3 Young players Trail Blazers should develop, 1 to give up on

Give up on Kris Murray

Although the Blazers are rebuilding, they inexplicably took a win-now prospect in the 2023 NBA Draft, selecting Kris Murray as No. 23 overall. Or, at least, he was viewed as an immediate impact prospect due to his age (now 23) and the fact that he spent three seasons at Iowa. Murray was supposed to be one of those high-floor, relatively low-ceiling type prospects and considered a "safe" pick. But he had an extremely disappointing rookie season, averaging 6.1 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 1.3 assists on 40/27/66 shooting splits.

Murray has tremendous positional size at 6-foot-8, but his shooting is such a liability to the point where it's not even worth Portland keeping him around in hopes that he becomes even close to league average. In his junior year at Iowa, Murray only shot 33.5 percent from beyond the arc, so it's not like he's ever been a great shooter and just had a fluke rookie season. The things that Murray got away with as a player in college, such as utilizing his size to score over smaller players, aren't available at the NBA level. And if you can't shoot in today's NBA, it's tough to stick on a roster.

Some may view this as too early to get rid of a first-round pick who only had one season under his belt, but Murray didn't even stand out in the Blazers' Summer League, which just ended. That was his best chance to prove he belonged as part of the Blazers' young core.