Kings’ Keegan Murray could make season debut this week

The Sacramento Kings are optimistic that fourth-year forward Keegan Murray could make his season debut on Thursday in Memphis or on Saturday in Denver, reports Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee.

Murray was assigned to the G League on Monday to practice with the Stockton Kings. The 25-year-old has been cleared for 5-on-5 contact drills and is expected to join Sacramento on Wednesday in Oklahoma City, a source tells Anderson.

It has been five weeks since Murray underwent surgery to repair a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his left thumb, an injury he sustained in a preseason game. At the time, the Kings said he would be reevaluated in four to six weeks; this is the first real update since.

The fourth overall pick in the 2022 draft, Murray signed a five-year, $140M rookie scale extension a few days after he underwent surgery. While some people around the league were reportedly surprised at how lucrative the deal was, cap expert Yossi Gozlan viewed it as “sensible” and Sam Amick of The Athletic recently reported that rival teams value Murray as well.

As Anderson observes, the Kings have struggled mightily without their best defender and Murray’s absence exposed a glaring lack of forward depth on the roster. Sacramento is currently just 3-11, the second-worst record in the Western Conference.