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Draymond Green Likely Facing Another Suspension Following Tuesday Ejection

December 13th, 2023 at 7:15am CST by Luke Adams

Warriors forward Draymond Green was ejected from a game for the third time this season on Tuesday, earning a flagrant 2 foul for striking Suns center Jusuf Nurkic in the head during the third quarter of Phoenix’s win (Twitter video link via TSN Sports).

The NBA is expected to review the incident before the Warriors’ game against the Clippers on Thursday and will likely suspend Green for a second time this fall, according to Anthony Slater and Marcus Thompson II of The Athletic. The former Defensive Player of the Year was previously suspended five games for putting Rudy Gobert in a headlock, with the league citing Green’s “history of unsportsmanlike acts” when announcing that penalty.

“I am not one to apologize for things I mean to do, but I do apologize to Jusuf because I didn’t intend to hit him,” Green said after the game, per Kendra Andrews of ESPN. “I sell calls with my arms … so I was selling the call … and I swung and unfortunately I hit him.

“… You guys have known me long enough, if I intended to do something, I am not apologizing. But I did make contact with him, so I do apologize. … It’s a hard hit.”

Although the blow sent Nurkic to the floor, the big man was able to finish the game. After the victory, he told reporters that the play had “nothing to do with basketball,” while Suns head coach Frank Vogel referred to it as “reckless (and) dangerous,” according to Andrews.

“I’m sensitive to our guys getting hit on plays like that,” Vogel said. “I didn’t like it. The refs did what they had to do. The league will do what they have to do.”

Another suspension for Green could result in more playing time for young players like Jonathan Kuminga, Moses Moody, and perhaps Trayce Jackson-Davis, as well as veterans Dario Saric and Kevon Looney.

Both Kuminga and Saric, as well as rookie Brandin Podziemski, were part of Golden State’s closing lineup on Tuesday, alongside Stephen Curry and Chris Paul, with Green unavailable and starters Klay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins, and Looney on the bench.

Thompson, whose scoring and shooting numbers this season are well below his career norms, told reporters after the game that it was “strange” to be benched down the stretch, but he didn’t question head coach Steve Kerr‘s decision.

“I played like crap,” Thompson said, per Andrews. “If you’ve ever played basketball before, you know what you are capable of. You always want to be out there competing. That’s just facts … but I deserved to be benched. I’ve been playing like crap. Twenty games in, I haven’t found a rhythm.”

Atlantic Notes: Bridges, Johnson, Grimes, Quickley, Winslow

December 12th, 2023 at 10:50pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Mikal Bridges and Cameron Johnson, two of the players the Nets acquired in the Kevin Durant blockbuster with the Suns last season, will play in Phoenix against their former team on Wednesday.

Bridges is looking forward to it.

“Yeah, excited. Just a lot of years there, a lot of friends there. A lot of fans through the whole journey. It’s going to be exciting,” Bridges told Brian Lewis of the New York Post. “Obviously I’m not excited right now to talk about it, but when it comes, I will. But just get ready, main focus is to go out there and get a win.”

Johnson echoed those comments.

“I’m excited. It’s appreciation you gain for a city and for the fans when you play there for a while,” he said. “And as crazy as it is, you don’t know. That last game I played there, I didn’t know it’d be my last game in a Suns uniform. So it’ll be fun.”

We have more from the Atlantic Division:

Knicks guard Quentin Grimes was moved to the second unit and he’s thriving off the bench. In the last two games, he has averaged 16 points on 10.5 shot attempts. “I’m just out there playing free, really,” he told Zach Braziller of the New York Post. “Everybody sees it, just from me going out there, playing with guys trying to get me open shots. It’s easy and fun playing out with the second unit for sure.”
Knicks guard Immanuel Quickley is listed as questionable with knee inflammation for Wednesday’s game vs. Utah, Stefan Bondy of the New York Post tweets. He didn’t play against Toronto on Monday.
Justise Winslow, who is trying to work his way back into the league, debuted for the Raptors’ G League affiliate, Raptors 905, on Tuesday, NBA G League tweets. He scored 13 points in 16 minutes. Winslow was waived by Toronto during training camp.

Jazz’s Jordan Clarkson To Miss At Least Two Weeks

December 12th, 2023 at 10:00pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Jazz guard Jordan Clarkson will be out at least two weeks due to a leg injury, Eric Walden of the Salt Lake Tribune tweets via a team release.

According to the team, Clarkston suffered a thigh injury in late November, which led to more issues.

The statement read, “During Utah’s game versus New Orleans on Nov. 27, Jordan Clarkson sustained a right thigh contusion after falling into the stands. Following last night’s game against Oklahoma City, he experienced continued hamstring discomfort. Upon further magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), Clarkson was diagnosed with a right bicep femoris strain. He will be reevaluated in two weeks.”

Clarkson is averaging a career-best 4.9 assists in 19 games played but his overall offensive numbers have dipped compared to last season, when he averaged a career-high 20.8 points per game while shooting 44.4%. He’s down to 16.6 PPG on 39.9% shooting so far this fall.

Clarkson renegotiated and extended his contract in July. He’s making $23.49MM this season, though his salary drops to $14.1MM next season and $14.3MM in 2025/26.

Collin Sexton, Talen Horton-Tucker and Kris Dunn could all get more playing time with Clarkson sidelined.

Utah’s frontcourt of Lauri Markkanen, Walker Kessler, John Collins are all listed as questionable for Wednesday’s game against the Knicks. That trio didn’t play against the Thunder.

Southwest Notes: Williamson, Spurs, Mavs’ Sale, Morant

December 12th, 2023 at 8:05pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Following his poor performance during the in-season tournament last week, Zion Williamson received plenty of criticism in the media. He responded with a dominant performance against Minnesota on Monday, pouring in 36 points in the Pelicans’ 121-107 win.

As for the criticism, this is what Williamson had to say, as relayed by the New Orleans’ Times-Picayune’s Rod Walker: “If it comes from a great place, and a place where they want to see me do better, thank you. If it comes from anywhere else, everybody’s entitled to their own opinion. Can’t control that.”

However, there’s no guarantee he will play against the Wizards on Wednesday. Williamson suffered a left ankle sprain in the late going on Monday and is listed as questionable, Will Guillory of The Athletic tweets.

We have more from the Southwest Division:

The Spurs’ lack of a lead ball-handler was apparent once again in their 17th consecutive loss on Monday. They shot 5-for-41 from the field in the 93-82 loss to Houston and their point total was the lowest for any NBA team this season. Kelly Iko of The Athletic notes that former starting point guard Tre Jones logged just 16 minutes. “He’s definitely the floor general,” Keldon Johnson said. “He gets them (the second unit) into sets.”
While Mark Cuban is in the process of selling a majority stake in the Mavericks franchise, there’s one holdout among the minority owners. Mary Stanton informed the franchise she won’t be selling her stake at this time, according to Brad Townsend of the Dallas Morning News, who previously reported that all of the minority shareholders would be bought out. Stanton is the widow of Horace Ardinger, an original shareholder who bought a 4.13% stake in the franchise in 1980. A Board of Governors vote on the sale will be held on Dec. 20.
With the 25-game suspension of Grizzlies star Ja Morant nearing its end, he found himself testifying during the first day of an immunity hearing at Shelby County Circuit Court on Monday, Baxter Holmes of ESPN reports. Morant claimed he acted in self-defense when he punched a teenager at his home in July 2022. The incident occurred during a pickup basketball game. Morant said the teen struck him with a basketball. “I hit him first — to protect myself,” Morant said.

Lakers Notes: James, Davis, Tourney Payout, Injury Report

December 12th, 2023 at 6:45pm CST by Dana Gauruder

LeBron James and Anthony Davis reaffirmed their top-10 status among the league’s players during the Lakers’ run to the in-season tournament championship, Jovan Buha of The Athletic writes.

The tournament also gave the team a blueprint for how to be most effective in the postseason — utilizing one skill guard (Austin Reaves or D’Angelo Russell) and multiple wings next to Davis and/or James.

However, James doesn’t want to think too far ahead.

“We want to put it in perspective that it’s still December. We like where we are right now but we want to continue to work our habits, continue to get healthy as well. But I think right now where we are in December, I would take it,” he said.

We have more on the Lakers:

James is energized by the growth the team showed during the tournament, Khobi Price of the Orange County Register notes. Los Angeles won all seven tournament games by an average margin of 19.3 points. “Every moment we grew,” James said. “Guys have felt a lot more comfortable in their roles. We’ve had a pretty good understanding of rotations. You know who you’re going to be playing with and you know what you guys want to do out on the floor.”
While $500K — the bonus given to the players on the 15-man roster for winning the tourney — might not be a big financial boost for the team’s stars, it was a boon for some of their young players and minimum salary vets, Marc J. Spears of Andscape notes. Rookie forward Maxwell Lewis, who has a $1.1MM salary, is grateful those stars recognized that. “Obviously, [James] doesn’t need it. Just him wanting to do it and helping us out because we’re the young guys is a blessing … What I learned about this environment is that when money is on the line, it is much more serious,” Lewis said.
James (calf) and Davis (adductor) were listed as questionable against Dallas tonight but they’ll play, Price tweets. However, Jarred Vanderbilt (back spasm) will sit out. Rui Hachimura is also available despite a nasal fracture, Grant Afseth of DallasBasketball.com tweets.

Spurs’ Charles Bassey Suffers Season-Ending ACL Injury

December 12th, 2023 at 4:46pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Spurs big man Charles Bassey has a torn left ACL and will miss the remainder of the season, ESPN’s Andrew Lopez tweets.

Bassey suffered the injury on Sunday while playing for San Antonio’s G League affiliate, the Austin Spurs. Bassey was averaging 3.3 points and 4.0 rebounds in 10.8 minutes per game with the NBA club in 19 appearances this season.

Bassey had been sent to the G League to get more playing time. His last NBA outing was Dec. 1, a 19-minute stint against New Orleans.

This isn’t the first major injury he’s suffered since joining the Spurs. His 2022/23 season was cut short in mid-March due to a non-displaced patella fracture.

Bassey, who played with Philadelphia in his rookie season, signed a four-year, $10.2MM contract with San Antonio in February. However, the final two years of the contract are not guaranteed. He’s making $2.6MM this season in the second year of the deal.

Bassey’s latest injury could open up more playing time for fellow reserve center Sandro Mamukelashvili.

Celtics Waive Two-Way Player Nathan Knight

December 12th, 2023 at 4:30pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Two-way player Nathan Knight has been waived by the Celtics, Jared Weiss of The Athletic tweets.

The 6’8” forward hasn’t appeared in any games this season. He came off the bench in 38 games last season for Minnesota.

Overall, he has appeared in 108 regular season games with the Hawks and Timberwolves, averaging 3.7 points and 2.0 rebounds in 7.8 minutes per game. The Wolves declined their team option on Knight during the offseason and didn’t issue a qualifying offer, making him an unrestricted free agent.

He signed with the Knicks but was waived during training camp. Knight was signed to one of Boston’s three two-way spots on Oct. 22.

Knight has seen action in 12 games with Boston’s G League affiliate in Maine, averaging 8.9 points and 8.3 rebounds in 22.9 minutes per game.

Boston now has one two-way spot open. Guard JD Davison and center Neemias Queta occupy the other two-way spots.

Atlantic Notes: Raptors, Sims, Hartenstein, Walsh

December 12th, 2023 at 4:05pm CST by Luke Adams

Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic isn’t oblivious to the calls to modify his starting lineup, but he’s not prepared to make any changes yet. In a media session on Tuesday, Rajakovic said he wants to give his current starting five – Dennis Schröder, Scottie Barnes, OG Anunoby, Pascal Siakam, and Jakob Poeltl – “another game or two” to figure things out, tweets Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca.

The five-man group has a minus-4.7 net rating in 270 minutes so far this season. As Lewenberg observes, the starters have been outscored in six of the Raptors’ last seven games and the club lost all six of those games. If there are no positive steps forward within the next couple games, it sounds like Rajakovic is open to shaking things up.

“It’s not something that’s completely off the table,” he said today.

Here’s more from around the Atlantic:

Eric Koreen and John Hollinger of The Athletic teamed up to examine what it would look like if the Raptors become trade deadline sellers, weighing the trade value of players like Siakam and Anunoby. Hollinger also digs into what a trade sending Siakam to the Hawks might look like, suggesting a package of a couple first-round picks (Sacramento’s lottery-protected 2024 pick and Atlanta’s own “lightly protected” 2029 selection), De’Andre Hunter, and Bogdan Bogdanovic in exchange for Siakam and Christian Koloko.
While Jericho Sims got the starting nod in the Knicks‘ first game without center Mitchell Robinson, Isaiah Hartenstein played more minutes than Sims did and was part of the closing lineup, notes Fred Katz of The Athletic. Katz takes a closer look at what Robinson’s extended absence will mean for New York, exploring whether additional lineup and rotation tweaks may be necessary if Sims continues to start.
Celtics forward Jordan Walsh has yet to make his regular season NBA debut, having spent much of his rookie season so far in the G League. According to Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston, head coach Joe Mazzulla – who has said he wants to see Walsh focus on defense and impacting the game without scoring during his time in Maine – is keeping tabs on the rookie’s progress. “We get an email after every game,” Mazzulla said. “Craig [Luschenat], our guy who works with our player development, and [Maine head coach] Blaine [Mueller] are in constant communication and then we have constant development checklist of what’s important to us, where we want him to be at the end of the season, where we want him to be in a year from now.”

Matt Ryan Undergoes Procedure On Elbow, Out 6-8 Weeks

December 12th, 2023 at 3:32pm CST by Luke Adams

Pelicans sharpshooter Matt Ryan will remain sidelined until well into the new year, as the team announced today in a press release that he underwent an arthroscopy on Tuesday morning to remove loose bodies from his right elbow.

According to the Pelicans, Ryan’s timeline for a return to action is about six-to-eight weeks.

Ryan, who is on a two-way contract with New Orleans, got off to a hot start this season after being claimed off waivers from Minnesota at the end of the preseason. He averaged 9.3 points on .458/.471/.929 shooting in his first 13 games as a Pelican, logging 22.9 minutes per night.

However, Ryan sustained a calf strain on November 18, which sidelined him for the next couple weeks. Just when it appeared he might be nearing a return from that injury, he was affected by another ailment — on December 2, he started being listed on the injury report as out due to elbow soreness. That diagnosis was eventually updated to an elbow strain and now he has had to undergo a procedure to address the issue.

As a two-way player, Ryan wasn’t exactly an irreplaceable piece in the Pelicans’ rotation, but he was one of the team’s few reliable outside shooters and provided floor spacing, especially prior to Trey Murphy‘s season debut. As Christian Clark of NOLA.com observes (via Twitter), despite not having played for three-and-a-half weeks, Ryan still ranks second on the club in total three-pointers made this season, behind only rookie Jordan Hawkins.

Heat Notes: Adebayo, Lowry, Robinson, Hampton, Jovic

December 12th, 2023 at 2:46pm CST by Luke Adams

There’s still no timetable for the return of big man Bam Adebayo, who missed a fourth straight game on Monday due to a left hip contusion, per Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra (Twitter link via Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald). Adebayo traveled with the team to Charlotte for Monday’s game, but Spoelstra said that didn’t necessarily mean he was close to playing.

“I wouldn’t read too much into it of him being on this trip other than he really wanted to be here and he can do his work,” Spoelstra said.

As good as Adebayo has been this season, the Heat have held their own without him in the lineup. The team has a net rating of minus-1.7 in the 537 minutes Adebayo has played in 2023/24, compared to a plus-4.7 mark in the 567 minutes he hasn’t been on the court.

Here’s more on the Heat:

Using Kyle Lowry‘s expiring $29.7MM contract as part of an in-season trade to acquire a player – or players – under contract beyond this season is certainly a possibility, but the Heat will have to be careful about the salary they add to next year’s books, according to Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald, who says the team doesn’t seem inclined to surpass the second tax apron in 2024/25. Jackson takes a look at some of the other factors Miami must consider as it weighs trade scenarios and looks ahead to the future.
After a down year in 2022/23, Duncan Robinson has been a key part of the Heat’s rotation in 2023/24, averaging a career-high 14.8 points per game and increasing his shooting line to .478/.426/.833 through 21 games (13 starts). Robinson spoke to Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald about his motivation to bounce back this fall and to silence questions about his work ethic.
Heat two-way player R.J. Hampton says his recovery from a knee sprain was a “long process” but that he feels as if he’s 100% healthy now, Chiang writes for The Miami Herald. Although Hampton didn’t end up playing at all on Monday vs. Charlotte, Spoelstra said he was ready to go if needed.
Second-year forward Nikola Jovic is on his second G League assignment of the season, as Chiang notes in the same Herald story. Jovic suited up for the Sioux Falls Skyforce this afternoon and the plan is for him to remain with Miami’s NBAGL affiliate through Friday’s game vs. Windy City before rejoining the Heat.