{"id":528280,"date":"2026-01-11T01:05:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T01:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/528280\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T01:05:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T01:05:11","slug":"trey-murphy-wasted-no-time-getting-to-top-of-3-point-list-pelicans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/528280\/","title":{"rendered":"Trey Murphy wasted no time getting to top of 3-point list | Pelicans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kenneth Murphy III goes by Trey, perhaps the first hint that he would someday grow up to become a prolific 3-point shooter.<\/p>\n

And if that wasn\u2019t enough to convince you, maybe taking a look at the crib his parents had for him when he was an infant should’ve warned you.<\/p>\n

If it was up to Albeda Murphy, Trey would have just had a regular crib like most 1-year olds.<\/p>\n

But her husband Kenny insisted the crib have a basketball goal on it.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s almost as if Trey Murphy was born to do what he\u2019s doing.<\/p>\n

Murphy, who is only 25 and in his fifth season with the New Orleans Pelicans, became the franchise\u2019s all-time leader in 3-pointers last Sunday in a loss to the Miami Heat. Murphy surpassed former teammate CJ McCollum, who became the franchise leader in January of 2025 when he eclipsed Jrue Holiday.<\/p>\n

Murphy vowed after that game last January that McCollum\u2019s name wouldn\u2019t stay in the record book.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt won\u2019t be long,\u201d Murphy said that night. \u201cThat\u2019s all I have to say. It\u2019ll be taken down. It\u2019s like having a bar set for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Less than a year later, Murphy proved to be a man of his word. Murphy tied McCollum\u2019s record of 692 3-pointers with 3:58 left in the second quarter of last week\u2019s game in Miami. He broke the record with 39.8 seconds left in the half.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty cool,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cYou always want to leave your mark somewhere on and off the court and I feel like this is something to show on the court.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murphy needed just 285 games to set the record and join a list of some of the greats of the game.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

The Pelicans\u2019 franchise record (709 and counting for Murphy going into Sunday\u2019s game against the Orlando Magic) is the fewest among all NBA franchises.\u00a0(The franchise is in just its 24th season.) The Los Angeles Clippers\u2019 franchise record (820 by Paul George) is the second lowest.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But as long as Murphy stays a Pelican, you can expect him to push the record to a place where it will stand for a long time.<\/p>\n

Murphy is in one of his hottest stretches since entering the league. He\u2019s made at least six 3-pointers in his last three games. That’s seven in Friday\u2019s win against the Washington Wizards, six in Tuesday\u2019s loss to the Los Angeles Lakers and seven on his record-setting day against the Heat. It\u2019s the first time he\u2019s made six treys in three straight games. He\u2019s averaging 34.6 points over the last three games, including a career-best 42 points in the loss to the Lakers.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, we didn\u2019t get the win so it doesn\u2019t really matter,\u201d Murphy said after his career-high night.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s been the case for Murphy and the Pelicans for most of these last two seasons. The Pelicans are 9-31. They\u2019ve lost nine of their last 10 games, making it hard to appreciate what the Pelicans\u2019 most consistent all-around player has done. Murphy leads the team in minutes played. His 21.7 points rank second on the team behind Zion Williamson. His 6.2 rebounds and 3.5 assists rank second behind Derik Queen. His 1.7 steals rank second behind Herb Jones.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe deserves a ton of credit,\u201d said Pelicans’ interim head coach Borrego. \u201cHe\u2019s put the work in. He\u2019s a tremendous worker. He\u2019s going to have a wonderful career here. He\u2019s already put up some big numbers. I\u2019m proud of him. He\u2019s fantastic and keeps growing every year and adding to his game. He’s tremendous and deserves all the credit for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

His parents deserve some of the credit, too. His mom remembers the youth basketball days when Trey would run up and down the court with his hands in his pockets. The solution? Trey\u2019s dad threw away every pair of shorts that had pockets.<\/p>\n

Or the time when Trey was around 5 when his dad started coaching him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat first year he was really bad and he didn\u2019t score a point,\u201d Kenny Murphy recalled.<\/p>\n

But over time, he got better and better.<\/p>\n

By the fourth grade, he started draining 3\u2019s.<\/p>\n

By the eighth grade, he was one of the best shooters in the area.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been at it ever since,\u201d the elder Murphy said.<\/p>\n

Murphy\u2019s first NBA 3-pointer came in the season opener of his rookie season.<\/p>\n

He went scoreless in the first half of that game in the Smoothie King Center against the Philadelphia 76ers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hadn\u2019t scored the entire first half,\u201d Murphy recalls. \u201cI was nervous and a little angry about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

He made his very first one with 1:56 left in the game on an assist from Kira Lewis.<\/p>\n

He made his second one less than a minute later on an assist from Naji Marshall. That one was from 28 feet.<\/p>\n

Trey Murphy was just getting started, doing what he was born to do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kenneth Murphy III goes by Trey, perhaps the first hint that he would someday grow up to become…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":528281,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3796],"tags":[7,5498,6,478,470,4073,4072,675],"class_list":{"0":"post-528280","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-orleans-pelicans","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-hardwall","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-new-orleans","12":"tag-new-orleans-pelicans","13":"tag-neworleans","14":"tag-neworleanspelicans","15":"tag-pelicans"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115873783751315031","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=528280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/528281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}