Does trading Jalen Green for Dejounte Murray make sense?

Trade buzz is percolating with increased ferocity for the Phoenix Suns on Friday, with point guard Dejounte Murray asking for a trade from the New Orleans Pelicans and a report from The Athletic’s Sam Amick saying that Murray has “strong interest” in joining Phoenix.

This comes shortly after Amick wrote on Jalen Green, reporting there is outside league interest to see if the Suns move Green. Arizona Sports’ John Gambadoro and Amick both reported the Suns want to remain patient with the roster.

All of this is unfolding while Green is trying like hell to play how Phoenix wants him to, which in other words, is not how Jalen Green usually plays. He’s taking five shots fewer per game than his career average, all while attempting a career-high 38% of his shots at the rim and providing extra energy with defense and rebounding.

It’s not working so far, even with the clear buy-in.

Green’s poor efficiency from last season has seen his true shooting percentage drop even further. Even worse, his remarkably consistent turnover percentage over his career that hovered around an acceptable 11.5% is now at a brutal 17.6% this year with all of the playmaking and passing he is attempting to do more of.

The starting lineup quartet of Green, Devin Booker, Dillon Brooks and Miles Bridges has a -21.2 net rating in 168 minutes. Green did not play in the fourth quarter of Thursday’s win, totaling only 21 minutes. His -15.3 net rating is the lowest on the team and is the seventh-lowest in the league among starters.

Even if Green were to move to the bench, similar issues with his role would arise. The ball movement flows wonderfully in the second unit, thanks largely to Collin Gillespie and the added boost Luke Kennard has provided there too. If Green were to just be back to “Jalen Green” there, it would have a chance of affecting that flow.

So, Murray then?

The convenience lies within the salaries. Both players can get swapped 1-for-1, and each has two years left that include a player option on the last year.

The bit you can’t ignore is that Murray’s camp shares that info with Amick. Murary’s camp is Klutch Sports Group. His agent is Rich Paul. He also represents Miles Bridges. And Koa Peat. And Khaman Maluach. And Rasheer Fleming. The connection is there.

How about Murray as a player?

Before we get there, Murray has had one of the oddest careers of the last decade.

A late first-round pick by the San Antonio Spurs in 2016, Murray first made a name for himself on defense, where in Year 2 he was Second Team All-Defense. The next preseason, he tore his ACL.

San Antonio the next summer signed Murray to a four-year extension worth $64 million, and he began showing real promise as a lead guard offensively during that contract. In Year 6 at the age of 25, Murray was an All-Star, averaging 21.1 points. 8.3 rebounds and 9.2 assists per game while leading the league in steals, to boot.

With Murray entering his prime and looking like a potential franchise point guard, the Spurs decided instead of using Murray as a primary building block, that they would instead sell high. He was shipped to Atlanta in a deal with salary filler that effectively netted the Spurs two first-round picks, one of which landed in the lottery for Carter Bryant.

Murray formed a curious fit with Trae Young, although if he brought it defensively, serving as a secondary playmaker could work wonders. Instead, the initial reaction proved right. The experiment failed, birthing two first-round playoff exits. Nonetheless, after the first year, Atlanta extended Murray on a four-year, $120 million deal that he is still on.

After those two uninspiring seasons, Murray was traded to New Orleans for two first-round picks and a player package that included the useful Dyson Daniels. Tough one for the Pelicans.

Murray, who to that point had proven to be rather reliable when it came to his health since the ACL tear, broke his left hand in the season opener and his debut for the Pelicans. A month later, he returned, playing in 30 more games before tearing his Achilles. Murray missed 13 months and played in 14 games last year.

This season, after the Pelicans got off to a 1-8 start and a handful of Murray on-court clips Pelicans fans found frustrating made the rounds online, Murray responded to one of them in a later-deleted tweet going at one of the posts. Another one was also deleted, in which Murray did not seem to appreciate getting treated like the primary player to blame for the Pelicans’ slow start. He also reshared his own trade request report, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen before.

All told, it’s hard to know what kind of player he is now at the age of 30. If anything, this should naturally inspire doubt, especially coming off the Achilles injury and having the ACL tear earlier in his career too.

The on/off numbers in the last two years with San Antonio were really good on bad teams before not being so good on two playoff teams in Atlanta that were an odd fit. And you cannot read anything into 54 combined games over three years for New Orleans.

What Murray can still do is score and playmake while getting to the rim. He’s done that his whole career, and will continue to do so.

The passing juice is where he gets the edge over Green, and his rim pressure has been more consistent. He’s not the pure point guard lots of Suns fans are starving for, but more in line with that type of player compared to Green.

Whether or not he could reclaim even 70% of his prior defensive form and reinvigorate himself there within the Suns’ culture — or still be a positive on that end — would be a major wait-and-see. He isn’t exactly dousing himself in glory right now for being a potential culture fit with the aforementioned tweets and doing stuff like this on the court.

Murray is also not a good 3-point shooter, logging just one season over 34% on decent volume.

In some ways, this would be a trade just to make a trade. There are ways Murray fits better. It also would be two teams swapping two problematic fits for different reasons and seeing if that does the trick. It would be both teams coming to the conclusion that doing something is better than doing nothing — or waiting to see if a better option comes along later this season.

It is crucial to note before we go that Murray is the guy asking out and pulling stuff both on the court and on social media, not Green.

Green is doing what he’s been coached to do and is sacrificing the most out of anyone on the team right now, playing a style he hasn’t played his entire life, all while being a good teammate. That’s something to keep in mind as we continue to talk about what the Suns’ culture means these last handful of months.

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