Trey Murphy on Zion Williamson: ‘He’s taken his body work and recovery very seriously’

Most onlookers would say Williamson is the center in that group. Green has made it clear that he doesn’t view the Pelicans star as a center, regardless of which other four players are on the court. “Zion is not a 5. Let’s take that out of our terminology,” Green said last week during training camp in Nashville. “He can definitely become a good screener and (a big) catching it in the pocket. But we’re still figuring it out.” -via New York Times / October 11, 2024

Shams Charania on Zion Williamson: “He worked with the Pelican staff all summer, and that was very important for him. That was very important for the Pelicans. That’s not something he’s done in past offseasons. There hasn’t been a single NBA season where he’s come into training camp and looked this dominant in the eyes of the Pelicans. And he’s going to be all over the court too, Pat. This role that they’re going to play him in, he’s going to be a hybrid player. He’s going to play the four, maybe some five.” -via YouTube / October 10, 2024

NBA on ESPN: “There hasn’t been a single NBA season where he’s come into training camp and looked this dominant.” @ShamsCharania says the Pelicans believe Zion Williamson is primed for a big season 👀 -via x.com / October 10, 2024

How is your recovery coming along with your hamstring injury? Trey Murphy: It’s going well. I’m on schedule, haven’t had anything deter that. I just been trying to work every single day, get better every day. It’s a tricky injury, but just making sure I get myself the proper rest and recovery. Yeah, it’ll get re-evaluated in the three-week timeframe, and after that figure out the next steps of the recovery process. -via HoopsHype / October 19, 2024

Any update on a potential contract extension? Trey Murphy: Not too much, I can’t share too much. But we’ll be finding out really soon [smile]. -via HoopsHype / October 19, 2024

Trey Murphy: When I came back from that, I was probably bad for about two months. I didn’t shoot the ball well at all. And that was really difficult to go through because I thought I was doing everything right. I talked with JJ Redick because he is and still is to an extent a friend of mine, but we’re not really friends no more [smile]. But he was just telling me that you can’t get it all back one time, and there will be games where you will go 3 for 8, 5 for 12, whatever. And it’s just like, alright, I’m not gonna get back to 40 percent in one game, but if I take those small wins, and keep building on that. That’s the biggest thing I saw. And another thing I can refer to is Paul Pierce, he was on a podcast and was talking about how he was 1 for 13 in the first half, and one of his coaches was asking him about how he was feeling, and he said I’m feeling real good, they felt like they were makes, so I’m going to end up making them anyway. I just remember a game we were playing against Washington at home and I think I was 3 for 10, but three of the misses felt really good, so in my head I was 6 for 10. And then after that, I was just like if I feel good after the misses, then I know I’ll be alright. Then I started hitting shots after that. -via HoopsHype / October 19, 2024