Troy Murphy was (as expected) traded to the Golden State Warriors who have no intention of keeping him around very long. He's going to get bought out, weigh his options, and pick a new team for the remainder of the year. Where will he go? Would he consider the Celtics? A few industry "insiders" think Boston is on his short list.
Nets acquire Brandon Wright and Dan Gadzuric from Golden State for Troy Murphy. Murphy expected to be bought out, Boston, Miami favorites.
BOS, ORL, MIA, NYK ... all will be suitors for bought-out Troy Murphy. But word is other teams could emerge post-deadline after dust settles
For those unfamiliar with his game, here's a quick summary from Zach Lowe from last week.
The Point Forward » Murphy’s value bottoms out in New Jersey
And there would be a pretty robust market for a stretch power forward who put up 14-and-10 last season. He’s a minus defender in terms of lateral movement and pick-and-roll stuff, but he’s a very good rebounder who can space the floor on offense. Any number of playoff teams could use someone like that.
Kind of sounds like a poor man's Kevin Love to me. And for a minimum salary free agent pickup, you could do a lot worse. The Perkins (minor - we hope) injury reminds us of the fact that we are still pretty thin in the frontcourt despite having so many tall guys in our team picture. You can't have too many shooters (or so Doc has said in the past) and we definitely could use the rebounding. The lack of defense is of course concerning, but we could live with it for the price and the positives would likely outweigh the negatives.
Still, where he decides to go is up to him. Many believe that the Magic would actually be the best fit for him style-wise and reportedly they could offer him more money. But if he really wants a shot at a ring, he might take slightly less to sign on with the Heat or Celtics. The Heat might even be able to offer him the starting spot while (hopefully) he'd be a bench player for Boston.
So where will he end up? Your guess is as good as mine.