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Trey Murphy Signs Four-Year, $112 Million Contract Extension With Pelicans

Matt Newton

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Trey Murphy III and the New Orleans Pelicans have agreed to terms on a four-year, $112 million contract extension that will keep the former UVA basketball sharpshooter in the Crescent City through the 2028-2029 season, as first reported by ESPN's Shams Charania on Monday afternoon.

The rookie contract Murphy signed with the Pelicans back in 2021 pays him $14,779,415 over four seasons, ending with the upcoming 2024-2025 season, during which he will be paid $5,159,855. With Murphy scheduled to become a free agent next summer, one of the big questions entering this season was if the Pels would extend him before that happens.

That question has been answered with a big contract extension, as Murphy will earn almost double his career NBA earnings in the first year of his new contract in the 2025-2026 season. Murphy will make $25 million next season, $27 million in 2026-2027, $29 million, in 2027-2028, and $31 million in 2028-2029.

In his one season at Virginia after transferring from Rice, Trey Murphy III posted a 50-40-90 statline before declaring for the 2021 NBA Draft and getting picked No. 17 overall by the New Orleans Pelicans. Murphy had a breakout season in 2022-2023, starting 65 games and averaging 14.5 points per game and shooting 40.6% from beyond the arc, garnering votes for the NBA's Most Improved Player award. He missed some time with injuries last season, but was still productive and averaged career-highs in points (14.8), rebounds (4.9), and assists (2.2) while appearing in 57 games, including 23 starts.

Murphy was also one of 12 players selected to the USA Basketball Men's Select Team for the second year in a row. After helping the USA Men's National Team train for the FIBA World Cup in 2023, Murphy returned to the Select Team once again this past summer to help train the National Team for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Murphy is expected to miss the beginning of the season with a hamstring injury suffered earlier this month. He also missed the first 19 games of the 2023-2024 season with a knee injury, but this injury should sideline him for a much briefer time. Hopefully, Murphy will only end up missing a handful of games.

“Obviously not starting the season (healthy) again hurts me a lot," Murphy told NBA reporter Jim Eichenhofer earlier this month. "I was just trying to do everything I can summer-wise to be prepared for the season, then to have something like that happen, it really sucks. But I’m putting it in perspective – it could be a lot worse. The good thing is it’s an NBA season; I’ll be there for a majority of it.”

It says a lot about the confidence the New Orleans Pelicans have in Murphy that they still wanted to pursue this contract extension even in the midst of his injury troubles. When he comes back, Murphy should play a big role for a Nola squad that its sights set on its third appearance in the Western Conference Playoffs in the last four years.

The New Orleans Pelicans will open their 2024-2025 season on Wednesday, October 23rd when they host the Chicago Bulls.

Related: How Much Money Have Tony Bennett-Era UVA Basketball Players Made in the NBA?

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Matt Newton
MATT NEWTON

Matt launched Virginia Cavaliers On SI in August of 2021 and has since served as the site's publisher and managing editor, covering all 23 NCAA Division I sports teams at the University of Virginia. He is from Downingtown, Pennsylvania and graduated from UVA in May of 2021.