick-and-rolls often create. And if he kicks out to Murray, he'll have driving opportunities against off-balance, closing defenders who were occupied by Young's probing.

Murray should also help Young and his new team in transition.

The San Antonio Spurs played at a pace of 101.6 possessions per game when he was on the floor. The highest-paced team in the league, the Minnesota Timberwolves, averaged 101.5 possessions per game.

With Murray's ability to grab defensive rebounds and start breaks himself (he's tied for second all time in defensive boards per game for a player his height or shorter), Young should be able to run the floor more often.

In the past, when a big like John Collins or Clint Capela ended a possession, Young would often have to run back to the action to provide a target for an outlet pass. If he sees Murray snag the ball, he can just take off. That should lead to more layups and open threes.

Of course, all of this could be burying the lede a bit. Where Murray might help the most is on defense. At 6'4" with a 6'10" wingspan, it's easy to make him the nominal 2 and have him always take the more difficult matchup, but that alone doesn't really change Trae's world. Atlanta had already been trying to hide him on defense.

You have to go a layer deeper to find what might be the greater impact.

Murray is tied for seventh among active players in career steal percentage, and opponents have generally had a higher turnover percentage when he's on the floor. The havoc he can create both on the ball and in passing lanes should lead to transition opportunities too.

And that, Murray's creation and the attention he'll generally command from opponents should all contribute to one overarching purpose: making Young's life easier.

After four seasons in the NBA, it's hard to imagine his numbers getting much better (Oscar Robertson is the only other player in history with at least 7,000 points and 2,500 assists through his first four years). In fact, by raw totals and averages, they might even go down a bit.

That sacrifice is worth the opportunity to play a smarter game, both for him and the Hawks. This version of Trae can lead Atlanta to new heights.