Keegan Murray’s season on change in the NBA

DALLAS — One word has defined the Sacramento Kings’ 2024-2025 season.

Change.

After a 13-18 start, ownership fired head coach Mike Brown, who had led the team since 2022, the year the Kings drafted ex-Iowa and Cedar Rapids Prairie standout Keegan Murray fourth overall.

Brown also won NBA Coach of the Year in 2023.

However, the changes didn’t end there. Murray saw one teammate, Harrison Barnes, leave in an offseason trade with Chicago that sent DeMar DeRozan to Sacramento, and another, De’Aaron Fox, with the Kings since 2017, depart in a three-team blockbuster deal at the NBA trade deadline.

The Kings also added new faces in veterans Jae Crowder and Doug McDermott in the offseason with Zach Lavine, Jake Laravia and Jonas Valanciunas joining the team at the February 2025 deadline.

Naturally, all this turnover has been an adjustment for Murray, who is averaging 12 points, a career-high 7.1 rebounds and 1.5 assists in 52 games this season. This comes after experiencing relative stability in his first two seasons in the Association, especially after Brown had helped the Kings end a 16-year playoff drought in 2023, which had been the longest in pro sports.

“It’s really different, especially with the coaching change because that’s just naturally different,” Murray said. “Feel like a lot of our roster is gone this year, especially after the trade deadline, but obviously it’s a business, so you just have to focus on the guys that you have after the deadline and just try to build camaraderie that way.”

Last season, Brown had said he wanted Murray to focus on becoming an elite rebounder and the former Iowa standout has taken that to heart. Not only is he averaging a career-high on the boards, Murray also has 11 double-doubles this season through the All-Star break.

“We’ve added a bunch of scorers on our team, so your role kind of changes naturally with that. Just trying to help out (however I can),” Murray said. “We’re a small team in the NBA, so trying to use my athleticism to my advantage on offensive rebounds, defensive rebounds and just figure out how to get extra possessions.”

If there has been a silver lining to this change, it’s that ownership tabbed someone familiar to many of the players, Doug Christie, a Kings assistant coach since 2021, to take over for Brown on an interim basis. Christie became a fan favorite as a player in Sacramento after being a key contributor to the Kings’ back-to-back Pacific Division titles in 2002 and 2003 under legendary coach Rick Adelman.

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He’s been a big fan of Murray since the organization drafted him in 2022, his second season as an assistant coach.

“First and foremost with him always is the smile. I want him to smile as much as possible because we always got to remember and I tell him this, that this is a child’s game,” Christie said. “We learned it as kids and there’s a joy in that that I never want him to lose because I’m not going to lose it when I played. I’m not going to lose it when I coach, and I think that’s part of what you see out of him.

“I want a high level of aggressiveness out of him. We require a lot of him on the defensive end, so when you put that together, he is one of our major pieces to success on a night-to-night basis.”

Something else which hasn’t changed for Murray this season is he’s again proven to be incredibly durable. As a rookie in 2022-2023, he played 80 of a possible 82 regular-season games. The following season, he played 77 of 82. And as of the 2025 All-Star break, he had played in 52 of 55 games.

And even though it’s now been nearly three seasons since his days in Iowa City, the experience of playing for Fran McCaffrey at Iowa is one that sticks with him.

“I feel like he’s a great coach,” Murray said. “He’s a really good coach off the court and on the court, especially off the court, he really takes care of his guys. (He) has guys at his house all the time for dinners and things like that. I think that’s big, especially in college.

“He’s had a lasting impact on my life. He gave me an opportunity when not many people did. I’m forever grateful for him.”

Of course, no Murray story is complete without mentioning how twin brother Kris, in his second NBA season, is faring with Portland. Keegan and the Kings already have played the Trailblazers three times this season with Sacramento winning twice. Keegan is currently 4-2 against Kris as a pro, but is happy to see his brother acclimating well to the Association.

“Yeah, they (the Blazers) are obviously playing well right now. He’s getting spot minutes and I feel like he’s taking advantage of those minutes,” Murray said. “For him, it’s just continuing to grow on the court. I feel like just playing against him from last year to this year, his presence is known more. It’s (about) just trying to keep his head on straight and just keep getting better.”

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