Trae Young Has Sprained MCL, Will Be Reevaluated In Four Weeks

Hawks guard Trae Young has been diagnosed with a sprained MCL in his right knee and will be reevaluated in four weeks, sources tell Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link). An MRI conducted Friday was reviewed by multiple doctors, who determined that he avoided major structural damage to his knee, Charania adds.

The Hawks issued a statement (via Twitter) confirming Charania’s report and saying Young suffered no other damage to the knee beyond the MCL sprain. The team added that he has already begun rehabilitation.

Young injured his knee in a collision with teammate Mouhamed Gueye in the first quarter of Wednesday’s game at Brooklyn. He didn’t return to that game and was held out of Friday’s contest at Indiana.

Young is off to a slow start this season, but he’s nearly irreplaceable for an Atlanta team that’s expecting to become a contender in the East. He’s averaging 17.8 points and 7.8 assists through five games while shooting career lows of 37.1% from the field and 19.2% from three-point range.

Nickeil Alexander-Walker moved into the starting lineup Friday night, taking Young’s place alongside Dyson Daniels in the Hawks’ backcourt. Keaton Wallace played nearly 17 minutes off the bench, his highest total of the season by far, and he figures to see an expanded role until Young returns.

While being without Young for approximately a month will be inconvenient for Atlanta, there’s a sense of relief in knowing that it’s not a long-term injury. If Young had been lost for the season, it likely would have affected his upcoming decision on a $49MM player option for 2026/27 as well as his extension talks with the team.

Knicks Notes: Coaching Change, Towns, Hart, Robinson

After they got off to a 2-3 start, including a 10-point loss at Chicago on Friday, Steve Popper of Newsday wonders whether the Knicks‘ offseason coaching change was necessary or if they were trying to fix something that wasn’t broken.

Management decided to replace Tom Thibodeau after he took New York to the conference finals last season and brought in Mike Brown, who promised to give more minutes to bench players and institute an up-tempo style. Popper points out that the Knicks still have a roster filled with players who were acquired to fit Thibodeau’s slower-paced, defensive-minded approach. When they faced the Bulls, who are built for a faster style of play, they gave up 135 points.

Popper states that the adjustment has been particularly difficult for Karl-Anthony Towns, who is projected to spend more time at power forward after primarily being used as a center last season. Popper believes Towns is miscast by being asked to run the floor in transition like a wing.

Towns didn’t address his individual role after Friday’s loss, but his comments reflected the overall frustration of the team.

“Just obviously we’re not happy,” he said. “We had three winnable games and we didn’t do enough to close the game out. For someone like us, that was our identity last year — close games we usually win. So obviously it’s a different feeling not being able to close the games out.”

There’s more on the Knicks:

  • Josh Hart told Brown that he doesn’t want to move back and forth between starting and sixth-man duties, so he’s now a full-time reserve, Popper adds in the same piece. Hart said even though it was his idea, there might be times that he struggles with not being a starter. “I think throughout the season it’ll be a battle of, you know, kind of fighting the egotistical view of it,” he said. “I think I did have a good year last year. And you know, with a different role, now it’s totally different. I think the biggest thing, I’ve had to sacrifice my whole career. I talked about it the whole time last year. You know, that’s something that I try to do every year and try to make sure whether I’ve got to sacrifice or not, make the team the best that we can be. So it’s never like, OK cool and it’s seamless. There’s going to be days where I’m just like, ‘Man, that’s some bull.’ You know what I mean? But it’ll be a constant thing of fighting that, but making sure I know that this is what’s best for the team and locking in on that.”
  • Hart told reporters on Friday that he’s not considering another surgical procedure for an injured finger on his shooting hand, per Stefan Bondy of The New York Post. Hart wants to avoid a prolonged recovery that could sideline him for several months.
  • Brown was sharply critical of the Knicks’ defense following the loss to Chicago, relays Kristian Winfield of The New York Daily News. The Bulls scored 72 points in the first half and finished the game with six players in double figures. “Our defense tonight was nonexistent and it starts with guarding the basketball,” Brown said. “We have to be better guarding the basketball. And it has to be with a sense of physicality because if we don’t, teams are gonna do exactly what Chicago did tonight on the offensive end of the floor.”
  • After missing four games due to left ankle injury maintenance, Mitchell Robinson made his season debut on Friday, posting four points and 11 rebounds in 20 minutes. He’s being listed as questionable for Sunday’s rematch with the Bulls in New York, according to James L. Edwards of The Athletic (Twitter link).

Southeast Notes: Bane, Penda, Ball, Young

Desmond Bane‘s three-point shot isn’t falling so far this season, but the Magic guard remains confident that it will come around soon, writes Jason Beede of The Orlando Sentinel. Bane was acquired from Memphis over the summer to improve the team’s outside shooting, but he’s only connecting at 25% from beyond the arc while taking 4.7 per game, which is the lowest total since his rookie season. It’s a small sample size and Bane was a career 41% three-point shooter with the Grizzlies, so he isn’t worried.

“It’ll come,” he said. “I’ve had multiple stretches like that. It’s basketball. Some nights you get a ton and some nights you get a few.”

Beede notes that Bane hasn’t been getting the open looks that he’s used to since joining the Magic. Defenses are playing him tightly at the three-point line, and he has responded by driving more often and finding open teammates, which led to seven assists in Friday’s victory at Charlotte.

However, the Magic don’t have many accomplished three-point shooters and they’ll eventually need Bane to fill that role.

“He’s one of those guys that he’s such a threat on the three-point line that he’s able to get downhill, but, in my opinion, one of the reasons we got him was because of his three-point shooting,” Wendell Carter Jr. said. “We’ve got to find ways to get him cleaner, easier looks, instead of off the dribble, even though he can do both.”

There’s more from the Southeast Division:

  • After not being used in the first three games, rookie forward Noah Penda is increasing his role in the Magic‘s rotation and played 17 minutes on Friday, Beede adds in the same story. “We’ve thrown him in different situations and one thing about him is he can guard multiple positions,” coach Jamahl Mosley said. “He’s not afraid of the moment and does a great job crashing the glass. He’s doing all of the things that we’re asking him to do when he steps on the floor.”
  • Hornets guard LaMelo Ball will play tonight against Minnesota after being listed on the injury report with a right ankle impingement, according to Rod Boone of The Charlotte Observer (Twitter link). In his pregame press conference, coach Charles Lee talked about the importance of Ball staying healthy after missing 60 and 35 games the past two seasons (Twitter video link).
  • The Hawks haven’t provided an update on Trae Young, who suffered a sprained right knee on Wednesday. Young didn’t play Friday night and has already been ruled out for Sunday’s game at Cleveland, tweets Brad Rowland of Locked on Hawks.

Jared Rhoden Signs With Paris Basketball

Free agent guard Jared Rhoden has signed a contract with Paris Basketball, the French team announced in a press release. No details were provided on the duration of the deal.

Rhoden, who went undrafted in 2022 out of Seton Hall, has spent parts of each of the past three seasons in the NBA, appearing in 45 regular season games for Detroit, Charlotte and Toronto over that span. The 26-year-old finished last season on a two-way contract with the Raptors.

A 6’6″ shooting guard, Rhoden underwent surgery in late April to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder and was subsequently waived on July 1. The Raptors re-signed Rhoden to an Exhibit 10 deal for training camp, but he was released again a few days before the 2025/26 season began.

Rhoden appeared in 10 games with the Raptors last season, averaging 11.4 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 1.4 assists in 21.5 minutes per night, with a shooting line of .506/.324/.880. He bumped those averages to 19.0 PPG, 6.9 RPG, and 3.4 APG in 31.4 MPG on .507/.393/.648 shooting in 26 regular season outings for the G League’s Raptors 905.

Paris Basketball competes in the EuroLeague and France’s top domestic league, the LNB Élite.

Ja Morant Receives One-Game Suspension From Grizzlies

The Grizzlies have suspended point guard Ja Morant for one game for conduct detrimental to the team, the team announced today in a press release (Twitter link).

According to Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link), head coach Tuomas Iisalo challenged Morant’s “leadership and effort” following Friday’s loss to the Lakers. Morant responded to Iisalo in a “tone deemed inappropriate,” sources tell Charania.

Morant will lose 1/145th of his $39,446,090 salary for 2025/26 as a result of the suspension, notes ESPN’s Bobby Marks (via Twitter). That works out to $272,042.

In a brief session with the media after Friday’s game (video link), Morant repeatedly said to “go ask the coaching staff” when asked about his listless performance — the 26-year-old finished with season lows of eight points and one rebound in 31 minutes. He shot just 3-of-14 from the floor and attempted a season-low two free throws.

Morant’s one-game suspension will be served on Sunday in Toronto.

According to Damichael Cole of The Memphis Commercial Appeal (subscriber link), Morant was “visibly disengaged” during the second half of Friday’s contest, notably not attempting any shots in the final five minutes of the game after making a game-winning floater on Wednesday in Phoenix.

As Cole writes, while Iisalo has been complimented by players for his direct approach, he has also faced questions about some of his substitution patterns.

When asked what the team could have done to get a different result on Friday, Morant replied, “According to them, probably don’t play me, honestly. That’s basically what the message was after.”

Recap Of 2026/27 Rookie Scale Option Decisions

Decisions on rookie scale options for the 2026/27 season were due on Friday — any team that wanted to exercise a third- or fourth-year option on a player for next season was required to do so by October 31.

As is typically the case, a huge majority of those options were picked up. Even for top picks, who are paid higher salaries due to the NBA’s rookie scale, those third- and fourth-year options are relatively team-friendly. So unless a player has fallen well short of his team’s expectations, it generally makes sense to lock in his salary for the following season at this point.

However, not every player with a 2026/27 team option had it exercised by Friday’s deadline. A player who had his option declined will now be on track to reach unrestricted free agency during the summer of 2026, assuming he’s not waived before then. At the end of the season, his team won’t be able to offer him a starting salary that exceeds the value of his declined option.

Listed below are the players who had their options turned down, followed by the players whose options were exercised. If a player had his option picked up, his ’26/27 salary is now guaranteed and he won’t be eligible for free agency until at least 2027.


Declined options:

  • Jett Howard, Magic (fourth year, $7,337,938)
  • Kobe Bufkin, Nets (fourth year, $6,904,203)
    • Note: Bufkin’s fourth-year option was declined when he was waived by Brooklyn.
  • Dariq Whitehead, Nets (fourth year, $5,366,911)
    • Note: Whitehead’s fourth-year option was declined when he was cut by Brooklyn.
  • Olivier-Maxence Prosper, Mavericks (fourth year, $5,259,383)
    • Note: Prosper’s fourth-year option was declined when he was waived by Dallas, which used the stretch provision to spread his $3MM cap hit over three seasons.
  • Nick Smith Jr., Hornets (fourth year, $4,890,067)
    • Note: Smith’s fourth-year option was declined when he was released by Charlotte.
  • Kobe Brown, Clippers (fourth year, $4,792,058)
  • Dillon Jones, Wizards (third year, $2,884,440)
    • Note: Jones’ third-year option was declined when he was cut by Washington.

Jones was the only 2024 first-round pick (he was selected 26th overall) who did not have his third-year option picked up. In addition to the six 2023 first-rounders listed above, Jalen Hood-Schifino also had his third- and fourth-year options declined by the Lakers last year. He was subsequently traded to — and released by — the Jazz, and is now on a two-way contract with Philadelphia.

Howard (No. 11 overall in 2023) was the lone former lottery pick whose option was turned down this fall. The 22-year-old wing has yet to carve out a rotation role with Orlando, the team that selected him, and the Magic project to be a tax apron team next season even without Howard’s $7,337,938 salary on their books.

Aside from Howard, Brown is the only other player who remains with the team that declined his option. Similar to Howard, the 25-year-old forward has rarely played for the Clippers over the past two-plus seasons.

None of the declined options were too surprising this year, as the seven players have not been significant NBA contributors to this point in their careers.

The Nets’ decisions to waive Bufkin and Whitehead were motivated by a roster crunch and a desire to stay above the minimum salary floor entering the season — not reaching the floor would have caused Brooklyn to lose its luxury tax distribution, which is projected to be around $12.8MM.

The Mavs, Hornets and Wizards were all facing roster crunches as well. While Charlotte and Washington had plenty of financial wiggle room to eat guaranteed salaries, Dallas needed to use the stretch provision on Prosper to create enough room below its second-apron cap to finalize a veteran’s minimum deal with Dante Exum, who has yet to play this season due to a knee injury.

Prosper and Smith are now on two-way deals with the Grizzlies and Lakers, respectively, after having their fourth-year options declined. Bufkin, Whitehead and Jones are all unrestricted free agents.


Exercised options:

Fourth year:

Note: These players will become eligible for rookie scale extensions in July of 2026. If they’re not extended, they’ll be on track for restricted free agency in 2027.

These 23 players who had their fourth-year options exercised, along with the seven listed in the section above who had their fourth-year options declined, were drafted in the first round in 2023.

Third year:

Note: Teams will have to make fourth-year option decisions for 2026/27 on these players by November 2, 2026.

As usual, nearly every player from the 2024 draft class had his third-year option picked up, with 29 of 30 exercised. As noted above, Jones is the only player from 2024’s first round who is now a free agent.


For a team-by-team breakdown of this year’s rookie scale option decisions for the 2026/27 season, along with full stories on each decision, you can check out our tracker.

Pacers Add Jeremiah Robinson-Earl On 10-Day Hardship Contract

2:00 pm: Robinson-Earl’s 10-day hardship contract with the Pacers is now official, per a team press release.


11:11 am: The Pacers are planning to sign forward Jeremiah Robinson-Earl to a 10-day contract via the hardship exception, ESPN’s Shams Charania tweets.

Indiana’s star player, Tyrese Haliburton, is out for the season after suffering a right Achilles tendon rupture during the Finals. The Pacers are also currently without guards T.J. McConnell (hamstring), Kam Jones (back), Bennedict Mathurin (toe), Andrew Nembhard (shoulder) and Johnny Furphy (foot). Additionally, forward Obi Toppin just underwent a procedure on his foot that will keep him out of action for at least three months.

A team qualifies for a hardship exception when it meets all of the following criteria:

  1. It has at least four players unavailable due to injury or illness.
  2. All four of those players have missed at least three consecutive games.
  3. All four of those players are expected to remain sidelined for at least two more weeks.

Robinson-Earl played 66 games with the Pelicans last season, including nine starts. He averaged 6.3 points, 4.8 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 18.8 minutes per game. He was waived by Dallas prior to the season opener after signing an Exhibit 9 contract with the team during the offseason.

Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd praised Robinson-Earl during training camp and expressed hope that he could find another NBA opportunity.

“When you talk about him being a pro — he should be on an NBA roster,” Kidd said. “When you look at what he does, he’s consistent. He comes to work every day and does his job. He can shoot it, he can pass it, he can defend. It’s really sad that he’s not on an NBA roster for whatever reason.”

His G League rights are held by the Texas Legends.

Mavs’ Daniel Gafford To Make Season Debut Saturday

Mavericks center Daniel Gafford will make his 2025/26 season debut on Saturday in Mexico City against Detroit, he told reporters, including Mike Curtis of The Dallas Morning News and Christian Clark of The Athletic (Twitter links).

Of course. Yeah,” The 27-year-old big man said. “Of course. Just taking my time.”

Gafford said he sprained his right ankle on the first day of training camp in late September when he landed on Anthony Davis‘ foot in one of the team’s first drills (Twitter video link via Curtis). He was originally expected to miss two-to-three weeks, but has now been out for just over a month.

“It’s been a lot of ups and downs,” Gafford said. ” … Couldn’t really control it. … It wasn’t something anyone was planning on happening but as they say, ‘stuff happens.’

As Grant Afseth of Dallas Hoops Journal writes, Gafford is officially listed as questionable for Saturday’s game, as is guard D’Angelo Russell, who is dealing with a left knee contusion he sustained in Wednesday’s win vs. Indiana. Dereck Lively II (right knee sprain) will miss his third straight game, with Anthony Davis (calf strain), Kyrie Irving (recovering from ACL surgery) and Dante Exum (right knee injury management) out as well.

Gafford averaged a career-high 12.3 points per game last season, along with 6.8 rebounds and 1.8 blocks, but injuries limited him to 57 games. He sat out 21 straight contests with a sprained knee late in ’24/25, but was able to return in early April.

The former second-round pick’s offseason was highlighted by a three-year, $54MM extension that runs through the ’28/29 season.

Nets Notes: Clowney, Demin, Saraf, Mann, Williams, Claxton

The Nets are off to a 0-5 start and Noah Clowney has been part of the problem. The forward has scored just 5.2 points per game while shooting 25% from the field, mostly from beyond the arc. The coaching staff wants Clowney to keep firing away.

“Just keep shooting it,” coach Jordi Fernández told Dan Martin of the New York Post. “Don’t overthink it.”

The front office picked up Clowney’s 2026/27 option at the start of the season. The third-year forward/center averaged 9.1 points and 3.9 rebounds in 22.7 minutes per contest last season, shooting just 35.8% from the floor in 46 games.

“We need Noah,” Fernández said. “Noah is a big presence for our team. [He has] toughness, size, shooting, rebounding [and] winning plays. We need more verticality and he’s a big part of doing that.”

Here’s more on the Nets:

  • Fernandez sat rookies Egor Demin and Ben Saraf for the entire fourth quarter of their 117-112 loss to the Hawks on Wednesday, as the coach decided to go with veterans Tyrese Martin and Terance Mann, Brian Lewis of the New York Post notes. Demin has shot 9-for-22 from beyond the arc this season but hasn’t even attempted a shot inside the three-point line. “Yeah, he’s got to figure it out. Obviously, I want him to touch the paint,” Fernández said. “We all, everybody, will figure it out that he’s a threat from the three-point line, but he cannot play just behind the three.”
  • As for Mann, whose three-year, $47MM extension he signed with the Clippers last October kicked in this season,  he’s averaging 11.2 points in 25.4 minutes per game while shooting 54.6% from the field. “Terance has a good overall feel for the game,” Fernandez said, per Andrew Crane of the New York Post. “He does a little bit of everything, and I like when he’s aggressive and he gets assists when he gets to the rim and he sprays the ball.”
  • Ziaire Williams has a “small, very minor” back fracture after a hard fall on Sunday in San Antonio. He’s hopeful he can return this Sunday when the Nets host the Sixers, according to Crane“It locked up on me,” Williams said. “… But it’s something that can’t get worse. So at this point, it’s just a pain tolerance thing, so as soon as the pain just goes down, it’s never gonna be perfect, at least right now.”
  • Brooklyn ranks last in the league in defensive efficiency ranks and needs defensive anchor Nic Claxton to step up his game, C.J. Holmes of the New York Daily News writes. “It’s very simple. I mean, Nic is a very good defender. He’s not happy,” Fernandez said. “He has high standards and he’s hard on himself… We’re all together here. I believe in him. We had a great stretch last year when we were high level offensively, and right now we’re not. So, continuity, work together, believe in each other; all those things are important. And you know, we know he’s a great rim protector. We know he can get deflections. We know he can run the floor. We know he can rebound. So those things I believe he can do. And he believes.”

Lakers Notes: Doncic, Smart, Ayton, Reaves, NBA Cup

In his return to action on Friday, Lakers superstar guard Luka Doncic reached heights only achieved by Wilt Chamberlain. Doncic scored 44 points in a win over Memphis, becoming the only player in NBA history other than Chamberlain to top 40 points in three straight games to begin his season.

Doncic had missed the previous three games with a sprained finger on his left hand and a lower left leg contusion.

“I mean, I feel great,” Doncic said when told about joining Chamberlain that category, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN. “But obviously, if we get a win, I feel even better. So that’s the whole point, trying to help the team to win. And sometimes it’s going to be scoring, sometimes other things.”

By averaging 45.3 points in his first three games, Doncic became the first Lakers player since Kobe Bryant in 2007 to average 45 or more in any three-game span. He doesn’t see himself keeping up the 4o-per game pace throughout a whole season.

“That’s going to be tough,” Doncic said. “Sometimes they’re going to double me more. Sometimes I won’t be able to score that much. I had I think three or four shots that were crazy shots that I felt like doing, but they were terrible shots. … I’ve got to work on that. But that’s tough. I don’t know.”

We have more on the Lakers:

  • After missing two games due to a quad contusion, Marcus Smart contributed 12 points, four assists, three rebounds and two steals on Friday. “He was great,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said, per Khobi Price of the Orange County Register. “The main point about physicality, I think he, along with a couple other guys, but he’s gotta be the leader of the physicality. He’s gotta set the tone and there were a lot of moments where he did that. But it made a big difference and then he just played really good on the offensive end, made some timely shots for us.”
  • Starting center Deandre Ayton didn’t play in the second half after experiencing back spasms. Redick said Ayton was available to play in the fourth quarter, but didn’t want to “risk it,” according to Price.
  • Austin Reaves averaged 40 points during the three games Doncic missed. He had a season-low 21 points against Memphis and was disappointed with his 5-of-14 shooting performance. “His ability to get us off to hot starts is big for us because, if you come out and he has 15 in the first, we’re going to score, I would assume, 30 (points),” Reaves said of Doncic. “Unless everybody else is shooting bricks like I was (Friday).”
  • The Lakers’ win on Friday was the first of four NBA Cup group play games. Their other matchups are at the Pelicans on Nov. 14, at home vs. the Clippers on Nov. 25 and at home vs. the Mavericks on Nov. 28, Price notes. “It’s my little taste of an All-Star Game,” Ayton said. “It feels like that’s when everybody [is] watching, and everybody playing their hardest. Dudes are playing extremely hard. It feels like playoff games, the fans are super into it.”