- Magic rookie Tristan da Silva has appeared in 23 games and made 16 starts, but he realized at today’s practice that he hasn’t played at the same time as Paolo Banchero, according to Jason Beede of The Orlando Sentinel. The first-round pick wasn’t used much early in the season, and his first real opportunity didn’t come until Banchero was sidelined with a torn oblique. Da Silva said Banchero has been extremely helpful in his adjustment to the NBA. “He’s been very vocal,” Da Silva said. “He brings a lot of energy off the bench, which is really good for us, especially on the road. Every time somebody subs out, he’s right there telling people what he sees and giving his input on the game, which is amazing. Advice like that from a guy like that from the sideline is always good.”
Just one year after experiencing the worst season in franchise history (15-67), the Wizards are on pace for just 11 wins this year. At 3-20, they rank 30th in offensive rating and 29th in defensive rating, while their average point differential (-15.9) would be the worst in league history. While the Wizards were expected to lose more than they won this year as they continue to develop their core, it wasn’t supposed to look like this, David Aldridge and Josh Robbins of The Athletic write.
A little more than a year into their multi-stage rebuild, some Wizards officials believe their future franchise cornerstones are still playing in college or high school, according to Aldridge and Robbins. Officials didn’t think the team would start off worse than last season after adding veteran talent like Jonas Valanciunas, Malcolm Brogdon and Saddiq Bey over the summer, but both Brogdon and Kyle Kuzma have missed extensive time due to injuries, while Bey is expected to miss most or all of the season while he recovers from a torn ACL.
“I try to come into seasons with not too much of an expectation, because you just never know how things can go,” Kuzma said. “I probably thought we could struggle, but never to the extent that we are in the present.”
The injuries – along with the departures of some of last season’s rotation fixtures – thrust rookies Alex Sarr, Carlton Carrington and Kyshawn George into the spotlight early and often. While those three have been bright spots, Aldridge and Robbins note that they’ve each still struggled at times.
“We are immersed in a very difficult stretch right now,” general manager Will Dawkins said. “But we remain committed to the long-term sustainability of the organization. Our staff and players have continued to work, and are growing. We will continue to stack the positive developmental gains and, at the end of the season, put proper perspective on the totality of the year. Don’t worry about the whole thing right now; at the end of the year, let’s look up and see what we accomplished. They’re getting better, and they’re still working, and that’s the main thing. What we signed up for is hard, and we know it.”
Head coach Brian Keefe endured a similar situation with the Thunder in 2008/09 as a player development coach. That team opened the season 3-29 before winning 20 of its final 50 games. According to Aldridge and Robbins, Keefe has done a good job teaching the young talent, but the club has to do more to not surrender big runs in games.
“It’s being addressed, I can tell you that,” a team source said. “It’ll look different.”
We have more from the Southeast Division:
- Getting used to the NBA’s grueling schedule is the biggest adjustment Sarr has had to make in the first part of his young career, Chase Hughes of Monumental Sports Network writes in a piece reflecting on the progress the Wizards‘ rookies have made so far. Sarr, the No. 2 overall pick in this year’s draft, is averaging 10.7 points, 6.3 rebounds and 1.8 blocks in his age-19 season.
- Last year’s No. 11 overall pick Jett Howard is continuing to earn more minutes for the Magic while holding his own on the defensive end, Jason Beede of the Orlando Sentinel writes. Howard is averaging 4.2 points per game in 25 contests this season after making just 18 appearances last year.
- After falling out of the rotation in November, the Heat‘s Nikola Jovic worked behind the scenes to regain the trust of the coaching staff, Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald writes. He had an impressive night on Thursday, contributing 14 points and four rebounds to help Miami beat Toronto. “If you’re not playing, how do you win the day? At least you have a staff that’s looking and valuing pre-practice, film sessions, practice, shootarounds, walkthroughs and that’s how you can earn trust,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. “But then you also stay ready, so that when you get your opportunity that you can make the most of it and then you can impact winning.“
- After trading Thomas Bryant to the Pacers, the Heat will have two open standard roster spots. They’ll have two weeks after that trade is officially finalized to fill at least one of those openings, and as we outlined on Friday, Dru Smith being converted to a standard deal is one avenue the team may explore. If that occurs, Isaiah Stevens could be a natural replacement for Smith’s two-way spot, suggests Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel. Stevens impressed in summer league and the preseason and is averaging 13.8 PPG and a G League-leading 10.8 APG for the Sioux Falls Skyforce.
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.
The Knicks and Raptors were required to update the court on the status of the arbitration process of their legal dispute on Friday, but agreed in a joint filing that there’s nothing to report, as Stefan Bondy of The New York Post relays.
The Knicks filed a lawsuit in August 2023 alleging that former video coordinator Ikechukwu Azotam illegally took thousands of proprietary files with him to his new position with the Raptors and shared them with his new club. The Raptors, referring to the suit as “baseless,” argued that the issue ought to be resolved through the NBA’s arbitration process rather than in court, while the Knicks contended that commissioner Adam Silver wouldn’t be impartial.
A U.S. District Court judge ultimately sided with the Raptors and sent the matter back to the NBA, but with no movement yet toward arbitration, the Knicks didn’t miss the opportunity to fire another shot at Silver.
“We’ve been waiting for any direction from the NBA on next steps in this matter for months — proving our point that the NBA is not capable of appropriately and fairly handling this serious theft of proprietary and confidential files,” an MSG Sports spokesperson said in a statement, per Bondy. “Unfortunately, because of the clear conflict of interest between the Commissioner and the Chairman of the NBA, there has been complete silence from the league.”
We have more from around the Eastern Conference:
- Two injured Hornets players have been cleared to return to action on Friday in Chicago, with Miles Bridges (right knee bone bruise) and Tidjane Salaun (left ankle sprain) deemed available, per the team (Twitter link). Bridges, who last played on November 19, has missed Charlotte’s past 10 games, while Salaun has been sidelined since last Thursday.
- Magic forward Paolo Banchero stated in mid-November that he hoped to be back to the court by Christmas, but his return from a torn oblique doesn’t appear close, as Jason Beede of The Orlando Sentinel relays. “He’s doing the same ball-handling, a little light movement on the floor, and then just trying to find ways to get the cardio up without applying too much pressure,” head coach Jamahl Mosley said on Friday. “But again, he’s just slowly moving his way to touching the court.”
- Pistons rookie Ron Holland entered Thursday’s game in Boston having averaged 5.6 points per game on .425/.180/.786 shooting through his first 25 NBA games. But with Detroit facing a 25-point deficit on Thursday, Holland got a chance to play the entire fourth quarter and showed glimpses of what he could become, finishing the game with 26 points on 11-of-14 shooting. While most of those points came in garbage time, the Pistons were encouraged by what they saw from the No. 5 overall pick. “It’s still against NBA players,” head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said, per Hunter Patterson of The Athletic. “Against a team who has a great system on both sides of the ball, and they understand what they’re doing. And it proved that he can be successful versus that. Hopefully, that leads to the confidence that kind of unlocks him a little bit and now he goes and he continues to build off of this.”
- Sixers forward Paul George can identify first-hand with what teammate Joel Embiid is going through. After Embiid admitted that his knee issues have been “extremely depressing,” George – who has an extensive injury history of his own – said that dealing with health problems is the “toughest part of the game,” writes Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer writes. “We build ourselves up so much. The media builds us up. The community builds us up,” George said. “Then you face an injury that you know you’re not yourself. You’re not the same, but you are expected to be yourself when you get on that floor. So, mentally, it is tough.”
Following Atlanta’s and Houston’s wins in Wednesday’s NBA Cup quarterfinal matchups, the semifinals for the NBA’s second annual in-season tournament have been set, with the Hawks, Bucks, Rockets, and Thunder advancing to the final four.
Both games will be played on Saturday, December 14, and the matchups and tip-off times are as follows, per the league (Twitter link):
- Atlanta Hawks vs. Milwaukee Bucks (3:30 pm Central time)
- Houston Rockets vs. Oklahoma City Thunder (7:30 pm CT)
Both games will be played at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, with the winners squaring off in the NBA Cup final on Tuesday.
Players on the team that win the NBA Cup will be awarded $514,970 apiece in prize money, while bonuses for the runner-up team will be worth $205,988 apiece and the semifinal losers will receive $102,994 each. In each instance, the bonuses for players on two-way contracts will be worth half that amount.
Players on the Knicks, Magic, Warriors, and Mavericks will receive bonuses of $51,497 apiece ($25,749 for two-way players) after being eliminated in the quarterfinals.
Those four teams have also had an extra game added to their regular season schedules to ensure they get the necessary 82. Those games will be played on Sunday, Dec. 15 and are as follows:
- New York Knicks at Orlando Magic (5:00 pm CT)
- Dallas Mavericks at Golden State Warriors (7:30 pm CT)
Since both Dallas and Golden State played on the road in the NBA Cup knockout round, the Mavericks will be the unlucky team that ends up with 42 road games and 40 home games on its schedule this season, since they were the lower-seeded quarterfinalist. The Magic played on the road in the quarterfinals, while the Knicks lost at home, so the home/road schedules for the Eastern clubs will be evenly balanced.
The Magic were eliminated from the NBA Cup on Tuesday with a 114-109 loss to the Bucks in Milwaukee. But head coach Jamahl Mosley was extremely pleased with the way his team competed despite being without its two leading scorers, Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner, as Jason Beede of The Orlando Sentinel writes.
“We want them to understand what they just did, just from an effort category, from going toe-to-toe with two Hall of Famers (Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard) and a very experienced basketball team,” Mosley said after the loss. “In these moments, this is where the possessions matter. The mental focus matters in these games.
“But I can’t be more proud of their effort, their energy, their sticking together throughout the runs within the game that shows continued growth for this team and understanding how good we can continue to be.”
As a result of Tuesday’s loss, the Magic will have one game added to their regular season schedule. The exact matchup will depend on the outcome of the other Eastern Conference NBA Cup matchup.
According to Beede, if the Knicks beat the Hawks on Wednesday, the Magic will visit Atlanta on Sunday, whereas if the Hawks win tonight, the Magic will host New York on Sunday.
Here’s more on the Magic:
- Admitting that he wasn’t even aware of what a torn oblique was before he and Banchero both sustained the same injury, Wagner said that he’s trying to take a positive approach to his recovery, according to Beede. “It can always be a lot worse,” Wagner said. “No doubt I’ll get healthy, Paolo will get healthy, and we’ll be good as a group. These things sometimes can remind you how much you take for granted.” The fourth-year forward also pointed out that his and Banchero’s absences will provide lesser-used Magic players with a prime opportunity to step up, which could pay off in the long run: “The way the roster is, we have so many talented guys that sometimes don’t get enough time. This will be good for them.”
- One of those players who could take on a larger role with Banchero and Wagner out is third-year forward Caleb Houstan, who hadn’t logged double-digit minutes in a game until he played 18:08 on Sunday in Phoenix. After scoring eight points on 3-of-4 shooting and grabbing a pair of rebounds, Houstan credited Orlando’s coaching staff and his teammates for helping him stay ready to contribute. “Everyone’s really supportive,” he said, per Beede. “Everyone pushes each other. Cory (Joseph)‘s been a big help with that, just helping us stay ready, telling us to stay ready, pushing us to get in the gym and do the little things to be mentally still locked in.”
- In an entertaining story for The Athletic, Fred Katz details how Wendell Carter Jr., Cole Anthony, and other young Magic players have been threatened with small fines any time they commit “silly” fouls in games. Those fines aren’t actually real, Katz explains, but many players believed they were, and the possibility of losing money from their bank accounts helped incentivize them to develop good habits on defense. “Our defensive culture, we lean on that,” Kentavious Caldwell-Pope said. “That’s our go-to. Each game, we emphasize defense.”
Magic forward Franz Wagner has been diagnosed with a torn right oblique and will be sidelined indefinitely, according to Shams Charania of ESPN, who reports that Wagner will be reevaluated in four weeks.
The Magic have confirmed the news (Twitter link). The injury occurred during Friday’s game in Philadelphia.
It’s a brutal blow for an Orlando team that has already been without one star, Paolo Banchero, for more than a month. Not only will Wagner join his fellow forward on the injured list, but he has sustained essentially the same injury — Banchero has been out since October 30 due to a torn right oblique of his own.
Wagner served as the second option on offense behind Banchero for the past couple seasons, but the Magic gave him a five-year, maximum-salary extension in July, signaling their confidence in his ability to continue developing into an All-Star caliber player. His star turn was taking place this fall as he took the reins of Orlando’s offense with Banchero sidelined.
In 20 games without Banchero available so far this season, Wagner has averaged 26.1 points, 6.3 assists, 6.0 rebounds, and 1.8 steals in 35.0 minutes per contest.
Banchero said in mid-November that he hoped to return to the court by Christmas, though he admitted that was his own goal and wouldn’t necessarily be approved by the Magic’s medical team. Even if Banchero meets that timeline, Orlando will likely have to get by for at least a couple more weeks without either of its top two scorers.
Jalen Suggs and Moritz Wagner have been the Magic’s next-best scorers behind Wagner in recent weeks and will be asked to take on additional scoring responsibilities. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Anthony Black, Wendell Carter Jr., Cole Anthony, and Goga Bitadze are among the others who figure to be leaned upon more on that side of the floor. However, it seems safe to assume the Magic, who already rank just 24th in the NBA with a 110.3 offensive rating, could have some trouble scoring in the immediate future.
After starting the season with a 3-6 record, Orlando has won 13 of its last 16 games and sits at 16-9, good for third in the Eastern Conference. That strong start should help the club stay afloat until they get Banchero and Wagner back.
Magic wing Gary Harris, a regular part of the team’s rotation when healthy, missed a sixth consecutive game on Friday vs. Philadelphia due to a left hamstring strain. According to Jason Beede of The Orlando Sentinel (Twitter link), head coach Jamahl Mosley said that Harris is making progress and is “responding to treatment pretty well,” but it’s unclear when he’ll be ready to return.
The Magic were down another key reserve on Friday, with Jonathan Isaac ruled out due to a sore right hamstring after being added to the injury report just a few hours before tip-off. Mosley said following the Magic’s loss that Isaac will be evaluated further on Saturday, but suggested the issue isn’t a serious one, adding, “I think he’s fine” (Twitter link via Beede).
Let’s round up a few more notes from around the Southeast…
- Philip Rossman-Reich of Orlando Magic Daily makes the case that reserve Magic center Moritz Wagner should be considered a serious candidate in the Sixth Man of the Year race. Wagner is averaging 12.8 points and 5.3 rebounds per game in 25 outings and Rossman-Reich contends that the big man’s Orlando teammates feed off his energy and physical play.
- Decimated by injuries this fall, the Hornets have lost seven games in a row to fall to 6-16, but the play of second-year forward Brandon Miller has been a bright spot, writes Roderick Boone of The Charlotte Observer. After finishing third in Rookie of the Year voting last season, Miller has increased his points (21.7), rebounds (5.2), assists (3.5), and steals (1.3) per game so far in 2024/25. “He’s a guy that I’m just really happy for,” head coach Charles Lee said. “He’s had to shoulder a bigger responsibility with a lot of the injuries going on right now. You can see that teams are throwing multiple high-level defenders at him. They are bringing an extra level of physicality, they are showing different coverages. They’re switching him sometimes, they’re blitzing him sometimes. And I also think outside of his play is his overall leadership and demeanor is just improving game by game, and he’s just maturing in such a great way.”
- After opening this season as the Heat‘s starting power forward, Nikola Jovic hasn’t played in any of the team’s past six games despite being available for four of them. Jovic admitted that it’s “frustrating” to see his playing time dry up, but said he’s determined to regain the trust of the Heat’s coaching staff, per Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald. “I know I’m good enough. I know I’m a good player,” Jovic said. “I don’t think it’s that. It’s the style of basketball play, the things that coach (Erik Spoelstra) wants from certain lineups, it’s just something that, I guess, I’m not fitting right now. That’s why I got to work on those things and get back. I’m really not questioning how good I am now.”
The Heat are giving No. 15 overall pick Kel’el Ware an opportunity for playing time by having sent him to the G League’s Sioux Falls Skyforce. The big man made his G League debut on Thursday, securing 17 points, 12 rebounds, two blocks and two steals in a win. Instead of having him bounce back and forth between the developmental team and Miami, the Heat are hoping to have Ware play in three-game stints for Sioux Falls, according to The Athletic’s James Jackson.
According to Jackson, the Heat are impressed by Ware’s progress and his mental fortitude as he develops and learns the system. The Heat are seeing success with two-big lineups featuring Bam Adebayo and Kevin Love, so there’s no rush to force the rookie into unfamiliar situations. He has gotten some minutes against the likes of Nikola Jokic, but his spot in the rotation has been inconsistent.
“It’s all valuable, even when he’s with us,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “But the next logical thing is trying to get him some time — get him some game minutes and see how he can impact winning. But I’m encouraged by the work he’s been putting in.”
The Heat remain confident Ware will become a rotation regular at some point, even if doesn’t happen this season, Jackson writes.
We have more from the Southeast Division:
- After missing Monday’s game to the Celtics due to knee soreness, Jimmy Butler returned for the Heat on Wednesday to help lead them to victory. According to the Miami Herald’s Anthony Chiang, Butler looked sharp in the victory, filling up the stat sheet in a blowout win over the Lakers. “He passed all the protocols, he wants to be out there, we want to get him out there and the trainers felt that he made enough progress the last two days,” Spoelstra said of getting Butler back on Wednesday. “While we were still in Boston, he was around the clock in the training room doing as much treatment as he possibly could.“
- At 10-10, the Heat have had a middling season so far. They were blown out on Monday by Boston but dominated Los Angeles on Wednesday. They set franchise records in assists (42) and tied for most threes in a game (24) in the win over the Lakers. Even through consistency questions, the Heat’s identity is coming to light, Chiang writes in a separate piece. Leaning on their defensive strengths and playing through Butler are two major tenets for Miami, as in most recent seasons.
- The Wizards are 2-18 this season, leaving head coach Brian Keefe searching for answers to help make the team more competitive. The team moved Marvin Bagley into the starting lineup on Thursday (Twitter link). Bagley finished with a team-high 16 points in a blowout loss, while Jonas Valanciunas played a season-low 13 minutes off the bench.
- Wizards guard Malcolm Brogdon, who has started all but one of his nine appearances this season, exited Thursday’s game with hamstring tightness and didn’t return (Twitter link). Brogdon is averaging 13.5 points, 4.3 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game while shooting 51.3% from the field this season. The Wizards next play a back-to-back at home against the Nuggets on Saturday and Grizzlies on Sunday. Their 16th straight loss on Thursday matched a franchise record.
- Tristan Da Silva continues to play a pivotal role on the 16-8 Magic, filling in as a part-time starter while Paolo Banchero is out. Jason Beede of the Orlando Sentinel writes in a subscriber-only story that Da Silva’s play is drawing praise from up and down the organization. This year’s 18th overall pick is averaging 7.5 points and 3.7 assists per game while starting in 14 of his 20 appearances.
In mid-September, perhaps the most surprising news of the NBA offseason occurred: Adrian Wojnarowski announced that he was retiring from ESPN and the news industry as a whole. It was later reported that he would become the general manager of the basketball program at St. Bonaventure, with the school confirming the news.
Speaking to his friend and former Yahoo Sports colleague Chris Mannix, who now works for Sports Illustrated, Wojnarowski explained his decision to leave his position at ESPN to work for his alma mater. He took a major pay cut, going from $7.3MM to $75K annually, but he was “burned out” by the always-on nature of his previous job. He was already advising the school on its search for the new position, as well as doing most of the work the job entailed.
“What I was doing, it just wasn’t fulfilling anymore,” Woj said. “I was just done. This is what gets me excited. To learn something new, to be part of something like this. It’s a whole new challenge.”
Wojnarowski, 55, also revealed that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in March, which he alluded to in his retirement statement (“time isn’t in endless supply”), but the prognosis is good — he told Mannix he isn’t experiencing any symptoms, having been diagnosed early, and the cancer is “pretty limited in scope.”
Wojnarowski sent out a tweet addressing the diagnosis. “Appreciate all the kind words and concern but I’m going to be fine. My goal in sharing a prostate cancer diagnosis is to encourage screening and testing among men. Early diagnosis will make all the difference for me —- and many others too.”
There are more interesting details on Woj’s decision in Mannix’s story, which is worth reading in full.
Here are some more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Josh Robbins, Eric Nehm and Kelly Iko of The Athletic weigh in on the awards races thus far for the 2024/25 season. Interestingly, there’s no consensus choice among the three for any of the major awards. For Most Improved Player, Robbins selected Magic forward Franz Wagner, Nehm picked Hawks guard Dyson Daniels, and Iko chose Nuggets wing Christian Braun.
- Former NBA forward Luka Samanic, a 2019 first-round pick, has signed with Croatian club KK Cibona, according to the team (Twitter link). The 24-year-old forward, who spent last season with Utah, was born in Zagreb, where the team is based. Fenerbahce reportedly holds Samanic’s EuroLeague rights for the rest of the season, but the Turkish club doesn’t compete in any of the same leagues as his new Croatian team.
- Longtime NBA point guard and veteran assistant Nick Van Exel has decided to exit coaching, having co-founded a new agency called 100x Sports, per Marc Stein (Twitter link). Van Exel worked in various player development, scouting and coaching roles for Milwaukee, Memphis, Dallas, and most recently Atlanta over the past decade-plus.