The New Orleans Pelicans, entering the 2023-24 season, are looking forward to putting a disappointing 2022-23 campaign behind them. At the end of the day, the Pelicans' hopes of being legitimate title contenders hinge on the health of Zion Williamson. Brandon Ingram tried his best to prop up the Pelicans in the aftermath of Williamson's season-ending injury, tallying historic franchise numbers in the process, but Williamson is the engine that fuels the freight train that is the Pelicans team.

Even then, it's difficult to bet on Williamson staying healthy for the majority of the year, as his injury track record suggests otherwise. To that point, the Pelicans have amassed depth at every position, which could be enough to weather whatever absence Williamson ends up having. But for that depth to pay off, a youngster will have to emerge from the shadows, taking the bull by the horns and running away with a huge role in the Pelicans rotation.

Given the Pelicans' plethora of quality draft picks in recent times, they have a few breakout candidates on the roster. But there may be no one that swings the Pelicans' season more than this talented two-way wing who's unfathomably just in the third year of his brief professional career.

Without further ado, here's why Trey Murphy is the Pelicans' best bet to have a breakout 2023-24 campaign.

Pelicans player who will shock world with breakout 2023-24 NBA season: Trey Murphy

Trey Murphy (it's odd to put a “III” suffix on him since that's already baked into his “Trey” moniker, but I digress) was a raw, sharpshooting wing when the Pelicans took him with the 17th overall pick of the 2021 NBA Draft. At 6'9, Murphy was as good a project as it was going to get for the Pelicans, especially in the middle of the first round. Flush with athleticism and marksmanship from deep, Murphy had all the tools to become an impact wing.

His rookie year wasn't smooth-sailing, however. He struggled to do much of anything beyond space the floor, although he did have his moments like a dynamite poster jam over the Chicago Bulls back in 2022. He shot just 39 percent from the floor when he shot 38 percent from deep, owing to his inability to attack the rim or create much of anything for himself off the bounce.

But the 2022-23 season ended up being a turning point for Trey Murphy. With Brandon Ingram missing a lot of time to begin the year and the Pelicans' regulars regularly having to sit out games due to injury woes, Murphy emerged as a dynamic two-way weapon, an uber-efficient scoring weapon who was able to maximize the threat of his scary three-point shooting to attack the rim, knifing through defenses that close out way too hard against him.

Murphy was one of the most efficient role players in the league last year; he shot 48.4 percent from the field, 40.6 percent from deep, and 90.5 percent from the line, his shooting stroke being as pure as the Pelicans thought when they picked him out of Virginia. His true shooting was an absolutely stellar 65 percent, and he remained healthy for the vast majority of the season, suiting up for the team in 79 games, starting 65 of them.

At full strength, however, it's fair to wonder whether the Pelicans will be starting Trey Murphy ahead of Herb Jones. At full strength, CJ McCollum, Brandon Ingram, Zion Williamson, and Jonas Valanciunas are locks to start, so Murphy and Jones could have been a heated training camp battle for the ages.

Alas, entering the 2023-24 season, Murphy is currently recovering from a meniscus injury that will keep him out for six to eight more weeks from this point. That is simply a bummer for a Pelicans team that will need the services of their best shooter.

But when Murphy returns, perhaps in early December, it will be daft for Pelicans head coach Willie Green to clip the 23-year old forward's wings. Murphy is a huge downgrade from Jones on the defensive end of the court, although that's not saying much given how elite the lefty is when it comes to defending at the point of attack. Nevertheless, he's shown that he can hang with other solid perimeter scorers on the defensive end of the court, although he needs to bulk up more so he could handle the physicality from other big men on switches.

However, the crucial thing that Trey Murphy will give the team is his gravity off the ball. He could come off screens and bend defenses, and he showed last year that he could make the most out of his top-tier athleticism, yamming the ball in the lane whenever he attacks hard closeouts.

This would give the rest of the Pelicans' on-ball creators more space to work; for a team that finished in the bottom-third of the NBA in offensive rating, they will need to call upon Murphy to provide some much-needed elite shooting from three, and knowing Murphy's talent, he'll be more than up to the task en route to a full-fledged breakout campaign.