How will Trae Young fit with Dejounte Murray together as a backcourt ?

 

Ahead of the 2022/23 NBA season the Hawks present us with a lot of questions surrounding how this new roster will look on the court, but one of if not the biggest questionmark of this revamped squad is how will Trae Young and Dejounte Murray fit together as a backcourt. 

On paper adding Murray helps solve the biggest issue the Hawks had last season: Defense. More specificaly perimeter defense, because rim protection should not be an issue, at least  with the likes of Clint Capela, Onyeka Okongwu and a healthy John Collins on the roster. Murray will help in all aspects of this, dribble contain, transition defense, help defense and playing the passing lanes while also being one of the best rebounding guards in the league. All of the above should mitigate the lack of defensive tools that Trae Young has, while also unlocking the possibility of playing more of a switching defense at times with certain lineups.

Defensively the two star guards will almost surely fit very well with Murray's strengths covering for a lot of Trae's weaknesses. It's on the offensive side of the ball where the questions come from, with Murray not being a good three point shooter spacing becomes a question. We should analyze the offensive fit in two parts, when Trae is on the ball and Murray is off the ball and when Murray is on the ball and Trae is off the ball, because the dinamic of the offense changes regarding which action is run.

Firstly, when Trae is on the ball and Murray is off, which will be most likely the mayority of the time, is when Murray's lack of three point shooting is more problematic, since it's on this type of actions that teams will try to prevent the dribble penetration and will leave Murray either open or wide open for a three pointer since he is not a good long distance shooter. Here we run into some of the same problems we saw against the Heat, but the key to overcome this issue will be Murray's ability to not take the shot but attack the closeout and create for himself or for the team in a secondary action once the defense has rotated, and for that to work he will need to be on point as a midrange shooter, which he's shown that he can be.

Now on the other hand, when Trae is off the ball and Murray is on the ball, the fit makes more sense, with Trae being a very good catch and shoot player, yet whether this actions will be effective or not will be determined by if Trae is able to get himself open by moving and using off ball screens and by if Murray is able to find him or the open shooter as the primary decision maker on a playoffs team.

The fact of the matter is that Trae won't be Steph Curry off the ball, but if he is able to be effective and efficient enough on an increased volume and Murray can knock down open catch and shoot three pointers, they will become one of the absolute best back courts in the entire league and possibly the best one in the East.