All-Star Game

Western Notes: Williams, James, Robinson-Earl, Murray

January 31st, 2022 at 8:57pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Suns coach Monty Williams and his staff will coach Team LeBron (James) at the All-Star Game in Cleveland, according to an ESPN report. Phoenix is guaranteed to have the best record in the conference before the cutoff date of February 6. Williams will coach in the All-Star Game for the first time, and he’ll be the first Phoenix head coach to do so since Mike D’Antoni in 2007.

We have more from the Western Conference:

An MRI on James’ left knee revealed only general swelling and he might return to action as soon as Wednesday, Lakers coach Frank Vogel told ESPN’s Dave McMenamin and other media members. James has missed the last three games. “Just going to keep an eye on it day to day,” Vogel said.
The Thunder assigned Jeremiah Robinson-Earl to their G League affiliate, the Oklahoma City Blue, for a Monday afternoon game, according to a team press release. It was somewhat surprising, since Robinson-Earl has started 36 games for the Thunder and has averaged 24.7 MPG this month. Head coach Mark Daigneault said it was part of the development process, Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman tweets. “Obviously on the surface it looks a little peculiar,” he said. “What I’d say is, one thing that we’ve learned and that we’re trying to apply is that changing environments, changing circumstances, changing roles is good for development.”
Klay Thompson, Victor Oladipo and Zach LaVine are among the opposing players who have reached out to Nuggets guard Jamal Murray during his recovery from a serious knee injury, Mike Singer of the Denver Post writes. Those players have also gone through the process of a long rehab.

Embiid, DeRozan Among All-Star Starters From Eastern Conference

January 27th, 2022 at 6:49pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Sixers center Joel Embiid, Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Nets forward Kevin Durant have been named All-Star starters from the Eastern Conference frontcourt pool.

DeMar DeRozan (Bulls) and Trae Young (Hawks) are the conference’s guards who will join them as starters, NBA Communications tweets.

Durant will be a team captain because he is the All-Star starter from the East with the most fan votes in the East. However, he’s currently sidelined by a knee injury and isn’t expected to play in next month’s All-Star Game at Cleveland.

DeRozan was the leader among Eastern Conference guards in the fan voting. The fan vote counted for 50% in the selection process, with player voting accounting for 25% and the media getting a 25% say.

It will be DeRozan’s third All-Star start and fifth All-Star game. In his first year with the Bulls, DeRozan is averaging 26.4 PPG, 5.0 RPG and 4.8 APG. All of the starters from the East are among the NBA’s top six scorers, led by Durant (29.3 PPG) and Embiid (29.0 PPG).

Andrew Wiggins Named All-Star Starter; Morant Selected For First Time

January 27th, 2022 at 6:31pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Western Conference starter pool for next month’s NBA All-Star Game included a big surprise.

Warriors forward Andrew Wiggins was chosen along with Lakers forward LeBron James and Nuggets center Nikola Jokic among Western Conference frontcourt candidates. Grizzlies guard Ja Morant was also named a starter for the first time, joining Warriors guard Stephen Curry as the backcourt duo in the starter pool, NBA Communications tweets.

James will be a team captain once again because he is the All-Star starter from the West with the most fan votes in the West.

Wiggins was third in the most recent fan voting results among Western Conference frontcourt players but the fan vote counted for only 50% in the selection. Player voting accounted for 25% and the media also had a 25% say.

Wiggins is averaging 18.1 PPG. He beat out more decorated Western Conference frontcourt players such as Rudy Gobert, Anthony Davis, Deandre Ayton, Karl-Anthony Towns and Draymond Green.

Morant’s selection is much less controversial. He’s averaging 25.8 PPG, 6.9 APG and 5.9 RPG. However, Luka Doncic, Donovan Mitchell and Suns guards Devin Booker and Chris Paul also had compelling cases to be starters.

Nets Notes: Harden, Nash, Harris, Durant

January 26th, 2022 at 7:57am CST by Luke Adams

Asked on Tuesday about Jake Fischer’s report that suggested he was frustrated by certain aspects of his experience with the Nets and is becoming increasingly interested in testing the free agent market, All-Star guard James Harden denied that those claims came from him, tweets Alex Schiffer of The Athletic.

However, Harden didn’t explicitly call out the report as false, as Mike Vaccaro of The New York Post writes. And while the 32-year-old didn’t confirm that he has been frustrated by Kyrie Irving‘s inconsistent availability or the team’s constantly changing crunch-time lineups, he did acknowledge some disappointment about the way the season has played out so far.

“Of course I’m frustrated because we’re not healthy,” Harden said. “There’s been a lot of inconsistency for whatever reason — injuries, COVID, whatever you want to call it. I think everyone in the organization is frustrated because we’re better than what our record is.”

Here’s more on the Nets:

Head coach Steve Nash was also asked on Tuesday about the claim that Harden has been frustrated by Irving’s status and Nash’s rotations. “I haven’t spoken to him about these things,” Nash replied, per Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link). “I’m not sure what to believe. James and I speak all the time. I think we have a great relationship. I’m not sure the validity of these comments, to be honest with you.”
Nets sharpshooter Joe Harris, who is recovering from left ankle surgery, flew to Indianapolis earlier this week to get a second opinion on his injury, Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports reported on TNT’s Tuesday night broadcast (video link). Harris still intends to return this season, but there’s no set timeline for when that will happen.
Kevin Durant is a shoo-in to make the All-Star team, but he doesn’t plan to play in next month’s All-Star Game in Cleveland, Haynes said on Tuesday night (video link). That’s not a big surprise, since Durant’s recovery from an MCL sprain may keep him sidelined beyond All-Star weekend anyway.

And-Ones: Hardship Deals, Sharpe, Cornelie, All-Star Voting

January 20th, 2022 at 2:53pm CST by Luke Adams

The NBA will continue to allow teams to sign players to 10-day hardship contracts via a COVID-related allowance through February 17, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (via Twitter). When first introducing the new form of hardship deals last month, the league said they would be permitted until at least January 19.

Unlike the injury-related hardship deals that have been available for many years, a COVID hardship contract doesn’t count against a team’s salary for cap or tax purposes. Additionally, an injury-related hardship exception is only granted if a club has at least four players out with longer-term injuries, whereas that club becomes eligible for a COVID hardship exception as soon as one player enters the NBA’s health and safety protocols.

There are far fewer players in the protocols now than there were in mid-to-late December and early January, so hopefully the worst of this season’s COVID-19 outbreaks are behind us and not many hardship deals will be required in the coming weeks.

Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

Kentucky guard Shaedon Sharpe, once ranked by ESPN as the top prospect in the 2022 recruiting class, will be eligible to apply for the ’22 NBA draft as an early entrant, a source tells ESPN’s Jonathan Givony. It’s unclear whether or not Sharpe, who has yet to play at all for the Wildcats, will actually declare for this year’s draft. If he does, it would shake up the top 10 for lottery teams — Givony has tentatively placed the 18-year-old sixth overall on ESPN’s 2022 big board.
Despite some rumors that he was being eyed by a team in Spain, former Nuggets forward Petr Cornelie has signed a G League contract and joined the Grand Rapids Gold, Denver’s affiliate, according to the league’s transactions log. Cornelie was waived last week so the Nuggets could sign Davon Reed to a two-way contract.
The NBA announced the latest All-Star voting results on Thursday and issued a reminder that voting will end on Saturday and the All-Star starters will be announced next Thursday, January 27. The fans’ selections will account for 50% of the overall vote, with current NBA players (25%) and a media panel (25%) accounting for the remainder.

Community Shootaround: Western Conference All-Star Voting

January 11th, 2022 at 10:06pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

In the sequel to this weekend’s consideration of potential Eastern Conference All-Star starters following the first results of fan voting for the 2022 NBA All-Star Game, we’ll take a look today at the players who are in the mix (and deserving to be in the mix) for Western Conference All-Star starting gigs.

During the voting process, players are separated by conference. Three frontcourt players will be selected and two guards will be chosen. Fan votes are weighted as 50% of the total vote. The remaining 50% will be split evenly between players and media members. The league’s head coaches will then pick the All-Star benches after starters are announced.

The All-Star Game is set for February 20 at the Cavaliers’ home arena, Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Online fan voting began on Christmas Day 2021, and will conclude at 11:59 p.m. ET on January 22. The fan voting results so far were announced by the NBA on January 6.

Lakers small forward LeBron James received 2,018,725 fan votes to lead all frontcourt players in the West, followed by the reigning MVP, Nuggets center Nikola Jokic, with 1,649,809 votes. Clippers small forward Paul George, out with a long-term shoulder injury, is currently in third place with 1,072,591 votes. Surprisingly, Warriors small forward Andrew Wiggins is outpacing his more decorated — and, let’s face it, just plain better — All-Star teammate, power forward Draymond Green.

The 933,355 fan votes for Wiggins are significantly more than the 691,423 fan votes Green received. Wiggins has made far more of a scoring impact than Green has, to be fair, though Green’s passing and versatile, league-best defense make him the more crucial contributor to the Warriors’ 30-10 record.

Lakers big man Anthony Davis (592,281 votes), Timberwolves center Karl-Anthony Towns (474,794 votes), Lakers reserve forward Carmelo Anthony (319,128 votes), Jazz center Rudy Gobert (218,819 votes) and Suns center Deandre Ayton (177,115 votes) round out the top 10.

Among this top 10, only Anthony is truly unworthy of consideration, though the notion of the barely-available Davis meriting a look for his contributions as the second-best player on a .500-level club seems shaky. At present, George has played just one fewer game than Davis has, though that is subject to change. Gobert, who along with Green looks to be a favorite to win another Defensive Player of the Year award this season in one of the West’s elite teams, deserves the third starting frontcourt nod over George.

Warriors point guard Stephen Curry leads the West’s guards (and also every other player in the NBA) in fan voting with 2,584,623 votes. Far behind Curry are fourth-year Mavericks point guard Luka Doncic, already a two-time All-Star, with 787,690 votes and third-year Grizzlies point guard Ja Morant with 669,033 votes. Tonight, Morant led the fourth-seeded Grizzlies to a 116-108 statement win over Curry’s Warriors. The victory marked 10 straight for Memphis. The 29-14 Grizzlies occupy the West’s fourth seed, far ahead of Doncic’s fifth-seeded Mavericks at 22-18.

Curry’s Golden State teammate Klay Thompson, who has played a grand total of two games this season, received a nonsensical 367,743 fan votes last week, the fourth-most for any West guard. Thompson far outpaced the more worthy Suns backcourt tandem of Devin Booker (338,526 votes) and Chris Paul (315,912 votes), who in turn are just ahead of Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell (217,546). Among this group, Mitchell, Paul and Booker all could make a case to start. The same cannot be said for Thompson.

As of this writing, this fan voter would start Jokic, James, and Gobert for the Western Conference’s frontcourt trio, with Curry and Morant occupying the two starting guard spots.

We want to know what you think! Who deserves to be a Western Conference All-Star starter? Are there any borderline starters you think could be determined based on their play during this last month of voting? Head to the comment section below to weigh in!

Community Shootaround: Eastern Conference All-Star Voting

January 9th, 2022 at 8:17pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

The 2022 NBA All-Star Game will take place on February 20 at the Cavaliers’ home arena, Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Will a Cavalier or two make the cut for the first time since LeBron James headed West in 2018? Time will tell, but the odds look good. The chances of a Cav earning an Eastern Conference starting spot, however, look slim.

Online fan voting started on Christmas Day, and is set to wrap up on January 22 at 11:59 p.m. ET. The first results of fan voting were announced by the NBA on January 6.

Players are separated by conference in the voting process (though not in the games), and divvied up across the frontcourt and backcourt. Fan votes will be weighed at 50% of the total vote, with 25% allocated to player voting results and an additional 25% given to journalists. Head coaches will vote for the All-Star benches after starters are announced.

Today, we’ll take a look at the leaders in the clubhouse to earn an All-Star start in the Eastern Conference, in addition to making the case for a few other notable players deserving of a shot.

Nets forward Kevin Durant led all Eastern Conference players with 2,360,435 results in his favor after the initial tally. Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo was nipping at his heels with a robust 2,145,835 fan votes of his own. Sixers center Joel Embiid received 1,236,060 fan votes. The top three frontcourt vote-getters (again, as determined by a split of fan, player, and media votes) will earn starter honors.

The selections of Durant, Antetkounmpo, and Embiid (all in the early running for MVP consideration) were largely expected. Celtics forward Jayson Tatum and Heat forward Jimmy Butler were the only other frontcourt players to earn 500K or more fan votes.

While Butler is clearly enjoying an All-Star-level season, which would be his sixth overall, he has only appeared in 23 of a possible 40 games for the 25-15 Heat. Currently sidelined with an ankle injury, Butler is expected to return to the court soon, and, provided that he does, should be a lock to make the coaches’ picks for East reserves.

Tatum and Boston wing Jaylen Brown have each had productive individual seasons, but it has not translated to team success for the 19-21 Celtics, currently the tenth seed in the Eastern Conference. A team in danger of missing the play-in tournament seems unlikely to earn two All-Stars. Brown is listed in the backcourt for fan voting, while Tatum is in the frontcourt.

Cavaliers center Jarrett Allen, who was a big part of the trade that netted Brooklyn superstar guard James Harden, has blossomed into an All-Star caliber talent with Cleveland this season. Allen and guard Darius Garland are the Cavaliers’ two All-Star candidates this season, though neither looks to have the votes to claw their way into the starter conversation. Allen was sixth in the first fan voting results for Eastern Conference frontcourt players with 168,019 votes. Garland ranked ninth among East guards (behind two much less-worthy candidates, whom we will discuss in a bit) with 119,399 votes. Rookie Cleveland power forward Evan Mobley, an early leader for the NBA’s Rookie of the Year award, will most likely not make the cut, though he has been a crucial part of the team’s incredible turnaround this season.

Other frontcourt players who have put up solid numbers on good teams in the conference include young Hornets forward Miles Bridges, enjoying a Most Improved Player-level season with an upstart Charlotte club. Hawks power forward John Collins also has a case, though the team’s middling record could limit Atlanta from getting more than one All-Star this year. Other candidates for All-Star consideration (though probably not worthy of starting) include a cadre of recent All-Stars, among them Pacers big man Domantas Sabonis, Raptors power forward Pascal Siakam (though he has missed 14 games so far), Knicks power forward Julius Randle, and Bulls center Nikola Vucevic. Vucevic has stabilized after a rough shooting start, and has improved on defense this season.

In the backcourt, the two current frontrunners to start are Bulls wing DeMar DeRozan (1,487,598 fan votes), enjoying a comeback season in Chicago at age 32, and Nets guard Harden (892,065 votes), who – despite having one of his worst seasons in years – remains one of the better guards in the NBA.

The selection of DeRozan here has stirred up a bit of controversy — not because of his merit, but because of his positional listing. The 6’6″ DeRozan is the Bulls’ starting small forward, and moonlights plenty as a small-ball power forward. When he last made an All-Star team, with the Raptors in 2018, DeRozan was a shooting guard, but he was unlocked in subsequent seasons at the three and four while with the Spurs. Regardless, DeRozan looks to be a lock, provided he stays relatively healthy for the rest of the voting window.

Hawks point guard Trae Young is right behind Harden with 862,878 fan votes, while Bulls shooting guard Zach LaVine (776,043) and second-year Hornets point guard LaMelo Ball (422,247) round out the top five vote-getters among backcourt players. LaVine may not boast the late-game heroics or ball-handling ingenuity of his fellow Chicago swingman DeRozan, but he has put up terrific numbers as one of the undisputed two best players for the East’s best club as of this writing. Chicago boasts a 26-10 record.

Young, fresh off leading his Atlanta team to a surprising Eastern Conference Finals appearance in 2021, is enjoying a great statistical season individually, but it has not translated to team success, in part because Young’s defense has been… apathetic at best. The Hawks are currently the No. 12 seed in the East with a 17-22 record. Ball has led Charlotte to a 21-19 record and the East’s eighth seed. Young, LaVine and Ball are all more deserving starters than Harden this season, though Harden remains worthy of a (bench) All-Star slot.

Insanely, Nets point guard Kyrie Irving, who has played in all of one game this season, is right behind Ball with 267,929 fan votes, while Knicks reserve point guard Derrick Rose, out for months following an ankle surgery and having put up fairly pedestrian numbers on a non-playoff team, has gotten 232,501 votes of his own. Neither player will get a shred of votes from players or journalists, and neither player has a chance of making the All-Star team, as a starter or reserve, this season.

Veteran Raptors point guard Fred VanVleet, who finished tenth during this initial window of fan voting, has emerged as perhaps the representative best player for a frisky Toronto club. Bucks point guard Jrue Holiday and Wizards shooting guard Bradley Beal also seem worthy of All-Star berths, though they both finished outside the top 10 this year in fan voting and appear doomed to join the ranks of the reserves.

New Heat point guard Kyle Lowry has had a down scoring year but has been the steady hand guiding the ship for a terrific Miami club missing its best players, Butler and big man Bam Adebayo, for a significant portion of its season. Yes, sixth man Tyler Herro is averaging significantly more points than Lowry (20.6 PPG to 13.7 PPG), but their overall shooting percentages are fairly similar. Herro is connecting on 42.7% of his field goal looks to Lowry’s 42.2% shooting from the floor. Lowry, a six-time All-Star with the Raptors, has proven to be the better set-up man and defender by a long shot.

As of right now, this fan voter would slot Durant, Antetokounmpo and Embiid among his three starting frontcourt players, and put the two Bulls, DeRozan and LaVine, into the two starting backcourt spots.

We want to know what you think! Which players comprise your Eastern Conference All-Star starters? Are there any borderline starters you think could be determined based on their level of play over the ensuing month?

Head to the comment section below to weigh in!

And-Ones: Team USA, Faried, Bennett, All-Star Voting

December 25th, 2021 at 6:50pm CST by Arthur Hill

New Team USA coach Steve Kerr may not hold a training camp involving players during the summer, writes Joe Vardon of The Athletic. Kerr, who officially took over the position earlier this week, has talked to managing director Grant Hill about conducting a coaches camp instead, which would represent a new approach for the national team.

The next World Cup won’t take place until the 2023 offseason, and the next Olympics are two-and-a-half years away. Team USA will be hoping to get a two-year commitment from its players to participate in both events. The Americans have won the last four Olympic gold medals, but finished seventh at the 2019 World Cup.

“I’m in touch with Grant all the time and we’re discussing those things,” Kerr said. “Obviously there is COVID complications as well, but with the World Cup not being until the following summer, there’s not a huge sense of urgency to get a bunch of players together. It’s more about getting the coaches together and really starting to put a foundation together.”

Here’s more from around the basketball world:

Kenneth Faried has received an offer to play in the G League, tweets Marc Stein of Substack. The 32-year-old big man played eight NBA seasons, but hasn’t been in the league since finishing the 2018/19 season with the Rockets. Faried has played overseas since then, but ended his arrangement with CSKA Moscow last week.
Anthony Bennett has parted ways with Hapoel Jerusalem, tweets Israeli basketball writer Roi Cohen. Bennett, the first selection in the 2013 draft, averaged 7.0 points per game while playing in the Winner League and the Basketball Champions League. Bennett has been out of the NBA since the 2016/17 season and has played both in the G League and overseas.
Fan voting for the NBA’s All-Star Game began today and will continue through January 22, the league announced (via Twitter). Votes can be submitted at NBA.com, through the NBA app or on Twitter. Votes will count double today, as well as January 13, 17 and 20.

And-Ones: Jokubaitis, Banton, LeBron, R. Paul

May 31st, 2021 at 8:50pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Point guard Rokas Jokubaitis has declared for this year’s draft, Lithuanian journalist Donatas Urbonas tweets. Jokubaitis is currently ranked No. 42 on ESPN’s Best Available list. Playing for Žalgiris Kaunas of the Lithuanian Basketball League and the EuroLeague, the 20-year-old averaged 7.0 PPG and 2.5 APG in 20.9 MPG in 31 games this season.

We have more from the basketball world:

Nebraska’s Dalano Banton has declared for the draft, according to his Twitter feed. The sophomore swingman averaged 9.6 PPG, 5.9 RPG and 3.9 APG last season. Banton played a season at Western Kentucky.
LeBron James‘ agent, Rich Paul, explained in a feature written by the New Yorker’s Isaac Chotiner why his top client didn’t skip this year’s All-Star Game after expressing dismay about playing the game during the pandemic. “You have to value what drives our business,” Paul said. “All-Star weekend is a very important part of our business. To not have the All-Star Game, or not have all-stars playing in the All-Star Game, I think that would be a form of doing bad business. You don’t have to like it, and you don’t have to always feel up to doing something.”
In the same piece, a current NBA general manager said James’ decision to leave Cleveland for Miami, which ushered in an era of player empowerment, was the “worst thing” to happen to not only the NBA but sports in general. “Player empowerment is a catchall for the fact that the league has done a terrible job of empowering teams,” he said. “The players have all of the leverage in every situation. I think it’s the worst thing that ever happened to professional sports on all levels.”

And-Ones: ASG, Embiid, Simmons, J. Young, Singh

March 8th, 2021 at 2:48pm CST by Luke Adams

When word broke on Sunday that Sixers stars Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons had been ruled out of the All-Star Game due to being in close contact with someone who tested positive for the coronavirus, there was some concern that the NBA was at risk of its worst-case scenario – a COVID-19 outbreak at All-Star weekend – playing out. However, Embiid and Simmons didn’t have any contact with their fellow All-Stars and the game was able to take place as planned, with no other players affected.

Now, the NBA is expressing confidence that its mini-bubble in Atlanta for the All-Star Game was a success. As Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press writes, the league said in a statement on Monday that all players, coaches, and officials involved in the event were tested three times in Atlanta, including right before the game, and there were no positives.

As for Embiid and Simmons, there’s no indication so far that their close contact with a barber who tested positive will result in positive tests for them as well. Head coach Doc Rivers said after the game that his two stars continued to register negative tests and that he hopes that continues for a few more days (Twitter link via Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer).

“Both of them, their biggest concern would be if they could play the first two games when we get back,” Rivers said, per Reynolds. “So we don’t know the answer to that yet. That’s going to be really important for us. It would be tough to start the second half of the year and not have either one.”

Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

Former NBA first-round pick James Young has signed with Hapoel Tel Aviv, the Israeli team announced today (Twitter link; hat tip to Sportando). It’s the second stint in Israel for Young, who played for Maccabi Haifa in 2019/20. The veteran wing played for the Westchester Knicks in this year’s G League bubble but hasn’t appeared in an NBA game since 2018.
In an in-depth piece for HoopsHype, Yossi Gozlan explores what each team can and should do at the trade deadline, including which clubs can afford to be aggressive buyers or sellers, and which ones have more limited trade options.
Michael Lee of The Washington Post takes a closer look at 20-year-old G League forward Princepal Singh‘s goal of becoming the first Indian-born player to appear in an NBA game, and why his development is important for a league trying to establish a foothold in India.

Load More Posts