Trey Murphy III urges summer league to overreact
Pelicans celebrity shares personal experience
The NBA Summer League is over, and the New Orleans Pelicans have not won in Las Vegas for the second consecutive year. Despite two expected 2025 lottery picks, the team joined the Orlando Magic with a 0-5 record, the only winless team this year.
But Pelicans forward Trae Murphy III is not worried – he doesn’t think fans shouldn’t either.
Murphy appears recently Young man and three Podcast with Tommy Alter and Jabari Smith. He discussed why the results of the summer league should not be taken too seriously, especially when evaluating young talents.
“My first summer league, I’m doing very well, I’m a first-team All-Summer League,” Murphy said. “But obviously that’s OK because I won’t have a great game until next February…I played a great summer league and then played 50 more games. That’s OK. It doesn’t mean anything.”
“It’s OK. That doesn’t mean anything.” – Trey Murphy and Jabari Smith talk about people’s conclusions during the NBA summer league pic.twitter.com/fqdlglgwr5
– They are named (@oldmanandthree) July 31, 2025
Understand the context
Murphy pointed out that the summer league team has little preparation time. The roster is assembled quickly, and players usually only get some practice before playing competitive games in 10 days.
“I think it’s too early for a lot of people to try to draw conclusions and evaluate the children in the Summer League,” he said.
For the Pelicans, the challenge is real. Derik Queen has played three games only due to injury, while Jeremiah is worried about hitting just 3.2% and averaging five turnovers per game.
Murphy’s own journey
In 2022, Murphy averaged 26.5 points, seven rebounds and 2.5 steals in just two summer league games while shooting 50% from the field. Despite his outstanding performance, he didn’t score double digits in the regular season until his 37th appearance. His real breakthrough was in Game 47, when he fell 32 points against the Hornets.
Now, Murphy is the core part of the Pelicans spin. Last season, he averaged 21.2 points per game and then got injured. This summer, the team received a four-year, $112 million contract to start the upcoming season.
