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Opening night did not exactly go according to plan for the New Orleans Pelicans despite their 123-111 win over the Chicago Bulls. Their past few seasons have been beset by injuries, and it's an absolute nightmare for them to lose one of their best players for an extended period during the very first game of the season. But that's exactly what happened when Dejounte Murray was diagnosed with a fractured hand late on Wednesday night.
Unfortunately for Murray and the Pelicans, it looked as though the 6'5″ guard sustained the injury late in the fourth quarter with the game already out of reach. As pointed out by Pelicans Film Room on X (formerly known as Twitter), it's “likely” that Murray broke his hand when bracing his fall after drawing a foul on Zach LaVine on a three-point attempt.
Likely the play where Dejounte injured his left hand. He didn't want to be helped up by that hand pic.twitter.com/P8OYQGcERx
— Pelicans Film Room (@PelsFilmRoom) October 24, 2024
Murray appeared to slam his left hand against the hardwood, and it immediately looked as though he was feeling immense pain in that area. When his Pelicans teammate Herb Jones approached him to help him back up, Murray did not want his left hand to be held, with Jones adjusting accordingly by holding his wrist instead.
This is certainly not the way the Pelicans envisioned their trade for Murray would go in the early goings of the season. With Murray now likely to be out for an extended period, it will take even more time for New Orleans to build chemistry and integrate a new major piece in their lineup.
But the silver lining of the timing of this injury is that it happened early in the season. This would at least give Murray plenty of time to recover to full health, which would then give the Pelicans a chance to head into the stretch run of the season as a fully-realized team — an opportunity that they haven't had over the past few seasons.
How do the Pelicans adjust in the aftermath of the Dejounte Murray injury?
It doesn't look as though the Pelicans will be doing much in the way of adjusting in the aftermath of Dejounte Murray's injury. Murray will be out for around four to six weeks with a broken hand, but the Pelicans have the benefit of continuity; their quartet of Zion Williamson, Brandon Ingram, CJ McCollum, and Herb Jones have plenty of experience playing alongside one another, which should keep the team very much afloat in the month or so that Murray will be missing.
Williamson should fill in nicely for Murray in the do-it-all role he played on opening night. Murray's shot on Wednesday night was off, as he made just three of his 14 shot attempts, but he made up for that with his presence on the glass (eight rebounds), compensating for the Pelicans' size issues, and his playmaking proficiency (10 assists).
With Murray out, perhaps the Pelicans give out more minutes to Jose Alvarado and Jordan Hawkins. But more likely than not, when Williamson is back from his illness, he'll just be getting most of the minutes that were penciled in for Murray, at least for the foreseeable future.
