Andre Iguodala underwent an MRI on his left leg on Friday which revealed no structural damage and he is expected to play in Game 2 of the Finals, Anthony Slater of The Athletic tweets. The Warriors swingman experienced left calf tightness in the late going of Game 1, the same injury that caused him to miss a game in the conference finals.
12:43pm: Warriors head coach Steve Kerr confirmed today to reporters, including Mark Medina of The Bay Area News Group (Twitter link), that Durant is out for Game 2 on Sunday.
A Warriors source told Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com that Durant would likely still be weeks away from returning if this were the regular season, due to the risk of re-injury. Kerr cited that possibility of re-injury today, telling reporters that Durant won’t return until he’s ready, no matter how the series plays out (Twitter link via Blake Murphy of The Athletic).
8:34am: Despite some speculation that Kevin Durant may not be able to play at all during the 2019 NBA Finals, the Warriors don’t envision a scenario in which their star forward will be unavailable all series, sources tell Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports.
Unless he suffers a setback, Durant is expected to return from his calf strain midway through the Finals, according to Haynes, who writes that some members of the organization believe a Game 3 return could be viable. However, Game 4 looks like the more likely option at this point, Haynes notes.
Durant, who suffered his calf injury during Game 5 of the Western Conference Semifinals against Houston, will have been sidelined for four weeks as of next Wednesday, the date of Game 3 of the Finals in Oakland. However, he has been making positive progress in his rehab.
Sources tell Haynes that Durant began on-court basketball workouts earlier this week, and now has about three or four days of on-court work under his belt. His teammates have been encouraged by his progress, Haynes adds, though the two-time Finals MVP will need to go through at least one full practice before he’s cleared to return.
While the Warriors finished off the Rockets and swept the Trail Blazers without Durant in their lineup, their Game 1 loss in Toronto on Thursday showed that his presence may be more critical in this series, with the club struggling to generate offense outside of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson.
The Warriors won’t have Kevin Durant back in their lineup to start the NBA Finals, but another injured star appears set to return. Head coach Steve Kerr confirmed today to reporters, including Mark Medina of The Bay Area News Group (Twitter link), that DeMarcus Cousins will be active for Game 1.
Cousins, who missed more than half of the 2018/19 season while recovering from an Achilles tear, suffered a torn quad in Game 2 of the first round of the playoffs against the Clippers. While that injury seemed likely to finish his season, he worked hard to rehab the quad and get healthy enough to return to the court before the end of the playoffs.
When Cousins signed a one-year, $5.34MM deal with the Warriors last summer, this was the sort of opportunity he anticipated. Having never appeared in a playoff game before, the 28-year-old wanted a chance to compete for a title, and he’ll get that chance beginning on Thursday night.
It’s not clear what sort of role Cousins will play against the Raptors. According to Medina (via Twitter), Kerr said he has a sense of the workload the big man will get in Game 1, but declined to offer specifics.
Technically, the Warriors were a better team with Cousins off the court than with him on it during the regular season and during his brief playoff stint. Plus, his presence would reduce the likelihood of Golden State playing Raptors center Marc Gasol off the floor. Those factors, combined with Cousins still needing to get his conditioning back to where it was, point to a limited role for the former All-Star, but we’ll see what Kerr has in mind.
As for Durant, Kerr said today that the former Finals MVP probably won’t be able to practice before Game 2, making it unlikely he suits up until at least Game 3 (Twitter link via Marc Berman of The New York Post).
The 2019 NBA Finals are set to get underway on Thursday night. Game 1 will be the first Finals game to take place outside of the United States, as the 58-24 Raptors narrowly beat out the 57-25 Warriors for home court advantage.
Despite Toronto’s home court advantage and regular season edge – including a 2-0 record vs. Golden State – the Warriors will enter the series as the overwhelming favorites to win their fourth title in five years, and third in a row. Even without Kevin Durant in their lineup for the start of the series, the Dubs have enough weapons on both ends of the court that they’ll be difficult to beat.
Of course, Golden State’s top weapon is Stephen Curry, who has gone into full-on Human Torch mode since Durant went down vs. Houston. In his last five games – all Warriors wins – Curry shot 41.7% on 14.4 three-point attempts per contest, and has scored at least 33 points in every game.
Klay Thompson has been a reliable No. 2 scoring option, averaging 22.6 PPG with a .400 3PT% over those five games, while Draymond Green has filled up the box score (14.8 PPG, 11.4 RPG, 8.4 APG, 2.4 BPG, 2.0 SPG) and been everywhere on defense.
Still, the Warriors have yet to face a defense like this Raptors’ unit in the postseason. Toronto’s starting lineup features a pair of former Defensive Players of the Year (Kawhi Leonard and Marc Gasol) and a former All-Defensive guard (Danny Green) to go along with stout and savvy point guard Kyle Lowry and an athletic forward who can guard all five positions (Pascal Siakam).
Throw in three-time All-Defensive player Serge Ibaka off the bench, and this is a Raptors team that’s capable of adjusting its scheme to a variety of offensive attacks, and switching, trapping, and helping as necessary. It’s possible that no NBA team can truly stop the Warriors, but this looks like the club that’s best equipped to slow them down.
The Raptors haven’t been as dangerous on offense during the playoffs, but Leonard is capable of single-handedly carrying the squad on that end of the court at times, and has turned in an all-time postseason performance through three rounds (31.2 PPG, 8.8 RPG, .507/.388/.875 shooting). In Thompson, Green, and Andre Iguodala, the Warriors have plenty of excellent defenders to throw at him, but Leonard is talented enough to score 30 points even on nights when the defense plays him well.
What do you think? Will the Warriors cement their place in NBA history by becoming the first franchise since the 2000-02 Lakers to win three straight championships? Or will the Raptors pull off the upset and bring Canada its first ever NBA title?
After voting in our poll, head to the comment section to weigh in further on this showdown. Will we see much of Durant this series? How heavily will the outcome weigh on his presence or absence? Will other injured players like DeMarcus Cousins or OG Anunoby make an impact? Which matchups do you expect each team to try to exploit?
Trade Rumors app users, click here to vote.
MAY 28: Durant will travel to Toronto with the Warriors, tweets Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports. That means the club isn’t yet ready to rule him out for Game 2 on Sunday.
MAY 27: Addressing the media today, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr confirmed that, as expected, Kevin Durant won’t be available for Game 1 of the NBA Finals (Twitter link via Anthony Slater of The Athletic). Golden State’s other injured starter, DeMarcus Cousins, is being listed as questionable for Game 1, according to Kerr.
Neither of these updates comes as a major surprise, since last week’s check-ins on Durant (calf) and Cousins (quad) indicated that KD was unlikely to be ready for the start of the Finals, while Cousins was closer to returning.
Having already been officially ruled out for Game 1, Durant also appears unlikely to be back for Game 2. As Nick Friedell of ESPN.com tweets, Kerr said today that the Warriors still haven’t made a final decision on whether Durant – who has yet to be cleared for any on-court work with his teammates – will travel to Toronto. Game 3 will take place next Wednesday, June 5, in Golden State.
Even without Durant and Cousins, the Warriors are heavy favorites over the Raptors in the 2019 Finals. Golden State has won five games in a row – one vs. Houston and four over the Trail Blazers – without either player available.
Shaun Livingston remains undecided whether he’ll retire after the season, ESPN’s Nick Friedell tweets. The 33-year-old Warriors guard revealed last month that he was thinking of calling it quits, mainly due to knee soreness. He has an $8MM contract next season but only $2MM is guaranteed, which could lead the capped-out Warriors to release him. He’ll make a final decision once the season comes to an end, though Livingston said his balky knee is feeling better after an extended rest between series, Friedell adds.
One of the more bizarre stories this season has been Patrick McCaw‘s odyssey. The Warriors wanted to re-sign the reserve guard but McCaw played hardball with them. He eventually signed a non-guaranteed offer sheet with the Cavaliers. His stay in Cleveland was brief and he later signed for the remainder of the season with the Raptors.
With his current team set to play his former team in the Finals, McCaw spoke at length with Marc Spears of The Undefeated about why he chose that path.
Here are some of the highlights:
- McCaw wanted to have a bigger role. “I just wanted more. Not necessarily more playing time, but more opportunity for myself. I’m not discrediting the Warriors and what they chose to do. I just think being a young kid, you see all the younger guys competing and doing their thing and you feel like, ‘OK, I’m just that kid, or I could be doing exactly what he’s doing.’ ”
- His agents at the time, Marlon Harrison and Bill Duffy, urged him to accept Golden State’s two-year, $4MM offer but the restricted free agent but he wouldn’t budge. “Maybe I could just go back and finish, just go back for a year, see what happens, see where it took me,” McCaw said. “I just felt like once it got past preseason, I was just adamant about not going back. I was just stuck right there.”
- There was a perception that Cleveland did him a favor by signing him to the offer sheet that the Warriors didn’t match, only to release him shortly thereafter. But McCaw denies that. “I didn’t like how the media portrayed it, like we had something (else) lined up already,” he said. “Yeah, that wasn’t the case at all.”
- The personal reasons cited for McCaw’s absence during most of the Eastern Conference Finals was due to a family tragedy. His older brother, Jeffrey McCaw, died.
The Warriors have injury concerns heading into the NBA Finals, but Andre Iguodala doesn’t expect to be among them. The 35-year-old defensive specialist has missed practice the past three days to rest a sore left calf, but he tells Mark Medina of The San Jose Mercury News that he expects to be ready when the series opens Thursday.
“Just a lot of minutes and overuse. I’m old,” he said. “It just flared up real quick, but we have a good training staff. When you’ve been playing for five long seasons, it’s bound to come up. … My career is almost over, anyway. So I don’t really care.”
Iguodala wasn’t completely serious about the last part, as he has speculated about playing beyond the end of his current contract, which runs through next season. Head coach Steve Kerr has lightened the workload for his veteran forward, who had a non-invasive procedure on his left leg over the summer after being injured during last year’s playoffs.
There’s more Warriors news this morning:
- Backup guard Quinn Cook has been able to succeed because he has a coach who understands his situation, Medina writes in a separate story. Kerr played the same role with the Bulls’ title teams in the 1990s and appreciates how difficult it is to stay sharp during long stretches on the bench. “There’s a real trick to maintaining confidence level, conditioning level, your rhythm, your timing through all those times you’re not in the rotation. It’s a very hard job,” Kerr said. “If you can do it you’ve got a place in the league for a long time because coaches really value that.”
- This will be first NBA Finals with a greater focus on what happens in July rather than June, notes Sean Deveney of The Sporting News. No matter who wins, the series will play out against a background of upcoming free agent decisions for the Warriors’ Kevin Durant and the Raptors’ Kawhi Leonard.
- Andrew Bogut is defending Durant amid negative fan reaction on social media, Medina tweets. “People criticize him for it bothering him,” Bogut said. “You know, he’s a human being just like anyone else, and I think he has a right to put comments forward, and he has a right to sign where he wants as a free agent. The whole point of free agency is the first word is ‘free,’ so if he wants to sign wherever he want to sign, it’s his decision.”
Every week, Hoops Rumors takes a closer look at players who will be free agents or could become free agents next offseason. We examine if their stock is rising or falling due to performance and other factors. This week, we take a look at players from the conference finals:
Patrick McCaw, Raptors, 23, SG (Down) — Signed to a one-year, $786K deal in 2019
McCaw’s season has been a head-scratcher. He leveraged his way out of Golden State, signed a non-guaranteed offer sheet with Cleveland, got cut loose shortly thereafter and then signed a minimum contract with Toronto. He may get his wish to be an unrestricted free agent this summer, but no one will be knocking down his door on July 1. He suffered a thumb injury late in the regular season, was ineffective in some postseason appearances, and has missed the last couple of games for “personal reasons.” McCaw might not even find a guaranteed offer this summer.
George Hill, Bucks, 33, SG (Up) – Signed to a three-year, $57MM deal in 2017
Hill’s $18MM salary becomes guaranteed if he’s still on the roster July 1. The Bucks have too many free agent concerns to bring him back at that number, but Hill has reinforced that he’s a solid rotation player after a disappointing regular season. Hill averaged 14.2 PPG in the conference semis against Boston. Throwing out his Game 1 clunker against Toronto and he’s averaged 13.5 PPG, 6.3 RPG and 2.0 APG over the past four games, hitting some clutch baskets along the way. He’ll attract attention on the open market, though he’ll have to settle for less than his previous deal.
Alfonzo McKinnie, Warriors, 26, SF (Up) – Signed to a two-year, $2.7MM deal in 2018
Seems like every role player that coach Steve Kerr has thrown out there in the postseason has provided some quality minutes. McKinnie certainly fits that description. He was getting here-and-there minutes, then became more valuable with Kevin Durant sidelined. He grabbed nine rebounds in 21 minutes in Game 3 against Portland, then contributed 12 points in the clinching overtime victory in Game 4. McKinnie has a non-guaranteed salary next year but it’s difficult to see him getting cut loose considering the Warriors need to surround their stars with low-cost options. He can be a restricted free agent in 2020 if he receives a qualifying offer.
Enes Kanter, Trail Blazers, 27, C (Down) – Signed to a one-year, $653K deal in 2019
Kanter rode the roller coaster during the playoffs. The Blazers would have never made it to the Western Conference finals without him in the wake of Jusuf Nurkic‘s injury. Following Game 1 against the Warriors though, Kanter saw limited minutes as coach Terry Stotts opted to ride stretch four Meyers Leonard. Kanter’s ability to put up numbers earned him a big contract with the Thunder — recall he was making $18.6MM this season before working out a buyout with the Knicks. But his defensive deficiencies are also apparent in today’s NBA. It will interesting to see how much executives value his positives on the open market.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Kevin Durant isn’t sure when he’ll return from his calf injury but he is sure that the Warriors are better with him in the lineup. Durant addressed those topics while meeting the media, including ESPN’s Nick Friedell, on Friday.
Durant noted that while he’s showing steady improvement, the right calf strain he suffered in Game 5 against the Rockets in the conference semifinals still needs time to heal. Durant has not been cleared for on-court work. He’s doubtful to play in Game 1 of the Finals on Thursday.
“I’m just taking it a second at a time,” Durant said. “Every rep we do in the weight room, I just try to focus on that rep and not try to think too far down the line. ‘Cause I don’t really know too much about this injury. I’m leaving it the hands of the team doctors. I trust the direction they’re trying to put me in.”
Durent initially feared he tore his Achilles, the same injury teammate DeMarcus Cousins suffered last season with the Pelicans.
“I pushed off to run down court and I felt somebody trip me up,” Durant said, according to an NBA.com post. “First thing that came to mind, ‘Boogie (Cousins) said, Kobe (Bryant) said…’ that it felt like somebody kicked them (after they tore Achilles tendons). So the first thing in my mind was to slow down and process what happened. Then I started walking, and I could put weight on it, and it wasn’t as bad as I thought.”
The Warriors have won all five playoff games with Durant out of action, prompting many observers to say the team is better off without the impending free agent and more fun to watch. Durant has heard the talk and says it’s not factual.
“I felt like my teammates and the organization know exactly what I’ve done here off and on the court to become a part of this culture, stamp my flag in this culture and this organization. … I know what I bring to the team, but I also know a lot of people on the outside don’t like to see us together, and I get it,” he said.
Warriors owner Joe Lacob has repeatedly said he’ll do whatever it takes to keep the core group together this offseason, including Durant.
Forward Andre Iguodala (calf), who missed Game 4 against Portland, and Cousins (quad), who has been since the opening round, are closer to returning. Both participated in a full team scrimmage on Friday without restrictions on contact or playing time.