After a horrible 2024-25 season that was riddled with injuries and off-court struggles, training camp has arrived for the New Orleans Pelicans, and fans are excited to see this squad back.
A huge part of the excitement for Pelicans fans heading into this season is because of Trey Murphy III. However, the mainstream NBA media continues to sleep on Murphy III and his potential breakout into stardom this season.
The 25-year-old is coming off a breakout season in 2024-25, where he averaged 21.2 points per game, but people who follow the Pels closely see that there is clearly another level to Murphy III’s game.
One of the keys to Murphy III’s breakout this season is the departure of Brandon Ingram. With Ingram no longer in New Orleans, Murphy III’s shot volume is bound to increase this season, and because of that, his scoring production is only going to get better.
Let's assume now that BI is gone, Murphy III gets to attempt 3.0 more threes a game and makes, on average, 1.5 more threes per game. This would add 4.5 more points per game to his average from last season, bringing his point per game average to 25.7.
Only 13 players last season averaged 25 points per game or more, and all Murphy III may need to join that group is to get 2 to 4 more shots per night.
Despite the obvious signs that a star-level breakout is coming for Murphy III, he continues to be overlooked by the majority of the NBA media.
He’ll just have to prove them wrong
It’s no secret that the media was not a fan of the moves Joe Dumars made in his first offseason in charge of the Pelicans. Whether it was giving up a valuable future first-round pick to move up 10 spots to draft Derik Queen, or it was trading for Jordan Poole, whose style of play doesn’t always translate to winning, the media wasn’t kind to Dumars.
This dark cloud hovering over the Pelicans, I believe, is part of the reason that Murphy III’s breakout is being overlooked. With the NBA media outlets so focused on the negatives with the Pelicans, it completely made them look past Murphy III and the breakout that is clearly coming from him.
All Murphy III can do to change this and get people talking about him is to do what Pelicans fans believe is inevitable, which is to have an All-Star-level breakout. If he can do that, the sky’s the limit for this team.