When will Kyrie Irving make his Mavericks debut, assuming the reported trade with the Nets becomes official? Irving will take his physical in Dallas on Monday and could suit up against the Clippers in Los Angeles on Wednesday night, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN tweets.
The Mavericks in the midst of a five-game road trip.
We have more from the Southwest Division:
- Some associates of Ja Morant have been banned from Memphis’ home arena by the league after a postgame incident on Jan. 29, Bob Kravitz and Sam Amick of The Athletic report. Following a game between the Pacers and Grizzlies, acquaintances of Morant confronted members of the Pacers traveling party near the team’s bus at FedExForum. Later, someone in a slow-moving SUV, in which Morant was riding, trained a red laser on them. “Certain individuals involved in the postgame situation and a related matter during the game that night have been subsequently banned from attending games in the arena,” a league spokesman said. Morant tweeted that his brother has been banned from home games for a year.
- Speaking of Morant, he didn’t play against Toronto on Sunday due to right wrist soreness, the team’s PR department tweets. It’s the ninth game this season the point guard has missed. Grizzlies center Steven Adams sat out due to a right knee PCL sprain.
- Rockets coach Stephen Silas doesn’t care when he uses his challenge as long as it results in a positive outcome for his team, as Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle details. Assistant Will Dunn quickly uses replays and helps Silas decide when and if to challenge a call. “Points are points whether they are in the second or the fourth quarter,” Silas said. “Early in the game, if we’re pretty certain we’ll get points, we’ll use it and take the points. At any time of the game, three points mean a lot. I rely on Will a lot. … He does so much study on it. Sometimes, I’ll think I might challenge, and he’ll say, ‘Nah, nah, nah.’ Sometimes, I’ll make the call on my own.”
Memphis really needs to figure themselves out, both on and off the court. Brooks is probably the most unlikeable player in the NBA rn, Ja needs to grow up, and the team as a whole has played like garbage of late.
As a fan, I recognize some of these issues boil down to maturity, which is understandable with such a young team, but Jenkins really needs to prove his mettle as a coach and rally the troops before things spiral out of hand.
Ultimately, though, it’s up to the players; will they prove resilient, or will they allow the various distractions to hinder them from reaching their potential?
Well said.
Brooks is on court stuff. I am pretty sure Morant is a cancer
Watching Memphis in the playoffs the last few years (I don’t really watch them otherwise) made me hate Brooks. He’s a chucker if there ever was one. Horrible shot selection and just shot them out of games. I don’t think they’ll ever win anything with that guy playing significant minutes.
Yeah, it was hard to watch them play against GS last year in the postseason without Ja. Brooks would play iso-ball half the time, even though he’s not even close to being offensively talented enough to get away with that.
He can definitely play significant minutes for a contender; he just can’t be any higher than the tertiary offensive option at any one point and needs to recognize his limitations.
I wish we could do something about him, but a trade would be a mistake rn, as his value (reputation) has cratered of late
What is the deal with guns and displays of power? There’s a thousand better ways to deal with things.
They are lacking in other areas…
It’s similar to the Porsche owner making up for lacking in the same areas…
Ja trying to play gangster…
Kid needs to grow up before he becomes the next Gilbert Arenas… A washed up never was…
To me it feels like Ja and the Grizzlies are letting Ja’s star status get to their heads. Like with the amount of stuff that has happened with the Grizzlies this year (Brooks incident, the Shannon Sharpe stuff, this ban for Ja’s posse, all the comments about how the NBA/refs are out to get them) and pretty much all of it happening the season after Ja propelled himself into NBA stardom it’s hard not to think this is some bloated ego stuff. Almost like they think “oh well the NBA won’t do anything because Ja is a superstar and the NBA won’t punish one of their superstars”.
I do hope they figure it out and straighten up soon. This is a team that can be super exciting to watch, and as a young team, a team that could be a contender for many years. But if they keep acting the way they currently are then they will definitely draw a bad rep from the refs and opposing teams are going to start looking to “shut them up”. Like if they think they’re getting some unfair treatment now just wait to see how the NBA will shorten the leash if the act continues.
Ja with the Gilbert Arenas vibes.