The final numbers and accolades from Keegan Murray's strong rookie season with Sacramento Kings
Dargan Southard
Although the fan-favorite Sacramento Kings ultimately couldn't get past the defending champion Golden State Warriors in the opening round of the NBA playoffs, the Kings revitalized their fan base and the league with an incredible season.
That includes plenty of production from former Iowa standout Keegan Murray, who delivered a nice rookie campaign after going No. 4 overall in last year's NBA Draft. Although Murray fell short in the Rookie of the Year voting to runaway winner Paolo Banchero, his first season offers plenty of hope for his future in Sacramento.
With the Kings' season concluded, let's take a look at Murray's final numbers and the accolades he racked up.
Keegan Murray's final rookie stats with the Sacramento Kings
Here are Murray's final regular-season per-game averages, with where that figure ranked among NBA rookies this season who appeared in at least 10 games.
- Games: 80, with 78 starts (2nd)
- Minutes: 29.8 (5th)
- Points: 12.2 (6th)
- Rebounds: 4.6 (9th)
- Assists: 1.2 (17th)
- FG%: 45.3% (20th)
- 3P%: 41.1% (6th)
- FT%: 76.5% (26th)
Here are Murray's final per-game postseason numbers across the seven playoff games against Golden State.
- Games: Seven, with seven starts
- Minutes: 27.7
- Points: 9.7
- Rebounds: 6.3
- Assists: 0.7
- FG%: 44.8%
- 3P%: 37.5%
- FT%: 66.7%
Keegan Murray's accolades from his rookie season
- Became the first former Hawkeye to ever be named to the NBA’s first-team all-rookie team.
- Set a new record for most made 3-pointers by a rookie in a season with 206, breaking Donovan Mitchell's mark of 187 set during the 2017-18 season
- Owns the highest 3-point percentage for a rookie with at least 400+ downtown attempts in a season (41.1%).
- Finished fifth in the Rookie of the Year voting with two first-place votes and 12 third-place votes.
- Became the first Kings rookie in the Sacramento Era (1985-present) to record a double-double in a playoff game, after putting up 15 points and 12 rebounds in the Kings' Game 6 win over Golden State.
- Broke the Sacramento Era record (1985-present) for most points by a rookie in a playoff game, after scoring 23 in the Kings' Game 4 loss to Golden State.
- Competed in the NBA Rising Stars Challenge during All-Star weekend.
- Named Western Conference Rookie of the Month for both December and January.
Dargan Southard is a sports trending reporter and covers Iowa athletics for the Des Moines Register and HawkCentral.com. Email him at msouthard@gannett.com.