A 3-Team Trade to Land Dejounte Murray In New York, Complete Knicks' Trade Deadline
The New York Knicks are one of the hottest teams in the NBA.
Since former Toronto Raptor OG Anunoby entered their rotation, they're 15-2. Jalen Brunson was just announced an All-Star for the first time in his career. And they've climbed to fourth in the league in season-long net rating.
At this point, there's a pretty strong argument that New York should call it a trade season, patiently wait for Anunoby and Julius Randle to get healthy and see how far the Knicks can go with this group.
But there are still plenty of assets in this team's draft coffers. And there's also an argument to strike while the iron's hot.
Dejounte Murray and Zach LaVine have been floating around in trade rumors all season, but neither has been connected to New York many times.
The Knicks have the picks and salary necessary to swoop in and spoil other teams' hopes to land one of those stars.
And below, you'll see a path for that swoop.
The Deal
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Before we jump into the specific reasons each team involved here would do this trade, it's always helpful to get a look at the entire deal in a single frame.
New York Knicks Receive: Dejounte Murray and Kenrich Williams
New York Knicks Lose: Evan Fournier, Quentin Grimes, a 2024 first-round pick and a 2025 first-round pick (via Milwaukee)
Atlanta Hawks Receive: Evan Fournier, Dāvis Bertāns, a 2024 first-round pick from New York, a 2025 first-round pick from New York (via Milwaukee) and a 2025 first-round pick from Oklahoma City (via Philadelphia)
Atlanta Hawks Lose: Atlanta Hawks Lose: Dejounte Murray and Clint Capela
Oklahoma City Thunder Receive: Clint Capela and Quentin Grimes
Oklahoma City Thunder Lose: Kenrich Williams, Dāvis Bertāns and a 2025 first-round pick (via Philadelphia)
As always, feel free to quibble over some of the younger players or picks involved. Atlanta might be able to pull another pick or two out of New York or OKC, especially if there's a little bidding war for some of its veterans. But the core of this trade makes sense for each team.
Below, you'll read why.
Knicks Push in Some Chips for Dejounte
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New York Knicks Receive: Dejounte Murray and Kenrich Williams
New York Knicks Lose: Evan Fournier, Quentin Grimes, a 2024 first-round pick and a 2025 first-round pick (via Milwaukee)
This deal presents the Knicks with a problem similar to what Atlanta has had with Murray. A backcourt with him and Brunson would be small. New York has the additional theoretical problem that Donte DiVincenzo and Josh Hart are on the roster too.
All four being on the team would make the backcourt rotation mighty crowded, but all four of those players can also play bigger than their listed heights. DiVincenzo and Hart, specifically, could get away with some minutes at the 3.
And as a pure talent play, plugging Murray (21.0 points and 7.0 assists over the last three seasons) in for Fournier (who hasn't been in the rotation for years) and Grimes (8.6 points per game for his career) is almost a no-brainer.
The Knicks already have a lot of creation from Brunson and Randle, but Murray would add another layer. And Brunson has plenty of experience sharing the ball from his years with Luka Dončić. Lineups with those three and some combination of Anunoby, Isaiah Hartenstein, Mitchell Robinson (assuming he can get back before the playoffs), Hart and DiVincenzo would be deep and dynamic.
Murray could help on the defensive end too. It's suddenly en vogue to talk about how he's not the player he was with the San Antonio Spurs on that end. That's probably true, but individual defense is sometimes motivated by a team's competitiveness. And Atlanta hasn't had much of that over the last couple years.
If he's suddenly on a contender, with an intense, defense-first coach like Tom Thibodeau, it wouldn't be surprising to see some of Murray's defensive activity and intensity return. He's only 27 years old. It's not like the physical abilities have vanished.
Because every team in a three-teamer needs to send something to everyone involved, this deal also sends Williams to New York. And that should ease some concerns about the aforementioned lack of positional size in the backcourt.
Williams is a 6'6", multipositional forward who brings some similar ingredients as Anunoby (though in lower volume) and whose game is very much like a Tom Thibodeau-style player's.
Getting both him and Murray, without sacrificing any of the current group's most important players, would put the Knicks in real contention to represent the East in the Finals.
Atlanta Pushes the (soft) Reset Button
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Atlanta Hawks Receive: Evan Fournier, Dāvis Bertāns, a 2024 first-round pick from New York, a 2025 first-round pick from New York (via Milwaukee) and a 2025 first-round pick from Oklahoma City (via Philadelphia)
Atlanta Hawks Lose: Dejounte Murray and Clint Capela
The partnership between Murray and Trae Young simply hasn't worked.
Since they joined forces, Atlanta is minus-1.8 points per 100 possessions when both are on the floor, compared to plus-2.7 when Young plays without Murray.
And right now, the Hawks are barely clinging to a play-in spot in the standings. Assuming they hang onto that, win a couple games and make the playoffs, they'd likely get crushed in the first round by one of the East's contenders.
Instead of hovering around that range for the rest of the season, Atlanta needs to recoup some of the draft assets it lost in the last Murray trade. He and Capela can help the team do that.
Sending them out in this trade almost certainly makes the Hawks worse in the short term, but three firsts is a decent haul. And since 2024-25 is a team option for Evan Fournier, his contract is essentially expiring. There's an early termination option on Bertāns' deal that functionally puts him in the same boat.
So beyond the picks, this move also brings potential cap flexibility. It would almost certainly open up some rotation minutes for 20-year-old AJ Griffin and 23-year-old Onyeka Okongwu too.
Figuring out how well those two fit with Young is another fringe benefit.
OKC Bodies Up
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Oklahoma City Thunder Receive: Clint Capela and Quentin Grimes
Oklahoma City Thunder Lose: Kenrich Williams, Dāvis Bertāns and a 2025 first-round pick (via Philadelphia)
OKC has been viewed as a likely trade team for much of the season for a few reasons.
First, they have a ton of draft capital. Like a "Scrooge McDuck in his swimming pool full of gold" amount of draft capital. Second, they have Bertāns' highly movable $17 million salary. And finally, the Thunder could probably use some size.
Chet Holmgren has answered a lot of last season's questions with his floor spacing and rim protection, but there's no doubt he's slight. And he's only averaging 7.6 rebounds, while the team is 28th in offensive rebounding percentage and 29th in defensive rebounding percentage.
Capela, meanwhile, led the league in rebounding in 2020-21 and has been in double figures in that category in each of the last seven seasons. His $20.6 million salary may seem like a lot for a backup 5, but it's not much more than Bertāns' $17 million, which is simply languishing on the bench. And because of Holmgren's ball skills, it's not hard to imagine the two bigs spending some time together.
That alone makes this deal pretty easy to wrap your head around, but swapping Williams for Grimes helps too.
The former has brought plenty of value in the form of experience, competitiveness and highly switchable defense, but the latter is six years younger and probably has a little more upside as a floor-spacer (Grimes hit 38.4 percent of his threes over his first two years).
OKC is one of the youngest teams in the NBA, and it could justify a patient approach. But the West also feels open enough for the Thunder to get all the way to the Finals. And this deal would help them realize that potential.
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