USA TODAY Sports mocks Iowa’s Keegan Murray to the Portland Trailblazers in the 2022 NBA draft
Iowa sophomore standout Keegan Murray announced on March 29 that he would be entering the 2022 NBA draft. It’s no surprise after a season where Murray upped his scoring average by more than 16 points.
No other Big Ten player had increased their points per game average by more than what Murray did in the past 48 years. Illinois’ Rick Schmidt increased his average by 17.6 points from the 1972-73 season to the 1973-74 season.
Murray averaged 23.5 points and 8.7 rebounds per game en route to winning the Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year Award. The 6-foot-8, 225 pound native of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was a finalist for the Naismith Trophy, the John R. Wooden Award and the Lute Olson National Player of the Year, too.
As a result, Murray is viewed as a can’t-miss NBA draft lottery pick. In USA TODAY Sports writer Jeff Zillgitt’s latest 2022 NBA mock draft, he has Murray being selected by the Portland Trailblazers as the No. 6 overall selection.
Zillgitt’s top five selections went as follows: Duke’s Paolo Banchero No. 1 overall to the Orlando Magic, Auburn’s Jabari Smith No. 2 to the Houston Rockets, Gonzaga’s Chet Holmgren No. 3 to the Detroit Pistons, Purdue’s Jaden Ivey No. 4 to the Oklahoma City Thunder and Kentucky’s Shaedon Sharp No. 5 to the Indiana Pacers.
The rest of Zillgitt’s top 10 selections saw Memphis’ Jalen Duren to the Sacramento Kings at No. 7, Wisconsin’s Johnny Davis No. 8 to the New Orleans Pelicans, Duke’s A.J. Griffin No. 9 to the San Antonio Spurs and Arizona’s Bennedict Mathurin No. 10 to the Washington Wizards.
With Murray’s ability to guard positions one through five and his 3-point shooting range, he will be a terrific addition to whichever team he winds up with. He shot 39.8% from 3-point distance this past season. Murray joined former Texas star Kevin Durant in becoming just the second player in Division I history to amass more than 800 points, 60 blocks, and 60 3-pointers in a single season.
In the process, Murray also became Iowa’s fourth consensus first-team All-American in program history, joining Murray Wier (1948), Charles Darling (1952) and Luka Garza (2020 and 2021).
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