Rich Paul suggested to David Griffin that the New Orleans Pelicans attempt to trade for Dejounte Murray from the Atlanta Hawks this offseason. The Pelicans had tried to trade for Murray at the trade deadline, but a deal had to wait until the period between the draft and the start of free agency to get done.
“When we were at group workouts in Los Angeles this year, we were at the Klutch pro day,” said Griffin at Murray’s introductory press conference. “We got together with Rich Paul there. One of the things Rich said to us was ‘You know, you really need to try to get Dejounte Murray.’
“We sort of laughed and we said ‘You know, we tried to do that at trade deadline and we weren’t able to really make something happen that made sense for both sides’. But when he shared with us the excitement Dejounte had for our situation, it was really an eye-opening thing. It was meaningful to us.”
Murray signed a four-year, $120 million extension with the Hawks in 2023 that also contained a 15 percent trade bonus that paid out $12.1 million.