Keegan Murray burst onto the scene as a rookie for the Sacramento Kings last season. Ahead of his second year, Kings GM Monte McNair issues Murray a challenge to step up his game, reports The Athletic's Anthony Slater and Sam Amick.
“We know we need Keegan [Murray] to take another step. And one of the ways he can do that is to be more of a second or third option as opposed to a fourth or fifth option. And it’s hard to do that when you have two all-NBA guys, right? Then you have Kevin Huerter and Harrison Barnes. So you know, it may take some time for him to do that within the natural flow.”
Monte McNair emphasizes that it will not be an easy task for Keegan Murray to become the option that the Kings envision. However, McNair is joined by scouts around the league who believe that Murray has really high offensive potential.
“He’s going to be a sophomore in this league and it’s not going to be immediate or perfect. But I’m really happy with what we’ve seen from him. Scoring, I think, is something that comes naturally to him. He’s an incredibly hard worker. He’s been working with De’Aaron [Fox] a lot. Hard to find a better mentor for scoring in bunches than him. And as a big 6-foot-8 multi-positional forward, yeah, those are the things that can unlock us.”
It is clear that the Kings have big goals for Murray and are looking forward to his second season. Stay tuned to see if McNair and the rest of the Kings officials are right about Murray's development.