The Process Ft Trey Murphy III
Sure There is Bigger News
I woke up today and saw the news of Cale Gundy resigning, and didn't have a clue who he was prior to the headlines. My day continued into the Dejounte Murray and Paolo Banchero beef that only gets weirder. Then, the unfortunate news of Jameis Winston tweaking his ankle in 7 on 7 drills which appears and is hopefully nothing. Finally it was all capped all of that off with the fact that Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson nearly instantly had the answer of "Megan Thee Stallion" to a question of "What celebrity would you want to be the pet of?" and Kevin Hart seemingly like he has heard that before:
not Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson saying he'll be Meg Thee Stallion dog when they asked him who celebrity dog he'll be . LMFAOOOOO I FEEL YOU MY BOY . pic.twitter.com/bzqsqerqHX
— Timbo 😎 (@TimboFionna) August 7, 2022
I know The Rock said don't ask, and honestly if you need to then maybe just forget it happened at all. None of that stopped my desire to write about our Pelican daily content provided Trey "Trigga" Murphy.
Rookie Year, Rookie Mistakes?
Obviously, the coaching staff saw something in Trey that they weren't quite ready to force him to work through mistakes despite allowing Herb Jones to start. I don't know how often to happens, but a 2nd round pick starting over a 1st round pick in the same draft class their rookie year likely isn't something you see happening every year. We saw glimpses of Trey here and there but it seemed his ability to carve out consistent minutes was an uphill battle and we never saw the other side of the hill he was climbing. Despite this, he still won the admiration of many even making sure a creator and fan got credit where it was due:
S/O to @NOLAsFavoriteAD for the design inspiration 🤝 https://t.co/w2Y5xg3fe6
— TMIII (@treymurphy) April 28, 2022
I can't think off the top of my head anything Trey did
wrong
yet still we saw plenty of Garret Temple minutes instead of him. We even saw the coaching staff move Jaxson Hayes to a 4 and get starting minutes when it was clear Jax was not perfect and hit or miss if he showed up to play consistently. All of this, inconsistent playing time, and Trey still came out and shot like he was drafted to do leading all rookies in 3pt percentage. The best part of it all? None of this deterred Trey, and if you have seen Summer League or even the cell phone footage in games during his down time it is evident, Trigga is not playing around any more.
New Year, New Player
Coming out of college being touted as a "bigtime shooter" but severely lacking in awareness to rebound effectively despite his size. Lacks the ability to find teammates, lacks good positioning on defense, and lacks a ball handling skill set. There seemed to be only one thing Trey could offer, shooting, but if you watched Summer League he came to be better and clearly worked on all the things he "lacked". One of the biggest things I saw repeated on a few draft profiles was Trey himself didn't quite understand what he was capable of and lacked confidence. I think this was the only rookie mistake the coaching staff was not willing to let him work through. Based on what we have seen since then, Trey has been a gym rat and looks more comfortable and capable in his frame that offers more agility than most guys who are 6'10 and in the NBA. Check out a few quick clips from the summer:
Top 5 shooter in the league next year @treymurphy pic.twitter.com/gjio9SKseb
— Jalen (@brandonpickem) August 2, 2022
Trey Murphy dunking on Ja Morant 💪 pic.twitter.com/8NutGvnwpU
— Zion Williamson FanPage (@zionheadlines) July 27, 2022
Trey doing Jax type of things pic.twitter.com/doLAyvWCzu
— Jake Hardee (@pelicansbyjake) August 5, 2022
All Part of The Process
Despite not playing as much as I think a lot of fans wanted, I still think the coaching staff made the right decision limiting Trey's minutes early on. Battling a demon like confidence in one self is something that can take a toll on a player even if they have been playing in the NBA for more than just their rookie year. Guys come back from injury and their confidence in their body or even if they will still play at the same level is something we have seen before. Trey battled and persevered through everything he "lacked" and is ready to come back and put the league on notice and remind everyone of something he realized, he was drafted in the first round for a reason. Watching Summer Trigga I can't help but think of the Kanye sample from his song "Stronger":
Work it, make it, do it
Makes us harder, better, faster, stronger
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