[Amick] The Golden State Warriors’ open desire to acquire Trey Murphy III from the New Orleans Pelicans has put New Orleans “front and center” in the Jonathan Kuminga trade landscape.
The Kings are widely expected to revisit their offseason interest in Kuminga, and it remains to be seen if that’s the case for teams like Phoenix and Chicago that have been intrigued by him before. But the New Orleans Pelicans, in many ways, are front and center in this discussion.
Let me explain.
For quite some time now, the Warriors have been open about their desire to acquire the Pelicans’ Trey Murphy III. But if they’re going to use Kuminga to do that, then it would be helpful to know how, if at all, the Pelicans value the Warriors’ 23-year-old forward. For the time being, the feedback is mixed on that front. ’Tis the season for smokescreens, after all.
For the Pelicans’ purposes, the Warriors’ interest in Murphy underscores the potential impact they’ll have on the trade season league-wide. Despite their record — New Orleans is second-worst in the league at 4-22 — players like Murphy and Herbert Jones are expected to draw major interest from contending teams.