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Atlantic Notes: Harden, Embiid, Randle, Bridges

October 29th, 2023 at 7:09pm CST by Dana Gauruder

It’s still uncertain when he’ll play, but James Harden went through a walkthrough and video session with the Sixers prior to their game against Portland on Sunday, Tim Bontemps of ESPN reports. Harden is also expected to take part in their practice on Tuesday. He’s ramping up toward game action.

“All signs are positive conditioning-wise and all those things,” head coach Nick Nurse said. “We just need to get him in some live action then hopefully we can do that Tuesday.”

After an off-day on Monday, Philadelphia is scheduled to practice Tuesday and Wednesday. It’s possible, if all goes well, that Harden could make his season debut against Toronto on Thursday.

We have more from the Atlantic Division:

  • Joel Embiid insists the Sixers aren’t focused on Harden’s situation, according to Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer. “I think everybody in this locker room has been focused on — we’re playing,” Embiid said. “We’ve got games every single day. That’s up to the guys upstairs and management to figure out what’s going to happen. We’ve got a pretty good team.”
  • Julius Randle is averaging just 13.7 points on 27.7% shooting during the first three Knicks games. He also committed eight of the Knicks’ 19 turnovers against the Pelicans on Saturday. Jalen Brunson says the team has to give him more help, Peter Botte of the New York Post writes. “He’s being aggressive. He’s attacking,” Brunson said. “As a group we need to be better. But we’ve got to help each other be better. It can’t just be like ‘I have to be better’ or ‘He has to be better.’ How can we collectively help each other? Julius is gonna command attention, so we need to help him out a little bit.”
  • Mikal Bridges hasn’t played poorly but he’s still trying to settle into the role of No. 1 option, according to Brian Lewis of the New York Post. Bridges averaged 19 points on 41.4% shooting, 5.0 rebounds and 3.5 assists in the first two Nets games of the season. “Just missing shots, I’m missing layups, missing some of my teammates open. I’ve just got to be better,” he said.
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Pacific Notes: Green, Paul, Huerter, Lyles, Okogie

October 29th, 2023 at 5:31pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Warriors forward Draymond Green, who’s set to make his season debut on Sunday, believes that he and Chris Paul will form a dynamic distributing duo, he told Anthony Slater of The Athletic.

“How I see the challenge is for the other team,” Green said. “They’ll have players on the floor that have to think the game of basketball with us. Good luck. That’s how I see the challenge. You put Bill Gates and Paul Allen in a room and you get Microsoft. That’s how I see it.”

Paul will come off the bench for the first time in his career with Green back in the lineup, Slater tweets. The veteran point guard has started in his previous 1,216 regular-season games.

We have more from the Pacific Division:

  • Kings coach Mike Brown did not rule out the possibility of a lineup change this evening against the Lakers. Shooting guard Kevin Huerter has struggled during the first week of the season. “There are plenty of guys who made mistakes, and when I evaluate the team, I’m not just looking at Kevin and thinking about taking Kevin out of the starting lineup,” Brown told Jason Anderson of the Sacramento Bee. “There are other changes that can be made, so I always — with the flexibility we feel we have with this team — that’s something that I always have to take a look at.” Huerter went scoreless in Sacramento’s home opener against Golden State on Friday.
  • Trey Lyles, who remained with the Kings on a two-year contract, will miss Sacramento’s game on Sunday with a left calf strain, James Ham of The Kings Beat tweets. Lyles has yet to make his season debut.
  • Forward Josh Okogie, who has started the first three games for the Suns, has already drawn a league fine under the new flopping rules. Okogie believes he’ll likely rack up several more, given the way he plays, Duane Rankin of the Arizona Republic writes. “When I saw that, the first thing I thought was it’s going to be a long season,” Okogie said. “You call that a flop or if that’s considered a flop worthy of a fine, then it’s going to be a lot of money going into that fine box this year.” He signed a two-year, veteran’s minimum contract this summer with a player option for next season.
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Southwest Notes: Zion, Ingram, Valanciunas, Doncic, Grizzlies

October 29th, 2023 at 3:34pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Pelicans head coach Willie Green loves the fit of New Orleans’ star forward tandem, Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram, writes Christian Clark of NOLA.com.

“Best freaking duo in the NBA,” Clark said. “They don’t talk about you enough. Best freaking duo in the NBA. You guys have to show up every night and be dominant.”

The fearsome twosome has been an interesting on-court fit, as Williamson thrives as a post threat, while Ingram’s more diverse scoring arsenal includes deft mid-range and three-point shooting.

“It’s what I believe about those two guys,” Green said. “Who they are as people. Who they are as basketball players. But we still have a lot of work to do. We will continue putting it together.” 

There’s more out of the Southwest Division:

  • Pelicans center Jonas Valanciunas is focused on the present in the final season of his current deal, Clark writes in another NOLA.com story. “I’m not thinking about that at all,” Valanciunas said of his contract situation. “Where the future is going to take me, it’s a mystery. But it’s funny that way. You don’t know what can happen tomorrow. You have to enjoy today. You have to enjoy this year. You have to enjoy every game you play. You just try to be the best version of you. That’s what my approach is.” Clark notes that the veteran seven-footer could be an awkward fit alongside Williamson long-term, as both players love to occupy the low post. Injuries have limited their on-court overlap, however, to just 29 games across two seasons.
  • After the Mavericks’ 125-120 win over the Nets on Friday, All-NBA Dallas guard Luka Doncic revealed in a postgame ESPN interview (YouTube video link) that he still wants to play alongside former teammate Dorian Finney-Smith. “That’s my guy,” Doncic said. “I miss him so much and I know at some point we’re going to play [together] again for sure.” Finney-Smith was traded from the Mavericks to Brooklyn as part of the Kyrie Irving deal last season.
  • With a growing list of absences, the Grizzlies’ current goal seems to be merely grinding their way to a respectable amount of wins until the club’s roster gets more whole, per Damichael Cole of The Memphis Commercial Appeal. That has yet to happen, as the club is 0-3 to start the year. With Ja Morant suspended for 25 games to start the year, and big men Steven Adams and Brandon Clarke out with long-term injuries, Memphis has had to adjust quickly. Increased time has been allocated to newly-signed reserve guard Derrick Rose, while the Grizzlies are reportedly adding backup big man Bismack Biyombo to shore up their frontcourt.
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Knicks Notes: Mitchell, DiVincenzo, Rest, Toppin

October 29th, 2023 at 1:50pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Appearing on “The Hoop Genius” podcast, former Knicks general manager Scott Perry suggested that New York didn’t view now-Cavaliers All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell as being quite good enough to be worth surrendering all of the team’s most valuable trade assets, writes Stefan Bondy of The New York Post. Perry explained the front office’s thinking at the time.

“Obviously we made a push to trade for him,” Perry said (hat tip to Bondy for the transcription). “But it was going to be done within reason. He was a good player but he needed more around him to win. Because if he was that singular force, Utah probably would’ve been in the conference finals if he were that singular force. … But he wasn’t that singular force. That’s not a criticism against him. That’s just an evaluation that you must make.”

“[Mitchell’s] an excellent basketball player,” Perry acknowledged. “Multi-year All-Star. Tremendous young man. New York kid… But you got to ask yourself, if the other team you’re trading with is wanting to take two-thirds or three-quarters of all your young talent, and all of your draft capital, is what’s left behind going to good enough for you to win rather than hold on to what you have and be a little patient?”

There’s more out of New York:

  • Newly-signed Knicks swingman Donte DiVincenzo is getting comfortable with his new comrades, writes Peter Botte of The New York Post. “I think in a weird way, it’s the third team in two seasons, if you will,” DiVincenzo said. “But this team, coaching staff, front office, everybody’s done a great job of making me feel like I’ve been on the team for a long time.” DiVincenzo was traded by the Bucks to the Kings midway through the 2021/22 season, and then signed with the Warriors for 2022/23 on a one-year deal. Through his first three games with New York, the shooting guard is averaging 7.0 PPG on .381/.308/.500 shooting splits, along with 3.0 RPG, 1.0 APG and 1.0 SPG.
  • The Knicks opted to not rest anybody on the second night of an early-season back-to-back, writes Botte in a separate piece. New York fell 96-87 to the Pelicans on Saturday, in a turnover-heavy, inefficient shooting affair. “Less than 24 hours and a time change is kind of weird. Especially for the beginning of the season, but of course a little bit of fatigue today, but that’s not really any excuse at the end of the day,” small forward RJ Barrett said. “When we come out here, we gotta give our best effort and play our best game.”
  • Former Knicks lottery pick Obi Toppin, who was traded to the Pacers in exchange for two second-round draft picks this summer, spoke to Bondy about his time in New York and his exit from the franchise. “It’s nothing personal,” Toppin said. “It’s just the business side of things. Obviously I was upset at times but you got to get past that.”
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Northwest Notes: Holiday, Reid, Ayton, Scoot, Jazz

October 29th, 2023 at 12:00pm CST by Luke Adams

Nuggets swingman Justin Holiday will celebrate his 35th birthday before the end of the 2023/24 season and has seen his playing time dip in recent years. While the 11th-year veteran believes he still has plenty left in the tank, he admitted to Bennett Durando of The Denver Post that he has been forced to think about how much longer he’ll play before retirement.

“Have I thought about hanging it up? Heck yeah,” Holiday said. “I mean, I have kids. I have a family. So that thought always comes, especially when you get moved around a lot.

“So yeah, I’ve thought about it. I’d be lying if I said I haven’t. I’ve been kind of forced to. My wife’s had conversations like, ‘When are you gonna be done?’ So it’s not like I’m just sitting here (thinking about it) by myself. I had to actually think about it. And I wasn’t able to give her an answer. I still think I have a lot of playing in me.”

After averaging 30.3 minutes per night for Indiana in 2020/21, Holiday has changed teams five times since then and logged just 15.3 MPG in ’22/23. He’s not in Denver’s rotation to open this season, though head coach Michael Malone has said he values having a veteran like Holiday in reserve to call upon when necessary, as we relayed on Saturday.

Here’s more from around the Northwest:

  • Timberwolves big man Naz Reid, who scored 25 points in 28 minutes in Saturday’s win over Miami, said that he never seriously considered the idea of leaving Minnesota as he neared free agency this summer, per Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic. Reid ultimately agreed to a three-year, $42MM extension just days before free agency began. “I wasn’t going anywhere. I love it here, man. It’s special,” Reid said. “It’s definitely a place I want to be and develop. I’ve developed from year one to now. Each and every year, I’ve gotten better, so there was definitely no reason for me to leave, you know?”
  • Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups likes what he has seen so far from Deandre Ayton, but admits he’s still getting the hang of how best to use his new starting center, writes Aaron Fentress of The Oregonian. “I told him I’m still learning him,” Billups said. “Still learning his game. Where he can be most effective.”
  • No. 3 overall pick Scoot Henderson is off to a rocky start, making 34.8% of his shots and recording more turnovers (nine) than assists (six) through two games. But the Trail Blazers have no concerns and are prepared to be patient with their rookie guard, as Fentress outlines in another Oregonian story. “You can’t rush experience,” Blazers guard Malcolm Brogdon said
  • Two of the Jazz‘s major weaknesses – subpar guard play and defense – have been on display in the early going this season, according to Andy Larsen of The Salt Lake Tribune. One bright spot, Larsen writes, has been the play of rookie guard Keyonte George, who increasingly looks like he can play a major role on this team.
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Eastern Notes: Middleton, Bulls, D. Green, Duren, Butler

October 29th, 2023 at 10:50am CST by Luke Adams

Forward Khris Middleton played in the Bucks‘ final game of the preseason last Friday and their regular season opener on Thursday, but he’ll be held out of Sunday’s game vs. Atlanta as the team monitors his workload and plays it safe with the three-time All-Star, per The Associated Press.

Sunday’s game is the first in a back-to-back set, as the Bucks are scheduled to host the Heat on Monday. Head coach Adrian Griffin indicated that Middleton, who underwent offseason knee surgery, will be available for Monday’s contest.

“This is just being smart and ramping him up gradually,” Griffin said on Saturday following the Bucks’ practice. “He participated in practice today and looked really good.”

Although he played on Thursday in the Bucks’ win over Philadelphia, Middleton doesn’t appear ready for a full workload yet — he logged just four minutes in the second half of that game and didn’t play at all in the fourth quarter.

Here’s more from around the Eastern Conference:

  • The Bulls‘ inconsistent and disjointed 1-2 start to the season has only generated more questions about the fit and future of the team’s “big three,” writes K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago. “It’s our third year here together,” Zach LaVine said of the trio of himself, DeMar DeRozan, and Nikola Vucevic. “We know how this business is. We all love each other. DeMar is one of my best friends. We talk all the time. But we have to figure out how to make this thing work.”
  • The Sixers and Danny Green have agreed to adjust the salary guarantee trigger dates on his contract, Hoops Rumors has learned. The veteran swingman earned a $200K partial guarantee by making it to the first game of the regular season and will see that partial guarantee increase if he remains under contract through November 10 (to $500K), Nov. 24 ($750K), Dec. 8 ($1MM), Dec. 22 ($1.25MM), and Jan. 5 ($1.5MM). He’ll lock in his full $3,196,448 salary if he’s not waived on or before Jan. 7.
  • Pistons center Jalen Duren is off to an incredible start in his second NBA season, averaging 18.0 points, a league-leading 15.3 rebounds, 4.0 assists, and 2.7 blocks in three games, including two wins. The big man, who doesn’t turn 20 until next month, is quickly blossoming into the sort of player who can help key the Pistons’ resurgence, says John Niyo of The Detroit News (subscription required)
  • Heat wing Jimmy Butler battled a right knee issue last season and played in both games in just seven of the team’s 14 back-to-back sets. Although Miami held Butler out of the second end of its first back-to-back set this season, that doesn’t necessarily mean that’s how he’ll be managed in back-to-backs going forward, writes Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald. “No, we’re going to take it week by week,” head coach Erik Spoelstra said.
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Rookie Scale Option Decisions Due On Tuesday

October 29th, 2023 at 9:18am CST by Luke Adams

The NBA’s transaction wire has been relatively quiet since the regular season got underway on Tuesday, but we can still expect one last flurry of moves in October. The deadline for teams to exercise their 2024/25 team options on rookie scale contracts arrives on Tuesday (October 31), and several of those decisions have yet to be reported or announced.

Unlike player or team options on veteran contracts, third- and fourth-year options on rookie scale contracts for former first-round picks must be exercised a year in advance. For instance, when the Hawks picked up Jalen Johnson‘s fourth-year option last Sunday, they were locking in his salary for the 2024/25 season — his ’23/24 salary became guaranteed last October when the team exercised his third-year option.

As our tracker shows, a number of teams still have to pick up or turn down options for players who were first-round picks in 2021 and 2022. Some of those option decisions are no-brainers — the Pistons haven’t yet exercised Cade Cunningham‘s $13.94MM option for 2024/25, but there’s no doubt they’ll do so.

Other decisions are less cut-and-dried. For example, the Hornets must decide whether they want to pick up James Bouknight‘s $6.06MM third-year option for ’24/25. Given that Bouknight has yet to secure a regular rotation spot and has had some legal troubles in the past, it’s far from a given that Charlotte will want to lock in that cap hit.

Here’s the list of option decisions that have yet to be officially made:

Charlotte Hornets

Chicago Bulls

Detroit Pistons

Golden State Warriors

Houston Rockets

Note: These four options will reportedly be exercised, but haven’t been officially picked up yet.

Los Angeles Clippers

Milwaukee Bucks

New York Knicks

Note: This option will reportedly be exercised, but hasn’t been officially picked up yet.

Philadelphia 76ers

Washington Wizards

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L.A. Notes: D-Lo, Reddish, J. White, K. Martin, Morris

October 29th, 2023 at 8:00am CST by Luke Adams

Lakers guard D’Angelo Russell sees himself in teammate Cam Reddish, explaining to reporters on Saturday that he felt like he was “judged” early in his career because he didn’t really know “how to be a professional.” Reddish, who is on his fourth team in five seasons, faced similar questions during his early years in the league, so Russell has tried to take him under his wing in Los Angeles, as Broderick Turner of The Los Angeles Times details.

“Forget the past and just change your approach and try to work on your professionalism and how you carry yourself,” Russell said in explaining what he has told Reddish. “Understand the perception of you and what they say, what it looks like. Just understanding that as a young player. As a young player, it takes you to bump your head a few times to realize your perception.”

Reddish wasn’t necessarily projected to be a regular part of the Lakers’ rotation entering the season, but an injury to Jarred Vanderbilt has helped open up a spot for him. The former lottery pick has logged 29 minutes in his first two games as a Laker, though he says he’s not taking that playing time for granted.

“Like, your role could change every day in the NBA,” Reddish said. “Injuries, a lot of things that can go into it. I just try to stay ready in all aspects, prepare for anything, prepare for the worst. Whatever my role is that night, that’s what it is and I do it to the best of my ability.”

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

  • The Lakers‘ G League affiliate – the South Bay Lakers – traded for the rights to forward Jack White, the No. 1 pick in Saturday’s NBAGL draft. According to the team (Twitter link), the cost to acquire White was the rights to Teafale Lenard Jr. (Saturday’s No. 2 overall pick) and first- and second-round picks in the 2024 G League draft. White played for Denver last season and was in camp with Oklahoma City this fall.
  • As Law Murray of The Athletic observes, the Clippers went to a nine-man rotation in their second game of the season on Friday after using 10 players in Wednesday’s opener. The odd man out was offseason acquisition Kenyon Martin Jr., who played 14 minutes on Wednesday but was a DNP-CD on Friday. That doesn’t necessarily mean Martin won’t see regular playing time going forward, but there will be even fewer minutes to go around once Terance Mann (ankle) returns.
  • Clippers forward Marcus Morris didn’t accompany the team on its trip to Utah on Friday, according to Murray. Morris has been a healthy scratch in each of L.A.’s first two games, and a source tells The Athletic that his status on the road will be determined “one trip at a time.”
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Sixers Notes: Nurse, McDaniels, Maxey, Embiid, Melton

October 28th, 2023 at 9:54pm CST by Arthur Hill

Making his return to Toronto tonight, Sixers coach Nick Nurse explained why he decided to leave after five years with the Raptors, tweets Josh Lewenberg of TSN Sports. Nurse’s time with the organization included a championship in his first season, a Coach of the Year award and a 227-163 record. However, he hadn’t won a playoff series since 2020 and the team’s progress was stagnating.

“It felt like it was time from both sides,” Nurse told reporters before Saturday’s game. “It still feels that way to me, just looking around. I look at them play and they look like they’re playing great and I’m really enjoying coaching this team. So everybody is where they’re supposed to be.”

There were complaints in Toronto that Nurse was overplaying his starters and neglecting player development while pursuing every possible win, writes Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca. Players were also unhappy with the level of communication, Grange adds, with some saying they learned about changes to their roles through the media instead of directly from Nurse.

Nurse was complimentary toward his former team at tonight’s press gathering, saying, “They look good to me. It’s a new coach, a new system and they’re going to need some growth time. But I think in general they seem like they’re playing really hard, they’re playing really well together, they seem really focused and they’re doing a lot of good things.”

There’s more on the Sixers:

  • Jalen McDaniels got a much better offer when he decided to leave the Sixers and sign with the Raptors this summer, according to Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer (Twitter link). McDaniels landed a two-year, $9.2MM contract in Toronto, while Philadelphia was only offering a minimum-salary deal. “Yeah, I couldn’t do that, you know?” McDaniels said.
  • Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid have shown off a much crisper two-man game early in the season, observes Kyle Neubeck of PHLY Sports. With James Harden still out of action, the Maxey-Embiid connection has become the focus of Philadelphia’s offense, and Neubeck states that Maxey has become a noticeably better passer over the summer. Neubeck also wonders how much the Sixers’ front office really wants Harden to return, since it would bring a ball-dominant guard into an equation that’s working well without him.
  • P.J. Tucker and De’Anthony Melton appear “lost in the shuffle” in Nurse’s offense, Neubeck adds. While Tucker was expected to decline without Harden creating shots for him, Neubeck sees Melton’s slow start as a greater concern. He believes Melton has been miscast as a lead guard when Maxey is on the bench and suggests he would be more comfortable off the ball if the Sixers can sign a backup point guard.
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Celtics Notes: Brissett, Brown, White, Rebounding

October 28th, 2023 at 8:42pm CST by Arthur Hill

Oshae Brissett swung the momentum in the Celtics‘ favor and made a strong case for a rotation spot in Friday’s win over the Heat, writes Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe. The Eastern Conference Finals rematch saw Boston trailing 26-13 when Brissett entered the game in the first quarter. He pounded the offensive glass and threw down an impressive dunk that cut the lead to three points within about five minutes.

“He was the sole reason that we got back into the game, and I told him that,” Jayson Tatum said. “He came right in, and we were kind of flat. His energy, his offensive rebounding, giving us second- and third-chance opportunities was big. And that’s his job. For him to come do that, to not play last game and come in today and give us the spark to turn the game around was huge. And that’s what I love about our team.”

Brissett signed a two-year, minimum-salary contract with Boston this summer after spending the past three years in Indiana. He wasn’t used in the season opener, but coach Joe Mazzulla turned to him early on Friday to provide a spark. Brissett understands that his minutes will vary from game to game, so he’s trying to stay ready.

“We know that we’re going to be important throughout a lot of these games of the season,” he said of himself and his fellow reserves. “And then when it comes to playoff time, we’re going to be relied on, even if it’s for a little bit. Just go in there and just do what we do and do what we’ve learned all of training camp. So we take every practice like that and we’ve taken it really serious and going up against starters and it’s making them better. And it’s also making us better and more confident in ourselves knowing that any time we do get thrown in, we’ve just got to play the same way.”

There’s more from Boston:

  • Jaylen Brown is prepared to fill some of the leadership void created when Marcus Smart was traded to Memphis, per Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe. Brown, now the longest-tenured member of the team, plans to take a more vocal approach than in past years. “I’m comfortable being in that (leadership) role,” he said. “I think at times I’ve wanted to be more in that role, but we had a lot of cooks in the kitchen so sometimes your voice is redundant.”
  • Derrick White showed an increased level of aggressiveness in closing out the win over Miami, observes Matt Vautour of MassLive. White scored 14 points in the fourth quarter and attacked the basket when he got the opportunity instead of deferring to his star teammates. “I’ve been an advocate for D-White since he joined the team three years ago,” Tatum said. “I tried to tell him to be more aggressive. To score. To attack. To make plays. He’s at his best when he’s being aggressive.”
  • With the Celtics adding size in the offseason, Mazzulla is placing a greater emphasis on offensive rebounding, according to Souichi Terada of MassLive. It paid off Friday as Boston scored 23 second-chance points and grabbed 36% of the available offensive boards.
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