Phoenix Suns Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Pacific Notes: Kings, DeRozan, James, Beal

November 14th, 2024 at 9:32am CST by Dana Gauruder

Kings sixth man Malik Monk is out at least two weeks due to a right ankle sprain. Who will fill his role? It’ll be a collective effort, according to Kings head coach Mike Brown.

Sacramento lost by 20 points to the Spurs on Monday and the reserves were outscored 37-21.

“We’re definitely going to have to collectively step up,” Brown told Jason Anderson of the Sacramento Bee. “There’s not one guy that can do it.”

Keon Ellis, Jordan McLaughlin, Doug McDermott, Trey Lyles and Alex Len are the reserves that Sacramento will rely on with Monk on the shelf. The backups accounted for 46 points in a 23-point win over Phoenix on Wednesday.

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Kings swingman DeMar DeRozan departed Wednesday’s game with lower back tightness, Anderson tweets. Acquired by Sacramento in a sign-and-trade, DeRozan is averaging 22.9 points, 4.1 rebounds and 4.1 assists in 12 starts. DeRozan, 35, played 79 games for Chicago last season.
LeBron James continues to pile up records and milestones. The Lakers superstar reached another one on Wednesday, becoming the oldest player in NBA history to record three straight triple-doubles. James, who will turn 40 next month, had 35 points, 14 assists and 12 rebounds in a win over Memphis. “Just being very patient and taking what the defense gives me,” James said, per ESPN’s Dave McMenamin. “I’ve been doing it for a while. So, I understand time and score. I understand the waves and the swings of the game. So, it’s nothing new to me.”
Bradley Beal‘s first season with the Suns was marred by injuries and under-performance. He admitted to The Athletic’s Fred Katz that it took a mental toll on him. “I was in a funk (last season),” Beal said. “Not gonna lie. I was in a funk.” Part of the reason was the lack of a true point guard. “We didn’t love it as a team (last season),” Beal said. “The dynamic we had — we didn’t have a (point guard), which everybody crucified us on. It was tough. It was very tough. Everybody was kinda out of position last year, not necessarily what made them who they are.” Beal had 28 points in an overtime loss to Sacramento on Sunday and 24 points in a win over Utah on Tuesday but didn’t play against Sacramento on Wednesday due to a calf injury.

Injury Notes: Hawks, THJ, Simons, Bamba, Suns

November 13th, 2024 at 7:37am CST by Luke Adams

The Hawks announced a series of injury updates on Tuesday, issuing a press release to provide the latest on where things stand with Bogdan Bogdanovic (hamstring), Kobe Bufkin (shoulder), Vit Krejci (adductor), and Seth Lundy (ankle).

According to the team, Bogdanovic, Bufkin, and Krejci are all progressing through their rehabilitation and will be reevaluated in about one week, so they’ll all miss at least a few more games. As for Lundy, his recovery from a sprained left ankle will take more time. According to the Hawks, he’ll be reevaluated in approximately four weeks.

Bufkin and Lundy have yet to appear in a game for the Hawks this season, while Bogdanovic and Krejci have played in just one and four contests, respectively. Despite being shorthanded, Atlanta pulled off a major upset on Tuesday in its first NBA Cup game, beating the defending champion Celtics 117-116.

Here are a few more injury-related notes from around the NBA:

Pistons wing Tim Hardaway Jr. took a pair of hits to the head during a defensive possession in Tuesday’s game and left the court on a wheelchair (Twitter video link). According to NBA insider Chris Haynes (Twitter link), Hardaway underwent a CAT scan, which was negative. He received some stitches, but it doesn’t sound like he sustained a serious injury, which is good news. Given the nature of the injury, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Hardaway has to enter the NBA’s concussion protocol.
Trail Blazers guard Anfernee Simons left Tuesday’s game in the first quarter and didn’t return due to what the team referred to as a chest injury. Head coach Chauncey Billups explained after the game that Simons was experiencing shortness of breath, but that everything came back normal after he underwent a series of tests (Twitter link via Sean Highkin of Rose Garden Report). The Blazers will conduct more testing on Wednesday, but Billups thinks Simons will be okay.
Clippers center Mohamed Bamba, who is making his way back from a left knee injury, continues to move closer to his season debut. While Bamba will miss Wednesday’s game vs. Oklahoma City, he’s listed as out due to a G League assignment rather than the knee ailment.
The Suns were down another starter on Tuesday, as Jusuf Nurkic joined Kevin Durant on the sidelines due to left ankle soreness (story via ESPN). It’s unclear if Nurkic’s ankle issue will force him to miss more games — the team is back in action in Sacramento on Wednesday night. Mason Plumlee started at center with Nurkic unavailable.
Another Suns starter, Bradley Beal, exited Tuesday’s game due to left calf tightness, but he downplayed the injury during his post-game media session, referring to the decision to pull him as “a little precautionary” (Twitter video link via Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic).

Western Notes: Wembanyama, Thompson, Booker, Reddish, Russell

November 12th, 2024 at 7:00pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Victor Wembanyama enjoyed his best game of the season against Sacramento on Monday. The second-year Spurs star racked up 34 points, 14 rebounds, six assists and three blocks. He knocked down half of his 12 three-point attempts and the team’s interim coach wants him to keep hunting shots after a slow offensive start to the season.

“He makes shots every day,” Mitch Johnson said, per Michael C. Wright of ESPN. “He missed really good shots to start the year, and I understand why it’s a talking point. But I don’t think we ever wavered on him not making shots. I think it is just the percentages evening out at this point.”

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Klay Thompson feels even better now about his decision to move on from the Warriors and join the Mavericks, he told Tim MacMahon of ESPN. Thompson says it was a necessary move mentally as well as career-wise. “Honestly, it’s rejuvenated me and done something I needed bad just for my mental and my career,” Thompson said. “So, I really feel the love here, and I feel highly valued that I can do great things.” Thompson is averaging 13.8 points in 3o.1 minutes per night while starting 10 games.
Devin Booker is still adjusting to Mike Budenholzer‘s rotation patterns. With past coaches, Booker often played the entire first quarter. That hasn’t happened this season — Budenholzer prefers to utilize his players in shorter bursts, Duane Rankin of the Arizona Republic notes. “Probably the last eight years of my career, I played the first 12 minutes,” the Suns star guard said. “Trying to find a rhythm, but at the same time, set guys up. It’ll come.”
The Lakers are off to a 6-4 start and the Orange County Register’s Khobi Price offers 10 observations through the team’s first 10 games. He notes Cam Reddish has made the most of his increased playing time since being added to the rotation last week and that bench scoring has jumped since D’Angelo Russell was moved to the second unit.

Suns’ Collin Gillespie Fractures Right Ankle

November 12th, 2024 at 12:24pm CST by Luke Adams

Suns guard Collin Gillespie has been diagnosed with a right ankle fracture, the team announced today in a press release (Twitter link via Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic).

According to the Suns, Gillespie will be reevaluated in four weeks. That doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll be ready to return at that point — just that he’ll be examined at that time.

Gillespie, who is on a two-way contract with Phoenix, had appeared in only one NBA game so far this season, logging 3:26 of game action in an October 26 win over Dallas. He suffered the injury in the G League season opener on Friday, just two minutes into his debut for the Valley Suns.

The Suns initially listed Gillespie’s injury as a sprain, but Valley Suns head coach John Little said on Monday that the 25-year-old was still undergoing tests to determine the severity of the injury (Twitter video link via Gerald Bourguet of PHNX Sports).

Gillespie’s absence won’t have any real impact on the Suns’ NBA rotation, since he had several players ahead of him on the depth chart, but it’s an unfortunate turn of events for a young player who already lost one full season due to an injury. The former Villanova standout missed his entire rookie season in 2022/23 as a Nuggets two-way player after suffering a lower leg fracture while helping out with a practice at his alma mater.

Suns Have Options While Kevin Durant Is Sidelined

November 9th, 2024 at 10:45pm CST by Arthur Hill

Rookie Ryan Dunn could be coach Mike Budenholzer‘s choice to replace Kevin Durant in the Suns‘ starting lineup while he’s recovering from a calf strain, suggests Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic. Royce O’Neale is a more experienced option, Rankin adds, but Budenholzer seems to prefer using him off the bench. Rankin states that the injury could also result in more playing time for Josh Okogie, who made his season debut on Friday, and Bol Bol, who has yet to play this season.

Kevin Durant To Miss At Least Two Weeks With Strained Calf

November 9th, 2024 at 6:02pm CST by Arthur Hill

Suns star Kevin Durant will be reevaluated in two weeks after straining his left calf in Friday’s game, sources tell Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).

As Charania points out, Durant has been playing at an MVP level as Phoenix is tied for the top spot in the West with an 8-1 record. Through nine games, he’s averaging 27.6 points, 6.6 rebounds and 3.4 assists while shooting 55.3% from the field and 43% from three-point range.

After several years of persistent injuries, Durant managed to play 75 games last season, which was his highest total since 2018/19. At age 36, he has seemed as healthy and productive as he’s been at any point during his 18-year NBA career.

Durant also suffered a calf strain while training for the Summer Olympics. He missed Team USA’s entire exhibition schedule, but was available once the games in France began.

Devin Booker and Bradley Beal will be counted on to carry more of the Suns’ scoring load while Durant is sidelined.

Booker is off to a rough start, shooting just 42.9% from the field and 32.4% from three-point range in nine games while averaging 23.1 PPG, his lowest figure in eight years. In seven games, Beal is scoring 15.4 PPG, his lowest mark in a decade, while shooting 46.1% from the field and 37.2% from beyond the arc.

Phoenix has seven games over the next two weeks, including a four-game road trip that starts Tuesday. Based on the timeline reported by Charania, the earliest Durant could return is November 26 for an in-season tournament matchup with the Lakers.

Pacific Notes: Powell, Russell, Lakers, Durant, Huerter

November 9th, 2024 at 8:47am CST by Tristan Tucker

The Clippers‘ replacement for Paul George appears to be Norman Powell through the early part of the 2024/25 season, The Athletic’s Law Murray writes. In a recent win over George’s Sixers, Powell hit six threes en route to 26 points.

Having never averaged more than 19.0 points per game in a season entering 2024/25, Powell is putting up 25.7 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.3 assists on a scorching .516/.494/.861 shooting line so far.

“I’ve always envisioned myself being in this position and wanting the opportunity,” Powell said Wednesday night. “Learning from when I was in Toronto with Kyle (Lowry) and DeMar (DeRozan), learning from Dame (Lillard) and CJ (McCollum), learning from PG and Kawhi (Leonard). Being around those top guys and just getting game and knowledge from them in the summer. Going up against them, battling, and just wanting that.”

Powell was acquired by the Clippers from the Trail Blazers at the 2022 trade deadline and he’s in the fourth year of a five-year, $90MM contract he signed with Portland. He’s on the books for $19.2MM this season and $20.5MM next year.

Powell, who finished fourth in Sixth Man of the Year voting in each of his two full seasons in Los Angeles, averaged 15.3 points on 10.9 shot attempts per game during that stretch. Through the early portion of this season, he’s taking 17.4 field goal attempts per game in the wake of George’s departure.

“I saw it as addition by subtraction,” Powell said at Clippers media day about George’s exit. “I was excited. I think what I’ve said in this media day every single year since being here is, I want to be the starting two guard, and the opportunity is in front of me. I prepared myself. I’ve always seen myself as a starter in this league. I feel like I put the work in. I feel like the numbers show for itself when I am starting and what the output is. So I’m excited to take on that role and the pressures that come with it. The good, bad and ugly.”

In a similar piece, Janis Carr of The Orange County Register details Powell’s quest for perfection. Powell recorded his first career double-double on Friday with 31 points and 12 rebounds.

“I have my own mentality and approach to the game, like nothing really changes no matter what role I’m in. I’ve said it multiple times,” Powell said. “I’ve got high expectations for myself. I always see myself as a starter, as a top guy in the league that can come out and help any team win no matter where I’m at.”

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As we relayed Friday, Cam Reddish took D’Angelo Russell‘s spot in the Lakers‘ starting five. Russell was moved to the bench last season when the team began to lose too, but his connection with then-coach Darvin Ham suffered, Dave McMenamin writes of ESPN. This time with JJ Redick coaching the team, Russell is approaching the situation with a different mentality. “I left all that, all my baggage at the door this summer once we changed coaches and new staff came in,” Russell said. “I was committed to whatever it takes. That’s what y’all see now.”
The Lakers are expected to be active on the trade market after a 5-4 start with a 24th-ranked defense, Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report relays. Fischer names Milwaukee’s Brook Lopez and Washington’s Jonas Valanciunas as two targets on L.A.’s “internal board,” with Russell potentially being available as outgoing salary.
The Suns are unleashing Kevin Durant by allowing him to embrace coach Mike Budenholzer‘s three-point heavy approach, Gerald Bourguet of PHNX Sports writes. Durant has helped lead the Suns to an 8-1 record to begin the year by averaging 27.6 PPG on .553/.429/.836 shooting. He’s also averaging 5.0 points per game in clutch minutes, making 63.2% of his field goals in those situations.
While Durant’s star power is propelling the Suns, they’re getting another boost in Royce O’Neale‘s play, The Arizona Republic’s Duane Rankin writes. O’Neale is shooting 52.6% on three-pointers so far this season and is first off the bench, and Rankin writes he’s looking like an early Sixth Man of the Year candidate. O’Neale signed a four-year contract this past offseason.
Kings guard Kevin Huerter missed two games due to an illness last week and FOX40’s Sean Cunningham tweets that he’s still feeling the effects after returning. Huerter is averaging 10.4 PPG for the Kings and has played two games since returning to the team.

KD Playing At MVP Level; Beal Making Defensive Impact

November 7th, 2024 at 2:36pm CST by Rory Maher

It’s only been eight games, but Kevin Durant has been playing at an MVP level for the 7-1 Suns, according to Gerald Bourguet of PHNX Sports (subscription required). In addition to being the fulcrum of Phoenix’s crunch-time offense, the 14-time All-Star is also filling up the stat sheet, averaging 27.8 PPG, 6.8 RPG, 3.4 APG and 1.4 BPG on .551/.420/.813 shooting in 39.0 MPG.
Suns guard Bradley Beal has been hampered by a nagging right elbow injury, and his current usage rate (18.1%) would mark a career low. But Beal has been efficient offensively and is finding other ways to contribute, particularly taking on challenging defensive assignments, per Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic, who notes that Devin Booker recently called Beal the “heart” of the team.

Largest Trade Exceptions Available This Season

November 6th, 2024 at 2:40pm CST by Luke Adams

Ahead of the NBA’s 2025 trade deadline, it’s worth keeping in mind which teams hold traded player exceptions that could come in handy to grease the wheels on an in-season deal.

As we explain in our glossary, a traded player exception allows a team to take on salary in a trade without sending out any salary in return. The amount of the exception (plus $250K for non-apron teams) is the amount of salary the team is permitted to take back without salary-matching – either in a single deal or in multiple trades – for one year.

For instance, a team with a $10MM trade exception could acquire a player earning $4MM and a second player earning $6MM without having to worry about sending out any outgoing salary.

In recent years, sizable traded player exceptions have served as wild cards that helped accommodate both pre-deadline and offseason deals. For example, after creating a $9.5MM trade exception when they sent Royce O’Neale to the Suns ahead of the 2024 trade deadline, the Nets used that TPE to acquire Ziaire Williams and a future draft pick in an offseason trade that allowed Memphis to shed some salary.

Many trade exceptions expire without being used, but as our tracker shows, there are several sizable ones available this season that could be useful when trade season begins in earnest.

Here are the 15 biggest trade exceptions around the NBA for now, along with their expiry dates in parentheses:

Atlanta Hawks: $25,266,266 (7/7/25)
Brooklyn Nets: $23,300,000 (7/7/25)
Chicago Bulls: $17,506,232 (7/8/25)
Dallas Mavericks: $16,193,183 (7/7/25)
Memphis Grizzlies: $12,600,000 (2/3/25)
Washington Wizards: $12,402,000 (2/10/25)
New Orleans Pelicans: $9,900,000 (7/7/25)
Minnesota Timberwolves: $8,780,488 (7/7/25)
Portland Trail Blazers: $6,875,000 (7/7/25)
Miami Heat: $6,477,319 (1/23/25)
Sacramento Kings: $6,341,464 (6/30/25)
Memphis Grizzlies: $6,133,005 (7/21/25)
Sacramento Kings: $5,893,768 (7/8/25)
New Orleans Pelicans: $5,722,116 (1/17/25)
Denver Nuggets: $5,250,000 (7/7/25)

A number of these trade exceptions are more likely to be used next offseason, when teams could have more cap flexibility, than during the current season, when so many clubs are within spitting distance of the luxury tax line or a hard cap.

For example, using even a small portion of that $25MM+ exception during the season would push the Hawks‘ team salary into tax territory, but with several contracts coming off their books next summer, they’d be in a better position to take on a big salary at that time.

The exceptions that expire before next offseason are the ones to watch more closely during the season. That $12MM+ Wizards TPE is especially intriguing, since Washington is one of the few teams with plenty of breathing room below the tax threshold. They could use nearly all of that exception at the deadline and still avoid becoming a taxpayer.

The two TPEs listed in italics can’t be used at all, since the Heat are currently operating over the first tax apron, while the Timberwolves are over the second apron. Apron teams are prohibited from using trade exceptions that were generated during the prior season (like Miami’s) or that were created by sending out a player via sign-and-trade (like Minnesota’s).

It’s worth noting that some of these exceptions may be used in a deal that could otherwise be completed using salary matching. For example, a team with a $12MM trade exception that swaps one $10MM player for another could use the exception to take on the incoming player and create a new $10MM exception using the outgoing player.

Given tax and apron considerations, we may see some deals along those lines during the season, since using a TPE in that manner would allow a team to essentially roll it over for another year.

Pacific Notes: Booker, Davis, Curry, Coffey

November 5th, 2024 at 7:17pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Devin Booker is experiencing wild swings in performance. The Suns guard earned Western Conference Player of the Week honors but now finds himself in a shooting slump, Duane Rankin of the Arizona Republic notes.

Over the last two games, Booker is 12-of-41 from the field while making just two of 16 3-point tries. Booker’s shooting hasn’t affected Phoenix’s bottom line — it has won five straight.

“You just flush it,” Booker said. “Thankfully, it came in a win. That’s what the game’s about, but obviously frustrated. Just missing shots I feel I can make.”

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The Lakers have listed Anthony Davis as questionable to play at Memphis on Wednesday, Khobi Price of the Orange County Register tweets. Davis is dealing with a left heel contusion, an injury he aggravated in a loss to Detroit on Monday. The nine-time All-Star is averaging a league-best 32.6 points per game.
Stephen Curry returned on Monday from a three-game absence due to a left ankle sprain. The Warriors superstar contributed 24 points and six assists in 24 minutes in a road win over Washington. He was on a minutes limit but coach Steve Kerr believes Curry will see more court time against Boston on Wednesday. “Assuming he feels good, I don’t anticipate a big minutes restriction in Boston,” Kerr said, per The Athletic’s Anthony Slater.
The Clippers posted their first win in their new home, the Intuit Dome, by defeating the Spurs on Monday. Amir Coffey delivered his best outing of the season with 21 points, making all but one of his six 3-point attempts. “Tonight was Amir’s night,” coach Tyronn Lue said, per Janis Carr of the Orange County Register. Coffey needs to have more nights like that — he’ll be an unrestricted free agent next summer.