Dick Vitale spotlights best attributes in Keegan Murray's game for Kings

The first three picks in the 2022 NBA Draft were already decided well before draft night. After the top-three were selected, it was an open race to see who will go where depending on position and potential.

The Sacramento Kings ended up drafting Iowa Hawkeyes star Keegan Murray No. 4 overall – and ESPN analyst and color commentator Dick Vitale is excited to see what he’s capable of in the league.

“The Sacramento Kings are going to appreciate the addition of Keegan Murray,” Vitale said. “His versatility and scoring ability will help the Kings improve. I love guys that can shoot the rock.”

To preview what Murray might be able to bring to Sac-Town, all you have to do is look at his stat sheets. He finished his sophomore season as the nation’s fourth-leading scorer in points-per-game and finished as the NCAA’s leader in total points for the year with 822. His monstrous scoring increase coupled with excellent efficiency — especially from beyond the three-point line — rocketed him into lottery consideration throughout the season as he cruised to consensus All-American status.

The only detraction in Murray’s profile is his age. Though he was just a sophomore in 2021-22 and enters the draft after two seasons in college, he is actually the same age as most of the seniors in the draft. He turns 22 before the start of the next NBA season, which is old by draft standards. These teams typically prefer prospects who broke out at younger ages.

For example, Wake Forest forward Jake LaRavia was originally slated as a second-round prospect due to the fact that NBA teams somehow believed he was 22 years old. In reality, LaRavia is 20 and once the mistake was cleared, he skyrocketed up to draft charts and was taken No. 19 overall by the Memphis Grizzlies.

Bizarre situations like LaRavia’s come once every blue moon, but it speaks volume to how important age is in the NBA today. If Murray could have had his breakout season as a freshman – who knows where’d be right now or how high he could have been selected in last year’s draft.

Instead, Murray sat in the shadow of former Hawkeyes star Luke Garza, who finished as one of the top scorers in all of college basketball in 2021 along with earning National Player of the Year honors.

However, in 2022, Murray came out as a sophomore and nearly matched his former teammate’s production. He averaged 23.5 points during the 2021-22 campaign as Iowa finished with the third best offensive production in the country for the second straight season, where Murray look to continue that production with the Kings in the coming years.