I finally found some of the posts made by Spurs fans about Murray that helped shape my thinking about him, as I'm deferring to their knowledge on the subject as Spurs fans who watched him for years:
Phreak50 wrote:Name one thing he does great, or even very good?
He isn't quick, his jumper is extremely inconsistent (especially anything outside of midrange), he isn't a great playmaker and you can leave him open because he is about a bad three point shooter as Marcus Smart.
He has quick hands and if you allow him to gamble lanes he will get steals. But he isn't a good one on one defender.
If he ever accepts he would be the 3rd or 4th best player in a winning lineup, he could find a perfect role.
But in no way is he an 18 shot a game (5 of them from 3) point guard.
viewtopic.php?p=107118318#p107118318Chinook wrote:I can't speak too much on Murray with the Hawks, but if he's like he was as a Spur, no he's not a good defender. He was a guy who makes highlight defensive plays without actually stopping anybody. The media made the mistake of crediting DJM for the Spurs' defense in 2017-2018, and that basically ruined him on that end for the rest of his Spurs career. The reality is that he needed to be hidden or at least protected on defense -- the team needed to have guys solid enough to allow Murray to gamble. That 2018 squad had LMA play his best defense of his career, Danny Green in his prime and Kyle Anderson. Those guys where huge parts of why the defense worked that year, and Murray was the main beneficiary.
If the question is how good Murray is, it's actually pretty good. I am not sure if he's top 50 or top 70, but he's one of the better guys in the league. But if the question is how important is he to have on your team, his attitude and refusal to take a step back hurt him there. As tempting as it might be to some to imagine the Spurs getting Wemby while somehow having kept DeJounte, to me that sounds horrible. He'd be trying to pull rank, sending out passive-aggressive IG messages, sulking if Pop tried to pull rank, trying to "get his" on the court. If DeJounte ever "gets over himself", I'd love to have him on a team. But I think he'll probably have that Stephen Jackson chip on his shoulder forever, and Jack was a rare player who out-performed expectations constantly while also constantly under-performing his talent due to his attitude.
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