Pelicans Dejounte Murray replacement is hiding in plain sight

The New Orleans Pelicans made one major offseason trade, acquiring Dejounte Murray in a trade with the Atlanta Hawks. The Pelicans desperately needed a pure point guard to take some pressure off of CJ McCollum — a natural shooting guard — and Murray fit the bill. He was used mostly off the ball with the Hawks, and this trade to New Orleans allowed Murray to get back on the ball and run the offense.

Unfortunately, the Murray experiment lasted just one game before disaster struck. He suffered a fractured hand during the Pelicans Opening Night win, forcing him to miss a substantial amount of time.

With that, the Pelicans have to do what they did last season — having McCollum man the point and playing with a bigger lineup. It can get a whole lot worse than McCollum, and Murray's injury isn't season-ending, but the Pelicans would benefit greatly by adding some depth to their backcourt. Fortunately for New Orleans, there is a perfect fit available for them on the open market right now. Markelle Fultz is available, and the team wouldn't even have to trade for him.

Markelle Fultz makes too much sense as potential Dejounte Murray replacement

Fultz has not come close to living up to the hype that came with him being selected as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft (two spots ahead of Jayson Tatum), but over his five seasons with the Orlando Magic he developed into a useful rotation player.

He had a down year in the 2023-24 campaign, but in the season prior, he averaged 14.0 points per game on 51.4/31.0/78.3 splits to go along with 3.9 rebounds and 5.7 assists per night while playing solid perimeter defense. He started 60 games that season and averaged just a shade under 30 minutes per game.

Fultz not receiving a huge free agency deal when he has an extensive injury history and is well below average as a shooter as a guard makes sense, but to not be signed at all in late October feels pretty insane. Fultz should absolutely be one of the 15 players on just about any roster.

Given the fact that he's still sitting in free agency, the Pelicans can sign Fultz to a cheap one-year deal and give him the chance to earn minutes. They could use some more point guard depth with Murray out behind McCollum and Jose Alvarado, and the 26-year-old Fultz is the best option out there. Even if it doesn't work out, the move would require almost no risk. It'd be foolish at this point to not sign him with Murray set to miss substantial time.