After getting more discouraging news about Zion Williamson this week, the Pelicans are preparing to face the start of the postseason without him, writes William Guillory of The Athletic. Executive vice president of basketball operations David Griffin announced that Williamson remains out indefinitely due to a hamstring injury, making him unavailable for the play-in tournament or possibly even a first-round playoff series if New Orleans is able to qualify.
Griffin told reporters on Friday that Williamson has participated in 3-on-3 drills with coaches, but he hasn’t been cleared for 5-on-5 scrimmages. Griffin also revealed that Williamson hasn’t met some “objective metrics” in the weight room or on the court, and he’s still hesitant sometimes when pushing off with the injured leg.
“We want Z back, for sure. But we can’t put a lot of time and focus into ‘What ifs.’ Right now, this is reality. That’s what we have to look at,” coach Willie Green said. “Over the last 10 games, we’ve been playing extremely well. We have to continue to do that. When that time comes when Z can step on the floor and go, then it’s, ‘Let’s go.’”
There’s more from the Southwest Division:
- When the Mavericks traded for Kyrie Irving in February, he requested that reporters refrain from asking him about free agency until the season was over, notes Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News. Those questions are sure to come on Sunday when Dallas ends a disappointing campaign that fell short of the play-in tournament. Townsend adds that although the Mavs have a 9-17 record since trading for Irving, he hasn’t created any distractions in Dallas after a string of off-the-court incidents with Brooklyn. The biggest question facing the team in the offseason is how much of a commitment to make to Irving, who is eligible for a five-year, $272MM contract with the Mavericks or a four-year, $201.7MM deal with another team.
- After finding themselves under NBA investigation for resting players Friday night with a play-in spot still within reach, the Mavericks will use a depleted roster again on Sunday, Townsend tweets. Irving, Luka Doncic, Reggie Bullock, Tim Hardaway Jr., Josh Green and Maxi Kleber will all sit out the game against the Spurs.
- Rockets guard Kevin Porter Jr. will miss Sunday’s game with soreness in his right knee, tweets Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle. That will leave him at 59 games, one short of the 60 needed to make his games-played bonus for next season considered to be likely. Feigen adds that it won’t affect Porter’s salary (he could still earn the bonus by playing in 60 games next season), but it will open some cap room for Houston to use this offseason. The bonus accounted for $2.38MM of Porter’s cap hit for the 2023/24 season, explains Bobby Marks of ESPN (Twitter link).
200/4 with another team is the max.
If Mavs let Kyrie walk it does free up some cap space for them to be spenders but it’s not really a great offseason to be buyers. There’s not many standout names and even the role players this year are below par. They could try chase FVV but would run into a similar problem that they face with Kyrie, good offence poor defence.
Could try Vuce but Doncic didn’t work with KP no guarantee Vuce would work either. Harrison Barnes return? Jermai Grant Will be too expensive. Do you try chase a Cam Johnson, PJ Washington or Grant Williams?
Nothing really exciting and no guarantees of bouncing back
How about Kyrie for Tobias Harris and a first round pick in a sign and trade.
James Harden leaves to Houston gets us below the luxury line and frees up a little more space.
Tobias isn’t exactly a big name that’ll solve the problems but he would be a good fit. Fills that PF spot perfectly, has been a really solid 3rd now 4th scoring option for us. Decent defensively and if it doesn’t work out he comes off the books at the end of the year anyway and you can try again.
For the Sixers I’d rather give Kyrie 200/4 at 31 years old than give Harden 270/5 at 33. Especially if we win win a ring this year.
Hardens a better passer and in the past was a better isolation scorer but right now Kyrie is clearly the better scorer, easily the better ball handler, defensively there’s nothing in it. Hardens a better passer and rebounder but overall, building a team around Embiid I think Kyrie is a better fit. If Harden walks I’d love for this to happen.
If I’m the Mavs I ain’t mad either, get a good player not great but good. Try again in a better free agency next year but for now run it back without Kyrie. Hard to get anything back for Christian Wood but I’d try sign and trade him for Nurkic, Capela or Zubac. Just a hard working double double machine centre that mainly provides you with steady defence.
You get that then you’ve had a terrific offseason.
Fill out with role players like Jaxson Hayes, Danuel House, Goran Dragic and Troy Brown Jr.
Luka Bullock THJ Harris Nurkic
Dragic Green Brown Jr Kleber Hayes
Hardy House Bertans
Agree with everything you said… but I think the Mavs need to after J. Portel. T. Harris and Portel would make a better front court. A S&T Wood for backup SG (or something) is probably the best the Mavs can do because they have lost Wood when they took him out of the starting lineup after the injury. Wood will walk.
PJ Washington and/or Cam should be their top targets. They can sign them along with Kyrie, but they need a rim protector.
Grant is a FA. I’d rather him than Kyrie. And he plays D.
Do we really need another story about Zion.
Rockets should move on from Porter. Getting the 2nd pick. Would make it easy. I’d take a #1 for him.
Knicks can have Lillard, and Grant.
Portland won’t have any use for good players for about a decade, maybe longer.