Bold Offseason NBA Trades That Need to Happen | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors
San Antonio Spurs Receive: PG Dejounte Murray
Atlanta Hawks Receive: F Keldon Johnson, PG Devonte' Graham, 2025 and 2027 first-round picks (via Atlanta Hawks)
Some teams can slowly build a winner around their star rookie, adding top draft picks over time before going all-in to chase a championship. However, Victor Wembanyama is good enough for the San Antonio Spurs to start making win-now moves immediately. With a 75-year-old head coach in Gregg Popovich, patience isn't an option.
Murray developed into an All-Star point guard with the Spurs, spending his first six seasons in San Antonio before being traded to the Hawks in 2022. That experiment has all but failed.
A reunion with Popovich on a Spurs team that needs an upgrade at point guard makes too much sense not to happen. San Antonio showed interest in Murray at this year's trade deadline, according to The Athletic's Shams Charania, and Murray spoke highly about Popovich to Trae Young on Bleacher Report's "From the Point" podcast:
"I love that dude to death, man. Like, he was a father for me. When I would lose people, I would go in his room, and he would give me that hug. I would cry on his shoulder, I would vent to him," Murray said. "He just was there for me, and that's not even nothing about no basketball. We're talking about real life. When I got hurt, tore my ACL and was out for a year, he squeezed me like, 'You're going to be great. You work, you want to learn, so this is nothing.'"
Atlanta's front office could go straight out of a scene from Draft Dayand demand (some of) their first-round picks back that they gave up for Murray in the first place, along with Johnson and a backup point guard for Young in Graham.
The Hawks would get a chance to reshape the roster around Young with control of their picks back. Johnson, who averaged 16.9 points, 6.4 rebounds and 3.9 assists in 27 games as a starter this past season, would give them another rotation piece to plug in.
Meanwhile, Murray would become a leader on a young Spurs team that still has extra first-round picks coming from the Toronto Raptors (top-six protected in 2024), Charlotte Hornets (lottery-protected in 2025) and Chicago Bulls (top-10 protected 2025), as well as multiple future first-round swap rights.
