Los Angeles Lakers Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Gabe Vincent To Undergo Knee Surgery, Miss 6-8 Weeks

December 25th, 2023 at 9:00am CST by Arthur Hill

DECEMBER 25: Vincent will undergo arthroscopic surgery on his left knee as soon as Tuesday, according to Charania, who tweets that the Lakers guard is expected to miss six-to-eight weeks following the procedure.

DECEMBER 23: Lakers guard Gabe Vincent is “strongly considering” surgery to address the left knee issues that have sidelined him for most of the season, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic. The operation would include a projected recovery timetable of about six to eight weeks, Charania adds.

Vincent and his advisors are “exhausting all other options” before committing to surgery, adds Dave McMenamin of ESPN (Twitter link).

Lakers coach Darvin Ham addressed Vincent’s condition tonight in a pre-game session with reporters, saying he’s experiencing “a little bit of swelling” in the knee and the team is trying to determine the best way to deal with it (Twitter link). Vincent has played just five games this season, and his 14-minute appearance Wednesday night was his only on-court action since October 30.

After helping Miami reach the NBA Finals last season, Vincent signed a three-year, $33MM contract with L.A. in July. His $10.5MM salary for this season will jump to $11MM next year and $11.5MM for 2025/26.

The Lakers were planning to use Vincent as a primary ball-handler, either as a starter or off the bench, but the knee effusion has prevented him from establishing any kind of rhythm with his new teammates. He’s averaging 5.4 points, 1.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists in 25.4 minutes per night while shooting just 37.5% from the floor and 11.8% from three-point range.

Lakers Notes: James, Starting Five, Christmas Game, Injury Report

December 24th, 2023 at 9:56pm CST by Dana Gauruder

LeBron James scored a season-high 40 points against Oklahoma City on Saturday as the Lakers snapped a four-game losing streak. James looked at it as a meaningful victory, according to Dave McMenamin of ESPN.

“We needed this win,” James said. “We didn’t want to end the road trip in a losing effort. … To come in here to play versus a team that’s been playing extremely well throughout this season, it was a big win for us.”

We have more on the Lakers:

They made a significant lineup move prior to the contest, as forward Jarred Vanderbilt replaced guard D’Angelo Russell. The starting lineup of James, Taurean Prince, Cam Reddish, Vanderbilt and Anthony Davis doesn’t have a true guard, but it allows them to switch more often on defense, Jovan Buha of The Athletic notes. “When you have that type of size, and you start that type of size, length and athleticism, and you can switch down the line, they basically gain no advantage,” coach Darvin Ham said. Offensively, the ball flowed through James and Davis, though it creates issues in terms of three-point shooting.
Ham believes the Christmas Day game against the Celtics can be used as a measuring stick, Khobi Price of the Orange County Register relays. “They’re one of the teams that’s at the top of the food chain in our league,” Ham said. “A team that’s definitely a championship contender. We get a chance to see where we are. You don’t have to have a Knute Rockne speech for this one. It’s a classic Lakers-Celtics game. Both teams are playing – for the most part of the year – playing at a high level. It’ll be a great chance to see where we are against the best of the best in terms of competition.”
James and Davis are listed as questionable to play on Monday due to left ankle injuries, Price tweets, though they’ve often been listed with that designation in recent games and have suited up. Rui Hachimura is also listed as questionable due to left groin soreness.

Pacific Notes: Lakers’ Lineup, Clippers, Fox, Beal

December 23rd, 2023 at 8:44pm CST by Arthur Hill

In the wake of a four-game losing streak, Lakers coach Darvin Ham made a change to his starting lineup for tonight’s game at Oklahoma City, writes Khobi Price of The Orange County Register. Ham replaced D’Angelo Russell with Jarred Vanderbilt, giving L.A. a super-sized lineup with all the starters standing at least 6’6″.

Vanderbilt, who missed the first 20 games with inflammation in his left heel, is making his first start of the season. He admitted earlier this week that the heel is still “naturally limiting” what he’s able to do, but he told Price at Saturday’s shootaround that he feels ready to play expanded minutes.

“Physically I feel good,” Vanderbilt said. “It’s been in a few games now, so I’ve been able to try to get some rhythm and kind of catch a routine of how this year is gonna go as far as me physically and my body and maintaining throughout the season. I think I’m physically ready.”

Ham said after Wednesday’s loss at Chicago that lineup changes are “always an option,” Price adds. With the Lakers skidding after the in-season tournament and falling back to .500 for the season, Ham decided the time was right and made the move to place a greater emphasis on defense.

“When you play great defense, it makes the offense a little bit easier,” he explained. “And so just wanted to lean into that side of the ball. Obviously, we’ve been struggling in a lot of first quarters this season so we feel like being a little bit bigger on the perimeter, more athletic gives us a chance to really have this go in our favor this time.”

There’s more from the Pacific Division:

Clippers coach Tyronn Lue doesn’t want to let two lopsided losses kill the momentum his team built up earlier this month, per Andrew Greif of The Los Angeles Times. L.A. surrendered 145 points, its highest total of the season, while falling to Boston on Saturday in a game that was out of reach by the middle of the third quarter. Combined with Thursday’s loss at Oklahoma City, it represents a rough spot for a team that had been climbing up the Western Conference standings. “We told our team after the game, these last two games, don’t let it discourage what we’ve built and what we’ve been doing over the last three, four weeks,” Lue said.
De’Aaron Fox moved past Mike Bibby on Friday night to become the Kings‘ career leader in assists since the team moved to Sacramento, per Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. “He’s just getting started,” coach Mike Brown said. “I think the guy is 25, 26, something like that, and he’s already broken that record. There’s going to be a lot of records that go down during his time here.”
Suns guard Bradley Beal talks to Marc J. Spears of Andscape about his frustrating battle with injuries and how it has played into the team’s disappointing start.

Checking In On NBA’s Open Roster Spots

December 22nd, 2023 at 9:01am CST by Luke Adams

Nearly two months into the NBA’s 2023/24 season, there are only eight open roster spots available across the league. Each team is permitted to carry up to 15 players on standard contracts and three on two-way deals, so that means 532 of 540 total roster spots are occupied.

All 90 two-way contract slots are currently filled, which means that each of the eight remaining openings is a standard slot.

Here are the teams that are currently carrying only 14 players on their respective standard rosters:

Boston Celtics
Chicago Bulls
Cleveland Cavaliers
Golden State Warriors
Los Angeles Lakers
Miami Heat
Minnesota Timberwolves
New Orleans Pelicans

The Celtics, Warriors, Lakers, Heat, and Pelicans are all currently over the luxury tax line and presumably aren’t eager to increase their projected end-of-season tax bills without a very good reason to do so. It seems likely that all five teams will fill their 15th roster spots by the end of the regular season, but there has been no urgency to do so yet.

While Boston, Golden State, and Miami have team salaries well beyond the tax threshold, Los Angeles and New Orleans aren’t far above that cutoff, so if the opportunity arises at the trade deadline, we could see them try to make cost-cutting trades in order to duck the tax. That figures to be more of a priority for the Pelicans, who have never been taxpayers, than it will be for the Lakers, who will likely be willing to take on additional salary for the right upgrade.

As for the Bulls, Cavaliers, and Timberwolves, all three teams entered the season close enough to the tax line that it didn’t make sense to carry a 15th man who would’ve pushed team salary above that threshold.

Chicago and Minnesota have a little more breathing room than Cleveland and could sign a free agent today without going into the tax, but I expect they’ll be patient — both teams are candidates to make trade deadline moves, so if they have to take back an extra $1-2MM in salaries in a deal, that breathing room below the tax will come in handy.

The injury-ravaged Cavaliers could benefit from adding a 15th man, but they’re less than $800K away from the tax line and have no interest in becoming a taxpayer, per Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com. A trade or buyout involving Ricky Rubio, which they’ve reportedly begun looking into, could generate some additional flexibility to fill out the roster, but there has been no indication anything is imminent.

L.A. Notes: Lakers, LaVine, Kawhi, Coffey, Westbrook

December 22nd, 2023 at 7:59am CST by Luke Adams

The Lakers have slumped badly since winning the in-season tournament earlier this month, losing five of their past six games, including the last four in a row, to slip to 15-14 on the season. Following a 118-111 defeat at the hands of Minnesota on Thursday night, star big man Anthony Davis called for more urgency, as Dave McMenamin of ESPN writes.

“It’s the NBA season. There’s going to be ups, there’s going to be downs. Right now we’re in that down period,” Davis said. “We just got to continue to fight and continue to play hard. Play with some effort, some energy and we’re treating Saturday (in Oklahoma City) as a must win.”

As Jovan Buha of The Athletic notes, Davis also spoke about the team’s recent struggles after Wednesday’s loss to Chicago, pointing out that there’s “no break coming” and no “cavalry” the team is waiting on. While LeBron James (left ankle) and Gabe Vincent (left knee) did miss Thursday’s contest, the second end of a back-to-back set, they’re expected to be available going forward.

“We’ve got everyone back now,” Davis said. “We just got to find a way to get into the win column.”

The Lakers have dealt with injuries to rotation players for most of the season, but now that they’re as healthy as they’ve been all year, Darvin Ham and his coaching staff hope to set a depth chart and rotation and stick with it “for the foreseeable future,” sources tell McMenamin.

Here’s more on the NBA’s two Los Angeles teams:

Within his latest roundup of trade-related rumors from around the NBA, Kurt Helin of NBC Sports says the sources he has spoken to believe that a deal sending Bulls guard Zach LaVine to the Lakers is unlikely, at best. As Buha suggested at The Athletic earlier this week, Los Angeles would probably only consider a deal if the outgoing package consists of D’Angelo Russell, salary filler, and limited assets beyond that, such as Jalen Hood-Schifino and a protected first-round pick.
Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard missed his first game of the season on Thursday night, as the team ruled out him due to a left hip contusion, which head coach Tyronn Lue referred to as a “day-to-day thing,” per Andrew Greif of The Los Angeles Times (Twitter links). Amir Coffey drew the start at Oklahoma City in what turned out to be the team’s first loss this month — the Clippers have a 9-1 record in December.
Clippers guard Russell Westbrook has seen his role reduced since James Harden‘s arrival in Los Angeles, but Westbrook remains supremely confident in his abilities, as Greif details for The L.A. Times. After a strong defensive performance against Luka Doncic and the Mavericks on Wednesday, Westbrook said he can “do anything on the floor at all times” and suggested he wants his due as a defender. “Ain’t too many people defending better than me at this point if we keeping it honest,” he said. “But I’ll let the numbers speak for that and let y’all talk about it. But we just keeping it a buck, ain’t too many people defending better than me at this position all around the league, honestly.”

Injury Notes: Jazz, Lakers, Sixers, Leonard, Payton, Clarke

December 21st, 2023 at 3:56pm CST by Rory Maher

The Jazz will be shorthanded for Thursday’s back-to-back in Detroit, with Lauri Markkanen (left hamstring — injury maintenance), Keyonte George (left foot inflammation) and Talen Horton-Tucker (left foot soreness) among the eight players who will be unavailable, per Eric Walden of The Salt Lake Tribune (Twitter link).

Utah is just 2-13 on the road this season, but the team will be facing the Pistons, who have lost 24 straight games, two shy of the single-season record. If Detroit hopes to snap the skid in the near future, tonight certainly seems like a good opportunity.

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

LeBron James (left ankle peroneal tendinopathy) and Gabe Vincent are out for Thursday’s back-to-back in Minnesota, tweets Mike Trudell of Spectrum SportsNet. Lakers center Anthony Davis (left ankle sprain/bone bruise), meanwhile, is questionable for the matchup against the West’s current No. 1 seed.
Sixers guard De’Anthony Melton exited Wednesday’s victory with a thigh contusion, but it’s not expected to be a serious injury, tweets Gina Mizell of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Melton, Nicolas Batum (hamstring) and Robert Covington (illness) did not practice on Thursday, according to Derek Bodner of PHLY Sports (Twitter link). On the league’s official injury report, Melton is questionable for Friday’s matchup with Toronto, while Covington is probable and Batum has been ruled out.
He has yet to miss a game this season, but Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard popped up on the injury report ahead of Thursday’s back-to-back in Oklahoma City. He’s officially questionable with a left hip contusion.
Warriors guard Gary Payton II has been “making good progress” from his right calf strain and has been cleared to start “various forms of team practice,” the team announced (via Twitter). Payton, who has missed the past nine games, will be reevaluated again early next week, per the Warriors.
Grizzlies forward/center Brandon Clarke tells Marc J. Spears of Andscape he expects to return to action sometime around the All-Star break. A key rotation player for Memphis, Clarke has been sidelined since March 3 of last season after tearing his Achilles tendon.

And-Ones: MVP Poll, All-Stars, Basketball Day, Bazley

December 21st, 2023 at 2:26pm CST by Rory Maher

After finishing runner-up to Nikola Jokic in 2020/21 and ’21/22, Sixers center Joel Embiid won his first MVP award last season. And he’s arguably been even better through the first third of the ’23/24 season, averaging career highs in multiple categories, including points (35.1), assists (5.9) and free throw percentage (89.3%).

In the first MVP straw poll conducted by Tim Bontemps of ESPN (subscriber link), Embiid is the clear frontrunner, receiving 63 first-place votes and 848 points. However, several top players are in the mix, with Nuggets center Jokic (630 points), Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo (352), Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (340) and Mavericks guard Luka Doncic (306) rounding out the top five.

12 total players received at least one top-five vote in the informal poll, which features 100 media members and mimics the NBA’s scoring system. Embiid made it clear he’d welcome more hardware.

“I have a pretty good chance [at another MVP],” Embiid told Bontemps. “I mean, if I have a chance to be in the conversation, why not? I want it all. I’m not shy about it. I’m not going to sit here and be like, ‘Oh, I don’t care about this.’ Anything that I can get my hands on, I want it.”

Here’s more from around the basketball world:

All-Star fan voting is underway, prompting Zach Harper of The Athletic to choose his starters to this point in the season. Out West, Harper has Gilgeous-Alexander and Doncic in the backcourt, with LeBron James (Lakers) and Kawhi Leonard (Clippers) joining Jokic in the froncourt. For the East, Harper selects Jalen Brunson (Knicks), Tyrese Haliburton (Pacers), Jayson Tatum (Celtics), Antetokounmpo, and Embiid.
In a press release, the NBA announced its celebrations for the first-ever World Basketball Day, which was established by the United Nations earlier this year during the World Cup. It will be observed annually on December 21 — the day Dr. James Naismith first introduced the game of basketball at the Springfield YMCA in 1891.
Former first-round pick Darius Bazley is attempting to make his way back into the NBA through the G League after being waived by the Nets prior to the season. Playing for the Delaware Blue Coats (the Sixers‘ affiliate), Bazley had a huge game at the Winter Showcase on Wednesday, recording 43 points, 18 rebounds, three steals and six blocks in the victory over the Texas Legends (Twitter link via the NBAGL).

Vincent Returns; Vando Playing Through Injury

December 20th, 2023 at 11:56pm CST by Rory Maher

Lakers guard Gabe Vincent returned to the lineup on Wednesday, suiting up for the first time since October 30 and playing 14 minutes in the loss, as Khobi Price of The Southern California News Group relays. Vincent was on a minutes restriction and likely will be for a least a little while. Ham said he was excited about the lineup possibilities with nearly the entire roster active — only rookie Jalen Hood-Schifino (back) is injured at the moment. “(Vincent) can be our lead guard, he can play off the ball, he can be a secondary creator, so it’s gonna be good. The discovery process is gonna be good for that,” Ham said.
Despite returning on December 2, Lakers forward Jarred Vanderbilt admits he’s still battling the left heel injury that sidelined him for the first several weeks of the season, Price adds in the same story. Ham said Vanderbilt has an “active issue with his foot,” which is why he’s been limited to 13-to-17 minutes per game. Vanderbilt was asked why he returned at less than 100%. “Because we have a chance,” he said. “I consider us being a contender. And I know how far we can fully go if healthy, so, that’s the reason I tried to come back and fight through it and get right.“

And-Ones: IST, Draymond, Bulls, Lakers, Napier, Mannion, Sarr

December 20th, 2023 at 4:01pm CST by Luke Adams

There were some complaints this fall about the unique court designs that debuted in the NBA’s first in-season tournament, with some fans viewing the bold-colored floors as eyesores. Joe Dumars acknowledged that those courts would be up for discussion next season, but the NBA’s head of basketball operations told Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic that he was a fan of the way they immediately identified a game as part of the tournament.

“I did like the idea that if you were flipping the channels and you saw one of those courts, you knew immediately, ‘Oh, man,'” Dumars said. “Even if you have forgotten that was a Tuesday or Friday, you’re flipping channels and you saw that court, you immediately knew.”

Dumars told Vorkunov that he thinks next season’s in-season tournament final will once again be played in Las Vegas and also discussed a couple other topics, including the thinking behind the league’s indefinite suspension for Warriors forward Draymond Green. Dumars explained that the NBA viewed Green’s case as a “special situation” and felt it was important to give him time to get help for his behavior.

“The only thing we really want to see him do is get better so when he comes back, we’re not dealing with the same issues over and over again,” Dumars said. “And so that was the whole purpose behind indefinite, and when he is ready, then he’ll come back. When we feel like he’s ready, he’ll come back. When the team feels like he’s ready, he’ll come back.

“… “He’s been very receptive to this right here. He’s not pushed back on this. He has agreed this is what needs to happen. He hasn’t been defiant about this at all.”

Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

How likely are the Bulls and Lakers to be trading partners this season? The Athletic’s Bulls beat writer, Darnell Mayberry, thinks all signs are pointing toward the two teams making a deal, but his colleague, Lakers beat writer Jovan Buha, is skeptical that they’ll find common ground. Buha, who previously reported that the Lakers have more interest in DeMar DeRozan and Alex Caruso than Zach LaVine, discusses the possibilities with Mayberry in a story for The Athletic.
A pair of former NBA guards are reportedly on track to join new teams in Italy. Shabazz Napier is said to be making the move from Crvena Zvezda in Serbia to Olimpia Milano, according to Eurohoops, while Dario Skerletic of Sportando reports that Nico Mannion is headed to Pallacanestro Varese after starting the season with Baskonia in Spain. The Warriors continue to retain Mannion’s rights as a two-way restricted free agent in the event that he returns to the NBA.
In an Insider-only story for ESPN.com, Jeremy Woo makes Alexandre Sarr‘s case to be the No. 1 pick in the 2024 NBA draft. There’s no consensus top player in this year’s draft class at this point, so ESPN will likely follow up with similar articles discussing other candidates for the No. 1 spot.

Vincent Listed As Probable For Wednesday's Game

December 19th, 2023 at 10:09pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Lakers are poised to get one of their top guards back in action. Gabe Vincent is listed as probable to play Wednesday against Chicago, Khobi Price of the Orange County Register tweets.

Vincent, who has been sidelined since Oct. 30 due to left knee effusion, appeared in just four games before he was sidelined. He joined the Lakers in free agency on a three-year, $33MM contract after playing a key part in the Heat’s playoff run to the Finals.

The Lakers are 1-3 since winning the in-season tournament, and playing their next three games in four nights on the road won’t make things any easier, Anthony Davis admits. “It’s tough,” said Davis, as relayed by Price. “For the whole month of December, we’ve really been on the road – and are gonna be on the road for probably the rest of December. But there’s nothing we can really do about it. It’s the schedule. Just gotta take care of our bodies and get some guys back hopefully within the next couple of games. But it’s definitely a mental challenge going on the road as much as we are right now.”