- Point guard Vasilije Micic, drafted by the Sixers with the No. 52 pick in 2014, is returning to Anadolu Efes of the Turkish Basketball Super League and the EuroLeague for the 2020/21 season, according to Justin Grasso of Sports Illustrated.
Although interim head coach Jacque Vaughn has done an admirable job with the Nets during the NBA’s restart this summer, the team still intends to formally launch a full head coaching search when their season comes to an end, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic.
As Charania explains, team owner Joseph Tsai wants to identify the best possible “partner for team ownership, the front office, coaching staff, and players.” The team will be prioritizing building its culture based on relationships and “pursuing sustainable success.”
It’s possible the Nets’ search will lead them back to Vaughn, as Charania indicates he’s expected to receive serious consideration to retain his current position. Since replacing Kenny Atkinson in March, Vaughn has led Brooklyn to a 6-2 record, and four of those wins have come with a depleted squad in Orlando. Although the seventh-seeded Nets aren’t expected to win a playoff series, putting up a spirited fight against the defending-champion Raptors in the first round could further bolster Vaughn’s chances.
Still, Brooklyn is expected to consider several outside candidates as well. Charania identifies former NBA head coaches Jason Kidd, Tyronn Lue, and Jeff Van Gundy as possible targets, echoing an April report from The New York Times.
Sixers assistant Ime Udoka is also among the Nets’ potential candidates, according to Charania, who notes that more contenders could emerge “as job statuses around the league change.”
Of course, with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving due back from injuries for the 2020/21 season, an ability to connect with and command the respect of those superstars will be a major factor the Nets consider as they decide on a permanent head coach.
The Sixers issued a pair of injury updates on their two star players this afternoon, indicating that center Joel Embiid (left ankle) will miss Tuesday’s game vs. Phoenix, while guard/forward Ben Simmons underwent successful surgery in Philadelphia to remove a loose body from his left knee (Twitter links via Derek Bodner of The Athletic and Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer).
Simmons, whose procedure had been reported over the weekend, will be re-evaluated in two weeks, the Sixers indicated in today’s announcement. However, the expectation is that the former No. 1 overall pick will likely miss the rest of the season, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).
While Simmons’ outlook for the remainder of 2019/20 isn’t good, there’s optimism that Embiid’s ankle injury isn’t serious and that he’ll be back soon, Wojnarowski tweets. Even after tomorrow’s game, the 76ers have two more seeding contests on Wednesday and Friday, so Embiid will have a couple more opportunities to suit up before the playoffs begin next week.
Embiid’s unavailability for Tuesday is good news for the Suns, who are 6-0 in the bubble and are pushing hard to participate in a play-in tournament for the final postseason spot in the West. According to Bodner (Twitter link), Josh Richardson will also miss Tuesday’s game for rest purposes, while Al Horford (left knee soreness) and Tobias Harris (right ankle soreness) are considered questionable.
Sixers star Ben Simmons will have arthroscopic surgery on his injured left knee and may be lost for the rest of the season, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
The team announced today that Simmons will have a loose body removed from the knee. He suffered the injury in Wednesday’s game and was diagnosed with a subluxation of the left patella.
There’s no set timetable for how long Simmons will need to recover, but sources tell Wojnarowski that the Sixers would have to make a long playoff run for the former No. 1 pick to have any chance to return this season. Simmons is expected to leave the Walt Disney World complex in a few days to have the operation.
The resumption of the season was supposed to provide a fresh start for Simmons, who was sidelined with lower back pain when the hiatus began in March. He was moved to power forward as part of a lineup change and has adapted well to his new position.
The Sixers, currently tied for fifth in the East at 42-27, will go into the postseason without one of of their top weapons on both ends of the floor. Simmons averaged 16.4 points, 7.8 rebounds and 8.0 assists in 57 games and leads the league in steals at 2.1 per night.
The loss of Simmons means Al Horford returns to a starting lineup that now looks the way it did when the shutdown began. Horford posted 21 points and nine rebounds as a starter in last night’s win over Orlando.
“We need (Horford) more than we’ve ever needed him,” coach Brett Brown said after the game.
2:27pm: Evaluating Simmons’ treatment options could take a few days, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link), who says the hope is that a season-ending scope on the knee can be avoided.
12:03pm: After leaving Wednesday’s game with a knee injury, Sixers star Ben Simmons has been diagnosed with a subluxation of the left patella, the team announced today. In layman’s terms, that’s a partial dislocation of his left knee cap.
According to the Sixers, Simmons will be ruled out for the time being as he and the club evaluate treatment options. The All-Star guard/forward will definitely be sidelined for Friday’s contest against Orlando — it’s unclear how many more games he may miss after that, but the injury is typically more than just a day-to-day issue.
On the plus side, the MRI on Simmons’ knee didn’t show any ligament damage, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic.
The 76ers have five more seeding games to play before the postseason begins, and their position in the Eastern Conference standings is reasonably secure. Philadelphia is currently ranked sixth in the conference and won’t slip any further than that. Moving up to fourth or fifth remains a possibility, but is unlikely to be a top priority for the team.
With Simmons sidelined, the Sixers will have to shuffle their starting lineup, with big man Al Horford among the top candidates to return to the starting five. Getting back Mike Scott (knee) and Glenn Robinson III (hip) would provide more depth to help make up for Simmons’ absence, but we don’t know yet when they’ll be able to return.
There appears to be strong growing momentum for Bulls head coach Jim Boylen to retain his current position, according to Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times, who reports that financial considerations are expected to play a key role in the decision.
Nearly three months ago, Cowley reported that new Bulls executives Arturas Karnisovas and Marc Eversley were believed to be leaning toward making a head coaching change after receiving a “mixed bag” of feedback on Boylen from Bulls players. Cowley writes today that the team’s top basketball operations execs had even reached out through back-channels to potential candidates such as Sixers assistant Ime Udoka and Raptors assistant Adrian Griffin.
However, the Bulls’ financial landscape has changed over the last few months. Team owner Jerry Reinsdorf, who doesn’t have a reputation for aggressive spending, has claimed that financial losses for the Bulls and his Chicago White Sox are “in the nine figures.” There’s also ongoing uncertainty about what the 2020/21 NBA season will look like and how the coronavirus pandemic may continue to impact team and league revenues.
Although he cautions that the situation is fluid, Cowley suggests that the Bulls’ financial situation has greatly increased the chances of Boylen’s return. It doesn’t help matters that there are still no plans in place to have the NBA’s bottom eight teams conduct some form of organized offseason activites. Karnisovas has previously spoken about wanting to evaluate Boylen in such a setting, but he may not get an opportunity to do so.
ESPN reported last month that the financial strain caused by the pandemic may make teams around the league less inclined to change coaches this offseason, so the latest update on Boylen doesn’t come as a huge surprise.
Still, as Cowley rightly points out (via Twitter), it’s not as if replacing Boylen with a first-time coach like Udoka or Griffin would be exorbitantly costly for the franchise, at least in relative terms. Boylen is making just $1.6MM and a first-time coach could potentially be hired for a salary in the $2.5MM range. The league’s highest-paid coaches – Doc Rivers and Gregg Popovich – are reportedly earning $10MM+ per year.
Magic forward Aaron Gordon, who left Wednesday’s game due to a left hamstring injury, doesn’t appear to have suffered a serious injury, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). Sources tell Charania that tests on the hamstring showed no significant damage, and Gordon is expected to be re-evaluated in “several days.”
Although Gordon’s recovery timeline is unclear, it sounds like he’ll at least miss Friday’s game against Philadelphia. He has been listed as doubtful for that contest, according to the team, which tweets that the forward’s injury is being called a hamstring strain and he’ll be day-to-day after Friday. The Magic’s remaining seeding games are against Boston (Sunday), Brooklyn (Tuesday), and New Orleans (next Thursday).
One more Magic win or one more Wizards loss would secure Orlando a playoff berth, so the team will likely play it safe with Gordon in the hopes of having him back for the start of the postseason. Still, the Magic will be motivated to finish strong, since they’re currently a half-game back of the Nets for the No. 7 seed in the East.
Here are a few more injury updates from around the NBA:
- Ben Simmons left the Sixers‘ win over Washington on Wednesday with a left knee injury. According to Shams Charania (via Twitter), an MRI on Simmons’ knee came back clean and he’s considered day-to-day. Philadelphia continues to jockey for positioning in the playoff race but is guaranteed to finish no lower than sixth in the East, so they won’t rush Simmons back.
[RELATED: Update on Simmons’ knee injury] - Jimmy Butler (right foot soreness) is listed as out for the Heat‘s game on Thursday vs. Milwaukee, tweets Eric Woodyard of ESPN. Butler also missed Tuesday’s game, the second of a back-to-back set, but his ailment isn’t believed to be serious.
- In case you missed it, we passed along word on Wednesday night that Clippers guard Patrick Beverley (calf) will miss Thursday’s game and that Nets guard Jamal Crawford (hamstring) will be sidelined for “a few” games.
- In an interview with Marcus Thompson II of The Athletic, Sixers forward Glenn Robinson III talked at length about his experience being a veteran inside the bubble. Robinson, who was traded from the Warriors in February, believes he was acquired not only for his shooting and defense, but also for his leadership. “I think I was brought on this team for some of that. I feel like they know how I am in the locker room,” Robinson said. “I get the respect of every teammate I’ve had a chance to play with. I may not say a lot. But I get the respect because you’ve got my respect and I have your best interest as my teammate.” Robinson has not played in any of Philadelphia’s seeding games due to a left hip pointer injury that he suffered during the scrimmages.
A missed coronavirus test cost Sixers big man Kyle O’Quinn any chance to play on Monday, Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets. O’Quinn, who tweeted that it “slipped my mind,” became ineligible for the game because of his no-show but can rejoin the team upon a negative test.
- With Ben Simmons shifting to power forward, the Sixers have a glaring point guard issue, David Murphy of the Philadelphia Inquirer writes. Shake Milton, who moved into the starting lineup in their seeding opener against Indiana, posted no points, three assists and three turnovers in 19 minutes, though he bounced back with a strong showing – and a game-winning shot – on Monday.
Joel Embiid missed the Sixers’ last two scrimmage games due to right calf tightness. However, he’s expected to play on Saturday in the team’s seeding opener against the Pacers, according to Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Embiid suffered the calf injury during a July 24 scrimmage against the Grizzlies and played just 13 minutes. He also battled injuries prior to the stoppage of play in March. He missed nine games with a torn ligament in his right hand, and sat out five others with a left shoulder sprain, Pompey notes.
The Sixers can improve their playoff seeding during the next eight games. They are tied for fifth place in the East with Indiana at 39-26.
We have more injury-related news:
- Sixers forward Glenn Robinson III is doubtful to play on Saturday, Pompey notes in the same story. He has a left hip pointer, which he suffered during a scrimmage against the Thunder on Sunday.
- The Nuggets will go without at least two key players in their seeding opener on Saturday, the team’s PR department tweets. Guard Gary Harris has a right hip muscle strain while Will Barton is dealing with right knee soreness. Reserve big man Vlatko Cancar (left foot fracture) will also miss the game. Starting point guard Jamal Murray is questionable duo to left hamstring tightness.
- Spurs veteran guard Patty Mills didn’t play in the team’s first game in Orlando but it wasn’t injury-related, ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk tweets. Coach Gregg Popovich simply wanted to use his younger guards more extensively. Shooting guard Bryn Forbes‘ absence was injury-related — he’s dealing with a sore right quad.