Keegan Murray gets green light to do ‘beautiful thing’ in 2025-26 season

The Sacramento Kings are entering their first training camp and preseason with Doug Christie as the head coach. Christie had his interim tag removed at the end of the 2024-25 season, following his takeover after the Kings fired Mike Brown in late December. With Christie overseeing his first camp, there is one player in particular in Keegan Murray whom he would like to see shoot more three-point shots, as per Nick Avila of NBC Sports.

“He needs to hunt for shots. . .for him, I think the number is around ten,” Christie said. “If he can get up ten threes, that would be a beautiful, beautiful thing.”

Christie also acknowledged that he would like Keegan Murray to be more aggressive offensively in general this season for the Kings.

“Part of the things I talk to Keegan about is hunting shots. . .Keegan has to learn that mentality and it’s a learned thing,” Christie said. “It’s like whenever you catch it, I want him to catch it – not catch it and then think about shooting as he’s coming there. He needs to already be thinking about it.”

The No. 4 overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft, Murray will be entering his fourth season in the NBA. He’s been one of the team’s primary starters at forward since he was drafted, and that should continue this upcoming season.

Last year, Murray appeared in 76 games for the Kings at a little over 34 minutes per game. He averaged 12.4 points, 6.7 rebounds and 1.4 assists with splits of 44.4 percent shooting from the field, 34.3 percent shooting from the three-point line and 83.3 percent shooting from the free-throw line.

Murray’s shooting numbers were actually slightly down last season compared to his first two years in the NBA. As a rookie in 2022-23 he shot 45.3 percent from the field and 41.1 percent from three-point range, and in 2023-24 he shot 45.4 percent form the field and 35.8 percent from the three-point line.

As far as Christie’s request that he get up at least ten three-point shots per game, he’s averaged around six three-point attempts for his career, and around 11 shot attempts in general. It definitely seems like that goal is doable.