Kris Murray thriving in his 3rd season in the NBA

DALLAS — The early part of the 2025-26 NBA season has brought considerable change for Kris Murray and his Portland teammates, some of it positive and the rest not so much.

However, for Murray, 25, the 23rd pick in the 2023 NBA Draft following a productive three-year stay at Iowa, the common denominator hasn’t changed.

“The team aspect of basketball is super fun. We have new players come in and out every single year and that makes it different, but I just love basketball,” Murray, at Iowa from 2020-2023, said. “I grew up playing basketball, (love) just the competitiveness of it, every game’s different, every possession is different.

“That’s the biggest thing, I just try to have fun with it as much as I can. Been doing that this year.”

This is Murray’s third season in the Association and with the Blazers running a more up-tempo offense than in his first two seasons, he is thriving, averaging career-highs in minutes (22.8), 3-point percentage (31.6) and effective field goal percentage (53.6).

“I do (like the new offense), yeah. It reminds me of playing at Iowa,” he said. “We were always that up-tempo team and that just fits who I am as a player. I’ve always wanted to play like that. I always want to run no matter what. It’s definitely fun, brings back some college memories, too.”

Unfortunately, not all the news in Rip City this season has been positive. In late October, Chauncey Billups, a Hall of Fame player and the only head coach Murray has played for as a pro, was arrested for his involvement in a federal gambling investigation and placed on leave by the NBA.

Tiago Splitter, a highly decorated player in Europe who played on an NBA championship team with San Antonio in 2014, is now the Blazers acting head coach, and Splitter likes what Murray brings.

“Yeah, I’ve known Kris since he’s been in the league just by watching him. A guy that defensively that can always help us pick up the ball, can guard many positions,” Splitter said. “Offensively, he plays more off the ball, but smart at finding angles and cuts off the 3 well, a tremendous offensive rebounder.”

And since Murray always has been a big proponent of only controlling what he can control, that’s made dealing with the sudden departure of the only head coach he and many of his teammates have played for easier to contend with.

“Yeah, it’s definitely interesting circumstances that we can’t control. We just got to figure out how to move forward. Tiago’s been really good with me in terms of that and still getting the best of me every single day,” Murray said. “I respect him a lot and think he’s done a good job of just bringing us all together and moving forward.”

In more positive news, he was elated to see older brother Keegan, who he was teammates with at Iowa and who was a first-round pick of Sacramento in 2022, get rewarded with a five-year, $140 million extension earlier this season.

“Yeah, it’s pretty cool just how far we’ve both come. Five years ago, we were still thinking about what we’re doing in college and now it’s the NBA and for him it’s $141 million or whatever. Happy for him,” Kris Murray said.

Unfortunately, Keegan has yet to play this season after sustaining a torn UCL in October which required surgery. His original time frame for return was six to eight weeks, which means he could be back in time for the first of four meetings between the Blazers and Kings this season, on Dec. 18 in Portland.

The Murray brothers also could square off two days later in Sacramento, on Jan. 18 again in the California state capital and on April 12 in the final game of the regular season in Portland, games which Kris always looks forward to even if their mother no longer wears a half Blazers, half Kings jersey like several years ago.

“No, no (more) split jersey. They will wear one or the other,” Murray said. “My dad will wear Trail Blazers and my mom will wear Kings. It’s still pretty cool (to play against him as a pro). It’s almost more fun just because someone’s going to win and someone’s going to lose. It obviously was fun when we were playing with each other, but now it’s competitive and I enjoy playing against him.”

Speaking of his time at Iowa, he echoes the sentiment of many Hawkeye fans and former players in saying not seeing longtime coach Fran McCaffrey on the sidelines in Iowa City still is a shock to his system.

“It is, yeah. It’s weird, but I’m happy for him, what he’s doing at Penn. You don’t get that opportunity a lot, to go back, but it’s definitely weird now watching games and he’s not the coach,” Murray said.

When the NBA season started in late October, he, Keegan and Luka Garza, now in Boston after spending his first few seasons in Minnesota as a two-way player, were the three ex-Hawkeyes representing Iowa in the Association, an exclusive yet talented group which Kris is honored to be part of.

“It’s pretty cool. Keegan and I on the West Coast and Luka (Garza) used to be in our division, so I’d see him a lot,” Murray said. “Won’t be able to see him as much this year, but hopefully I can get one of his jerseys. I got a Timberwolves jersey of his my rookie year. I grew up a Celtics fan, so if I can get a Boston one (jersey), great.”

And as someone who has been around the game for much of his life, Murray has always had a wealth of basketball-related experience and knowledge to draw upon without leaving his family.

“He (Keegan) doesn’t give me a lot. He just lets me learn on my own, but just watching him, the biggest thing is just soak it all in,” Murray said. “He’s someone who learned on the fly his rookie year and I tried to do that similarly. It’s a tough league. You got to take your punches, but you also got to punch back. He (dad) let me listen to the coaches. He’s been my coach for 20 years, but he’s turned into dad now, which is pretty cool.”

And now that he’s well into year three of his NBA career, whatever approach he’s taken and whatever advice he’s taken, it’s apparent he should stay the course because whatever he’s been doing is clearly working.

“Yeah, definitely just a lot more comfortable each and every year. This year, we have a higher expectation (in Portland),” Murray said. “I hold myself to a high standard. I want to contribute any way I can to our team’s success and hopefully, it leads us to a playoff run at the end of the year.”

Stephen Hunt is a freelance writer based in Frisco, Texas.