Dejounte Murray had his issues with a Hawks club that never lived up to their potential, which eventually led to his departure from Atlanta as he got traded to the Pelicans in exchange for young talent and a pair of first-round picks. For the player, that trade “wasn’t even supposed to happen.”

In a recent podcast interview, the 28-year-old revealed he was aware of negotiations involving his name, but never thought he would end up in Louisiana. “They traded me, but (New Orleans) wasn’t a team we were talking to,” Murray shared. “That wasn’t even an option.”

Dejounte joined the Pels a year ago exactly, and put up modest performances during his first season with 17.5 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 7.4 assists per match on 39.3% shooting. Unfortunately, he only participated in 31 contests before suffering a torn Achilles tendon in January that took him out of the campaign.

It was a pretty miserable first season for the guard, but not just because the team ended in the West’s 14th place. “It was a situation where, like, I got all these problems going on… I broke my hand, and I’m recovering. My mom had a stroke, one of my cousins got killed, then my uncle overdosed,” he said on The Pivot podcast.

Murray has earned a lot of experience in the NBA by now, and you could even say this is the prime of his career. However, injuries and personal tragedies seem to be putting him off, even derailing him for his basketball duties. This has translated into some of his lowest averages in years.

In his latest interview, after six months of recovery from his foot injury, he spilled the beans about what poorly his newest franchise has dealt with his personal issues. The 28-year-old went all the way to call his first year in New Orleans his “worst experience in the NBA.”

“[During all this] I’m not getting what I need in the organization,” Dejounte revealed. “It’s hard for me to get my training time. It’s hard for me to get lifts. It’s hard for me to get my own court time. So, you can only imagine where my mind was at.”

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