- Clippers star forward Paul George has been sidelined for the past two games with a bone edema in his foot, according to Mirjam Swanson of The Orange County Register. Head coach Tyronn Lue would not speculate on the duration of George’s absence. “I don’t know,” he said. “We’re going to miss him. We wish him a speedy recovery.” George is averaging a stellar 24.4 PPG, 6.2 RPG and 5.5 APG in 20 games this season.
The Pistons are talking to the Knicks about a Derrick Rose trade, but other teams have expressed interest as well, according to Shams Charania and James L. Edwards III of The Athletic. Sources tell Charania that Detroit’s front office agrees with the veteran guard that a trade would be best for both sides. The Clippers, along with a few other teams, have also asked about Rose, according to sources.
New York coach Tom Thibodeau would like to team up once again with Rose, who played for him in both Chicago and Minnesota. Rose has remained productive at age 32, averaging 14.2 points, 4.2 assists and 1.9 assists in 22.8 minutes per night, but he doesn’t fit the timeline of the rebuilding Pistons.
Detroit is hoping to get something in return for Rose, who is headed for free agency after signing a two-year, $15MM contract with the team in 2019. The authors point out that the Pistons were coming off two straight playoff appearances at the time and had a strong connection in vice chairman Arn Tellem, who was Rose’s former agent. The team has since started rebuilding and currently holds the league’s worst record at 5-17.
Rose sat out Friday’s game due to “rest” and is being held out tonight for “personal reasons.” He hasn’t played this week, but doesn’t appear to have any physical issues other than a stomach ailment that forced him to miss Tuesday’s game at Utah. Although he was plagued by injuries during his prime years, Rose has been able to play at least 50 games in each of the past two seasons.
Rose had his best season under Thibodeau in Chicago in 2010/11 when he was named MVP, averaging 25.0 points and 7.7 assists per game. He suffered an ACL tear the following season and was never able to reach that level again.
Thunder rookie big man Aleksej Pokusevski has averaged 17.4 minutes per game in 17 appearances but he’s headed to Orlando to join the G League’s Oklahoma City Blue, according to Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman. The 17th overall pick, who played 20 minutes in a blowout loss to Houston on Monday, is shooting just 24.7% from the field and the team wants him to develop his offensive game.
Guard Ty Jerome and two-way players Moses Brown and Josh Hall are also going to Orlando. “A lot of time and effort has gone into deciding who to send and when to send them,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said. “We felt like sending the four of them together, all for different reasons developmentally, was the best decision.”
We have more G League transactions from Western Conference clubs:
- The Clippers assigned rookie big man Daniel Oturu to the Agua Caliente Clippers, according the RealGM transactions log. Oturu has appeared in 10 NBA games this season but has only averaged 4.2 MPG. He’s only gotten on the court once since January 22 and the organization wants Oturu to get some extended playing time during the bubble season in Orlando.
- The Pelicans have transferred two-way player Will Magnay to the Erie BayHawks, the Pelicans’ PR department tweets. The 22-year-old rookie power forward out of Tulsa, who played in Australia last season, has not appeared in a game this season.
- The Jazz duo of rookie center Udoka Azubuike and Trent Forrest are joining the Salt Lake City Stars, the G League team tweets. Azubuike, the team’s first-round pick out of Kansas, has made 12 limited appearances this season. Forrest, an undrafted guard out of Florida State, has played in two NBA games.
- Luke Kennard missed a good chunk of last season with Detroit due to tendinitis in both knees. Now a key reserve for the Clippers, Kennard is grateful for all the rehab he last season, as he told Andrew Greif of the Los Angeles Times. “It helped so much more than I could have thought and now I’m feeling great, my body feels great and I’m moving well,” Kennard said. “I hated it at the time — didn’t hate it, but it just took a while. It was pretty hard. Looking back now, I’m grateful and thankful I went through it.” Kennard signed a four-year extension in December.
Clippers stars Kawhi Leonard and Paul George have been cleared to play in tonight’s game against the Magic, tweets Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN. Both players missed the past two games due to health and safety protocols.
Leonard and George didn’t accompany the Clippers on their current road trip, but were expected to join the team once they received medical clearance. Tonight is the third game of the six-game trip, which began with a loss in Atlanta and a win in Miami.
The Clippers still won’t have guard Patrick Beverley, who has missed the past two games with soreness in his right knee, Youngmisuk adds (via Twitter). Beverley also didn’t travel with the team, and no official timetable has been set for him to return.
“Mentally, they’re in a great place,” Clippers reserve point guard Reggie Jackson said of the two unavailable wings. “They are doing all they can to get back as soon as possible.”
The NBA and NBPA have reached a stalemate in their negotiations for the possible addition of an 18th roster spot for teams in 2020/21, reports Marc Stein of The New York Times (Twitter link).
Word broke nearly two weeks ago that the league and the players’ union were discussing the possibility of adding a third two-way contract slot. Currently, clubs are permitted to carry up to 15 players on standard contracts and two on two-way deals, for a total of 17.
The idea, which was previously said to be gaining some momentum, was broached at a time when a series of games were being postponed because teams didn’t have the required minimum of eight players available.
According to Stein (Twitter link), the league has maintained that if an 18th roster spot is added, it should be a third two-way slot only open to players with fewer than four years of NBA experience, as the other two-way slots are. The players’ union wants that 18th spot to be open to all veteran free agents.
Stein adds (via Twitter) that there’s some concern that adding an 18th roster spot open to any veteran free agent would give a competitive advantage to hard-capped teams (such as the Lakers, Clippers, and Bucks), allowing them to add another quality player despite their current financial constraints.
A player on a two-way contract this season is earning a $449K salary (half of the rookie minimum) and doesn’t count against his team’s salary cap.
Isaiah Thomas won’t be the only NBA veteran suiting up for Team USA at the AmeriCup qualifiers in San Juan, Puerto Rico next month. According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (via Twitter), seven-time All-Star Joe Johnson, who has been out of the league since 2018, will also represent the U.S. in games against The Bahamas and Mexico.
As G League expert Adam Johnson points out (via Twitter), with the NBAGL bubble taking place next month, there will be fewer G League veterans available to represent Team USA than there were at the earlier qualifiers. However, there are a number of former NBA players who weren’t selected in this month’s NBAGL draft who could look to join Thomas and Johnson on the U.S. roster to showcase themselves to NBA teams.
USA Basketball has already qualified for the 2022 AmeriCup tournament by going 4-0 in previous qualifying games, so the team won’t face any pressure in San Juan to win both its games.
Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Brian Shaw, the head coach of the G League Ignite, spoke to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype about the outlook for prospects like Jalen Green and Jonathan Kuminga, why other youngsters should consider the G League out of high school, and whether he has any desire to return to coaching in the NBA.
- Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated also checks in on the Ignite, passing along first impressions of Jalen Green and exploring the roles that the G League veterans on the Ignite’s roster are playing.
- The City of Inglewood intends to use eminent domain to acquire the land necessary for the Clippers‘ new arena, according to Jason Henry of The Pasadena Star-News, who provides an update on the plans and the timetable for the construction of that building.
- Veteran basketball analyst Sekou Smith (of NBA TV and NBA.com) passed away on Tuesday due to COVID-19, as Tim Bontemps of ESPN writes. The league and the players’ union both released statements mourning Smith. Our condolences go out to his family and friends.
The Clippers and Knicks are among the teams interested in Pistons point guard Derrick Rose, according to a report from Shams Charania of The Athletic.
There’s no indication of Detroit’s willingness to include Rose, 32, in a deal before the March 25 trade deadline, though the team did use its No. 7 pick to select guard Killian Hayes in last year’s NBA draft.
Hayes is expected to miss at least seven or eight more weeks due to right hip subluxation, but Rose continues to come off the bench for the Pistons. He missed Monday’s game with soreness, as starter Delon Wright finished with 28 points and nine assists.
Rose is in his second season with Detroit, coming off a campaign that saw him average 18.1 points and 5.6 assists per game in 50 contests. He shot a career-high 49% for the season, mostly playing off the bench in 26 minutes per game.
The Clippers could use another creator alongside Paul George and Kawhi Leonard, having failed to upgrade their point guard position during the offseason. The team did add veterans Nicolas Batum and Serge Ibaka to improve its creation, ball movement and floor-spacing. Rose met with the franchise in free agency after it traded away Chris Paul three-and-a-half years ago.
New York also has some familiarity with Rose, as the former Most Valuable Player spent a full season with the team in 2016/17. Head coach Tom Thibodeau also coached Rose with Chicago from 2010-16 and then again with Minnesota from 2017-19.
Clippers stars Kawhi Leonard and Paul George will miss the team’s game in Atlanta on Tuesday after being placed on the league’s health and safety protocol list, the team’s PR department announced.
The superstar duo didn’t fly to Atlanta with the rest of the team, Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN tweets.
The Clippers, who are off to a 13-4 start, carry a seven-game winning streak into their six-game road trip. They’re also schedule to face Miami (Thursday), Orlando (Friday), New York (Sunday), Brooklyn (Tuesday, Feb. 2) and Cleveland (Wednesday, Feb. 3) before returning home to face Boston on Friday, Feb. 5.
It’s possible that Leonard and/or George will join the team at some point on its journey if they clear protocols, Youngmisuk adds.
Leonard and George are the latest big-name players to miss time due to COVID-19 protocols. Jimmy Butler, Karl-Anthony Towns, Kevin Durant and Jayson Tatum are among the top-level players who have been sidelined by the protocols in recent weeks.