Keegan Murray

Keegan Murray is a versatile scorer who can post, drive, and shoot.  He has the ability to create and play either off the ball – either as a cutter/spacer or as the screener in the pick and roll.  Murray is already an elite catch and shoot player when he’s able to get to his position and shows some real potential as a movement shooter and coming off various pro actions (e.g., flares, pin downs, etc.).  With the ball, Murray isn’t the craftist driver nor an explosive athlete in traffic, but he has good quickness and springiness (quick leaper) and can get past defenders with straight-line drives, utilize spin moves / fades, or post up players (though this will only be useful opportunistically at the NBA level).  Murray is savvy moving without the ball – whether relocating along the perimeter, cutting inside, or moving to other soft spots in the defense.  He has good footwork and touch in the post (to go with some fluidity, he’s not completely stiff), but he can miss layups and putbacks when contested and even his post moves are susceptible to being blocked or ending poorly with congestion inside (I think he’s still having nightmares about Coleman Hawkins and Kofi Cockburn clogging the lane).

Still, Murray is very smart about the angles he takes and not wasting dribbles or pounding the ball and he has enough footwork and strength to finish through contact and draw fouls. Perhaps the two biggest offensive areas for growth for Murray are his mid-range jumper and passing.  He almost never shot the ball mid-range off the dribble (and tended to miss when he did).  I think even the Synergy plays coded as mid-range were more often mid-range fadeaways as opposed to jumpers.  Second, almost every assist from his tape was a pretty basic pass around the perimeter.

Perhaps my biggest happy surprise with Murray was his defense.  Murray’s quickness in short spaces and quick jumping ability serves him well as he blocks a surprising number of shots and contests shots well on the perimeter and rotating to shooters.  He has strong awareness on the defensive end and can be seen pointing and communicating with teammates.  Murray slides his feet really well on the perimeter, can change direction quickly, and is able to recover quickly and catch up when players do get a step on him.  This allowed Iowa to switch a lot of screens and Murray was able to shut down some pretty quick guards and wings, really helping Iowa’s defense.  He also played strong man D, including some impressive possessions against likely lottery pick Johnny Davis, so he wasn’t just containing non-prospects.   Murray also has good anticipation, generally takes good angles on screens, and has good hands, which allowed him to post some extremely high steal numbers.  Finally, Murray is a good defensive rebounder and a good ball handler who is a threat to “grab and go” with every board.

Note: If you want to watch a good game of Murray’s, I think the Ohio St. game may be decently representative of who he is in the NBA.  He struggled to create at times against their bigger lineup and was stopped multiple times by E.J. Liddell, but still had 24 points on 10-17 shooting in a 13 point win.