- Technicals have been an issue recently for Celtics forward Marcus Morris, who has been tossed from two games in the past week, but he promises to tone down his approach in the playoffs, according to Taylor Snow of NBA.com. “I promise I won’t get any techs unless we’re just getting blatantly cheated,” he said. “I want my team to win, so I won’t put my team in jeopardy or anything like that. But I’ll still be passionate about the game.”
- The Celtics expect Kyrie Irving to be ready for training camp after having knee surgery today, according to Chris Forsberg of ESPN. Irving had two screws removed from his left knee and has a projected recovery time of four to five months. “The surgery went exactly as planned, and we expect Kyrie to be fully healthy for training camp in the fall,” president of basketball operations Danny Ainge said in a prepared statement.
- Celtics center Daniel Theis, who had season-ending surgery on his left knee, said he hopes to be able to get off his crutches in two to three weeks, tweets A. Sherrod Blakely of NBC Sports Boston.
- Celtics forward Guerschon Yabusele will have an MRI on his knee after sitting out practice today, according to Tom Westerholm of MassLive. “They don’t think it’s anything,” coach Brad Stevens said of team doctors, “but they’re going to get some imaging just to make sure.”
The follow-up operation that will keep Kyrie Irving out of the playoffs should fix his knee problem for good, although there is a slight chance of further complications, writes Sean Deveney of The Sporting News. Irving had successful surgery today, the Celtics announced, with two screws being removed that were used to repair the fractured patella he suffered in the 2015 NBA Finals.
The screws, which measure about four millimeters and were used to hold in place a tension wire that surgeons removed last month, had become infected. Deveney talked to Dr. Derek Ochiai, an orthopedic surgeon at the Nirschl Orthopedic Center, who explained that Irving’s condition can be easily fixed if the infection is localized, but is more serious if he has osteomyelitis, which would involve a slow-moving infection that began when the screws were first inserted.
“Best-case scenario, there is no osteomyelitis, no bone infection, no bacteria, and they’re taking the screws out as a precaution,” Dr. Ochiai explained. “Once he heals up and the screws are out, he’s fine. That’s best-case. But if there is an infection, you really should jump on that. Somebody who has had it for years, you’re looking at six weeks of IV antibiotics … and possibly other debris treatments where you have to clean out the bone more. You have to make those holes bigger to try to treat the infection. But you have to hope, he gets the hardware removed, and he is OK from there.”
There’s more news out of Boston:
- New Celtic Jonathan Gibson became an instant fan favorite, relays Taylor Snow of NBA.com. Shortly after signing with the team, Gibson delivered nine points in the fourth quarter of Friday night’s game. The offer was a surprise to Gibson, who was in Las Vegas when he learned about it on Thursday. “My agent called me and asked, ‘Do you want to go play for the Celtics the rest of the season?’” Gibson said. “I said, ‘Sure!’ and [director of player personnel] Austin [Ainge] called me and confirmed it. I was definitely excited. I called my family and let everybody know. Then I was on my way out here in the next couple of hours.”
- Impending free agent Greg Monroe made his case for a new contract Friday by posting the first triple double for a Celtics center since 1987, notes A. Sherrod Blakely of NBC Sports Boston. Monroe had 19 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists in a win over the Bulls.
- Marcus Morris discussed his relationship with the officials after being ejected for the second time this week, tweets Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe. “I’m not trying to be a bully and get kicked out,” he said. “They need to realize that because I’m not really having conversations with the referees, I don’t have anything to say to them. They’re doing too much by throwing guys out the game.”
APRIL 6: The Celtics have officially signed Gibson, the team confirmed today in a press release. Boston’s announcement doesn’t mention Silas, but the assumption is that his 10-day deal was terminated a day early in order to accommodate the signing of Gibson.
APRIL 5: The Celtics will be signing free agent point guard Jonathan Gibson to a rest-of-season contract, according to Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports.
Gibson, who appeared in 17 games for the Mavericks during the 2016/17 season, has otherwise spent his professional career playing for a variety of international teams. Since going undrafted in 2010, Gibson has made stops in Turkey, Israel, Italy, Iran, and China.
In 2017/18, the former New Mexico State standout appeared in 38 Chinese League games for Qingdao, averaging 33.7 PPG with 6.8 RPG and 4.7 APG.
Gibson will be a much-needed backcourt addition for a Celtics team that will be without Kyrie Irving for the rest of the season. Marcus Smart also remains sidelined with a thumb injury, while Shane Larkin has missed Boston’s last two games with an illness and Terry Rozier has been dealing with an ankle issue.
[RELATED: Kyrie Irving to miss playoffs]
The Celtics currently have a full roster, with Xavier Silas serving as the team’s 16th man via a hardship exception. According to Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe (Twitter link), Gibson will replace Silas on the roster. Silas’ 10-day deal had been set to expire on Friday night, but the team could opt to terminate it before it expires in order to sign Gibson — Steve Bulpett of The Boston Herald suggests (via Twitter) that the Gibson signing won’t become official until Friday at the earliest.
Boston’s hardship exception, which allows the club to carry a 16th man, won’t extend into the playoffs. As such, Gibson won’t be postseason-eligible unless the C’s cut another player, which seems unlikely.
The Celtics’ chances of making a deep postseason run were dealt a serious blow on Thursday when the team announced that Kyrie Irving would be undergoing a second procedure on his knee that will sideline him for four or five months.
As Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe writes, the Celtics knew when they acquired Irving from the Cavs last August that the star point guard had dealt with lingering knee pain and might need to go under the knife at some point. However, league sources tell Himmelsbach that the procedure wasn’t considered pressing, and the C’s crafted a plan to limit the “wear and tear” on Irving’s knee.
When Irving’s pain became more pronounced last month, he and the club attempted to address the problem with rest and then with a minimally invasive surgery. After team doctors recognized an infection in the knee that would likely require a second procedure, the C’s “aggressively” sought other options, sources tell Himmelsbach. Even though Irving reported that his knee was feeling better though, it was eventually determined that the second surgery – which will officially end his season – was the only viable path.
Here’s more out of Boston:
- In spite of Irving’s injury, Celtics president Danny Ainge insists he’s eager to see how his young squad performs in the postseason, according to reports from Steve Bulpett of The Boston Herald and A. Sherrod Blakely of NBC Sports Boston. “We’re not giving up on this. Absolutely not,” Ainge said. “We’ve played some fantastic basketball in spite of the challenges that we’ve had from a physical standpoint. So I like watching these guys play, and they’re going to fight.”
- While the Celtics’ upside for this year’s postseason is limited, the franchise remains extremely well-positioned for the future and some bad injury luck doesn’t change that, writes Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer.
- Irving isn’t the only injured Celtics guard to keep an eye on — Marcus Smart is scheduled to have his thumb re-evaluated next week, and his recovery timetable could become more clear at that point, tweets Himmelsbach. The most likely scenario would see Smart returning for the second round of the playoffs, assuming Boston makes it that far.
- Earlier today, we passed along word of the Celtics’ contract agreement with Jonathan Gibson, and asked you how far you expect the club to advance in the playoffs.
When Gordon Hayward went down with a season-ending ankle injury during the Celtics‘ first game of the 2017/18 season, the club’s fan base initially shifted its focus to next year, when Hayward would be fully recovered and youngsters like Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown would have another year of experience under their belts.
However, Hayward’s absence didn’t slow down the Celtics — the team was the No. 1 seed in the East for much of the season. Boston eventually ceded that top spot to the Raptors, but maintained a stranglehold on the No. 2 spot. And while the C’s may not have been a legit title contender without Hayward, there was a sense that the Kyrie Irving-led squad had a chance to make it out of the East.
Much of that hope was extinguished today when the Celtics announced that Irving would undergo another procedure on his knee that will sideline him for the postseason and keep him on the shelf for four or five months. The C’s will now head into the playoffs without either of their star veteran acquisitions from the 2017 offseason.
While the Celtics’ chances of making a deep playoff run look significantly diminished, it’s worth noting that the club hasn’t exactly fallen off a cliff without its star point guard in the lineup. Irving played his last game on March 11 vs. Indiana. Since then, the C’s have posted a respectable 7-4 record, with wins over the Thunder, Blazers, Jazz, and Raptors. Of their four losses, three were on the road against playoff teams (New Orleans, Milwaukee, and Toronto) and the fourth was a double-overtime nail-biter vs. the Wizards.
In other words, even without Irving and Hayward on the floor, the Celtics are a well-coached and dangerous team that will be a tough out in the playoffs.
Still, as ESPN’s Kevin Pelton writes, the club’s postseason run figures to be shorter than it would be for the average No. 2 seed. Pelton suggests that the Celtics should remain favorites in the first round against Miami, Milwaukee, or Washington, but may head into round two as underdogs.
What do you think? Can the Celtics still win a round or two – or even three – in the playoffs? Or will the injury bug ultimately result in an early exit for the East’s No. 2 seed? Vote in our poll and jump into the comment section below to weigh in!
Trade Rumors app users, click here to vote.
12:33pm: Irving will have two screws in his patella removed on Saturday, tweets Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated. The team expects a complete recovery to take four to five months, which should have him ready for training camp. Doctors found a bacterial infection in the knee during the last operation and the screws are being taken out to help clear that up, adds Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe (Twitter link).
APRIL 5, 11:57am: Kyrie Irving won’t be able to help the Celtics in the postseason, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. Sources say Irving’s left knee surgery will keep him sidelined throughout the playoffs.
Irving and the team are considering further treatment for the injured knee, Wojnarowski adds.
Irving had a surgical procedure on March 24 to remove a remove a tension wire that was inserted after he fractured his patella in the 2015 NBA Finals. Doctors described the procedure as “minimally invasive,” and Irving was given a timeline of three to six weeks to return. However, ESPN’s Chris Forsberg notes that the Celtics have consistently said that Irving’s long-term health takes priority over trying to get him back for this year’s playoffs (Twitter link).
The injury, combined with the loss of Marcus Smart and Daniel Theis, leaves Boston with a very inexperienced lineup heading into the postseason. Terry Rozier will be the starting point guard, and huge contributions will be needed from rookie Jayson Tatum and second-year player Jaylen Brown. Smart, who had surgery on his right thumb, hopes to return at some point in the playoffs.
Boston is locked into the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference and will face the Heat, Wizards or Bucks when the postseason begins next weekend.
No NBA head coaches were replaced during the 2017 offseason, but that’s very unlikely to be the case for 2018. Tim Bontemps of The Washington Post and Chris Mannix of Yahoo Sports suggest that as many as 10 or 11 teams could be on the lookout for a new head coach this offseason.
That list of teams includes three teams with interim head coaches – the Suns, Grizzlies, and Bucks – as well as lottery teams like the Knicks, Magic, Pistons, Hornets, and Hawks. Playoff contenders like the Nuggets and Clippers could also consider a change, particularly if they miss out on the postseason.
Not all of those teams will replace their current head coaches, but there should be a good deal of turnover in the NBA’s coaching ranks this spring. That could open up the door for assistant coaches or G League head coaches who haven’t yet had the opportunity to run their own NBA squads to interview for those jobs in the coming weeks.
With that in mind, Mannix spoke to over three dozen “high-ranking team executives,” getting each of those execs to name two assistants they view as viable head coaching candidates. Mannix’s only criteria? The executives polled couldn’t name assistants from their own staffs, and the assistants named couldn’t have any NBA or major-college head coaching experience already.
Here are the top vote-getters in Mannix’s poll, all of whom were mentioned by at least three different executives:
- Nick Nurse (Raptors assistant)
- David Vanterpool (Trail Blazers assistant)
- Igor Kokoskov (Jazz assistant)
- Stephen Silas (Hornets associate head coach)
- Adrian Griffin (Thunder assistant)
- Nate Tibbetts (Trail Blazers assistant)
- Chris Finch (Pelicans assistant)
- Jerry Stackhouse (Raptors 905 head coach)
- Ryan Saunders (Timberwolves assistant)
- Jay Larranaga (Celtics assistant)
Of course, not every team seeking a new head coach in the offseason will be eyeing candidates in this pool. Some clubs will want a candidate with previous head coaching experience, and there should be no shortage of those — Jeff Van Gundy, Mark Jackson, David Blatt, David Fizdale, and Monty Williams are among the veteran coaches who have been linked to various teams already. Other clubs may target a coach from the NCAA pool, such as Villanova’s Jay Wright.
Still, the NBA assistants listed above are viewed around the league as future head coaching candidates, and are the names to keep an eye on if your favorite team is considering a change on its bench.
- Gordon Hayward took another key step forward in his rehab from ankle surgery today, jogging up and down the Celtics‘ practice court. Although head coach Brad Stevens has said Hayward won’t return this season, the forward himself hasn’t ruled out the possibility. “I think every day where he can accomplish something new is a big deal,” Stevens acknowledged today, per Marc D’Amico of Celtics.com. Still, the Celtics’ coach cautioned that Hayward remains “a long, long way away.”
- Celtics coach Brad Stevens offered an update on the progress of Kyrie Irving, who underwent a procedure on his left knee last week, relays Chris Forsberg of ESPN (Twitter link). “I saw him yesterday,” Stevens said, “spent a lot of time with him. Spirits were good. Bending, extending his knee on a training table. No on-court videos. No 360 dunks.”