Denver Nuggets Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Seven Pistons Exit Protocols, Nuggets’ Monte Morris Enters

December 31st, 2021 at 7:09pm CST by Rory Maher

Cade Cunningham, Killian Hayes, Josh Jackson, Cory Joseph, Saben Lee, Trey Lyles, and Rodney McGruder have all exited the NBA’s health and safety protocols for the Pistons, James Edwards III of The Athletic relays (via Twitter).

All seven players are listed as out for Saturday’s contest against San Antonio due to reconditioning. The Pistons’ next game after Saturday will be Monday against the Bucks, when several of the players could return to action. Second-year big man Isaiah Stewart is now the lone player still in the protocols for Detroit.

In other COVID-related news, Nuggets point guard Monte Morris has become the fourth Denver player to enter the protocols in the past two days, joining Jeff Green, Bones Hyland, and Zeke Nnaji, per Harrison Wind of DNVR Sports (Twitter link). Morris has started all 32 of his games this season (30 MPG), averaging 12.6 PPG, 2.8 RPG, and 4.3 APG on a .479/.380/.783 shooting line.

The Nuggets signed Davon Reed to his third 10-day hardship contract Thursday, and reportedly plan to sign Rayjon Tucker to a deal as well.

Nuggets Sign Davon Reed To Third 10-Day Hardship Deal

December 30th, 2021 at 8:33pm CST by Luke Adams

8:33pm: Reed’s third 10-day deal with the Nuggets is now official, the team announced. With three new Nuggets players entering the protocols today, Reed’s latest contract will again be completed using a COVID-related hardship exception.

10:13am: The Nuggets are signing guard Davon Reed to a third 10-day contract using a hardship exception, reports Mike Singer of The Denver Post. The deal is expected to be finalized on Thursday prior to Denver’s game against Golden State, says Singer.

Reed, the 32nd overall pick in the 2017 draft, had been out of the NBA for the last two seasons, but made a strong impression on the Nuggets during his first two 10-day deals with the team this month. In nine games (17.1 MPG), he averaged 5.0 PPG, 3.4 RPG, and 1.2 SPG with a shooting line of .514/.438/.667.

Typically, a player is limited to no more than two 10-day contracts with the same team in a single season. However, it appears that rule has been adjusted for hardship signings.

It’s also worth noting that the Nuggets no longer have any players in the health and safety protocols, which has generally been what qualifies a team for a hardship signing in recent weeks. However, Denver has four players – Michael Porter, Jamal Murray, PJ Dozier, and Markus Howard – out with long-term injuries, which means the team is eligible for a traditional hardship exception unrelated to COVID-19.

In instances this season where hardship additions have been necessitated by players in the health and safety protocols, the NBA has allowed clubs to not have those 10-day deals count toward team salary for cap and tax purposes. As Singer tweets, it’s unclear whether or not that rule would apply to Reed’s third 10-day contract if he signs via injury hardship rather than COVID hardship.

NBA Postpones Nuggets/Warriors Game

December 30th, 2021 at 3:36pm CST by Luke Adams

The NBA is postponing Thursday night’s game in Denver between the Nuggets and Warriors, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). The Nuggets don’t have the required minimum of eight available players, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (via Twitter).

As we outlined earlier today, the Nuggets had three players – Jeff Green, Bones Hyland, and Zeke Nnaji – enter the health and safety protocols. The team also has four players – Jamal Murray, Michael Porter, PJ Dozier, and Markus Howard – out with long-term injuries.

If everyone else had been good to go, Denver would still have 10 players on hand — or even 11, if Davon Reed signed his new 10-day contract prior to tip-off. However, Vlatko Cancar (non-COVID illness), Aaron Gordon (hamstring), Monte Morris (knee), and Austin Rivers (thumb) were all listed as questionable on this afternoon’s injury report — if all of them were deemed unavailable, the Nuggets would have only had six or seven healthy players.

The Nuggets will likely look to complete another hardship deal or two besides Reed’s before their next scheduled game on Saturday in Houston.

This postponement is the 11th of the NBA season, as our tracker shows. All of those postponements have occurred since December 14.

Three Nuggets Players Enter Protocols

December 30th, 2021 at 11:07am CST by Luke Adams

After having cleared their list of players in the health and safety protocols earlier this week, the Nuggets now have three new players in the protocols, as Jeff Green, Bones Hyland, and Zeke Nnaji entered today, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link).

As Wojnarowski points out, the Nuggets – who will also be without head coach Michael Malone and had two assistant coaches test positive for COVID-19, per Mike Singer of The Denver Post (Twitter link) – are suddenly in danger of not having the required minimum of eight players available for Thursday’s game vs. Golden State.

In addition to Green, Hyland, and Nnaji, the Nuggets are missing four players – Jamal Murray, Michael Porter, PJ Dozier, and Markus Howard – to long-term injuries. On top of that, Vlatko Cancar (non-COVID illness), Aaron Gordon (hamstring), Monte Morris (knee), and Austin Rivers (thumb) are all listed as questionable on the latest injury report.

That leaves the Nuggets with six healthy players. Davon Reed is expected to sign a new 10-day contract today, but that would still just get Denver to seven. The team may have to count on one or more of those questionable players being active and hope that additional testing doesn’t turn up new COVID-19 cases.

On the plus side, since the Nuggets now have players in the protocols, Reed’s new 10-day deal will fall under the COVID-related hardship umbrella, meaning it won’t count against team salary for cap or tax purposes.

Doc Rivers, Michael Malone Enter COVID-19 Protocols

December 30th, 2021 at 10:55am CST by Luke Adams

Two more NBA head coaches have entered the health and safety protocols and won’t be on the sidelines for their respective teams in the short term.

Adrian Wojnarowski reports (via Twitter) that Sixers coach Doc Rivers has entered the protocols, while Mike Singer of The Denver Post (Twitter link) hears from a source that Nuggets coach Michael Malone has tested positive for COVID-19 and is now in the protocols.

In Philadelphia, assistant Dan Burke will take over for Rivers as the 76ers’ acting head coach, according to Wojnarowski. Malone will be replaced in Denver by assistant David Adelman for the time being, says Singer.

The list of head coaches in the protocols continues to grow — Frank Vogel, Billy Donovan, Monty Williams, Chauncey Billups, and Mark Daigneault are also currently affected. Rick Carlisle and Alvin Gentry were in the protocols earlier in the month but have since resumed coaching the Pacers and Kings, respectively.

In addition to placing Rivers in the health and safety protocols today, the Sixers also had two more players enter — Myles Powell and Tyler Johnson are now in the protocols and have been ruled out for Thursday’s game vs. Brooklyn, tweets Wojnarowski.

Northwest Notes: Faried, Jazz, Monroe, Reed

December 29th, 2021 at 11:53am CST by Luke Adams

Kenneth Faried is joining the Grand Rapids Gold for the coming NBA G League season, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). Although Grand Rapids is the Nuggets‘ affiliate, Faried will remain an NBA free agent and will have the ability to join any team. If he doesn’t receive any NBA offers in the coming days, we should expect to see the 32-year-old in action for the Gold when the G League regular season begins on January 5.

Here’s more from around the Northwest:

In the latest episode of the HoopsHype podcast, Michael Scotto and The Athletic’s Tony Jones spoke about potential trade options for the Jazz, Danny Ainge‘s role with the franchise, and more. Jones expects Utah to be “really aggressive” in exploring the trade market for potential upgrades, reiterating that the team is definitely looking for one more perimeter player who can defend at a high level.
Veteran guard Patrick Beverley is a big fan of what Greg Monroe brings to the Timberwolves and said on Tuesday that he’d like to see the team retain Monroe for the entire season, tweets Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic. Monroe has averaged 9.0 PPG, 7.5 RPG, 5.0 APG, and 2.0 SPG in two games since joining Minnesota on a 10-day deal.
Davon Reed‘s second 10-day contract expired overnight, so he’s technically no longer on the Nuggets‘ roster, but the team is considering how to keep him in the mix, as we relayed on Tuesday. With no players currently in the health and safety protocols, Denver’s options for keeping Reed would be to waive someone on the standard 17-man roster or to apply for a non-COVID hardship exception based on the team’s four injured players.

Team Exploring Ways To Retain Reed

December 28th, 2021 at 9:00pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Nuggets are exploring ways to keep Davon Reed beyond his second 10-day contract, Mike Singer of the Denver Post reports. Coach Michael Malone confirmed Singer’s report on Tuesday, Harrison Wind of DNVR Sports tweets.

“Hopefully there’s a way we keep Davon in a Nuggets uniform for a while moving forward,” Malone said.

Reed has appeared in eight games since joining the Nuggets, averaging 5.1 PPG and 3.6 RPG in 17.0 MPG. His second 10-day deal expires on Tuesday night.

Michael Porter Jr., Bol Bol Clear Protocols But Remain Unavailable

December 28th, 2021 at 1:41pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Nuggets forwards Bol Bol and Michael Porter Jr. have both cleared the NBA’s COVID-19 health and safety protocols, per Mike Singer of the Denver Post. Singer adds that neither player will be available tonight for the team’s game against the Warriors.

After playing just nine games this season, Porter underwent a back surgery and is expected to remain out for the year. Singer notes that Bol, who has re-joined the team, continues to recover from his tenure in the league’s coronavirus protocols. This sounds like Bol will need to finesse his conditioning before his return to the court.

The 22-year-old Bol, a third-year player out of Oregon, has yet to carve out meaningful rotation minutes with the team this year. Across 11 games, he is averaging just 4.6 MPG.

Denver is currently grappling with a slew of absences which have adversely impacted their contender status this season. The Nuggets are just 16-16 this year. Porter, one of the team’s most important contributors when healthy, is out for the year. Guard Jamal Murray, the team’s best player behind MVP center Nikola Jokic, has been sidelined all year as he recovers from an ACL tear, though he may return in the spring. Wing PJ Dozier is expected to miss the season with an ACL tear of his own.

The availability of guard Monte Morris for tonight’s game has been downgraded to questionable as he grapples with left knee soreness, per Harrison Wind of DNVR Sports (via Twitter).

Davon Reed Says Playing For Malone Is "Transformative"

December 28th, 2021 at 9:06am CST by Arthur Hill

Davon Reed, who is on his second 10-day contract with the Nuggets under the hardship exemption, said playing for coach Michael Malone has been “transformative for my career,” tweets Mike Singer of The Denver Post.

Northwest Notes: Wolves, Mitchell, Nuggets, Jokic

December 26th, 2021 at 8:54pm CST by JD Shaw

Three Timberwolves players took advantage of their expanded roles in the team’s game against the Jazz on Thursday, Chris Hine of the Star Tribune writes. Malik Beasley, Jaden McDaniels and Jake Layman all gave a solid effort, but the team still lost 128-116 without Karl-Anthony Towns or Anthony Edwards available.

Beasley finished with 33 points on 13-of-25 shooting, while McDaniels (16 points and nine rebounds) and Layman (13 points and seven rebounds) provided respectable contributions. Minnesota struggled to contain Utah’s star players, however, also letting the Jazz shoot 16-of-39 (41%) from deep.

“He’s shooting at a high level from three and getting a lot of good looks and staying really committed to it,” Wolves coach Chris Finch said of Beasley, whose 33 points led all scorers in the game. “There’s no second-guessing his shot. He’s locked in. He’s been really, really good. Mostly it’s just his shot selection is leading to good shots.”

Here are some other notes from the Northwest tonight:

Jazz star Donovan Mitchell will miss the team’s upcoming two-game road trip due to a lower back strain, Sarah Todd of the Deseret News tweets. Mitchell will stay in Salt Lake City and receive treatment. Utah plays in San Antonio on Monday and Portland on Wednesday.
The Nuggets have reasons to be optimistic when Jamal Murray returns from a torn ACL, Mike Singer of the Denver Post writes. Denver has a championship-caliber roster on paper, but the team has struggled to stay healthy in recent seasons. The club ranks sixth in the Western Conference at 15-16.
Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic has improved from his 2020/21 Most Valuable Player season, Singer writes in a separate article for the Denver Post. In 26 games this season, Jokic has averaged 25.9 points, 13.5 rebounds and 7.2 assists, shooting 58% from the floor and 37% from deep.