- Just four days after sustaining a scary-looking neck injury, Heat wing Derrick Jones was cleared to return to action today, as Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel writes. Jones has been part of Miami’s rotation during this afternoon’s game against Indiana.
The Kings appear likely to hire an executive search firm to help them find a new permanent general manager following Vlade Divac‘s departure, league sources tell Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. However, according to Anderson, several names have already been connected to the position as possible targets for Saramento.
Anderson identifies Spurs VP of basketball operations Brent Barry, Raptors general manager Bobby Webster, Knicks GM Scott Perry, Celtics assistant GM Mike Zarren, Heat assistant GM Adam Simon, and Clippers assistant GM Trent Redden as executives who may be on the Kings’ preliminary list of candidates.
Sean Cunningham of ABC10, who singled out many of those same execs as ones to watch, mentioned veteran agent Bill Duffy as another possibility (Twitter link). However, Duffy indicated today that he currently has no plans to follow in the footsteps of Bob Myers, Leon Rose, and other agents who have made the move to a team’s front office.
“There’s no truth to me joining an NBA organization,” Duffy told Jason Jones and Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). “I’m fully committed to my clients and their success.”
Joe Dumars, who is the Kings’ interim head of basketball operations, will be involved in the search for a new GM, though team owner Vivek Ranadive and COO Matina Kolokotronis are “viewed as the ultimate decision makers,” Anderson writes.
Anderson also notes that it will be interesting to see what sort of role Dumars ultimately retains in the front office, since Divac’s departure stemmed from Ranadive’s desire to have the former Pistons GM take on a larger role and to have the final say on the roster. Sources tell Anderson that some qualified candidates may be reluctant to fill Sacramento’s GM opening if it doesn’t come with full control over the roster.
Magic guard Terrence Ross has recovered from a stomach ailment and is now back with the team for the postseason, Roy Parry of the Orlando Sentinel writes. Ross, who left the Orlando campus for medical care last week, described his experience in great detail, explaining what caused the issue in the first place.
“Sometimes your stomach creates too much stomach acid when you eat and it can get into your esophagus,” he said.
Ross finished eating in the team room at roughly 8:30 pm before ordering more food just 90 minutes later, according to Parry. He went to bed around 10:40 and began to experience sharp pains shortly after that.
“I started feeling like … almost like really, really, really intense like heartburn, almost. But then I realized it was more than that,” Ross said. “I didn’t even know what it was at the time but it was debilitating. It hurt. I was hunched over the floor for like an hour in the fetal position because of just whatever I wanted to do, everything that I was doing was just amplified and getting worse. So I called the team doctor and they took it from there.”
The Magic are set to open their first-round playoff series against the Bucks on Tuesday with Ross in the rotation. He has averaged 14.7 points, 3.2 rebounds and 27.4 minutes per game off the bench this season, shooting 40% from the field and 35% from downtown.
Here’s more from the Southeast Division today:
- Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel explores whether the Heat are truly ready for the playoffs in his latest “Ask Ira” mailbag. Head coach Erik Spoelstra has opted to change his rotation in Orlando, starting forward Jae Crowder in place of Meyers Leonard in order to play smaller and quicker.
- Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer examines whether Malik Monk could make a similar leap with the Hornets that Devonte’ Graham did. Charlotte drafted Monk with the No. 11 pick in 2017, with Monk averaging a career-high 10.3 points and 2.9 rebounds per contest this season.
- Bonnell also examined a perk the Hornets got from the Orlando restart in a separate story for the Charlotte Observer, securing a 2020 second-round draft pick from the Celtics. Charlotte finished with the tenth-best record in the Eastern Conference at 23-42 this season.
Heat forward Derrick Jones Jr. seems to have avoided a more serious injury despite suffering a neck strain against the Pacers on Friday night.
Jones had to be placed on a stretcher and taken off the court after colliding with Indiana’s Goga Bitadze during a hard screen. The 23-year-old lay flat on his stomach with limited movement on the hardwood for several minutes before being stretchered off.
“Just a little sore,” Jones told reporters on Saturday when asked how he was feeling after the injury, per the Heat (Twitter link). “All in all I’m doing a lot better… we’re going day by day right now.”
Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra also indicated that Jones dodged a more serious injury after an MRI, CT scan, and concussion test revealed a neck strain.
“Thank goodness he has what he has today,” Spoelstra said, per Ira Winderman of the Sun-Sentinel (Twitter link).
Jones indicated that he is hopeful to play in Miami’s first-round playoff series against the Pacers.
Jimmy Butler is optimistic that Heat president Pat Riley will lure a quality free agent or two to complete their championship puzzle, he said in an ESPN interview (hat tip to Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel). “I think it’ll happen,” Butler said. “Only time will tell. I’m telling you, the organization is really good at getting what they want to win a championship. … And I think, a little Miami sunshine never hurt anybody.”
- Derrick Jones Jr. suffered a neck strain during the Heat’s final seeding game on Friday, the team’s PR department tweets. Jones was taken off the court in a stretcher during the third quarter after a hard screen by Indiana’s Goga Bitadze. Jones underwent an MRI, CT scan and concussion test, so the diagnosis was a best-case scenario. He’ll be re-evaluated over the weekend.
AUGUST 13: Following wins by the Thunder and Clippers on Wednesday night, three Western Conference first-round matchups have now been set, with only the Lakers still awaiting their opponent. Those first-round series are as follows:
- Los Angeles Lakers (1) vs. Play-in winner (8)
- Los Angeles Clippers (2) vs. Dallas Mavericks (7)
- Denver Nuggets (3) vs. Utah Jazz (6)
- Oklahoma City Thunder (4/5) vs. Houston Rockets (4/5)
We’ll know by the end of Thursday which two teams out of the Trail Blazers, Grizzlies, Suns, and Spurs will be participating in the play-in tournament in the West, but it may be Sunday before the Lakers know their first-round opponent.
AUGUST 12: As a result of the Pacers’ 108-104 win over Houston this afternoon, the four Eastern Conference matchups for the first round of the postseason have been set. They are as follows:
- Milwaukee Bucks (1) vs. Orlando Magic (8)
- Toronto Raptors (2) vs. Brooklyn Nets (7)
- Boston Celtics (3) vs. Philadelphia 76ers (6)
- Miami Heat (4/5) vs. Indiana Pacers (4/5)
Typically, the Heat and Pacers would be continuing to fight for home court advantage in their series, but the unusual nature of this season means claiming the No. 4 seed instead of No. 5 won’t make much of a difference.
Despite the fact that several teams were within two or three games of one another in the standings when the restart began – or were even tied, like the Pacers and Sixers – the first-round matchups in the East look exactly the same as they did when the season was suspended on March 11.
Over in the West, a small number of teams – including the No. 1 Lakers – are locked into their playoff spots, but most matchups remain up in the air. For now, the most likely pairings are Lakers/play-in winner, Clippers/Mavericks, Nuggets/Jazz, and Rockets/Thunder, but one or more of those could change by Friday.
- In his latest mailbag, Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun-Sentinel looked at the potential role Rookie of the Year finalist Kendrick Nunn might play for the Heat going forward. Nunn left the Disney World campus last week due to a personal matter but returned over the weekend. We learned on Wednesday that the rookie point guard cleared quarantine. Winderman believes that the rookie point guard could find himself coming off of the bench, especially if Goran Dragic starts for Miami.
Heat starting point guard Kendrick Nunn has tested negative for the coronavirus for the fourth straight day after re-entering the league’s Orlando campus and is thus finished quarantining, according to Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald.
However, Chiang goes on to note that Nunn will not suit up for Miami tonight in the team’s penultimate seeding game, against the Thunder, due to a sore throat.
Nunn, who left campus for an undisclosed personal matter, has already been named one of the three finalists for the 2019/20 Rookie of the Year award, along with Grizzlies point guard Ja Morant and Pelicans forward Zion Williamson. The 25-year-old Oakland alum has started all of his 66 games with the 44-27 Heat.
Heat veteran Goran Dragic started in Nunn’s stead during Miami’s most recent outing, a 114-92 defeat of their likely first round opponent, the Pacers, on Monday.
- The Heat anticipate that rookie starting point guard Kendrick Nunn will clear quarantine on Wednesday and be available to play for the team on Wednesday night, per Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel. Nunn returned to the Disney World campus late Saturday night after departing the NBA’s restart to tend to a personal matter.
During last year’s NBA Finals, then-Warriors forward Andre Iguodala addressed the topic of his eventual retirement, suggesting that he had “a good idea” of how much longer he wanted to play. At the time, Iguodala claimed he could play four or five more years, but didn’t plan to do so.
Speaking this week to Mark Medina of USA Today, Iguodala – now a member of the Heat – revisited that topic and provided a more concrete timeline for the potential end of his career.
“I have about a year or two left,” the former Finals MVP told Medina. “I’m serious this time. I got two left.”
When the Heat acquired Iguodala from the Grizzlies at this year’s trade deadline, they agreed to a two-year contract extension that includes a guaranteed $15MM salary for 2020/21 and a $15MM team option for ’21/22. Presumably, the 36-year-old plans to play out that contract, though if Miami doesn’t pick up his option next year, perhaps he’ll consider retiring after just one more season.
According to Medina, one of the primary factors in Iguodala’s thinking is his desire to spend more time with his family, helping wife Christina raise their teenage son, Andre Jr.
“He lives a rich and soft life. So I have to prepare him to be self-sufficient,” Iguodala told Medina, half joking. “He’s smart enough, but he hasn’t dealt with any danger. Coming from where we come from, it helps us in terms of having street awareness. You have to scope the scene and know there is danger around. But he’s so comfortable that I have to reign him in.”
Iguodala no longer has the same kind of impact on the court that he did when he averaged nearly 20.0 PPG with the Sixers in 2008 or when he won his NBA Finals MVP award with Golden State in 2015. Still, he has established himself as a regular, reliable part of the Heat’s rotation since joining the club in February. In 20 games for Miami (20.2 MPG), he has averaged 4.8 PPG, 3.9 RPG, and 2.6 APG.