Getty Dejounte Murray of the San Antonio Spurs, who would land with the New York Knicks in this proposed trade.
Dejounte Murray is a player the Boston Celtics could target with the $17.1 million trade exception they got when they signed and traded Evan Fournier to the New York Knicks last summer. According to Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report, they will have to pay a hefty price to the San Antonio Spurs if they want to make a deal.
On Fischer’s podcast, “Please Don’t Aggregate This,” he revealed what San Antonio’s asking price would be for teams who would be interested in acquiring Murray.
“They’ve told multiple teams that I’ve spoken to have called them that the price is a Jrue Holiday-like deal,” Fischer said. “Three first-round picks seems to be the benchmark.”
For reference, the Milwaukee Bucks traded two first-round picks (2025 and 2027) as well as two pick swaps (2024 and 2026) to the New Orleans Pelicans for Holiday in a four-team deal back in 2020. They also included the 24th overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft – which the Bucks received from the Pacers in 2019 – but they traded that pick to the Denver Nuggets. The first-round picks the Bucks traded were also unprotected, meaning that no matter where they finished, their pick would go to the Pelicans when the deal was agreed to.
Murray is coming off his first all-star campaign and will be paid $16,571,120 in the 2022-23 season and $17,714,000 in the 2023-24 season, which is why he is so appealing to trade for.
If the Celtics were to trade for Murray, they have until July 18 to do so.
Spurs Discussed Trading Murray to the Hawks
On June 22, Fischer reported that the Spurs had engaged in trade talks with the Atlanta Hawks revolving around Murray and John Collins.
The Hawks and Spurs have discussed a trade centered around John Collins and Dejounte Murray, per B/R’s @JakeLFischer
Sources say it will take a ‘Jrue Holiday-like package’ to acquire Murray
Chris Kirschner, who covers the Hawks beat for The Athletic, confirmed the report that the two had discussed the deal but that nothing was close at the time.
As @JakeLFischer reported, the Hawks have discussed a trade involving John Collins and Spurs guard Dejounte Murray but I’m told it’s not close to happening yet.
Not saying it won’t happen, just not close this second.
Murray then responded to the rumor on his personal Twitter account, saying the words, “Uh Oh” and including a popcorn emoji.
This added to the speculation that these trade talks the Spurs were having with the Hawks were serious. The day before these trade talks came to light, Murray made a tweet with multiple eyes emojis, which caused many on Twitter, including Celtics fans, to speculate that a trade was in the works.
For now, Murray is a Spur until the franchise decides otherwise. If Fischer’s reports about San Antonio’s demands are accurate, it’s going to take a lot to pry him away from them.
Celtics Interested in John Collins
Fischer mentioned on his podcast that the Celtics have inquired about the Atlanta Hawks’ big man. However, he never brought it up publicly because he believed the talks weren’t serious.
“I do know that Boston called about him at one point in this draft cycle, but never brought this up publicly previously because I was told that it was never very serious that we’re going to get very far.”
Zach Harper of The Athletic brought up Boston’s interest in Collins on June 22, but also pointed out that the two sides striking a deal would be complex because neither side has the assets to agree to a mutually beneficial trade.
“There’s also some chatter the Celtics could be interested in a deal for Collins… The problem is … who do you give up for Collins in this scenario? It isn’t Al Horford. Would Jaylen Brown be in the mix here? This is where it gets quite complicated. Brown is a far better player than Collins is. Unless the Celtics have a guarantee at the point guard position that moves Marcus Smart to the two, finding some version of a Collins-for-Brown swap doesn’t make a lot of sense. Brown is from Georgia, so it would be a nice homecoming for him. My guess is Boston’s to-do list doesn’t have “get Brown back home” as a high priority. The Celtics were two wins away from a championship, and tinkering is a better operation here than an overhaul.”