Los Angeles Lakers Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Pacific Notes: Wall, Booker, Green, Westbrook

December 10th, 2022 at 2:58pm CST by Luke Adams

Having previously contemplated suicide amid a series of personal tragedies, Clippers guard John Wall is in a much better place now as he prepares for his D.C. homecoming on Saturday night, writes Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN. Describing the basketball court as his “sanctuary,” Wall said he believes he still has a lot left in the tank.

“(If) the money and all that s–t go out the window, I could come here and play the game I love,” he said. “… Just being here around the guys, in an environment where I know I’m on a team, that calms a lot of it out.”

As Youngmisuk details, tonight will be the first time since his last home game as a Wizard in December 2018 that Wall has played in front of fans in Washington. He returned to the city as a Rocket during the 2020/21 season, but no fans were in attendance due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The veteran point guard, who bought 50 tickets for the game, told Youngmisuk that it will be an “emotional” night for him.

Here’s more from around the Pacific:

Suns guard Devin Booker is considered day-to-day due to left hamstring tightness, head coach Monty Williams said today, per Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic. With Phoenix in a three-game losing streak and another showdown with the Pelicans on tap for Sunday, Booker will presumably do his best not to miss any time.
Tweaking the rotation to ensure that Draymond Green is playing with the second unit might go down as the move that saved the Warriors‘ season, writes Kendra Andrews of ESPN. As Andrews outlines, Golden State had been attempting to find ways for its young players to emulate Green, but ultimately decided that Green himself was the only player capable of filling that role alongside the reserves.
Kyle Goon of The Southern California News Group checks in on how Russell Westbrook has settled into his reserve role, suggesting that the Lakers guard seems comfortable with his place in the rotation after coming off the bench for the last 21 games.

Bulls Not Interested In Trading For Russell Westbrook

December 10th, 2022 at 1:35pm CST by Luke Adams

The Bulls have no interest in acquiring Russell Westbrook from the Lakers, even if it means adding multiple draft picks, a source tells Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times. While Cowley doesn’t explicitly say so, this report appears to be a response to the rumor about the Lakers internally discussing whether Chicago might become open to the idea of moving DeMar DeRozan and Nikola Vucevic for Westbrook and draft assets. Cowley acknowledges that the Bulls’ thinking could change before the February trade deadline, but says the focus for now is getting Lonzo Ball back and pushing for a playoff spot.

LeBron, AD Expected To Play On Friday

December 9th, 2022 at 3:01pm CST by Luke Adams

The Lakers should have their two superstars back on Friday night in Philadelphia. LeBron James missed Wednesday’s game in Toronto to rest his sore right ankle, but he’ll be available on Friday, sources tell Dave McMenamin of ESPN (Twitter link). Anthony Davis, who left Tuesday’s game in Cleveland with a non-COVID illness and remained out on Wednesday, is listed as probable to play on Friday, McMenamin adds.

Pacific Notes: Okogie, JTA, Lakers, Fox

December 8th, 2022 at 7:33pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

The Suns‘ last three games have represented reserve swingman Josh Okogie‘s three highest minutes totals of the season, and his doing his darnedest to capitalize on the extended run time, per Gerald Bourguet of PHNX Sports.

Okogie has gotten a bigger minutes load as a result to a variety of injuries up and down Phoenix’s roster. With Cameron Johnson and Torrey Craig both absent, Okogie has averaged 16.3 PPG, 6.7 RPG, 3.7 APG, 1.7 SPG, and a +14.7 plus-minus rating, in 25.7 MPG.

Bourguet notes that Okogie has especially shined defensively, a reality he himself has noticed and acknowledged.

“For me, it was just more so, like, ‘I’m not gonna get on the court scoring,’ you know what I’m saying?” Okogie said. “’Cause we had so many people who could do that on the team. So he needed me to be on the court to play some defense and lock somebody up.”

There’s more out of California:

Lakers backup small forward Juan Toscano-Anderson exited the team’s 126-113 loss to the Raptors last night with a sprained right ankle. According to Jovan Buha of The Athletic (Twitter link), the team announced that Toscano-Anderson is expected to miss at least the next two weeks due to the injury, and will be reevaluated at that two-week mark.
Following an exciting 8-2 run that seemed to salvage the Lakers‘ 2022/23 season, the team more recently has dropped two straight contests thanks to the injury absences of Anthony Davis (who played just eight minutes in the first loss), LeBron James (who only missed last night’s loss) and Wenyen Gabriel (who missed both games). Buha writes in a story for The Athletic that it has become evident the team needs additional help up front.
Kings star point guard De’Aaron Fox has been hampered by pain in his right foot for over a month, according to Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. Fox’s shooting has taken a hit of late: across his past seven contests, the vet has made just 38.2% of his field goals and just 28.6% of his triples. According to Fox, there’s no risk of making the injury worse by playing, so he’s hoping to get used to tolerating it. “I’ve played well while it was hurting, so I’ll be fine,” he said.

Lakers Discussed A Deal Recently With Knicks

December 8th, 2022 at 1:45pm CST by Rory Maher

The Lakers, Heat and Bucks are among the teams that have expressed interest in Reddish since the Knicks acquired him from the Hawks in January, though that interest isn’t necessarily recent, according to Ian Begley of SNY.tv. Begley also reports that that the Lakers and Knicks explored a deal this month that “would have required a third team to complete,” but it’s unclear if those talks involved Reddish.

And-Ones: Projected Taxpayers, Parity, Sovereign Funds, Scola

December 8th, 2022 at 10:30am CST by Luke Adams

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.

Juan Toscano-Anderson To Undergo MRI

December 8th, 2022 at 8:01am CST by Luke Adams

Lakers wing Juan Toscano-Anderson will also be undergoing an MRI after spraining his right ankle in the fourth quarter of Wednesday’s loss in Toronto, tweets Dave McMenamin of ESPN. Toscano-Anderson has been out of L.A.’s rotation for most of the season and played more minutes (16) on Wednesday than he had since October 23. “It sucks,” head coach Darvin Ham said of the 29-year-old getting hurt while getting a rare opportunity to play a role.

Health Updates: Lakers, Horford, Matthews, Payton

December 7th, 2022 at 4:01pm CST by Luke Adams

The Lakers will be shorthanded on Wednesday night in Toronto, according to Kyle Goon of the Southern California News Group, who tweets that star forwards Anthony Davis and LeBron James have both been ruled out by the team.

Davis is still battling the non-COVID illness that forced him to leave Tuesday’s contest in Cleveland early, while James is getting the second night of a back-to-back set off due to left ankle soreness. The Lakers have also listed guard Patrick Beverley as doubtful to play due to right knee soreness.

Here are a few more health-related updates from around the NBA:

Celtics big man Al Horford has been ruled out for Wednesday’s game vs. Phoenix after entering the NBA’s health and safety protocols, the team announced today (via Twitter). If Horford has tested positive for COVID-19, it will likely be at least a few days before he’s cleared to return, so his availability for the rest of Boston’s West Coast trip is up in the air.
Bucks wing Wesley Matthews has also been placed in the health and safety protocols and will be unavailable for Wednesday’s contest vs. Sacramento, tweets Eric Nehm of The Athletic. Like Horford, Matthews could miss more games beyond tonight’s.
Trail Blazers guard Gary Payton II is inching closer to his season debut following offseason abdominal surgery. Teammate Damian Lillard told reporters on Wednesday that Payton practiced in full today, tweets Aaron Fentress of The Oregonian.

Davis Has Non-COVID Illness

December 6th, 2022 at 10:55pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Anthony Davis, who left the Lakers’ game on Tuesday early due to flu-like symptoms, has a non-COVID illness, Dave McMenamin of ESPN tweets. Davis battled a fever throughout the day but tried to play through it. No other players are currently sick, according to coach Darvin Ham.

Lakers Notes: Davis, Trades, Gabriel, Improvement

December 6th, 2022 at 6:51pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Lakers fans in Washington, D.C. chanted “MVP!” after Anthony Davis demolished the Wizards with 55 points, 17 rebounds and three blocks on Sunday. Davis has suddenly entered the Most Valuable Player award picture, according to Dave McMenamin of ESPN.

“He’s been unbelievable, man,” LeBron James said. “On both sides of the floor. I mean, playing like the MVP of this league. Just straight dominance.”

Entering Tuesday, Davis has averaged 35.3 points on 64.8% from the field, 15.6 rebounds and 2.9 blocks over the last nine games. His resurgence has revitalized the franchise, Jovan Buha of The Athletic notes. Buha takes a closer look at Davis’ scoring outbursts.

Davis departed Tuesday’s game at Cleveland with flu-like symptoms, McMenamin tweets.

We have more on the Lakers:

With Davis on a roll, the Lakers should consider making a big move to improve their postseason prospects, Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report writes. If they finally decide to move Russell Westbrook, they need a play-maker who can ease James’ burden while helping Davis get high-percentage shots. There’s also a need for a versatile wing, Pincus adds.
Wenyen Gabriel will be out at least a week due to a left shoulder sprain, Kyle Goon of the Orange County Register tweets. Gabriel, a valuable reserve, will miss all four remaining games during this week’s current road trip.
Beyond Davis’ stretches of dominance, first-year coach Darvin Ham sees improvement across the board, Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today writes. “Their buy-in is accelerating at a pace a where they’re embracing everything we’re throwing at them, the way we want to play offensively and defensively,” Ham said. “You’re going to go through that period of discovery. Those first 20, 25 games, you’re learning your team, your team is learning you, coming in as a new staff, a new head coach while also managing who’s available, who’s not available, guys out for various illnesses and various injuries and you’re trying to mix and match the lineup. And now, we’re here, we’re becoming more whole by the day.”