SAN FRANCISCO — The Sacramento Kings didn't draft Keegan Murray as a defensive answer.

Coming out of Iowa after a dominant sophomore season, the No. 4 overall pick of the 2022 NBA Draft was billed as a ready-made multi-level scorer, with feathery touch on his jumper, underrated finishing craft and a developing off-dribble game. The initial perception of Murray's of relatively low ceiling for a high lottery pick was the result of what seemed like average physical tools for a combo forward, deficiencies seemingly poised to keep him from being anything more than an average defender.

A year and-a-half later, Murray hasn't just flashed an all-around peak far higher than pretty much anyone anticipated. He's already emerged as the game-by-game “stopper” no one thought he'd ever become, playing that pivotal role for a Sacramento squad seeking its first back-to-back postseason appearances in nearly two decades.

Murray didn't shoulder that heavy nightly burden only after getting his NBA feet wet as a rookie. He was even the Kings' primary defender of star guards and wings at times in his debut campaign, most notably for extended stretches on Stephen Curry in Sacramento's epic seven-game playoff series with the Golden State Warriors last spring.

Asked about Murray's growth defensively since being thrown into that postseason “deep end” before Thursday's thrilling win over Golden State, Mike Brown lauded the 23-year-old's willingness to take on his team's toughest defensive assignments from the very beginning while noting how much better he'll be for it as a defender going forward,

“He’s been in that deep end since he got here. He’s a rookie and we expect to be in the playoffs and we expect to do well in the playoffs, and he’s starting for us,” Brown told ClutchPoints. “He’s taking not just Steph—Anthony Edwards, you name it, Devin Booker—those are the guys he takes. It’s a little unfair to him with all the expectations from day one that we placed upon him. But he can handle it, he’s embraced it and he’s gonna be really good because of it. He’s already pretty good now, but his ceiling is gonna be very, very high because he’s getting a dose of this right now, while we’re still having a chance to win at a high level.”

Keegan Murray matches Steph Curry's minutes in win over Warriors

Curry exploded for 18 points in the first quarter of Thursday's wild battle between the Northern California rivals, seemingly en route to the type of individual masterpiece that propelled the Dubs to an instant-classic Game 7 road win over the Kings in May. Murray played 27 minutes in his first taste of do-or-die postseason action, his lowest total since Game 3 as Brown extended Terence Davis' role and opted for more lateral quickness on Curry. He still matched up with the best shooter ever during one of Curry's signature performances, but mostly on switches or in scramble situations.

What a difference nine months make. After Curry lit up all Kings comers in the first quarter, Brown decided to match Murray's minutes with him for the game's remainder. The pay off that drastic ‘our best on your best' approach? Curry scored just 15 points over the last three quarters, needing 17 shots to reach that total.

“You’re not stopping Steph Curry at all. He’s obviously a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer, one of the all-time greatest,” Brown said after the game. “Steph has 18 or something like that in the first, and we just decided to try to match Keegan’s minutes with him to see if Keegan could make him work. They just throw a lot of different things at you offensively: Steph’s a screener and then Steph’s a ball handler, then Steph’s coming off a flare and then Steph’s coming off a pin-down. They do all types of things to get you confused and they did, but he has 18 in the first and 15 the rest of the game. Again, you’re not stopping him, you just hope to make him work. And we thought Keegan did his best to try to make him work those last three quarters.”

Sacramento allows 5.2 fewer points per 100 possessions with Murray on the floor this season, a team-high mark among regulars that ranks in the 86th percentile league-wide, per Cleaning the Glass. His +1.7 estimated defensive plus-minus ranks 43rd in the league overall, according to Dunks & Threes, best on the Kings and just below or above numbers from established, true difference-makers like Kawhi Leonard, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Aaron Gordon. Murray's three most frequent defensive matchups so far? Curry, Booker and Brandon Ingram.

Matchup data is rife with noise, and hardly portrays Murray as some top-tier one-on-one defender on par with Alex Caruso and Herb Jones. A quick glance at the stats suggests Curry, Booker and Ingram have won their battles with Murray this season. But even that evidence doesn't stray so far from an eye test—not to mention more advanced analytics—that paints Murray as an objectively quality defender barely halfway through his second NBA go-around.

No one is under any delusion Murray will evolve into prime Kawhi Leonard, locking down his man while simultaneously striking imminent fear in the minds of opponents every time they dare come near him. He won't ever slide with ball handlers like Caruso or slither around screens like Jones, and lacks the outlier physical profile that makes OG Anunoby the league's closest thing to a five-position stopper. It's not like Murray is blessed with Draymond Green's all-time instincts and processing speed, either.

But Murray doesn't need to be a truly elite defender to eventually become one of the game's most impactful two-way forwards. His burgeoning self-creation chops and deadeye shooting profile project Murray as a major offensive plus at the three or the four. Just the fact a defense-first coach like Brown already trusts him to check the other team's best player suggests Murray is coming for that distinction.