Kris Murray Prospect Watch: A Lefty Keegan? Not Quite.

0
Kris Murray on the court
AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall

The San Antonio Spurs will have a bevy of options for draft picks. This year they have three draft picks. They’ve already proven that they’ll draft a current pros brother in Tre Jones. This prospect could follow the same suit in Iowa’s Kris Murray. Keegan has been great in his rookie year. He was a huge reason the Kings got back to the playoffs for the first time since 2006.

The 6-foot-8, 220-pound wingman was a good shooter and self-creator in a breakout junior year for the Hawkeyes. He had the kind of scoring bump everyone expected and he’s a solid defender who can guard multiple positions. That will keep him in the first-round talk as well as shooting in what should be a much more defined role. Here are his stats from this last season.

  • 20.2 PPG, 1.2 BPG, 1.0 SPG, 2.0 APG, 7.9 RPG, 1.5 TOPG
  • 47.6 FG%, 33.5 3P%, 72.9 FT%
  • 25.9 PER, 120.7 ORtg, 105.7 DRtg

Kris Murray Breakdown

Murray is not quite as good as his brother and his age may concern some people, but he’s taken that extra year of play to make himself a much better prospect. He’s shown he can get his own shot and was often tasked with carrying the offense for Iowa. It’s a miracle his player efficiency rating was as high as it was with how burdened he was at times on offense and having to do quite a bit himself.

Despite that, Murray was a solid shooter all season. His three-point shooting wasn’t as great as his sophomore year. This can be attributed to being forced into a much larger role on offense. While his deep shooting struggled a bit, he was still hitting at an acceptable rate. You can expect him to get closer to his sophomore accuracy of 38.7% knowing that he will be asked to do less in an NBA offense.

With his age and limited abilities (compared to his brother), Kris Murray will still garner some attention in the first round. However, it will likely come from playoff-bound teams who can use him off the bench as a solid piece to help the second unit score and not fall off a cliff defensively either. Murray can possibly guard three different positions. However, he still shouldn’t be considered an elite defender by any means.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here