- After the Lakers had their first All-Star player absence, their deep roster showed its mettle in a 127-91 Anthony Davis-free route of the Timberwolves Sunday, according to Bill Oram of The Athletic. “The expectation and the norm for us, for most of the league, is that there will be guys out,” head coach Frank Vogel noted. “We just have to make sure we understand that’s the norm and don’t let it slow us down at all.” Kyle Kuzma, Marc Gasol, Montrezl Harrell, Dennis Schroder and Talen Horton-Tucker all scored in double digits, along with Los Angeles’s remaining healthy All-Star, LeBron James.
Bucks swingman Torrey Craig suffered a nasal fracture on Sunday against the Knicks and won’t play against the Heat on Tuesday, the team’s PR department tweets. Craig signed with Milwaukee last month after the Nuggets failed to extend a qualifying offer.
We have more injury and COVID-19 news:
- Heat star Jimmy Butler is doubtful to play against the Bucks on Tuesday, Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel tweets. Butler sprained an ankle during the team’s game on Friday.
- Hawks rookie big man Onyeka Okongwu (left foot inflammation) and guard Tony Snell (right foot inflammation) have been cleared to progress to live contact workouts, Chris Kirschner of The Athletic tweets.
- Alex Caruso became the first Lakers player to miss a game due to COVID-19 protocols. Caruso sat out against Portland on Monday. Coach Frank Vogel said no other players or staff members were held out due to contact tracing, according to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin. Trail Blazers forward Carmelo Anthony wasn’t with his team due to the same reason, as Casey Holdahl tweets.
Lakers superstar Anthony Davis missed the team’s game against the Timberwolves on Sunday due to a right calf strain, an injury he sustained in the team’s season opener against the Clippers and re-aggravated against the Mavericks on Christmas, Dan Woike of the Los Angeles Times writes.
The team will be cautious with his return, as the 27-year-old is coming off a season in which he averaged 26.1 points, 9.3 rebounds and 2.3 blocks en route to his first-ever NBA championship.
“Well, we just want to be responsible with it,” coach Frank Vogel said. “…We want to take advantage of our depth and be intelligent with this injury.”
Los Angeles has plenty of frontcourt pieces besides Davis, including LeBron James, Marc Gasol and Montrezl Harrell. The team remains one of the deepest in the league as it seeks its second straight title and fourth since 2009.
Here are some other notes from the Pacific Division:
- Anthony Slater of The Athletic examines what’s concerning about the Warriors‘ start to the season, along with what’s not. Golden State has suffered two straight blowout losses to start the campaign, struggling on both ends of the floor. The team is also coping with the losses of Draymond Green (foot), Klay Thompson (torn Achilles; out for season) and Marquese Chriss, who suffered a broken fibula in practice and will also miss the season. “I’ve got to stay on them and continue to work, find ways to get better organized and look like a five-man unit,” coach Steve Kerr said. “We’re just scattered right now. It just looks like we’re a series of moving parts.”
- Suns guard E’Twaun Moore is staying ready despite not making the team’s rotation in the first two games, Duane Rankin of the Arizona Republic writes. “To his credit, when I talked to him about it, he handled it about as good as anybody I’ve ever seen,” coach Monty Williams said. “It’s one of the reasons why we wanted him on the team. He’s going to be ready when he’s called on, but he handled it like a champion.”
- The Kings have recorded two straight wins, the franchise’s best start to a season in 17 years, Jason Jones of The Athletic writes. As Jones notes, players on Sacramento fully expected this to happen, taking a 124-122 win over Denver on Wednesday and 106-103 win over Phoenix on Saturday. “Why not?” Marvin Bagley III asked. “They tie their shoes the same way we tie ours. They practice the same way we practice. Why not? We have a good team, a great team. I know for myself, I’m not satisfied. I want to keep continuing to push, keep continuing to get better, continue to keep winning. Nobody’s surprised over here.”
- Lakers star LeBron James has been chosen as Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year for the fourth time, writes Tim Reynolds of the AP. James was selected for helping his team win the NBA title and being a leader in the social justice movement.
- Addressing rumors that he and the Lakers may attempt to work out an in-season extension, point guard Dennis Schröder said on Friday night that he’s “very comfortable” with his new team and is interested in negotiating a new deal in the coming months as long as it’s fair for both sides, tweets Jovan Buha of The Athletic.
- After going scoreless in his Lakers debut, newly-signed center Marc Gasol expressed confidence that he’ll bounce back and find his fit going forward, as Buha writes for The Athletic. While Gasol only scored two points on Friday and has yet to make a field goal, he was more effective in the Lakers’ blowout win over Dallas, grabbing nine rebounds and avoiding the foul trouble that plagued him in the opener.
The Lakers already like what they see from their new point guard and want to lock him up long-term.
They have begun discussions with point guard Dennis Schröder on a contract extension, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Schroder, who is making $16MM this season, will be an unrestricted free agent in the summer if he doesn’t sign an extension.
However, Schröder has a major incentive to wait until after mid-February to finalize an extension and that’s when discussions are expected to pick up again, Wojnarowski adds.
This isn’t the first time the Lakers have engaged Schröder’s representative, Alex Saratsis, regarding an extension. Schröder turned down an initial offer for an additional two years and $33.4MM, the maximum allowable offer the Lakers could make prior to February 16. That’s because Schröder was traded by the Thunder during the offseason, making him only eligible for a two-year extension with a five percent raise in salary.
He could be extended for four years and as much as $83MM after February 16, up to the time he’d become a free agent.
Schröder had 14 points, 12 assists and eight rebounds in the team’s opener against the Clippers.
Even if an extension agreement isn’t reached during the season, the Lakers hold Schröder’s Bird Rights and he can thus go over the salary cap to re-sign him during the 2021 offseason.
In the deal with OKC, the Lakers gave up Danny Green and the draft rights to No. 28 pick Jaden McDaniels, who was flipped to Minnesota in a separate trade.
When the 2019/20 NBA season ended in October, it didn’t seem likely that we’d see another NBA game played until some time in the new year, perhaps even as late as February or March. But the league accelerated its plans for the 2020/21 regular season in the fall, ensuring that an annual tradition was preserved: the five-game Christmas Day slate.
Today’s schedule is as follows:
- New Orleans Pelicans at Miami Heat (11:00am central time)
- Golden State Warriors at Milwaukee Bucks (1:30pm CT)
- Brooklyn Nets at Boston Celtics (4:00pm CT)
- Dallas Mavericks at Los Angeles Lakers (7:00pm CT)
- Los Angeles Clippers at Denver Nuggets (9:30pm CT)
A couple of these matchups look even more tantalizing today than they did a week ago. The Pelicans, for instance, looked awfully impressive in their opening-night game against Toronto on Wednesday and will be going up against the defending Eastern champion Heat, who are hungry for their first win of the season.
A Stephen Curry/Giannis Antetokounmpo showdown between the Warriors and Bucks will be followed by a matchup of two potential Eastern Conference contenders who looked great on opening night, the Nets and Celtics.
Luka Doncic and the Mavericks and LeBron James, Anthony Davis and the Lakers will all be looking for their first win of the season in the evening.
And the night is capped off with a rematch of last year’s Western Conference Semifinals, with Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, and the Clippers visiting Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, and the Nuggets.
Which game are you most looking forward to watch today? Which five teams are you picking to win the Christmas Day games? Use the comment section below to weigh in with your thoughts and make your predictions!
- The Athletic’s Bill Oram and Joe Vardon explore the process last summer that ultimately led to the Lakers hiring Frank Vogel as their head coach in 2019 and the Clippers promoting Tyronn Lue to their head coaching job this year. Vogel had expected to be a top assistant on Lue’s staff with the latter serving as head coach for the Lakers in May of 2019 when negotiations between the Lakers and Lue fell apart. The Lakers would not budge from a three-year, $18MM offer, while Lue was hoping to receive closer to a five-year, $35MM deal. Lue ultimately pivoted to become the lead assistant on the staff of then-Clippers head coach Doc Rivers. Lue assumed the head job this offseason.
Now that the regular season is underway, no NBA team is carrying more than 17 players in total — 15 on standard contracts and two on two-way deals. However, not every team is making use of all 17 roster spots available to them.
Currently, 12 of the league’s 30 teams have at least one open roster spot, either on their regular roster or in their two-way slots.
Those dozen teams have different reasons for not carrying a 15th man on their standard roster. For some clubs, the decision is likely financially motivated, since an open roster spot means not having to pay an extra player.
Some teams may want to maintain the roster flexibility that an open roster provides — it can allow a club to act quickly and decisively in the event of an injury or a two-for-one trade opportunity.
A handful of teams actually can’t add a 15th man at this point, since they’re too close to their hard cap and won’t be able to fit another minimum-salary contract below that hard cap until later in the season.
With the G League season not yet underway, a healthy team may simply decide there’s no point in filling the 15th spot with a developmental player who won’t see any game action. That may also be the reason why some teams haven’t yet filled both their two-way contract slots.
Listed below, with the help of our roster counts breakdown, are the teams that aren’t carrying full rosters.
Teams with an open 15-man roster spot:
- Charlotte Hornets
- Houston Rockets *
- Los Angeles Clippers *
- Los Angeles Lakers *
- Milwaukee Bucks *
- Minnesota Timberwolves
- New Orleans Pelicans
- Portland Trail Blazers
- San Antonio Spurs
- Utah Jazz
Note: An asterisk (*) denotes that the team can’t currently sign a 15th man due to the hard cap.
Teams with an open two-way slot:
- Detroit Pistons
- Phoenix Suns
- Portland Trail Blazers
Even after inking a lucrative three-year, $40MM contract extension on Sunday, Lakers power forward Kyle Kuzma remained uncertain about his precise role with Los Angeles, according to Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times. After starting all of the Lakers’ four preseason games, Kuzma came off the bench last night for the club’s regular season opener, a 116-109 loss to the Clippers.
Ahead of last night’s game, head coach Frank Vogel offered his thoughts on how Kuzma would contribute to the club regardless of whether or not he started.
“So, the No. 1 thing with Kuz in terms of this team is to bring energy on both ends of the floor,” Vogel said. “He knows what we’re asking him to do with regard to offensively, being more aggressive in catch-and-shoot situations, playing through him some but also complementing [LeBron James] and [Anthony Davis] and continuing to grow on the defensive end… Where he’s going to fall in terms of starting role or coming off of the bench is still to be determined and will likely be fluid throughout the year.”
Here’s more on the Lakers:
- After suffering an ankle sprain in the fourth quarter of last night’s season opener, Lakers All-Star LeBron James still expects to be ready for L.A.’s next game, a Christmas Day contest against the Mavericks, per Jovan Buha of the Athletic. “I turned it pretty good, but I don’t think it’s gonna stop me from playing on Friday,” James said.
- New Lakers starting center Marc Gasol has a long history with LA, despite playing his first game with the team yesterday, as Bill Oram of the Athletic details. Gasol was originally drafted with the No. 48 pick in the 2007 draft by former Los Angeles GM Mitch Kupchak, then was traded in an infamous deal with the Grizzlies for his older brother, then-All Star Pau Gasol, before ever suiting up for the Lakers. He signed a two-year, veteran’s minimum deal this offseason to add his defense, shooting and passing acumen to the reigning champs.
- The Lakers are exercising caution with their minutes allotments for James and Anthony Davis, according to The Los Angeles Times’ Dan Woike. Davis played 31 minutes in L.A.’s season opener, while LeBron was limited to just 28 after his ankle sprain early in the fourth quarter. “We’re going to be conservative with their minutes early on in the season, and we have the depth to do it,” head coach Frank Vogel commented.