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The New Orleans Pelicans are notoriously cautious when dealing with injuries whether it be to a two-time NBA All-Star or someone trying to stay employed on a two-way contract. They've also protected their players by playing things close to the vest at times but Trey Murphy III was candid when discussing his return to the rotation after three games on the sidelines.
“Well, we're definitely on a minutes restriction right now,” Murphy III shared. “It is still being discussed on exactly the amount of minutes but around the 20-ish to 25-ish range, something like that…I wouldn't say I'm fully at 100% and a lot of it is just due to time but close to it.”
Pelicans third-year head coach Willie Green has been charting Murphy III's progress and was encouraged by how the young but budding star is handling the setback.
“He is in pretty good spirits,” Green said after New Orleans' loss to the Los Angeles Clippers. “(Murphy III) understands that he's coming off a knee surgery and there will be days where it's some ups and downs but mentally he is a strong dude.”
Trigga Trey returns
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Murphy III played 16 minutes against the Clippers after being sidelined for three games. The Pelicans wing was out the first six weeks of the season but felt good enough to log 24 minutes in a road win over the Sacramento Kings 48 hours after falling to the Clippers at home. The Virginia alum's knee held up well and wasn't even an afterthought going into a five-game West Coast road trip.
“Yeah, pretty good. I didn't put too much impact on it so I wasn't too worried about it at all really,” Murphy III detailed. “I feel fine and I'm ready to go (vs. Sacramento). Any time you have surgery you're going to have inflammation and stuff like that so we just wanted to make sure it was monitored during this time because it's not Game 7 of the Finals right now. Might as well get ahead of it now so we don’t have to deal with it later in the year.”
Willie Green's rotations get a lot more lethal with Murphy III roaming the perimeter. The fan favorite known as Trigga Trey is averaging 18.8 points, 5.1 rebounds, 2.6 assists, and a steal per 36 minutes.
More importantly, Murphy III's range opens up acres of space for Zion Williamson, Brandon Ingram, and CJ McCollum. Green's job now is to get them more time on the court together. The Pelicans Big 3 plus Murphy have played a total of 30 minutes together over eight games, per NBA Stats.
