Timberwolves Rumors

New York Notes: Nets, Simmons, Bridges, Sims, Towns

While dealing Dennis Schröder to Golden State is viewed as a tanking move for a team looking to accumulate assets, the Nets can now play at a faster pace, according to head coach Jordi Fernandez.

“Dennis was bottom ten slowest point guards in the NBA – pace doesn’t mean you’re better or worse – and Ben (Simmons) is 18th-fastest,” Fernandez said, per Lewis (Twitter link). “… We’re going to try to play faster. The ball is going to fly. He’s going to push. He’s going to throw it ahead.”

We have more from the New York teams:

  • Simmons, who underwent back surgery in March, hasn’t played more than 27:20 in any game this season. An unrestricted free agent after the season, the Nets‘ new top point guard said his playing time could expand soon, Lewis adds in another tweet. “I think my restriction right now is 27,” he said. “I think it’s around that. So hopefully that changes soon.”
  • In an era when playing in all 82 regular-season games is a rarity, Mikal Bridges has established himself as NBA’s iron man. The Knicks wing made his 500th consecutive appearance in Sunday’s 100-91 victory over the Magic, a streak that began with his first game with the Suns as a rookie, Stefan Bondy of the New York Post notes. “Everyone talks about offensive traits and talents and defensive traits and talents, but the most impactful and the greatest trait you can have is availability and he has it and he’s shown it,” Karl-Anthony Towns said. “Shoutout to him. That’s a huge accomplishment.”
  • Jericho Sims has garnered some trade interest, according to Bondy. Sims, playing on an expiring $2.1MM contract, has seen his playing time cut in recent games. The center position is the Knicks’ most obvious need, even though Mitchell Robinson is expected to return at some point. But the team doesn’t have many assets left after making two blockbuster trades in the offseason, though Miles McBride and/or Josh Hart could conceivably be dealt for the right player, Bondy suggests.
  • Towns will return to Minnesota on Thursday for the first time since he was traded to the Knicks. He’s not sure how he’ll be received, according to Bondy. “I don’t know (how they will embrace me). But I know that every single day that I put on that Timberwolves jersey I gave the absolute best of me even when I wasn’t 100 percent,” Towns said. “I gave them all of me mentally, physically, spiritually. I was there nine years, so I go there with a lot of pride and joy for the memories that I have.”

Northwest Notes: Timberwolves, Jazz, Holmes, Murray, Nuggets

After reaching the Western Conference Finals last year, the Timberwolves got off to a rocky start to the 2024/25 season. But they’ve now won five of their last six games, with Chris Hine of the Star Tribune suggesting that increased communication off the court is one key reason for the turnaround.

Minnesota lost four straight games in November following a game in Toronto in which Julius Randle didn’t get the ball to Rudy Gobert late, upsetting the Timberwolves center. The team had a player-only meeting, and their group chat has been instrumental in starting to turn the season around.

That’s essentially our safe space,” guard Donte DiVincenzo said. “Everybody knows whatever you say in there stays in there. More so like 90% of the time you’re joking around, messing around, sending funny stuff back and forth, picking on each other. Then when [stuff] hits the fan, that’s where most guys feel comfortable being able to express what they’re thinking.

We have more from the Northwest Division:

  • Second-year forward Taylor Hendricks is feeling the Jazz‘s “show love” motto while recovering from his season-ending leg injury. The team came together around him and has kept him in the mix despite his injury absence, according to The Athletic’s Jason Quick. “The guys reaching out to him and keeping him involved is important, just from a human level,” coach Will Hardy said. “Like, screw the team … this is a human thing. He’s part of our messed up little family.
  • Nuggets first-round pick DaRon Holmes II will miss his entire rookie season due to an Achilles injury, but he doesn’t feel like he’s missing out on the rookie experience, Bennett Durando of The Denver Post writes. Holmes is taking an optimistic approach to his injury recovery. “At the end of the day, I knew I was going to get better, and I looked at the positives,” Holmes said. “It’s kind of an advantage for me. I get to watch. Learn all the plays. And grow with all these teammates, and learn from great coaches. I get to have a great opportunity to learn in the best organization out there.
  • Jamal Murray is dealing with plantar fasciitis, the Nuggets guard said on Friday, per Durando. Murray missed Denver’s last two games due to a hamstring injury, but revealed he that wasn’t the only injury affecting him. “I just kind of went out there and said, ‘I’m gonna give it what I’ve got,’” Murray said after scoring 20 on Friday. “Fresh legs. Had energy. Feel good now. Some plantar fasciitis. Everybody’s going through something. But I’m good, man. Excited to be back.” He’s averaging 17.9 points per game this season.
  • While the Nuggets have had some lows this season, including a loss to the 3-20 Wizards, they’re not fractured, in the eyes of DeAndre Jordan, Durando writes in another story. “Both good and bad,” the veteran said about the how the team is dealing with adversity. “It’s a game of runs. It’s a roller coaster out there. We’re handling it OK. We haven’t splintered. It hasn’t become a blame game. When you get to that point, I think the team is done. And we’re not there. … Just try to string together a few wins here. Because once you win, that’s all that matters.

And-Ones: Top Front Offices, Daniels, NBA Cup, Rookies

Sam Presti and the Thunder were voted as the NBA’s best front office by a panel of 40 executives (team presidents, general managers, VPs, and assistant GMs) across the league who were polled by Sam Amick, John Hollinger, and Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic.

As The Athletic’s trio explains, each respondent picked their top five NBA front offices and points were awarded in the same way they are in the MVP vote – 10 points for first place, seven points for second, five points for third, three points for fourth, and one point for fifth – in order to determine the rankings. The only rule was that execs couldn’t vote for their own team.

The Thunder were a runaway winner with 354 points, showing up on 39 of 40 total ballots and earning 29 first-place votes. The Celtics (250 points; nine first-place votes), Heat (114 points), Grizzlies (64 points; one first-place vote), and Timberwolves (54 points; one first-place vote) rounded out the top five.

A total of 21 front offices received at least one vote. The nine who didn’t were the Lakers, Suns, Kings, Trail Blazers, Pelicans, Bulls, Pistons, Hornets, and Hawks.

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

  • Dash Daniels, the younger brother of Dyson Daniels, has committed to joining the Melbourne United as part of the Australian National Basketball League’s Next Stars program, report Shams Charania and Jonathan Givony of ESPN. The younger Daniels, who is considered one of the top international prospects of the 2026 draft class, is considered a standout defender like his brother, having averaged a tournament-high 3.6 steals per game at this year’s FIBA U17 World Cup.
  • NBA executive VP of basketball strategy Evan Wasch referred to Las Vegas as a “fantastic home” for the NBA Cup semifinals and final, but indicated this week in a Zoom call that the league isn’t necessarily committed to Vegas as the in-season tournament’s long-term host. “We’re very open to all sorts of different formats for the future,” Wasch said, per Mark Medina of Sportskeeda. “That could mean taking the tournament on the road. It could mean taking it to different markets in the U.S. It could mean exploring international markets. It could mean, for example, having the semifinals in home markets like we have for the quarterfinals to build into the local fandom and exciting arena atmospheres. I would say everything is on the table for the future.”
  • While most of the top picks in the 2024 draft haven’t come flying out of the gate this fall, there are plenty of second-rounders and undrafted free agents from the ’24 class who are making positive early impressions. John Hollinger of The Athletic highlights several of them, including Jazz forward/center Kyle Filipowski, Suns big man Oso Ighodaro, and Grizzlies wing Jaylen Wells.
  • The Athletic’s NBA writers identified the biggest need for all 30 teams, with good health coming up for a handful of clubs, including the Sixers, Bucks, and Magic.

Charania’s Latest: Ingram, Jones, McCollum, Blazers, Kuzma, Durant

When the Pelicans and Brandon Ingram discussed an extension during the offseason, he and his representatives at Excel Sports Management were seeking $50MM per season, reports Shams Charania of ESPN (Insider link). Previous reporting indicated that Ingram was pursuing a maximum-salary extension, which would’ve been worth up to $208MM over four years, so an ask of $50MM per season would’ve been in the neighborhood of his max.

As Charania explains, based on their current commitments, the Pelicans project to be $31MM below the tax in 2025/26, so re-signing Ingram to a $45MM+ starting salary would’ve pushed that figure well beyond the tax line and into apron territory, which probably isn’t feasible for a team that has never been a taxpayer.

The Pelicans value Ingram highly and are expected to keep the door open for a potential extension now that the forward has changed agents and is represented by Klutch Sports, Charania writes, but a trade is considered the more likely outcome, given the team’s financial outlook.

When New Orleans’ front office discussed possible Ingram trades over the summer, the Timberwolves were among the teams to show interest, sources tell Charania. However, a deal would’ve needed to be centered around Karl-Anthony Towns, and it likely only would’ve been viable if the two teams had reached an agreement during the 2023/24 season, before Towns’ super-max extension went into effect.

According to Charania, with the injury-plagued Pelicans off to a dismal 5-20 start this season, rival teams have begun to express interest in players like Herbert Jones and CJ McCollum. Charania doesn’t say whether or not New Orleans will consider moving either player, but I’d imagine the front office would be very reluctant to make a trade involving Jones, who is the team’s most valuable defensive player.

Here’s more from Charania:

  • Multiple teams have begun to express interest in veteran Trail Blazers trade candidates Jerami Grant, Anfernee Simons, and Robert Williams, sources tell Charania. Grant and Simons have gotten off to slow starts this fall and Williams has a concerning injury history, but the three players are still among Portland’s most valuable – and most logical – trade chips.
  • Several contending teams are expected to pursue Wizards forward Kyle Kuzma this season, Charania reports. Kuzma has been limited to just 12 outings for health reasons and has seen his offensive output dip in the early going (15.8 PPG, .420/.276/.688 shooting) but has a strong track record as a scorer and is on a contract with a team-friendly declining structure.
  • There’s optimism that injured Suns star Kevin Durant could return from his ankle sprain on either Friday in Utah or Sunday vs. Portland, Charania writes. While Phoenix obviously won’t want to rush back its leading scorer, it has been night and day for the team this season when Durant is available (11-2 record) and when he isn’t (1-9).
  • In case you missed it, we passed along a few more items from Charania earlier today in separate full stories.

Raptors Waive D.J. Carton

The Raptors have waived guard D.J. Carton, the team announced today in a press release. Carton had been on a two-way contract with Toronto.

An undrafted free agent out of Marquette in 2021, Carton began his professional career by playing in the G League and didn’t get a shot with an NBA team during the regular season until this past February, when the Raptors signed him to a 10-day contract. Toronto brought him back on a two-year, two-way deal after that initial contract expired.

Across parts of two seasons with the Raptors, Carton has appeared in eight NBA games, logging just 69 total minutes. The 6’3″ guard has compiled 14 points, eight rebounds, six assists, and three steals with a .267/.143/.833 shooting line during his limited NBA minutes while continuing to play a significant role in the G League when healthy.

Carton averaged 16.3 PPG, 7.0 APG, and 4.7 RPG in three outings for the Raptors 905 this fall, but has battled foot and ankle issues since joining the club, notes Blake Murphy of Sportsnet.ca (Twitter links).

According to Murphy, the Timberwolves control Carton’s G League rights, so if he opts to return to the NBAGL after clearing waivers, the Iowa Wolves would get the first shot at him.

Toronto is now one of just two NBA teams with an open two-way slot — Orlando is the other, as our tracker shows.

Northwest Notes: Jokic, Nuggets, Edwards, Jazz, Thunder

Nikola Jokic‘s 56 points on Saturday weren’t enough to get the Nuggets a win in Washington, but his 48-point, 14-rebound, eight-assist performance in Atlanta just 24 hours later did the trick, writes Bennett Durando of The Denver Post. Denver bounced back from a disappointing loss to the lowly Wizards by blowing out the Hawks 141-111, which head coach Michael Malone called “the response that was needed.”

According to Malone, Jokic – who joked after Saturday’s game that “a paycheck that is a little bit less than usual” might help motivate Nuggets players – was “vocal” with the team on Sunday morning, Durando details in a separate story.

Jokic’s comments seemed to make an impact on his team. As good as the three-time MVP was vs. the Hawks, the Nuggets got production from players up and down their lineup, including second-year guard Jalen Pickett, who was a +18 in 17 minutes in perhaps his best game as a pro. Jokic suggested that sort of effort is what the team needs from everyone.

“When I was coming off the bench, when I was like playing small minutes, my goal was: ‘When I sit on the bench, I’m going to be so tired that I cannot breathe,'” Jokic said. “So just give 100% those three, four, five, six, seven, whatever minutes you have.”

Here’s more from around the Northwest:

  • Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards was fined $25K by the NBA on Monday for using profane language during his post-game media session on Friday (Twitter video link), the league announced (via Twitter). Edwards, perhaps aware that announcement was coming, declined to talk to reporters after Sunday’s loss, citing his history of being fined for cursing, tweets Chris Hine of The Star Tribune.
  • The Jazz‘s bench has been ineffective since John Collins moved into the starting lineup nearly a month ago, according to Andy Larsen of The Salt Lake Tribune, who states that the team has neither a source of consistent offense or defense in its second unit right now and suggests it might make sense to move Collins back to the bench until Jordan Clarkson is healthy. Utah’s bench has a -7.5 net rating since Collins’ first start on November 12, the worst mark in the NBA during that time.
  • The Thunder, whose 103.3 defensive rating and 12.1 steals per game comfortably rank first in the league, have been playing historically effective defense so far this season, proving Sam Presti right, as Rylan Stiles of SI.com observes. “I think defensively we have the opportunity to have a lot of compounding talent that can make it very hard for us to play against,” the Thunder’s head of basketball operations said before the season began.

Northwest Notes: Edwards, Timberwolves, Jokic, Malone

Anthony Edwards‘ improving ability to stay patient on the offensive end has started to pay off for the Timberwolves, writes Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic.

“I’m young, I still want to get my (shot) off,” Edwards said. “It’s frustrating sometimes, but I got to understand the bigger picture.”

The All-Star shooting guard is trying to be more egalitarian in his approach as he faces even more defensive attention with Karl-Anthony Towns gone. Minnesota is currently on a four-game win streak, improving the team’s overall record to 12-10.

“We gotta do a little bit better job of providing clean spacing around some of that time that he is getting doubled,” head coach Chris Finch said. “But I thought he did a great job of getting off of it, embracing it. Getting downhill, mixing it all up.”

There’s more out of the Northwest Division:

  • Still just 23, Edwards is beginning to establish a confident leadership style with the Timberwolves, notes Chris Hine The Minnesota Star Tribune. The All-NBA guard may be intense, but he’s also an enthusiastic supporter of his teammates. “As much as he gets on you, he’s 10 times more on your side when you’re doing the right things or something positive happens,” point guard Mike Conley said. “There’ll be games where I’ll make three threes in a row, and he’ll be like, ‘Mike, you might be the best shooter in the world. I’ve never seen anybody shoot like that. I’ve never seen that.’”
  • With Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon sitting, Nuggets MVP center Nikola Jokic took on more of a scoring burden than ever before, racking up a career-best 56 points – on a career-most 38 field goal tries – against Washington. But it still wasn’t enough to hold off the Wizards, who snapped a 16-game losing skid, writes Bennett Durando of The Denver Post.
  • Following the Wizards loss, Nuggets leaders Jokic and head coach Michael Malone spoke frankly about the team’s disappointing start to the season, writes David Aldridge of The Athletic. Denver is now 11-10, good for just the No. 9 seed in the West. “We have to realize that we all have to start participating in our own recovery,” Malone said. “That’s where I take blame for us to be 11-10, because obviously I’ve a done a poor job as a head coach in preparing this team, not only to win, but to go out there and execute.” For his part, Jokic pulled few punches in criticizing the club’s slippage this fall while refuting the notion that Malone is solely to be blamed. “Today, and the last couple of games, were really bad for us,” Jokic said. “We’re really going in the wrong direction. I think it’s everybody’s fault. It’s not just Coach’s fault. It’s not his fault that we cannot make shots. It’s not his fault that we don’t communicate.” Over the past two offseasons, Denver has seen three of the top seven players from its 2023 title team depart in free agency, without convincingly replacing any of them. The Nuggets may be paying the price for those exits.

Wolves Viewed As ‘Potential Player’ On Trade Market

The Timberwolves made arguably the biggest trade of the offseason at the start of training camp when they sent Karl-Anthony Towns to New York in a deal that saw Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo head to Minnesota. That might not have been their last major move of the 2024/25 league year.

According to Tim Bontemps and Brian Windhorst of ESPN (Insider link), Minnesota is being viewed by rival decision-makers as a “potential player” on the in-season trade market.

As ESPN’s duo explains, one reason why the Timberwolves are considered a team with a move to make is that Randle and DiVincenzo haven’t been perfect fits in Minnesota so far. Windhorst notes that scouts and executives have pointed to Randle’s “ball-stopping” habit as a factor that has slowed down the Wolves’ offense, while Bontemps cites a scout who says DiVincenzo is being asked to be more of a play-maker with his new team, something he didn’t really do in New York.

“When you watch them you can see the guys who can be free agents (Randle and Naz Reid) get frustrated at times,” one scout told ESPN. “If they were winning more it probably wouldn’t be an issue, but it’s one of the things that happens when a team underachieves.”

“Just because you’re trading for talent, it has to be the right fit. They have to learn and adjust,” another scout said. “Making a trade that late (in the offseason) is hard. So I’m empathetic.”

Bontemps and Windhorst don’t specify exactly what the Timberwolves might be looking for or what sort of assets they’d be willing to give up, but it’s worth noting that both Randle and Reid can be free agents if they decline 2025/26 player options and it’s unclear if the team would be willing to extend both, given that the Towns trade was at least partly financially motivated.

Minnesota also has a lot riding on veteran point guard Mike Conley, an important connecting piece on offense who has had an up-and-down age-37 so far, making just 35.4% of his field goal attempts. It would make sense for the team to try to find another reliable point guard who could organize the offense when Conley sits and provide much-needed insurance for a player who missed a few games in November due to injury. The Wolves have been significantly better with Conley on the court (+7.4 net rating) than off it (+0.2) and went 0-4 in the games he missed.

Still, making a trade won’t be easy, given that the Wolves are operating above the restrictive second tax apron and don’t have any of their own future first-round picks available to move (they do have one protected first-rounder from Detroit). There are still two months to go until the 2025 trade deadline and Minnesota has looked good this week, with back-to-back blowout wins over the Clippers and Lakers, neither of whom scored more than 80 points. If the Wolves can keep playing like that, a deadline move may not be necessary.

Northwest Notes: Reath, Hendricks, DiVincenzo, Wolves

The restrictions imposed by the NBA’s new Collective Bargaining Agreement and tax apron rules will likely inspire teams to get creative on the trade market this season, insider Jake Fischer writes for The Stein Line. Second-apron teams like Milwaukee and Phoenix are among those likely to scour the trade market for players whose contracts can be acquired using the minimum salary exception or by using an outgoing minimum-salary player for matching purposes.

Trail Blazers center Duop Reath is one such player who has come up in trade chatter across the league, Fischer writes. Reath is on a three-year contract, so he can’t be absorbed using the minimum salary exception, but because his cap hit is just $2.05MM, any team (regardless of its proximity to the aprons) could legally acquire him by sending out a veteran on a one-year, minimum-salary contract ($2.09MM).

He’s really interesting,” one Western Conference executive said to Fischer.

Reath is firmly behind all of Deandre Ayton, Robert Williams III and Donovan Clingan in Portland’s rotation. If none of those players are on the move, Reath could be gettable at or before the trade deadline after flashing in each of his first two seasons. Reath is also on the books for $2.2MM next season.

We have more from the Northwest Division:

  • Jazz second-year forward Taylor Hendricks suffered a freak injury in his third game of the season when he slipped on a wet spot on the court and fractured his fibula and dislocated his ankle. He appeared in 40 games as a rookie, starting 23, but was poised for a larger role in his sophomore year and had started each of his first three games. “To feel like I’m going back to that where — I have to get ready for the next season again, and I was just getting ready for this season — it was kind of heartbreaking,” Hendricks said, per The Salt Lake Tribune’s Andy Larsen. Hendricks will be out for the rest of the season and isn’t expected to be available for Summer League, according to Larsen, who says the goal is for the forward to be ready for the start of the 2025/26 season.
  • Donte DiVincenzo‘s mechanics haven’t been off to start the season — he merely seemed to be in a cold slump after shooting just 30.3% from deep in his first 13 games with the Timberwolves, The Athletic’s Jon Krawczynski writes. Since making five of his 10 three-point attempts against Phoenix on Nov. 17, DiVincenzo is connecting on 38.0% of his outside shots in the past eight games. The Wolves acquired DiVincenzo in the Towns trade but struggled in the early parts of the season following the move. Now, they’ve won three games in a row and the veteran wing has made seven of his 15 three-point attempts (46.7%) in that stretch.
  • The Timberwolves weren’t just slumping offensively in the early going, as Rudy Gobert and the overall defense was down too. The club has reemerged on that side of the ball amid its three-game win streak, Krawczynski observes in a separate story. Minnesota held the Lakers and Clippers to 80 points apiece in back-to-back games, with Gobert contributing five steals in the win over the Clippers. “This is what we’ve got to do,” head coach Chris Finch said. “We haven’t been doing that and we’re starting to figure it out and find a rhythm and understand how important defense is to us.

Knockout Round Matchups Set For NBA Cup; Games Scheduled For Non-Quarterfinalists

Following the conclusion of the group play games in the NBA Cup on Tuesday, the eight teams advancing to the knockout round have been set, and the quarterfinal games have been scheduled.

After the Warriors, Rockets, and Hawks previously clinched spots in the knockout round, the Thunder, Mavericks, Bucks, Knicks, and Magic joined them as a result of Tuesday’s outcomes. The quarterfinal matchups are as follows, per the NBA (Twitter links):

Eastern Conference:

  • Orlando Magic (No. 4) at Milwaukee Bucks (No. 1): Tuesday, December 10 (7 pm ET)
  • Atlanta Hawks (No. 3) at New York Knicks (No. 2): Wednesday, December 11 (7 pm ET)

Western Conference:

  • Dallas Mavericks (No. 4) at Oklahoma City Thunder (No. 1): Tuesday, December 10 (9:30 pm ET)
  • Golden State Warriors (No. 3) at Houston Rockets (No. 2): Wednesday, December 11 (9:30 pm ET)

While those four games will be played in the home team’s arena, the winners will advance to a neutral site for the final four. The semifinals (Dec. 14) and final (Dec. 17) will be held at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

[RELATED: Details On NBA Cup Prize Money For 2024]

The quarterfinal and semifinal results will count toward each team’s regular season record, whereas the final won’t. A team that loses in the quarterfinals will play the other quarterfinal loser in its conference in newly scheduled regular season games to make sure those clubs get the full 82.

Meanwhile, the 22 teams who did not advance to the quarterfinals of the NBA Cup have each had two regular season games added to their initial 80 to fill that mid-December gap on their schedules.

Here are the newly added games for those clubs, according to the league (Twitter link):

Thursday, December 12:

  • Detroit Pistons at Boston Celtics (7:30 pm ET)
  • Toronto Raptors at Miami Heat (7:30 pm ET)
  • Sacramento Kings at New Orleans Pelicans (8 pm ET)

Friday, December 13:

  • Washington Wizards at Cleveland Cavaliers (7 pm ET)
  • Indiana Pacers at Philadelphia 76ers (7 pm ET)
  • Los Angeles Lakers at Minnesota Timberwolves (8 pm ET)
  • Brooklyn Nets at Memphis Grizzlies (8 pm ET)
  • Charlotte Hornets at Chicago Bulls (8 pm ET)
  • Los Angeles Clippers at Denver Nuggets (9 pm ET)
  • Phoenix Suns at Utah Jazz (9:30 pm ET)
  • San Antonio Spurs at Portland Trail Blazers (10 pm ET)

Sunday, December 15:

  • New Orleans Pelicans at Indiana Pacers (5 pm ET)
  • Boston Celtics at Washington Wizards (6 pm ET)
  • Minnesota Timberwolves at San Antonio Spurs (7 pm ET)
  • Portland Trail Blazers at Phoenix Suns (8 pm ET)
  • Memphis Grizzlies at Los Angeles Lakers (9:30 pm ET)

Monday, December 16:

  • Philadelphia 76ers at Charlotte Hornets (7 pm ET)
  • Miami Heat at Detroit Pistons (7 pm ET)
  • Chicago Bulls at Toronto Raptors (7:30 pm ET)
  • Cleveland Cavaliers at Brooklyn Nets (7:30 pm ET)
  • Denver Nuggets at Sacramento Kings (10 pm ET)
  • Utah Jazz at Los Angeles Clippers (10:30 pm ET)