Unsung: the 2021 – 22 season of Dejounte Murray
San Antonio Spurs guard Dejounte Murray looking on during a game versus the Memphis Grizzlies on March 30, 2022 at AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas | Photo taken by Michael Gonzales
The phrase “underrated” gets overused in sports media nowadays, however this is one of the few cases it feels appropriate to be said about NBA point guard Dejounte Murray. San Antonio Spurs’ guard Dejounte Murray just had a career season, and it went under the radar. Murray averaged 21.1 points per game, 9.2 assists per game, 8.3 rebounds per game and two steals per game. Just looking at his numbers, one would assume that he earned a lot of recognition this season based on those stats but the only thing to show for his great play this season was a shoo-in All-Star injury replacement for Draymond Green.
The Spurs have seemed to become an irrelevant team since the retirement of Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobli, and Tony Parker and the departure of Kawhi Leonard. In the ESPN preseason power ranking coming into the 2021–22 season, the Spurs were ranked 23rd out of 30. They were viewed as a bottom seed in the Western Conference. Murray put the team on his shoulders under the guidance of head coach Gregg Popovich. Murray led a roster where a young and talented but unproven Keldon Johnson was the second option. A team with low expectations slid into the Play-in tournament as the 10th seed over the Lakers, who supposedly had championship aspirations.
In his campaign, Murray became the first player in NBA history to average 20 points, nine assists, eight rebounds and two steals while playing a minimum of 40 games. He led the NBA in totals steals with 138 and steals per game at two per game. The last time someone averaged two steals per game was in 2015 and that was Kawhi Leonard, the year he won the Defensive Player of the Year award. Last but not least, Murray became the first player in Spurs franchise history to have at least 1,000 points, 500 assists and 500 rebounds in a season.
Murray easily had the best season of his career and became a star overnight. He did get some recognition in the Most Improved Player award race, getting 20 first place votes for the award. Yet Ja Morant won the award with 38 first place votes. Draymond Green complained, saying his fellow Warriors teammate Jordan Poole got snubbed from the MIP race after not earning a finalist position. Although, one can make a case that Murray was the real snub for the award. Don’t get it twisted, Morant had an incredible season and was in contention for the Most Valuable Player award, but Morant was already a star in comparison to Murray. Morant’s biggest improvement was in scoring going from 19.1 points per game to 27.4 per game this season. Surprisingly his assists per game declined this year, 7.4 assists per game to 6.7. While his turnovers per game slightly increased, 3.3 turnovers per game to 3.4 this season. The other statistical categories only had slight improvements upon his last season numbers.
Though his snub in the MIP race is debatable, his absence from the All-Defensive teams was surely questionable. Murray averaged more steals, had a higher steal percentage, better defensive box plus/minus, defensive win shares, and a better overall defensive rating than Jrue Holiday who made the second team. Murray only received 24 points in the end vote while Holiday had 89 points. He even had less votes and points than Raptors guard Fred VanVleet who had 41 points.
Though Murray is not a household name yet, the 25-year old guard is starting to make a name for himself in the league.
