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New York Notes: Rose, Quickley, Simmons, Warren

October 22nd, 2022 at 6:23pm CST by Arthur Hill

Knicks guard Derrick Rose hasn’t been happy with his performance to start the season, writes Peter Botte of The New York Post. Playing for the first time since December because of multiple ankle surgeries, Rose scored just four points in the season opener, but followed that with 13 points and six assists in Friday’s win over the Pistons.

“This too shall pass. This is probably the worst you see me play,” Rose said. “I don’t play pickup. I’m feeling out the games, trying not to mess up the game by being out there and being too aggressive. Just feeling out who’s out there and who is with me.”

Before the ankle issues, Rose was the team’s most reliable point guard, even though he was used primarily as a reserve. Free agent addition Jalen Brunson has solidified that position, so Rose has averaged just 14 minutes per night in his first two games.

“I’m letting (coach Tom Thibodeau) dictate that. I didn’t talk to him at all about it,” Rose said when asked about his playing time. “My job is to just be vocal and try to express what I see on the court. As far as minutes, I don’t worry about it because of the saying, ‘If you stay ready, you don’t got to get ready.’ That’s my mindset.”

There’s more NBA news from New York:

Immanuel Quickley provided some scoring punch off the bench Friday with a team-high 20 points, Botte notes in a separate story. The Knicks‘ third-year guard remained aggressive after going scoreless in Wednesday’s opener. “It was great to see him play like that. I thought he and the rest of the bench did a terrific job. They gave us a big, big lift,” Thibodeau said. “I love when he shoots. I feel every time he shoots, particularly his threes, I think they’re all going in. He puts a lot of pressure on the defense.”
Nets coach Steve Nash admits that Ben Simmons has been “rusty” after not playing for 16 months, but he believes patience is the best approach, per Brian Lewis of The New York Post. Simmons hasn’t been looking for his shot so far and has just 10 total points in the first two games.
T.J. Warren has a medical connection with the Nets that influenced his decision in free agency, Lewis tweets. The team’s orthopedist, Dr. Martin O’Malley, performed the surgery on Warren’s foot. “There’s definitely a comfort level O’Malley being team doctor here; he’s seen everything since Day 1,” Warren said. “So it gave me a peace of mind that he’s in my corner here.”

New York Notes: Knox, Harris, Brunson, Nash

October 22nd, 2022 at 11:15am CST by Dana Gauruder

Kevin Knox takes responsibility for his failure to establish himself with the Knicks, according to Zach Braziller of the New York Post.

“I had my fair opportunity; didn’t make the best of it, unfortunately,” Knox said.

The ninth pick of the 2018 draft was traded to Atlanta last season, then signed a two-year contract in free agency with the Pistons.

“Got to move on, got to play harder, learn from it,” he said. “Learned a lot playing under (Tom Thibodeau), playing here in New York. I have to take it to my next chapter.”

We have more from the New York teams:

Joe Harris made his season debut on Friday for the Nets, posting modest stats: three points, two rebounds and two assists in 18 minutes. He hadn’t appeared in a game since November 14 of last season due to an ankle injury. Harris was thrilled to be back, Brian Lewis of the New York Post relays. “Oh, yeah, it was amazing. The fun atmosphere, great team win. So I think it was a perfect, perfect game to come back,” he said. “Yeah, everything felt great. I was definitely a little winded, the lungs were burning. But you know, that’s to be expected.”
Jalen Brunson hasn’t made a turnover in his first two Knicks games, Braziller notes. “He has a great understanding of the game, and I think that’s probably the most important thing,” Thibodeau said of his new point guard. “And I think how you manage and control the game is another strength. But usually, when you analyze turnovers, they fall into one of two categories. They’re either risky passes that you’re trying to thread the needle, or you’re going too much one-on-one. And he has a great feel for when to go and when to pass.”
Nets coach Steve Nash said it wasn’t all that difficult for him to move on from this summer’s drama, which included a Kevin Durant request to the team owner that he be fired, Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca tweets. “It was just that we needed to sit down at some point,” Nash said. “That was it. That’s kind of what happened. I would say our environment has been outstanding.”

Injury Notes: Garland, Embiid, Curry, J. Murray, More

October 21st, 2022 at 8:26pm CST by Rory Maher

Cavaliers point guard Darius Garland, a first-time All-Star last season, has been ruled out of Saturday’s game at Chicago due to his eye injury, according to Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com (Twitter links). Garland didn’t travel with the team and the “current feeling” is that Garland is “improbable” to play in Cleveland’s home opener on Sunday against Washington, Fedor adds.

Garland suffered a lacerated eyelid when he was inadvertently poked in the eye by Gary Trent Jr. in the second quarter of the Cavs’ 108-105 loss to the Raptors on Wednesday. Fedor reported on Thursday that Garland does not have structural damage and won’t require surgery.

Here are some more injury-related notes from around the NBA:

Sixers head coach Doc Rivers says that Joel Embiid‘s conditioning was impacted by plantar fascitiis during the offseason, as Noah Levick of NBC Sports Philadelphia relays. “He had a little plantar fasciitis before the season started — before training camp — and that took him off his conditioning program,” Rivers said. “And so he’s back on that. But listen, he’s playing with the right intentions. He just didn’t play well, and that’s OK, too. That’s going to happen. We’ve still got to win those games.” The Sixers dropped their first two games of the season, with Embiid looking pretty sluggish. Rivers reiterated that Embiid is no longer dealing with the injury, but needs to regain his rhythm and conditioning.
Guard Seth Curry (offseason ankle surgery) is likely to travel with the Nets for their two-game road trip next week, but “probably” needs more practice time before he returns to action, head coach Steve Nash said on Friday (Twitter link via Brian Lewis of The New York Post).
Nuggets guard Jamal Murray, who played his first regular season game on Wednesday since suffering a torn ACL in April 2021, is out for Friday’s game against the Warriors, head coach Michael Malone told reporters (Twitter links via Kendra Andrews of ESPN). According to Andrews, Malone said the Nuggets are resting Murray because Friday is the first of a back-to-back. However, that might not be the case for the entire season, Malone added.
No. 4 overall pick Keegan Murray will make his debut on Saturday against the Clippers after being a full participant in Friday’s practice, a source tells ESPN’s Marc J. Spears. Murray was fully cleared by the Kings after exiting the health and safety protocols, Spears writes.
Dillon Brooks (left thigh soreness) and Ziaire Williams (right knee soreness) missed their second consecutive games for the Grizzlies on Friday, the team announced (via Twitter). Memphis won its opener against New York and defeated Houston in game two.

Joe Harris Set To Return For Nets

October 21st, 2022 at 10:02am CST by Luke Adams

Nets sharpshooter Joe Harris will be available on Friday for the first time in nearly a year. Harris, who underwent two ankle surgeries last season and missed this season’s opener due to foot soreness, said he’ll play tonight after being listed as probable, tweets Brian Lewis of The New York Post. The veteran forward last played a regular season game on November 14, 2021.

Irving: KD's Trade Request Made Us Better

October 20th, 2022 at 5:41pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The stat line for Ben Simmons in his return to action after a season off was unimpressive. He posted four points, five rebounds and five assists before fouling out in 23 minutes. Nets head coach Steve Nash attributes that performance to the long layoff, Nick Friedell of ESPN tweets. “I just think he’s rusty. The guy hasn’t played in over a year,” Nash said. “He’s still getting used to referees, defense, offense. This is a process for Ben … He’s shown obviously glimpses of the player we know he is and can be, but it’s not easy. We’re here to support him.”
Kevin Durant‘s trade request during the summer turned out to be a test and Kyrie Irving believes the Nets are better for it, he told Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium. “When Kev made that request, I feel like we got better,” Irving said. “Afterwards. Not initially, but now where we are now, I feel like we can honestly say we got better, with the principles that are needed for success. Without going through some test in the summertime or during the season, we wouldn’t be able to be as close and bonded as we are now.”

Several Players Set To Receive Salary Guarantees

October 19th, 2022 at 3:00pm CST by Luke Adams

Most players who are still on non-guaranteed contracts as the NBA’s regular season begins won’t have their salaries for 2022/23 fully guaranteed until January. The league-wide salary guarantee date is January 10, and teams must waive players on non-guaranteed contracts on or before January 7 in order to avoid being on the hook for the full-season salaries.

However, a number of players on non-guaranteed deals have language in their contracts that calls for them to receive full or partial guarantees if they’re not waived before their team’s first game of the regular season. Those players are as follows:

Full guarantees:

Dalano Banton (Raptors): Partial guarantee ($300,000) increases to full guarantee ($1,563,518).
Keita Bates-Diop (Spurs): Non-guaranteed salary ($1,878,720) becomes fully guaranteed.
Justin Champagnie (Raptors): Partial guarantee ($325,000) increases to full guarantee ($1,637,966).
Tre Jones (Spurs): Partial guarantee ($500,000) increases to full guarantee ($1,782,621).

As our full list of early salary guarantee dates shows, Isaiah Joe (Sixers), Josh Jackson (Raptors), and D.J. Wilson (Raptors) also would’ve had their salaries become fully guaranteed if they had remained under contract through their teams’ first regular season games. However, they were all waived within the last week. Joe has since signed with the Thunder on a deal that includes a guaranteed first-year salary.

Partial guarantees:

Matthew Dellavedova (Kings): Non-guaranteed salary ($2,628,597) becomes partially guaranteed ($250,000).
Haywood Highsmith (Heat): Partial guarantee ($50,000) increases to $400,000.
Luke Kornet (Celtics): Partial guarantee ($300,000) increases to $1,066,639.
Chima Moneke (Kings): Partial guarantee ($250,000) increases to $500,000.
Markieff Morris (Nets): Non-guaranteed salary ($2,905,581) becomes partially guaranteed ($500,000).
KZ Okpala (Kings): Partial guarantee ($250,000) increases to $500,000.
Edmond Sumner (Nets): Partial guarantee ($250,000) increases to $500,000.

Guarantee dates are a matter of negotiation between a team and a player, so there’s nothing stopping a club from approaching a player and asking him to agree to push that date back. If a player feels as if he’ll be waived if he says no, he may agree.

This happened last season, for instance, when Isaac Bonga‘s and Sam Dekker‘s contracts with the Raptors called for their salaries to be fully guaranteed as of opening night. Both players assented to moving their guarantee dates back to November 6. When that new deadline arrived, Toronto opted to retain Bonga and guarantee his full salary while waiving Dekker.

In other words, it’s not yet a sure thing that all the players mentioned above will get the guarantees described here, even if they remain under contract through Wednesday (or Tuesday, in Kornet’s case). We may get word in a day or two that a couple of them agreed to postpone their salary guarantee dates.

For the most part though, we should count on this group of players receiving some added security, with a handful of names coming off our list of players who still have non-guaranteed salaries.

And-Ones: NBA Rosters, Barkley, Vildoza, Wembanyama

October 18th, 2022 at 4:04pm CST by Luke Adams

The NBA’s opening night rosters feature a total of 120 international players, including a record-setting 22 from Canada and 10 from Australia, the league announced today in a press release. All 30 teams have at least one international player, while the Raptors – the NBA’s only international team – lead the way with eight international players.

Meanwhile, the opening night rosters also include a record-setting 234 players with some G League experience, according to the NBA (Twitter link). All 30 teams are carrying at least four players with G League experience, while the Nets‘ roster features a record 12 players who have spent time in the NBAGL — Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Ben Simmons, Markieff Morris, and rookie Alondes Williams are the only Brooklyn players without G League experience.

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

The four members of TNT’s Inside the NBA studio show – Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, and Shaquille O’Neal – have agreed to new multiyear contracts, Warner Bros. Discovery Sports announced this week. Barkley’s new deal covers 10 years and will be worth well above $100MM, reports Andrew Marchand of The New York Post, though Barkley said during an appearance on The Dan Patrick Show that there’s “probably zero chance” he’ll stay for the entire 10 years (story via Awful Announcing).
Argentinian guard Luca Vildoza, who spent parts of the last two seasons with the Knicks and Bucks, told Mozzart Sport (hat tip to Johnny Askounis of Eurohoops) that he didn’t get the opportunity he had hoped for in the NBA, but that he still feels like he benefited from his time stateside. “I feel better physically and stronger,” Vildoza said as he prepares to resume playing in Europe. He appeared in seven games for Milwaukee during the 2022 postseason, but has yet to play in a regular season NBA contest.
Lakers star LeBron James isn’t the NBA’s highest-paid player in terms of salary this season, but he’ll earn the most money after accounting for endorsements, according to Kurt Badenhausen of Sportico. Baenhausen pegs James’ total 2022/23 earnings at $119.5MM, putting him ahead of Warriors guard Stephen Curry ($93.1MM) and Nets forward Kevin Durant ($91MM).
Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report takes a look at which teams can realistically be expected to tank in 2022/23 for a shot to draft Victor Wembanyama next June.

Nets Exercise 2023/24 Options On Cam Thomas, Day’Ron Sharpe

October 17th, 2022 at 10:22am CST by Luke Adams

The Nets have picked up their team options on guard Cam Thomas and big man Day’Ron Sharpe for the 2023/24 season, the team announced today.

Thomas and Sharpe were the 27th and 29th overall picks, respectively, in the 2021 draft. Thomas’ rookie scale contract calls for a $2,240,160 third-year salary in 2023/24, while Sharpe will earn $2,210,040. Both of those salaries are now fully guaranteed.

Thomas, who was one of the top scorers in college basketball at LSU before going pro, averaged 8.5 PPG and 2.4 RPG in 67 games (17.6 MPG) for the Nets as a rookie. He showed off his scoring prowess at this year’s Summer League, averaging 27.4 PPG in just 30.3 MPG across five contests in Las Vegas.

Sharpe played a more limited role as a rookie, appearing in just 32 games and averaging 6.2 PPG and 5.0 RPG in 12.2 MPG. However, the 6’11” forward/center made a case for an increased role this year with a strong preseason, as we detailed on Sunday.

The Nets will have to decide on Thomas’ and Sharpe’s fourth-year options for the 2024/25 season next October. If those options are also exercised, the two players will become eligible for rookie scale extensions in July of 2024.

New York Notes: Robinson, Toppin, Grimes, Kokoskov, Sharpe

October 16th, 2022 at 11:17pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Knicks center Mitchell Robinson, newly re-signed to a generous four-year, $60MM contract in free agency this summer, has been everything New York could have hoped for — at least, during his team’s preseason run, per Steve Popper of Newsday. Popper notes that, with Robinson on the hardwood, New York was a plus-64 across the club’s four preseason contests.

“I think all aspects of his game, he’s put a lot of work in,” Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau said. “He’s gotten better. The rebounding, the shot-blocking, he’s getting more comfortable with the ball. The finishing. The pressure on the rim. That set the tone from the start.”

“One thing about Mitch, he’s really special to work with,” Knicks point guard Jalen Brunson said. “He works hard. He’s a great guy off the court. We got to build a lot of chemistry over the past couple of weeks. I think how we’ve built the chemistry off the court, on the court we’re really in sync. So I look forward to kind of staying in that sync with him. He’s special. I just really enjoy his presence off the court, on the court obviously.”

There’s more out of the City That Never Sleeps:

In some encouraging Knicks health news, young reserves Obi Toppin and Quentin Grimes should be available for New York in time for the team’s season opener on Wednesdayagainst the Grizzlies, writes Zach Braziller of The New York Post. Toppin, dealing with a turned ankle, and Grimes, rehabbing a sore left foot, were held out of practice today, but head coach Tom Thibodeau remains confident they’ll be healthy in time for the first game that counts. “I think they’ll be fine,” Thibodeau said. “This is part of the program. Obi was more precautionary. It was just [that] he tweaked it.”
New Nets assistant coach Igor Kokoskov has emerged as the team’s point man when it comes to game-planning its offense, according to Net Income of NetsDaily. Brooklyn’s fresh approach on that end of the floor is more open-ended and team-friendly, and is a credit to the input of Kokoskov, per Net Income.
6’11” second-year Nets reserve center Day’Ron Sharpe has been making a case for frontcourt rotation minutes with a prolific preseason, reports Peter Botte of The New York Post. The big man out of North Carolina posted averages of 13.0 PPG and 9.0 RPG, in just 21.5 MPG, during Brooklyn’s final two games of its preseason. “I think he looks physically better,” head coach Steve Nash reflected. “I think I’ve told you before we’ve worked really hard with the young guys … and DayDay took a step.”

Injury Updates: Suggs, Nets, Westbrook, Bogdanovic

October 16th, 2022 at 12:55pm CST by Luke Adams

Magic guard Jalen Suggs, who was diagnosed with a left knee capsule sprain and bone bruise after leaving the team’s October 7 preseason game, will be available when Orlando opens its regular season on Wednesday in Detroit, head coach Jamahl Mosley said on Sunday (link via Khobi Price of The Orlando Sentinel).

It’s a somewhat surprising update, since bone bruises can be troublesome ailments and the Magic have generally taken a conservative approach when bringing back young players from injuries during the last couple years.

One orthopedic surgeon who spoke to Price last week speculated that the capsule sprain would take about two-to-four weeks to heal, while the bone bruise might extend Suggs’ recovery timeline beyond that. However, that surgeon didn’t assess Suggs first-hand, and it appears the former No. 5 overall pick will comfortably beat that estimated timeline.

Here are a few more injury updates from around the NBA:

The Nets confirmed today that Joe Harris (foot) and Seth Curry (ankle) will not be available for the team’s regular season opener on Wednesday, tweets Kristian Winfield of The New York Daily News. Harris and Curry, both of whom are coming back from ankle surgery, will continue to go through contact practices this week, with Brooklyn expecting to offer another update on Thursday.
Russell Westbrook‘s left hamstring injury isn’t considered serious, according to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports, who tweets that the Lakers guard will be listed as day-to-day after undergoing some tests. There’s no structural damage to the hamstring, Haynes adds.
Hawks swingman Bogdan Bogdanovic is making progress as he continues to recover from knee surgery, but he’s unlikely to be available for the team’s regular season opener on Wednesday, head coach Nate McMillan told reporters on Sunday (Twitter link via Lauren L. Williams of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution).
While Kings rookie forward Keegan Murray isn’t dealing with an injury, he has been placed in the NBA’s health and safety protocols, reports Sean Cunningham of Fox 40 Sacramento (Twitter link). It’s unclear if Murray will be cleared to play in the team’s regular season opener on Wednesday.