Trey Murphy III and the New Orleans Pelicans have agreed to a four-year, $112 million contract extension, Murphy’s agents told The Stein Line’s Marc Stein on Monday. Murphy, 24, is the second player eligible for a rookie-scale extension to accept a non-max deal this offseason.
There are no options in the deal, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania.
Golden State Warriors wing Moses Moody agreed to a three-year, $39 million extension on Sunday, his agent told ESPN. Before these two deals, the only players to sign rookie extensions were Scottie Barnes of the Toronto Raptors, Cade Cunningham of the Detroit Pistons, Evan Mobley of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Franz Wagner of the Orlando Magic, all of whom signed max contracts.
The deadline for rookie extensions is Monday at 5 p.m. ET.
Last season, Murphy started slowly while recovering from a knee injury, but averaged 18.1 points (on 66.1% true shooting!), 6.2 rebounds and 2.9 assists in 33.9 minutes in his final 24 games. Murphy made 41.7% of his 3-point attempts during that stretch on 8.8 attempts per game.
If Murphy builds on that, this contract will be a massive home run for the Pelicans. He’s a 6-foot-8 forward with a sky-high release who shoots deep 3s comfortably, and there aren’t a lot of players on the planet who fit that description. Going forward, though, the question is how much — and when — New Orleans can reasonably expect his usage and minutes to increase.
Murphy was the Pelicans’ sixth man when they were healthy last season, and he seems ready to graduate into a more prominent role, but, after a summer in which they traded for Dejounte Murray and did not trade Brandon Ingram, there is not necessarily space for him to spread his wings. Murphy had an 18.2% usage rate last season.
Murphy is expected to miss the beginning of the 2024-25 due to a hamstring strain suffered in training camp.
“Obviously, starting the season again hurts me a lot, Murphy told reporters earlier this month. “And just trying to do everything I can, summer-wise, to be prepared for a season, then having something like that really sucks. But I’m just looking at it in perspective. It could be a lot worse. The good thing it it’s an NBA season — I’ll be there for the majority of it.”
Other players eligible for rookie extensions include the Houston Rockets’ Alperen Sengun and Jalen Green, the Magic’s Jalen Suggs, the Warriors’ Jonathan Kuminga, the Atlanta Hawks’ Jalen Johnson, the Chicago Bulls’ Josh Giddey, the Washington Wizards’ Corey Kispert and the Brooklyn Nets’ Cam Thomas, among others.
Warriors extend Moody… what about Kuminga?
Moody, 22, is sticking with Golden State on a deal starting at slightly less than the midlevel exception. It is a team-friendly deal, but it is not difficult to understand why it might have been appealing to Moody. For the first three years of his career, he has been productive in his minutes, but has not solidified his spot as an every-night rotation player under coach Steve Kerr. This season, with Golden State as deep as it has ever been, the situation could be similar. In preseason, though, Moody was impressive. He appears to have gotten stronger, and, more importantly, he has comfortably knocked down shots off movement.
“He’s playing great,” Kerr told reporters last week, following a win against the Los Angeles Lakers in which Moody scored 21 points in 19 minutes on 7-for-14 shooting. “He’s gotten so much better in so may ways. We’ve always loved his character, his work ethic, but I think this is the most confidence that I think he’s played with. And he’s going to play a big role for us, but so are a lot of other guys. We’re sitting in that coaches room every day saying, ‘How do we play all these guys?’ ‘Cause they all deserve to play.”
There is still time, in theory, for the Warriors to also get a deal done with Kuminga. ESPN reported last Friday, though, that he and the front office were “far apart” in negotiations. Kuminga reportedly wants to bet on himself rather than signing a contract worth significantly less than the max.
Kuminga, who is also 22 years old, was selected No. 7 overall, seven spots ahead of Moody, in the 2021 draft. He had something of a breakout last season, but has not proven to Golden State’s coaching staff that he can play the 3 spot without floor-spacing bigs in the frontcourt. This makes him a tricky fit alongside Draymond Green, unless Green is playing center.
