- The Nets found a way to beat the Pacers without eight rotation players on Saturday. They’ll be close to full strength when they face the Wizards on Monday, according to Brian Lewis of the New York Post. Kevin Durant, Ben Simmons, Joe Harris, Seth Curry, Kyrie Irving, Nic Claxton and T.J. Warren are all expected to be in uniform. Royce O’Neale, who missed the Indiana game for personal reasons, is still not with the team.
The Nets will be extremely shorthanded when they visit Indiana on Saturday for the second half of a back-to-back set. As Ian Begley of SNY.tv tweets, Brooklyn has ruled out eight players, including their entire regular starting lineup.
Kevin Durant (right knee injury management), Kyrie Irving (left adductor tightness), Ben Simmons (left knee/calf injury management), Royce O’Neale (personal reasons), Joe Harris (left ankle injury management), Seth Curry (left ankle injury management), Nic Claxton (right hamstring tightness), and T.J. Warren (left foot injury management) will all be unavailable for the Nets.
Those are eight of Brooklyn’s top nine players in terms of minutes per game, so we could see some wonky lineups from the team tonight. The ninth player on that list, Yuta Watanabe, is set to make his return after missing 10 games due to a hamstring injury, so the Nets will likely be hesitant to push him too hard in his first game back.
- Within a look at the Nets‘ rebounding struggles, Brian Lewis of The New York Post (subscriber link) cites two sources – NBA analyst Stan Van Gundy and a veteran Eastern Conference executive – who believe the club needs to add another big man to address the issue. “They need help,” the Eastern Conference exec told Lewis. “They absolutely need another big.”
- Kevin Durant has liked what he’s seen so far from teammate T.J. Warren, who scored 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting while chipping in three assists and a pair of steals on Friday in his best game since joining the Nets. “We’re over there on the bench saying like, man, he just finds his way to the basketball, to the rim a lot, cuts, he just feels like he’s in the right position on the offensive side of the ball. And defensively, he’s good at getting into the ball, creating turnovers,” Durant said, according to Lewis. “So yeah, I mean he looked good. It’s going to get even better as he gets more comfortable and gets his legs up under him.”
Nets swingman Ben Simmons is returning for Friday’s game against the Hawks, but he’ll be limited to around 20 minutes of playing time and won’t suit up on Saturday in Indiana for the second game of the back-to-back set, tweets Brian Lewis of The New York Post.
Simmons will start at center in place of Nic Claxton, who is dealing with right hamstring tightness (Twitter link via ESPN’s Nick Friedell). According to Lewis, Claxton’s injury isn’t considered a long-term issue, as he won’t be getting an MRI (Twitter link). Claxton said he just experienced the tightness on Thursday and “expects to be fine,” Lewis adds (via Twitter).
Here’s more on the two New York teams:
- Nets forward Yuta Watanabe, who has been sidelined since November 20 with a right hamstring strain, will miss his 10th consecutive game on Friday. However, he’ll return to action for Saturday’s contest against the Pacers, per Lewis. Watanabe was having a nice season as a reserve for Brooklyn prior to getting injured, averaging 8.1 points and 2.9 rebounds while shooting 57.1% from three-point range through 14 games (18.2 minutes per night).
- Knicks fans have gotten a long-awaited look at the team’s young players the past couple games, writes Peter Botte of The New York Post. Botte notes that “fans have been clamoring” for head coach Tom Thibodeau to give “the kids” more playing time the past couple seasons, and forward Julius Randle, 28, was New York’s oldest rotation player during Wednesday’s win over Atlanta. “I like how our young guys work. I knew when we got them from the very first day, you could see it,” Thibodeau said. “You could see it in practice. You could see how they approach things. You could see how competitive they are. So usually those are the characteristics that drive achievement, when you look at how competitive a guy is. What’s their work ethic like? What’s their toughness like? What’s their mental quickness like? You look at all those intangibles. What are the things that drive achievement? And they fit the bill.”
- Fred Katz of The Athletic wonders whether Thibodeau will use Cam Reddish as a small-ball power forward or go big with Jericho Sims while Obi Toppin is out for the next few weeks with a fibula injury. As Katz observes, Thibodeau has been strict about using a nine-man rotation lately, so it will likely be one or the other, not both. For what it’s worth, Sims was given the early nod in the Knicks‘ contest at Charlotte on Friday, tweets Steve Popper of Newsday.
- As expected, Nets swingman Ben Simmons is set to make his return from a calf strain on Friday following a four-game absence. He’s not listed on Brooklyn’s injury report for the game vs. Atlanta, notes Ian Begley of SNY.tv (Twitter link).
The Warriors, Clippers, and Nets are the three teams projected to pay a nine-figure luxury bill in 2023, according to Eric Pincus of Sports Business Classroom. In his roundup of each team’s proximity to the tax line, Pincus has Golden State’s tax bill estimated at $176.5MM, with L.A. at $144.7MM and Brooklyn at approximately $109MM.
The 2021/22 campaign represented a record-setting year for luxury tax payments, with the Warriors, Nets, and Clippers heading up seven taxpayers that were penalized a total of $481MM, by far a single-season NBA high.
However, as Pincus outlines, NBA teams are on track to smash that record in 2022/23, with the Bucks ($69.8MM), Celtics ($66MM), Lakers ($40.6MM), Mavericks ($33.6MM), Suns ($32.6MM), Nuggets ($17.6MM), and Sixers ($1.8MM) joining the three aforementioned clubs to total over $692MM in projected tax payments.
That number will likely dip a little before the end of the season, with certain teams trading some salary to reduce their end-of-season bill and others – such as Philadelphia – perhaps trying to get out of tax territory altogether. But it seems safe to assume the teams that finish the season below the tax line will still see a major windfall.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- There’s more parity than ever at the one-quarter mark of the 2022/23 NBA season, according to Howard Beck of SI.com, who breaks down the numbers on the glut of teams hovering around .500 and explores several theories from people around the league about why parity might be on the rise.
- ESPN’s Brian Windhorst takes a closer look at the NBA’s rule change allowing sovereign wealth funds to purchase minority stakes in NBA franchises, which we briefly covered last week. Under the new policy, a foreign fund could buy up to 20% of a team, though any such purchase would be “subject to significant vetting,” sources tell Windhorst. There are currently no sales to sovereign funds under review by the league, Windhorst adds.
- In an interesting piece for The Athletic, Mike Vorkunov speaks to Luis Scola about the veteran NBA forward’s transition from longtime player to team owner. Scola, who appeared in 743 games across 10 NBA seasons from 2007-17 and won an Olympic gold medal playing for Argentina in 2004, became the controlling owner of the Italian team Pallacanestro Varese earlier this year.
- When he returns from his current injury absence, Ben Simmons may receive a lighter workload, according to Mark W. Sanchez of The New York Post, who notes that the Nets swingman suffered his calf strain while playing a fifth game in seven days. “I think we’re definitely going to look at (the workload) a lot differently,” Simmons said on Tuesday. “Maybe not (playing) back-to-backs or whatever it is. I think that’s going to be a joint thing with the training staff and with myself.”
- The Nets are also managing the playing time of forward T.J. Warren, who isn’t expected to be on the court for both games of the team’s back-to-back set this Friday and Saturday, so soon after returning from a two-year absence. “(The) goal is to (have him) playing for us at the end of the year in the playoffs,” Vaughn said, per Sanchez. “So we’ll probably … (be) more conservative this weekend with him.”
- The Nets’ Ben Simmons is hopeful he can return to action against Atlanta on Friday, Nick Friedell of ESPN tweets. Simmons has been out since Nov. 28 due to knee soreness. He’s averaging 8.5 points, 6.6 rebounds and 5.8 assists per game this season.
- Another Nets player, Yuta Watanabe, is hopeful he can return to action on Friday or Saturday this week, Friedell adds in another tweet. Recovering from a hamstring injury, he recently got some 3-on-3 work in. Watanabe, who is a one-year minimum contract, hasn’t played since Nov. 20. He averaged 14.5 points during a four-game stretch prior to suffering the injury.
Lakers big man Anthony Davis and Nets forward Kevin Durant have been named the NBA’s players of the week, the league announced (via Twitter).
Davis, the Western Conference winner, led Los Angeles to a 3-1 week while averaging 37.8 points, 13.0 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 3.3 blocks on an absurd .652/.625/.857 shooting slash line. He scored a season-high 55 points, grabbed 17 rebounds and swatted three shots in Sunday’s victory over the Wizards.
Durant, the East’s winner, led Brooklyn to a 3-1 week while averaging 33.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, 5.5 assists, 1.0 steal and 1.8 blocks on an excellent .654/.375/.923 shooting line. The highlight of his week was a 45-point outburst against the Magic in which he posted a .792/.600/1.000 line along with seven boards, five assists, two steals and two blocks.
According to the NBA (Twitter link), the other nominees in the West were Devin Booker, Stephen Curry, Luka Doncic, Jerami Grant, Anfernee Simons and Zion Williamson, while Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Zach LaVine and Dejounte Murray were nominated in the East.
Jaylen Brown and Kyrie Irving were often at odds when they were teammates with the Celtics, but their relationship has improved since Irving left for the Nets, writes Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe. Brown was among Irving’s most vocal defenders during his eight-game suspension last month for promoting an antisemitic film on social media.
“He’s a brother of mine,” Irving said. “I’m grateful to have a relationship off the court. True warriors when we go against each other. When I was in Boston, we didn’t really get a chance to get to know each other on a deeper level. So again, I’m just grateful that we’ve been able to build on top of a great foundation of relying on how we live our lives and how we treat people, so he’s a brother of mine.”
Brown stopped short of calling their relationship brotherly, Washburn adds, noting that they didn’t talk with each other before their teams met Sunday. Brown admitted they had problems when they were together, but said things are better now.
“Being a teammate of Kyrie, we got into it a lot,” he said. “We didn’t see eye to eye a majority of the time he was here. And since then it seems like our relationship (has improved). We’ve been able to have conversations. We’ve been able to talk to each other. We’ve been able to understand where he’s coming from.”
There’s more from the Atlantic Division:
- Brown has a shot to earn All-NBA honors this season, which would qualify him for a super-max extension, notes Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston. Brown’s current contract runs through 2024, and that extension would pay him an estimated $290MM over five years based on current cap estimates, according to Forsberg. We took a closer look during the summer at Brown and other potential super-max candidates to watch in 2022/23.
- A Nike spokesperson tells Shams Charania of The Athletic that the company has parted ways with Irving (Twitter link). Charania points out that Irving has one of the NBA’s most popular signature shoes.
- Celtics forward Blake Griffin was surprised to receive a tribute video in his return to Brooklyn, per Brian Lewis of The New York Post. Griffin spent a year and a half with the Nets before signing with Boston during the preseason. “True professional. I think he’s added to their group, to their locker room,” Brooklyn coach Jacque Vaughn said. “Having guys like that (being) a part of your team that have been in playoff games and in meaningful games, there’s something to it. … That’s the kind of guy you want in your locker room.”
- Nets forward T.J. Warren played 17:53 Sunday in his second game after returning from foot injuries that sidelined him for nearly two years, and Vaughn expects him to remain on that minutes limit for a while, Lewis adds. “I don’t have a lockstep number, but seems like that 17 around there felt pretty good for him,” Vaughn said. “Maybe we start inching that up a little bit, hopefully. We want him to feel good for a little bit of a stretch before we do.”