KRIS Murray

Murray's 2025-26 season with Portland was a role player's season: 57 games, 23.4 minutes a night, 5.8 points, 3.6 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 0.9 steals and 0.4 blocks. He shot 46.7 percent from the field, 27.9 percent from three and 68.4 percent at the line, with a true shooting mark of 55.0 percent and a usage rate of 10.3 percent. His plus-minus sat at a modest plus-0.8. The numbers show a low-usage wing who did his damage in limited touches. His best moment of that stretch came against Sacramento last April, when he scored 9 points with 4 rebounds and 3 assists in 30.2 minutes and posted a plus-27 in that win. Against San Antonio in that same stretch, his minutes shrank, including a scoreless game in just 1.2 minutes.

Through four games with Memphis, Murray's role has been a spot-minutes job. He played 17.0 minutes in the win over Charlotte on Oct. 16 without scoring, but grabbed 2 rebounds. Against Chicago on Oct. 9, he had 3 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists in 15.8 minutes in a win. He scored 5 points in 9.9 minutes in the loss to Orlando on Oct. 7, and added 3 points in 12.6 minutes in the win over Atlanta on Oct. 5. None of those four games have produced a plus-minus swing bigger than 4 points either way for him. It's a small sample, but it shows Memphis trusting him with rotation minutes early in the season.

Murray is not on the injury report heading into this stretch of the schedule, and there's no injury history listed for him. He appeared in 57 games last season with Portland. For a bench forward trying to lock down a rotation spot in a new system, staying available matters as much as any box score number. Barring a change in his status, Memphis can continue to count on him as a healthy option off the bench as the season moves forward. There's nothing in his file right now suggesting any limitation on his workload, which gives the coaching staff flexibility in how they use him on a given night.

Murray profiles as a low-usage wing who can defend forward spots and knock down occasional threes. Last season's 10.3 usage rate and 55.0 true shooting percentage point to a player built to play off others rather than create his own shot. His 27.9 percent clip from three last season is below average for a wing, so Memphis will likely lean on him more for length and defense than shot-making early on. With no injury concerns and a spot in each of the first four games of the season, Murray looks like a depth piece who can soak up minutes on the wing while the Grizzlies sort out their rotation through the opening stretch of 2026-27.