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Lakers Notes: Redick, Reaves, Bronny, Jemison

January 16th, 2025 at 7:24pm CST by Tristan Tucker

Lakers coach JJ Redick challenged the Lakers to prioritize connectivity and communication on Wednesday before playing the Heat, but they faced a big deficit at halftime. According to Dan Woike of the Los Angeles Times, Redick got it through to his team that they needed to talk more and play harder.

The Lakers fared better against Miami’s zone defense in the second half and came back to register their first win since Jan. 3.

“I challenged the team across the board today in our meeting about leadership,” Redick said. “And leadership — people think about talking, obviously being vocal, talking in the huddles, whatever it may be. That certainly is a form of leadership. But leadership takes many forms. And I think talk is a requirement of the job as a basketball player. Talk is a requirement of the job.”

According to Woike, Los Angeles’ Wednesday win was a sign of growth, with players taking accountability for things they hadn’t been doing.

We have more from the Lakers:

  • Guard Austin Reaves played a huge role in the win against Miami and he’s continuing to grow as a play-maker. Reaves is averaging 9.6 assists per game since Christmas, including a career-high 16 on Dec. 29 and 14 against the Heat. According to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin (Twitter link), Redick said Thursday that Reaves is playing at an “All-Star level.” His season-long averages of 17.9 points and 6.2 assists per game would be career highs if they hold.
  • LeBron James continues to be thrilled about having Bronny James on the roster, even if the younger James isn’t playing much, Chuck Schilken of the Los Angeles Times writes. “Bronny doesn’t have to play basketball at all,” LeBron James said on the New Heights podcast (YouTube link). “It’s not like he needs the money. He can do whatever he wants to do. Like, if he wants to be the CEO of my company, he could be that. I’ll start teaching him right now to be that if he wants to. But he’s like, ‘This is my career … my goals and … aspirations and I want to play ball. This is something I love.’ I love that kid. He’s awesome.” Bronny has played sparingly at the NBA level, but he’s averaging 14.7 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 3.9 assists per game in the G League.
  • The Lakers signed Trey Jemison to a two-way contract on Wednesday, replacing Quincy Olivari. That deal is for two years, tweets Michael Scotto of HoopsHype.
  • According to McMenamin (Twitter link), the addition of Jemison coincides with the coaching staff’s desire to play Anthony Davis with another center on the floor. Outside of Jemison, the Lakers’ centers on the roster consist of Christian Wood, Jaxson Hayes and Christian Koloko. Wood hasn’t played all season due to a knee injury, while Hayes has also battled health issues and Koloko (on a two-way) has had a limited role.
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Lakers Sign Trey Jemison To Two-Way Deal

January 15th, 2025 at 10:00pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

10:00 pm: Jemison’s two-way deal is official, per NBA.com’s transaction log.

5:15 pm: Hot off the heels of waiving former two-way point guard Quincy Olivari, the Lakers intend to sign free agent center Trey Jemison to their newly available two-way slot, sources tell Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report and Marc Stein (Twitter link).

The 6’11” big man out of UAB had most recently been on a two-way deal with the Pelicans. New Orleans waived him last week.

Across 16 bouts with the injury-plagued Pelicans at the NBA level this year, Jemison averaged 2.4 points, 2.8 rebounds and 0.6 assists in 10.4 minutes per game.

Jemison went undrafted in 2023 and joined New Orleans’ G League affiliate, the Birmingham Squadron, as an affiliate player at the start of the 2023/24 season. He subsequently signed 10-day contracts with the Wizards and Grizzlies, and was later picked up by Memphis on a two-way deal to close out the season. Jemison was cut by the Grizzlies this past summer, before being picked up by the Pelicans.

Playing for Birmingham last season, Jemison averaged 10.9 points, 12.0 rebounds, 1.8 assists, and 1.5 blocks in 31.6 minutes per contest across 25 total outings.

Jemison is now the second center inked to a two-way deal for Los Angeles, joining Christian Koloko. The Lakers have been dealing with long-term injuries to several of their reserve big men this season. It makes sense that the team’s front office is seeking out immediate, short-term help at the five spot to spell All-NBA center Anthony Davis.

Forward Armel Traore is the Lakers’ third rostered two-way player.

Shams Charania of ESPN tweets that Jemison helps bolster the club’s frontcourt as a physical post presence. As a two-way player, he’ll likely split his time between L.A.’s G League club, the South Bay Lakers, and the NBA squad.

Reserve Lakers center Christian Wood and forward Jarred Vanderbilt have been sidelined all season while recuperating from offseason surgeries. Backup Los Angeles center Jaxson Hayes has been in and out of the lineup for much of the year with his own ailments. Koloko has had to log significant time as occasionally the team’s only legitimate healthy center behind Davis. Meanwhile Davis, who has his own history of injuries, has been the Lakers’ steadiest rotational big man.

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Lakers Release Two-Way Player Quincy Olivari

January 15th, 2025 at 4:59pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

The Lakers have cut two-way guard Quincy Olivari, sources inform Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link). The move has been confirmed in the NBA’s official transaction log.

As Scotto notes, Olivari has put up solid numbers this season while mostly playing for L.A.’s NBAGL affiliate squad in El Segundo, the South Bay Lakers.

Across 13 combined Tip-Off Tournament and G League regular season games, Olivari averaged 17.2 points, 4.4 dimes, and 4.4 boards per night. He also notched a .421/.406/.711 shooting line, taking 7.8 three-point tries per game to reach that 40.6% mark.

The 23-year-old rookie guard cameoed in just two contests for the Lakers at the NBA level, logging 10 total minutes of mop-up time.

Scotto reports that Olivari is anticipated to have a market as a free agent.

The 6’3″ guard spent his first four collegiate seasons as an All-Conference USA talent at Rice, before finishing out his NCAA tenure at Xavier in 2023/24. He went undrafted over the summer, but impressed the Lakers enough in the 2024 preseason to earn a two-way slot.

The Lakers are reportedly expected to fill their newly opened two-way slot by signing big man Trey Jemison. Forward Armel Traore and center Christian Koloko are the club’s other two-way players.

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NBA Announces New Dates For Nine Games

January 15th, 2025 at 11:25am CST by Luke Adams

The NBA, which recently had to postpone four games as a result of wildfires in Los Angeles and severe weather in Atlanta, has rescheduled three of those contests and announced date changes for six others, the league announced in a press release (Twitter link).

The Hornets/Lakers game that was supposed to be played last Thursday will take place at Crypto.com Arena on February 19, while the Hornets/Clippers game that had been scheduled for last Saturday has been moved to March 16.

Additionally, last Saturday’s Rockets/Hawks that was postponed due to the weather in Atlanta will now be played on January 28 at State Farm Arena.

There’s still no new date for last Saturday’s Spurs/Lakers game, with the NBA indicating that a make-up date for that contest will be announced at a later time.

In order to accommodate the rescheduled games, the NBA has also announced the following tweaks to the schedule:

  • The Bulls/Clippers game scheduled for January 21 in L.A. has been moved up to Jan. 20.
  • The Wizards/Jazz game scheduled for Jan. 23 in Utah has been moved back to March 19.
  • The Jazz/Lakers game scheduled for Feb. 11 in L.A. has been moved up to Feb. 10.
  • The Wizards/Clippers game scheduled for March 16 in L.A. has been moved up to Jan. 23.
  • The Wizards/Trail Blazers game scheduled for March 18 in Portland has been moved up to March 17.
  • The Clippers/Jazz game scheduled for March 19 in Utah has been moved up to Feb. 13.

Despite not being involved in any of last week’s postponed matchups, the Jazz and Wizards will each have three games moved around in order to help minimize back-to-backs and reduce travel.

It’s perhaps not a coincidence that Utah and Washington are among the NBA’s cellar dwellers — the league likely wanted to avoid making schedule changes that would significantly impact teams involved in playoff races.

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Eighteen More Players Become Trade-Eligible

January 15th, 2025 at 7:00am CST by Luke Adams

Today is Wednesday, January 15, which means that a total of 18 players who signed free agent contracts meeting specific criteria this past offseason are now eligible to be traded.

Most offseason signees became trade-eligible on December 15, but players who met the following criteria were ineligible to be moved for an extra month:

  1. The player re-signed with his previous team.
  2. He got a raise of at least 20%.
  3. His salary is above the minimum.
  4. His team was over the cap and used Bird or Early Bird rights to sign him.

The following players met that criteria and are eligible to be traded as of Wednesday:

Most of the players on NBA rosters are now eligible to be moved, though a small handful still can’t be dealt.

That group includes Kings forward Doug McDermott, who becomes trade-eligible on Thursday, Celtics sharpshooter Sam Hauser (trade-eligible on January 23), Pacers guard Andrew Nembhard (Jan. 26), Grizzlies big man Jay Huff (Jan. 28), Cavaliers center Jarrett Allen (Feb. 2), and Knicks center Ariel Hukporti (Feb. 5).

Additionally, there are several players who won’t become trade-eligible at all prior to this season’s February 6 deadline, including stars like Joel Embiid, Lauri Markkanen, and Jamal Murray.

Players on 10-day contracts are also ineligible to be dealt.

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Pacific Notes: Payton II, Green, Monk, Wildfire Donations

January 13th, 2025 at 9:51pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Warriors guard Gary Payton II is on track to return to action on Wednesday. Payton, who hasn’t played since Christmas Day due to a calf strain, scrimmaged on Sunday and worked out on Monday, Anthony Slater of The Athletic tweets. He has appeared in 28 games this season, including four starts.

We have more from the Pacific Division:

  • Draymond Green sat out the Warriors‘ three-point loss to Toronto on Monday. He participated in the team’s practice on Sunday but was not at Monday morning’s shootaround due to an illness, according to Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN. He has been listed on the injury report due to a back injury. Coach Steve Kerr doesn’t think Green’s back issue is a major concern. “I remember a couple of years ago, I think ’22 season, he missed 15-20 games when the back flared up, so we just have to stay on top of it,” Kerr said. “Training staff is doing a great job with him, and Draymond has done a great job of just doing his rehab and making sure he’s keeping himself in good shape. I think he should be fine going forward.”
  • The streaking Kings may not have Malik Monk on Tuesday. He’s listed as questionable against Milwaukee due to right groin soreness, Kings radio reporter Sean Cunningham tweets. Monk has been a huge part of Sacramento’s seven-game winning streak. He’s averaging 23.3 points and 7.8 assists per game so far this month.
  • Los Angeles’ 12 pro sports teams — including the Lakers and Clippers — have pledged to donate more than $8MM to those affected by the state’s wildfires as well as those fighting the fires, ESPN’s Dave McMenamin tweets. The contributions will be donated to a variety of organizations.
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NBA Plans To Resume Los Angeles Games Monday

January 12th, 2025 at 5:30pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

The NBA has told its two Los Angeles-based teams, the Clippers and Lakers, that it plans to permit Monday’s scheduled home games for each club to go on as planned, per Mark Medina of Sportskeeda and Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News (Twitter links).

The Heat are slated to square off against the Clippers at Intuit Dome, while the Lakers are set to face the Spurs at Crypto.com Arena.

The Lakers have had two contests postponed due to historic wildfires in Los Angeles and the greater Southern California area, while the Clippers’ Saturday tilt against the Hornets was postponed.

The plan to move forward with Monday’s game remains subject to change depending on what happens in the next 24 hours. Los Angeles is expected to experience hazardous wind conditions — which could cultivate further wildfire activity — through Wednesday of this coming week.

For now though, the NBA is confident that the games won’t divert emergency resources from the wildfire response efforts, as Dan Woike of The Los Angeles Times tweets.

Another game this week, a matchup between Houston and Atlanta initially set for Saturday afternoon, was also postponed due to weather. The Atlanta area has been hit with atypical levels of snow, causing dangerous driving conditions.

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Heat Notes: Butler, Herro, Jovic, Highsmith

January 12th, 2025 at 11:21am CST by Luke Adams

When the Heat announced that they’d suspended Jimmy Butler for seven games, they explained the decision by stating that the veteran forward had engaged in “multiple instances of conduct detrimental to the team.” However, Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel hears from a source close to the situation that the club at one point sought to suspend Butler for a “failure to render services.”

The difference wouldn’t have just been a matter of semantics. As Winderman outlines, a standard suspension for conduct detrimental to the team costs a player 1/145th of his full-season salary per game. In Butler’s case, that works out to $2,355,798 over seven games. However, when a player is suspended for a failure to render services, it costs him 1/91.6th of his salary per game — that would’ve resulted in $3,729,157 in lost salary for the 35-year-old.

Based on Winderman’s reporting, it’s unclear whether the Heat reconsidered taking that route or were prevented from doing so — it presumably would’ve required the club to prove that Butler, who had been playing in games leading up to the suspension, had refused to render the services required by his contract.

Hours after the Heat initially announced the seven-game ban, the National Basketball Players Association put out a statement indicating it intended to file a grievance. It’s safe to assume the NBPA’s objections to the suspension would’ve been even more vociferous if the team had accused Butler of a failure to render services and attempted to recoup more of his salary.

Here’s more on the Heat:

  • After suffering demoralizing losses to Utah and Sacramento in the first two games of Butler’s suspension, the Heat have righted the ship, beating Portland on Saturday for their third straight victory. As Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald points out, two players who were believed to be part of Miami’s 2023 trade offer for then-Blazers guard Damian Lillard led the way in the victory, as Tyler Herro scored a game-high 32 points and Nikola Jovic contributed a personal season-high of 21 points to go along with eight rebounds and five assists. “I like his improvement,” head coach Erik Spoelstra said of Jovic. “He’s playing with more consistency. He’s preparing with more consistency.”
  • Jackson notes within the same Herald story that starting Haywood Highsmith at power forward has been a winning formula for Miami this season — the club is 17-11 when he starts and just 3-6 when he doesn’t. “He was great tonight,” Spoelstra said after Satuday’s win. “He gives us, when he’s at his best, point of attack defense, harassing other teams’ better guards and wing players. It’s a thankless job except in our locker room.” Highsmith re-signed with the Heat as an unrestricted free agent during the 2024 offseason on a two-year, $10.8MM deal.
  • Road wins in Golden State, Utah, and Portland this week show that the Heat aren’t unraveling without Butler, Jackson writes in a separate article for The Miami Herald. Highsmith told reporters that “the vibes are great,” while Herro said the club has rediscovered its identity. “Just rallying around each other, making it about the guys that are here now, the guys that are in this locker room,” Herro said. “We’ve got enough, and that’s all that matters. This is what we wanted to get back on the road, get away from all the chaos and come out here and compete and get back to who we are and get to our identity.”
  • The Lakers‘ and Clippers‘ home games on Saturday were postponed due to the wildfires in the Los Angeles area, but the Heat flew to L.A. on Saturday and are expecting for now to play the Clippers on Monday and Lakers on Wednesday, says Jackson.
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NBA Postpones Saturday’s Lakers, Clippers Games

January 10th, 2025 at 10:01pm CST by Luke Adams

The NBA has decided to postpone the Lakers and Clippers games that had been scheduled to take place on Saturday in Los Angeles, the league announced in a press release (Twitter link).

The Spurs had been scheduled to face the Lakers at Crypto.com Arena, while the Hornets were supposed to make their first visit to the Intuit Dome to face the Clippers. Dates for the rescheduled games will be announced at a later time, according to the league.

The NBA and its two Los Angeles teams have been communicating with local officials in L.A. and Inglewood, the league said in its statement, adding that postponing the games will ensure no resources are diverted from the wildfire response efforts.

The NBA also said that the league and the players’ union are donating $1MM in support of those affected by the L.A. wildfires, with that money going to the American Red Cross, World Central Kitchen, and other organizations.

Both the Lakers and Clippers are also scheduled to play home games on Monday, with the Lakers hosting the Spurs (again) and the Clippers scheduled to play the Heat. Those matchups are up in the air for now, though Law Murray of The Athletic (Twitter link) hears that the Clippers expect to play their game vs. Miami.

Saturday’s game is the second postponement for both the Lakers and Hornets, who had been scheduled to face one another on Thursday.

Lakers head coach JJ Redick fought back tears during a media session on Friday discussing the impact of the fires on his community and the loss of his family’s home, according to Dave McMenamin of ESPN.

“I was not prepared for what I saw,” Redick said. “It’s complete devastation and destruction. I had to go a kind of a different way to the house, but I went through most of the [Palisades] Village and it’s all gone. And I don’t think you can ever prepare yourself for something like that. Our home, our home is gone.

“… The Palisades community has really just been so good to us. I think that’s the part for us that we’re really struggling with is just the loss of community. And I recognize that people make up community, and we’re going to rebuild, and we want to help lead on that. But all the churches, the schools, the library, like, it’s all gone.”

Redick spoke to reporters about some of the irreplaceable personal and family items that were lost, but stressed that he’s more concerned about those affected by the fires who will have a harder time dealing with the aftermath.

“I don’t want people to feel sorry for me and my family,” Redick said. “We’re going to be alright. There are people that, because of some political issues and some insurance issues, are not going to be alright. And we’re going to do everything we can to help anybody who is down and out because of this.”

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Injury Notes: Vanderbilt, Warriors, Agbaji, Richardson

January 10th, 2025 at 3:01pm CST by Rory Maher

Lakers forward Jarred Vanderbilt hasn’t played an NBA game in more than 11 months, with his last appearance coming in Boston on February 1, 2024. However, he continues to inch closer to making his season debut, having been assigned to the South Bay Lakers for a practice this morning and subsequently being recalled to practice with the NBA club (Twitter links via Dave McMenamin of ESPN).

Vanderbilt, who made just 29 appearances in 2023/24 due to a heel injury, underwent surgeries on both of his feet during the offseason, then experienced a setback (fluid build-up in his left knee) in early December. He’s expected to suit up at some point in January, though he’ll be on a minutes restriction when he’s available.

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

  • The Warriors will be shorthanded again on Friday at Indiana. Stephen Curry (knee management) and Draymond Green (back) have both been ruled out for the second end of a back-to-back, tweets Anthony Slater of The Athletic. Andrew Wiggins (personal reasons), Jonathan Kuminga (ankle sprain), Brandin Podziemski (right abdominal) and Gary Payton II (left calf strain) will also be sidelined. On a brighter note, fourth-year wing Moses Moody is probable Friday after missing Thursday’s game due to patellar tendinopathy in his left knee, per the league’s official injury report. Center Trayce Jackson-Davis is questionable due to a left eye contusion.
  • Raptors wing Ochai Agbaji missed his first game of the season on Thursday in Cleveland due to a left hip pointer. He’s also doubtful to suit up for Saturday’s matchup in Detroit, per Blake Murphy of Sportsnet.ca (Twitter link). A former lottery pick, Agbaji will be eligible for a rookie scale extension in the offseason.
  • Heat guard/forward Josh Richardson was technically active for Thursday’s win in Utah, according to Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel (Twitter link), though the impending free agent didn’t receive any playing time. Richardson has been plagued by a heel injury for much of the 2024/25 season, only making eight appearances to this point and last playing on November 18.
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