Kings forward Keegan Murray, who is entering his fourth NBA season and is eligible for a rookie scale extension until October 20, suffered a left thumb injury in Friday’s preseason loss to Portland, as Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee relays.
Murray sustained the injury late in the second quarter, Anderson writes, with Sacramento later ruling him out for the second half. The 25-year-old compiled nine points, five rebounds and a steal in 16 minutes of action before leaving the contest.
It’s possible the Kings may simply have been exercising an abundance of caution by ending Murray’s night early. Still, it’s never a great sign when a starter is forced out of a game, preseason or otherwise.
We’ll have to wait for further updates to see if Murray will miss additional time as a result of the left thumb issue.
James Ham of ESPN 1320 and The Kings Beat notes (via Twitter) that forward/center Dario Saric was an unexpected bright spot for Sacramento in the one-point loss. The Croatian veteran only appeared in 16 games for the Nuggets last season and didn’t play in the Kings’ first preseason contest, but he went 4-of-4 from three-point range en route to 14 points in 14 minutes on Friday.
Murray is going to have a good year. He’s going to be looking to prove himself and with schroder running the point they will place at a good pace that will benefit him. Hell avg close to 20
Dream on…
Why you so offended by the Kings?
Living in reality isn’t being offended – the fact is that at best he’s the 3rd option on the Kings, and 3rd options don’t get enough touches to score more than 15-16 ppg.
20 years points per game?! He had 12.4 last season in 34 mins. For his career, it’s 13.3.
If Murray believes he’ll improve that much, he should stop seeking a rookie extension now and wait until after the season. It would make the difference between $22M and $36M per year.
He won’t even get the ball with Lavine and Demar there. He is not assertive enough.
Saric made some shots to go with 0 reb 0 ast 0 blk 0 stl 2 pfs. Put him in the rotation!
The three pt shot priority and the refs have been making otherwise good games hard to watch – this one had 73 ftas and the teams combined for 71 threes shooting under 30%.
The Kings are going to be terrible this season. Mark my words.
Murray should be starting this year. And he should be close to 20 a game with his shot. Otherwise why is he still on this team.
Not a fan if DeM and Zach playing together. They play the same position. I like DeM more. But he’s probably easier to trade.