The Golden State Warriors might have interest in a trade for rising forward Trey Murphy III, but actually pulling off a deal with the New Orleans Pelicans is going to be much easier said than done.
Murphy's combination of age, size and skillset makes him so valuable that it's hard to question why the Pelicans would ever entertain letting him go, yet perhaps their most recent trade presents some hope for the Warriors.
Pelicans might be foolish enough to gift Trey Murphy III to the Warriors
Many would consider the Pelicans foolish if they trade Murphy, but perhaps they're irresponsible enough to actually do it. Rewind to June's NBA draft where under the new combination of Joe Dumars as head of basketball operations and Troy Weaver as general manager, New Orleans made what was immediately regarded as an awful trade with the Atlanta Hawks.
In order to move up from the 23rd to the 13th pick to select Derik Queen, the Pelicans relinquished their 2026 first-round pick completely unprotected despite finishing 14th in the Western Conference last season. Oh, and even if New Orleans do take a jump up the standings next season, the Hawks can still get the Milwaukee Bucks first-rounder if they were to finish with a better pick than the Pelicans.
One assistant general manager told Sam Vecenie of The Athletic that ”this is the worst trade, non-Luka division, that we’ve seen in at least a decade." Colleague John Hollinger labelled the Pelicans' chase of Queen 'reckless', while viewing their asset management as 'awful'.
However, there's another segment to that post-draft article from Hollinger which will be of more interest to Warrior fans, particularly those holding out hope of Murphy coming to the Bay in the near future.
"They (Pelicans) have a coach none of the players like, that they somehow can’t fire, a star player nobody wants around but they can’t get rid of, and, as the last 48 hours showed, a new front office throwing spaghetti at the wall," Hollinger wrote.
That might suggest enough dysfunction at the Pelicans that the Warriors could be able to take advantage, enabling them to land Murphy when most teams wouldn't even dare consider trading this calibre of player, on this contract, and at 25-years-old.
For now any deal looks extremely unlikely given the salary-matching complications, but who knows what may happen once the season gets underway and if the Pelicans questionable recent moves translates to more concerns on the floor.