Trey Murphy III on Willie Green’s dismissal, James Borrego | New Orleans Pelicans

Trey Murphy III on Willie Green’s dismissal, James Borrego | New Orleans Pelicans

Obviously some tough news today with the firing of Willie Green, but how’s the team taking the news and how was practice today? Um, practice was good. I mean, I feel like guys had a little bit of energy today. We’re going through concepts trying to figure out, you know, what’s going to change and um, obviously, you know, me and Willie started off at the same time, 5 years in, and so there’s a lot of memories and have a lot of respect for him, but, you know, we understand it is business, so we have to move on and continue the season. when there is all that talk around of, you know, firing rumors and things of that nature, is that does that energy like affect the team even if it’s subconsciously? Um, I mean, we hear everybody has social media here. We hear about it, but I mean, you try not to think about it too much. It’s one of those things where you’re still going out there trying to play the game basketball. You’re professional and you’re doing your job. So no matter who is the coach, whether that is JB or Willie, you still have to go out there and do your job. And so that that’s on us as professionals to go out there and play back play basketball. Trey, what can what can Bre bring to the team? I think he’s going to bring another level of energy as well. He is uh he’s really high high energy guy and you know he has a really sharp offensive mind and so I’m excited to hear what he has to say about you know different offensive things, different things that he sees throughout the game. What do you anticipate just how things are going to look different on the court with Ber as an offense? Um I don’t know for sure. I mean we have the only sample that we have is from that game against Dallas my third year and you know that was a I mean it was a great game. We end up winning that game by like 30 points or so in a cup game. So you know that’s all we have is a sample size and you don’t know exactly what to expect. It’s something that you can you know assume but you know you never know. and um playing against the Charlotte teams in the past, they were always really well coached and they ran their offense really well. So, we’ll see what we have to do here. Does this feel like a fresh start for this team? Like a fresh start on the season for you? Um to an extent. We obviously understand the hole that we’re in right now, but we know it’s also a long season. We have seven games left. We can also make a we can turn this thing around. Start off my rookie year 3 and 13 or 1 and 11. So, and ended up making a playoff. So, you never know what can happen. Did James like formally address the team yet since named interim head coach and what have those conversations with him and the team been like since he took over this? Uh yes he has and he you know talked about his expectations. He talked about you know what he wants from us. He talked about you know just open line of communication just a bunch of different things that you know he wants from us and he expects from us. So um just really excited to get this thing started. Do you have a message for maybe like the fans? Obviously they want to see a winner. You’ve been really passionate in the community. Is there like a message you can give them that maybe the best is yet to come or that there’s plenty of season left? I don’t know just what you would tell them. Don’t give up on us. That’s that’s my message. Don’t give up on us. Still shows support. We can turn this thing around. It’s a very long season and like I said again, don’t give up on us. Trey Trey, you talked about Barago’s messaging. Did the energy feel different this morning? Did it feel like there was a different head coach? Um, yeah, to an extent. Obviously, we understand the what happened, but I mean, everybody here still had respect for Willie. So, you know, it’s not one of those things where you’re happy to see somebody go and lose their job. You know, they still have a family to feed. They still have a life to live. And so, you know, we understand that part, but, you know, we understand, too, that it’s time to time to go with James Bur. And how much of is it an easier transfer because he’s been around now for a few years? No. It’s pretty it’s pretty pretty seamless, I would say, because, you know, we’ve heard from him. He’s been a voice that we we’ve known for a few years and you know I I feel very confident in him as a coach. Did Joe uh talk to the team and if so, what was his message? Uh yes, he did talk to the team and the biggest message was that you know what we had done in these 12 games was unacceptable. So, you know, it’s time to really lock in and turn this thing around. Joe talked to the media this morning saying that he would like the team to find an identity. In your eyes, what does the identity need to be for this team? I think our biggest the biggest thing is f I mean it’s hard to really say you have to find your your own identity and I think we’re figuring that out right now. Um I think the biggest thing for us is using our youth which is being athletic getting out in transition playing fast on the defensive end as well as on the offensive end being physical. And so I think our youth the whole speed and violence thing is kind of our our thing right now. So we got to figure that out. I know the the coach obviously gets fired because he’s the figurehead, but is there a sense of responsibility amongst the players like maybe we didn’t do enough and this guy lost his job because of that? I mean now this is kind of how this works in NBA when you know the coach goes now it’s okay players you have to figure it out because that’s that’s just where it goes. People look at the head coach, he gets fired now it’s like if it if something doesn’t happen and something doesn’t change they’re going to look at the players like okay you guys weren’t doing enough. Maybe it wasn’t the coach. So, um, we have that responsibility as well. Trey, I’ve noticed during games that James is incredibly involved, uh, on on the bench next to Willie and talking with y’all energized and what whatot based on what you’ve seen from him in the games and what you know from him from Charlotte, does it make you kind of very confident that he can kind of lead this group and get you on the right track? Very confident. No, definitely very confident. He’s been under phenomenal coaches, probably one of the greatest coaches to ever coach the game, and I’m very confident his ability to lead this team. Seems like been around for a while. How much can really change in the middle of the season with the new head coach that’s still been on the staff? I feel like a lot can still change. You know, there can be a different energy in the building. There can be a different, you know, philosophy or different ways to attack, different game plans that could happen and, you know, help us lead to wins.

New Orleans Pelicans forward Trey Murphy III speaks with the media after practice in the Ochsner Sports Performance Center on Nov. 15, 2025.
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