A crazy statistic about Pelicans forward Trey Murphy III

Outside of Zion Williamson (one of the most hyped prospects in NBA history), there is no young player on the New Orleans Pelicans roster with as much promise as soon-to-be third-year forward Trey Murphy III.

I mean, seriously, what’s not to like about this guy? He’s got great size – measuring in at 6’9 with shoes on with a seven-foot wingspan. He’s got pogo sticks built into his sneakers, as evidenced by his finishing second in the 2023 Slam Dunk Contest. And based on this mind-blowing statistic we’re about to share with you, he can really stroke it.

On the surface, his raw output of 40.6% 3-point shooting on 6.3 attempts per game is plenty impressive. But this number really puts the cherry on top of it all.

Last season, Murphy was gunning it from way downtown. According to the chart above, he shot 44% on 3-pointers taken from 30 feet out or further. Albeit, Murphy only took 25 attempts from that distance (per NBA.com). But still, the fact that he could hit those shots at that high of a rate is a huge plus as it pertains to his ceiling as a spacer.

At this point in time, Murphy hasn’t displayed the movement shooting chops that someone like newcomer Jordan Hawkins flashed during his sophomore season of college. So, the fact that he can level up his spacing by taking deeper threes is a huge win for the Pelicans, especially when Zion Williamson is healthy (more spacing means a less congested paint for him to work with).

It’ll be interesting to monitor his percentage on these extra deep threes next season. Can he start taking one of these types of shots per game? And if he does, how much will that change his percentage? More than likely, it will go down (the volume/efficiency tradeoff), but can he still keep it about 40%?

Whatever the case may be, it looks like we have another storyline to monitor during what projects to be an interesting 2023-24 NBA Season.