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Pacific Notes: Fox, Reddish, Hachimura, Clippers Offense, Robinson

November 17th, 2024 at 8:31pm CST by Dana Gauruder

De’Aaron Fox has gone on a scoring binge for the shorthanded Kings, erupting for 109 points and 16 assists over the last two games. Fox became just the third player in NBA history to score at least 109 total points across back-to-back games.

“There’s not a single person in this league that can stop him from getting to the spots where he wants to (get to),” Kings coach Mike Brown said, per Chris Biderman of the Sacramento Bee. “I think he’s feeling that. And not only is he feeling that, but he’s showing that.”

As we noted last month, Fox is aiming for a potential extension next offseason after passing on a new deal this past summer.

We have more on the Pacific Division:

  • The Lakers played without forwards Cam Reddish and Rui Hachimura on Saturday. Reddish was a late scratch because of a right peroneal strain – irritation or inflammation in the tendons that run along the outside of a person’s ankle and foot, according to Khobi Price of the Orange County Register. Hachimura missed his second consecutive game due to an ankle injury.
  • The Clippers entered Sunday’s game saddled with a three-game losing streak, including back-to-back defeats to Houston. They shot 39.6 percent from the field in the first of those losses to Houston and 37.8% from the field in the rematch. “They were physical, they took us out of what we wanted to do,” swingman Norman Powell told Janis Carr of the Orange County Register.
  • Orlando Robinson made his Kings debut on Saturday, contributing six points and three rebounds in 12 minutes. Robinson suffered a left MCL sprain in early October. “I’ve been feeling good,” Robinson said in a video posted by Kings radio reporter Sean Cunningham. “I’m almost back to how I was before training camp started and I’m looking forward to getting back to that point so I can contribute to winning.” Robinson signed a one-year contract with Sacramento during the summer.
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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.”

We have more from the Western Conference:

  • 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.
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Lakers Notes: Davis, LeBron, Reddish, Knecht

November 11th, 2024 at 8:01am CST by Arthur Hill

Lakers star Anthony Davis will visit an ophthalmologist today after getting poked in his left eye during Sunday’s game, according to Dave McMenamin of ESPN (Twitter link). Sources tell McMenamin that Davis experienced swelling in the eye and had difficulty keeping it open. He wasn’t able to return to the game, but the appointment is considered “precautionary,” McMenamin adds.

The play occurred in the third quarter when Davis blocked a dunk attempt by Toronto center Jakob Poeltl, writes Dan Woike of The Los Angeles Times. As they met at the rim, Davis was inadvertently hit in the eye and fell to the court. Coach J.J. Redick told reporters that Davis was experiencing issues with his vision after the incident.

“I just know that he got poked in it,” Redick said. “He was having trouble seeing. Obviously taking a little bit of trauma to the eye, it takes a little bit of time to get your clear vision back. But other than that, no update.”

There’s more from Los Angeles:

  • LeBron James posted 19 points, 16 assists and 10 rebounds Sunday night, making him oldest player in NBA history with triple-doubles in back-to-back games, McMenamin adds (Twitter link). With his 40th birthday approaching next month, James talked about the effort that goes into remaining one of the league’s top players. “It’s pretty cool that with the amount of miles I’ve put on the tires, lack of tread on these tires, and I’m still able to get up and down the highway and do it at a high level,” James said. “I just try to give everything to the game outside of the game before the game even starts, if that makes sense. I arrive here four to five hours before the game, and I’m already doing all the things to put me in position to be the best I can be when the fans are here and the ball is tipped and everybody’s going crazy.” James added that he “won’t do it until the wheels fall off, I’ll tell you that.”
  • Redick is impressed by the way Cam Reddish has adapted his game for the good of the team, per Khobi Price of The Orange County Register. Reddish made his second straight start on Sunday night, and he appears comfortable in that role. “You just kind of have to have a long-term view and really embrace the things required for that specific team to get on the floor,” Redick said. “And for us, having a defensive presence guarding the primary matchup, primary scorer, those are the things that we need Cam to do. I told him early in preseason, I said, ‘look, we’re going to figure out the offensive part of it and where we can have you feel like you have a role there. But full stop for you to get on the floor, it has to be on the defensive end.’ And over the last week, he’s really embraced that.”
  • Dalton Knecht hasn’t lost his confidence despite a rough start to his NBA career, Price adds. The first-round pick is a three-point shooting specialist, but he’s connecting at just 27.8% from beyond the arc in his first nine games. “I’m not speaking for him, but I think for shooters, it’s hard mentally when you get off to a slow start shooting the ball,” Redick said. “It can kind of weigh on you. I’ve talked to him about it, he believes the next shot’s going in every single time. And so do I.”
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Pacific Notes: Melton, Reddish, Bronny, Suns

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

Warriors guard De’Anthony Melton said it felt “amazing” to be back on the court Friday night after missing five games due to a back strain, writes Sam Gordon of The San Francisco Chronicle. He was able to play 18 minutes, contributing 10 points, two rebounds and three assists as he moved right back into coach Steve Kerr‘s expanded rotation.

“Aggravation and they wanted to be cautious about it,” Melton said of the injury. “They just want to make sure I’m staying strong right now. Staying solid in terms of everything. Not worrying about necessarily being out there all the time, but the long haul.”

Melton experienced back pain while playing for Philadelphia last season and was unavailable for 40 of the final 45 regular season games. Golden State was aware of his physical issues when it signed him in free agency this summer, and the team’s medical staff is being careful in how it’s handling him.

“I’ve got a lot of trust in what they do,” Melton said, “and they’ve gotten me this far, so I’m in it.”

There’s more from the Pacific Division:

  • Lakers coach J.J. Redick considers his starting lineup to be “fluid,” per Khobi Price of The Orange County Register, so any changes like Friday’s move to replace D’Angelo Russell with Cam Reddish may not be permanent. Reddish put up modest stats with three points and five rebounds, but he impacted the game on defense, particularly in his matchups with Paul George. “Every team is different, every coach is different,” Reddish said. “I just go out there and do what (Redick) tells me to do. In my past life, I was going out there doing what I wanted to do. That doesn’t necessarily work all the time.”
  • Several members of the Lakers showed up Saturday night to support Bronny James in his first G League game, according to Dan Woike of The Los Angeles Times. The group included Redick, general manager Rob Pelinka, Russell, Anthony Davis and of course Bronny’s father, LeBron James. He posted six points, three rebounds and four assists for South Bay.
  • 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.
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Western Notes: Adams, Whitmore, Lakers, Thunder

November 8th, 2024 at 9:20pm CST by Luke Adams

After missing all of last season due to knee surgery, Steven Adams has been active for just four of the Rockets‘ first nine games this season, including his return to Oklahoma City on Friday. The veteran center is fully on board with not playing every game, recognizing that his recovery from last year’s surgery is an ongoing process that needs to be handled carefully, writes Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle (subscription required).

“As you progress, you feel a slightly bit better,” Adams said. “It’s natural for you to think that you could just go and do whatever you want. But that’s not the case because we have this new confidence because then it would create a pretty serious setback. So, just being able to be real about it and just obviously lean on the advice and the overall process that we put in place and really just relying on that.”

Entering Friday’s game, Adams had averaged just 12.3 minutes per game across three appearances, well shy of his career average of 26.8 MPG. The big man likely won’t approach that mark this season, but he could see his role expand to some extent if he makes it through the first few weeks of the season with no health-related setbacks. So far, so good on that front.

“I feel good,” Adams said ahead of Friday’s matchup with the Thunder, per Feigen. “It’s fun to be out there, good to get some reps with the boys.”

We have more from around the Western Conference:

  • In a separate story for The Houston Chronicle, Feigen writes that the Rockets view Cam Whitmore‘s assignment to the G League not as a demotion but as an indication that they’re serious about his development. “When we send a player to (the Rio Grande Valley Vipers), it’s precisely because we value them and the playing time they’ll get down there,” general manager Rafael Stone said, noting that the Vipers run the same system the Rockets do. “We very much look at it as an opportunity.” Whitmore played NBA rotation minutes for much of his rookie season, but the return of Tari Eason and the addition of Reed Sheppard has made playing time harder to come by for the second-year guard this fall.
  • The Lakers made a change to their lineup on Friday, with Cam Reddish taking D’Angelo Russell‘s spot in the starting five. According to Spectrum SportsNet sideline reporter Mike Trudell (Twitter link), head coach JJ Redick said he liked the idea of having Reddish’s defense in the starting lineup and Russell’s offense off the bench, but he made it clear it may not be a permanent change and isn’t an indictment of D-Lo.
  • Jalen Williams is the Thunder player who stands to benefit the most from Isaiah Hartenstein‘s eventual debut, contends Rylan Stiles of SI.com. Stiles suggests that having an effective screen-setter and pick-and-roll partner like Hartenstein to play alongside should help elevate Williams’ game when he’s running the offense during Shai Gilgeous-Alexander‘s minutes on the bench. Hartenstein continues to recover after fracturing his left hand during the preseason.
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Lakers Notes: Davis, Centers, Reddish, Christie

November 5th, 2024 at 12:28pm CST by Luke Adams

Lakers big man Anthony Davis is averaging a league-leading 32.6 points per game on a career-high 57.1% field goal percentage through seven games, but he aggravated a left foot injury in the fourth quarter of Monday’s disappointing loss in Detroit, writes Dave McMenamin of ESPN.

Sources tell McMenamin that Davis has not yet been ruled out for Wednesday’s game in Memphis, which is the last stop on the team’s five-game road trip. However, the Lakers figure to be cautious with the nine-time All-Star, who dealt with the foot issue from the end of last season through the Paris Olympics.

“I’ll talk to my trainer and just kind of figure out what exactly is going on,” Davis told reporters. “I’ve been managing it since this summer, honestly, and my goal for every game is to be on the floor. And I just kind of landed directly on the spot that’s been killing me. So, we’ll figure it out.”

The Lakers’ other star, LeBron James, declined to speculate on how the club might handle a situation in which Davis misses time, but he acknowledged it would be difficult to replace the league’s leading scorer in the lineup.

“I don’t play the ‘if’ game,” James said, per McMenamin. “We’ll go off what AD says and see how he feels over the next couple of days and go from there. But it don’t take a rocket scientist to know (the impact) if AD’s in or out. C’mon.”

Here’s more on the Lakers:

  • If Davis does have to miss Wednesday’s game or any time beyond that, the Lakers will find themselves pretty shorthanded in the middle, notes Jovan Buha of The Athletic. Jaxson Hayes remains available despite the NBA reopening its investigation into a 2021 domestic incident, but Christian Wood (knee surgery) and Christian Koloko (return-to-play conditioning) are out, as is small-ball center Jarred Vanderbilt (foot surgeries). When Hayes isn’t on the floor, L.A. might have to turn to rookie two-way big man Armel Traore or use a small lineup with James or Rui Hachimura at the five, according to Buha, who says neither option would be ideal.
  • Veteran forward Cam Reddish played a season-high 14 minutes on Monday after appearing in just one of the Lakers’ first six games. He didn’t score, but he grabbed five rebounds and was a plus-10 in the 12-point loss to the Pistons, as Khobi Price of The Orange County Register writes. Head coach J.J. Redick said that Reddish “earned some trust” as a result of his showing on Monday. LeBron also lauded the former first-round pick for stepping in and acquitting himself well. “Cam was great,” James said. “He did exactly what was asked of him. He came in and he defended at a high level. He was great.”
  • Dan Woike of The Los Angeles Times takes a closer look at how veteran point guard D’Angelo Russell attempted to pull struggling teammate Max Christie out of his slump and increase his confidence ahead of Monday’s game in Toronto. Christie – who signed a four-year, $32MM contract over the summer – had his most effective outing of the season, with seven points and five rebounds in 13 minutes, but was unable to carry that momentum into Wednesday’s contest. He played just four first-quarter minutes against Detroit, with Reddish taking his spot in the rotation for the rest of the night.
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Los Angeles Notes: Leonard, Harden, Lakers Rotation, Redick

October 1st, 2024 at 6:54pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Clippers star forward Kawhi Leonard anticipates he’ll be on the court for the team’s regular season opener, ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk writes. Leonard has been dealing with inflammation in his right knee during the offseason. However, Leonard acknowledges knee issues will remain an ongoing concern.

“Everything has been going great for the past month, but being very cautious for reasons in the past we haven’t been able to finish some playoff runs, so making sure we’re staying healthy for those important moments,” he said. “Trying to maintain it and figure it out. We’ll be in here for a long time if I started describing stuff [about the injury and treatment] … but just learning on how it came and how to keep it down and make sure that we don’t fall in that timeframe of [missing time in] those important [late-season] moments and just making sure I’m healthy. There’s certain stuff that we could do or try to do to make me last.”

Leonard, who signed a three-year max extension in January, is encouraged by the fact he played more often last season.

“I played my most games I’ve played in a long time last year,” Leonard said. “Last two years I came back from ACL and been injured and it’s a progression for me. It was successful for us last year. Obviously from a fan base [perspective] or just from my own competitive nature, we didn’t reach a goal [of winning a title]. But in the grand scheme of things and how my body’s been doing it, it was a good year. I went from zero games to 52 to 68. So let’s see if I could keep it going from there.”

We have more on the Los Angeles teams:

  • With Paul George signing with the Sixers and Russell Westbrook also out of the picture, the Clippers will lean heavily on 35-year-old James Harden this season. Harden says he’s up to the challenge, Ben Golliver of the Washington Post tweets. “It’s definitely going to involve a lot of me,” Harden said. “There was talk when I was in Houston… ‘You can’t win like that.’ You just saw a guy [Luka Doncic] last season make the Finals playing the same exact way I played.”
  • Lakers first-year coach J.J. Redick envisions a nine-man rotation, Jovan Buha of The Athletic tweets. Redick mentioned Gabe Vincent, Jarred Vanderbilt, Jaxson Hayes, Max Christie, Cam Reddish and Jalen Hood-Schifino as some of the candidates for bench rotation spots.
  • Redick and his staff are already receiving compliments from the players, according to Buha. “I just think the whole structure and foundation these coaches have brought in for us is a great start,” Austin Reaves said. “Because I feel like a lot of times last year we won games off talent. And when you have talent around structure, then you have the opportunity to do something really special.” Christie said Redick has gone to great lengths to explain his philosophy: “J.J. has done a really good job, I think, to start. Definitely imposing himself as a coach. … I think he’s done a really good job kind of explaining what our offensive identity, defensive identity and so on is going to be.”
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Pacific Notes: Wiggins, Kuminga, Davis, Lakers, Suns

September 14th, 2024 at 11:52am CST by Tristan Tucker

The Warriors explored a handful of blockbuster moves this offseason, including potential acquisitions of Lauri Markkanen and Paul George. With neither of those deals coming to fruition, the 2024/25 Warriors season relies in part on Andrew Wiggins and Jonathan Kuminga taking a leap to All-Star levels, Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area writes.

Wiggins performed at an All-Star level previously when the Warriors won the 2022 title, but his production has dipped since then. Kuminga enjoyed a modest breakout last season, averaging 16.1 points per game compared to the 9.6 PPG he registered in his first two seasons, but he hasn’t yet turned into a star level player.

Both players have star-level potential and the Warriors could submit another 50-win season if either of them erupts this year.

We have more from the Pacific Division:

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Cam Reddish Exercises Player Option With Lakers

June 29th, 2024 at 4:18pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Lakers forward Cam Reddish has picked up his minimum-salary player option for 2024/25, per Shams Charania of The Athletic (via Twitter). The move guarantees Reddish’s $2.46MM salary for next season.

Last season with Los Angeles, Reddish averaged a career-worst 5.4 PPG on .389/.336/.759 shooting, alongn with 2.1 RPG, 1.0 APG and 1.0 SPG. Health issues limited him to just 48 contests with the club, which included 26 starts.

As Jovan Buha of The Athletic tweets, now that Reddish, Christian Wood, D’Angelo Russell, and Jaxson Hayes have picked up their options for next season, the Lakers project to have 14 roster spots filled for next season, assuming LeBron James returns.

The Lakers have three rostered role players who are free agents this season in reserve 3-and-D forward Taurean Prince and backup guards Max Christie and Spencer Dinwiddie. Buha notes that Los Angeles may want to hold on to Christie, a restricted free agent.

To carve out more roster space, the front office may be looking to offload contracts. Given that Hayes and Reddish were minimal contributors during the Lakers’ stretch run and postseason, those two are among the most obvious candidates to be moved. Extracting value in return could prove difficult.

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Darvin Ham’s Position With Lakers In ‘Serious Peril’

April 30th, 2024 at 8:50am CST by Luke Adams

Darvin Ham‘s position with the Lakers is in “serious peril” following the team’s elimination from the playoffs on Monday, according to Shams Charania, Jovan Buha, and Sam Amick of The Athletic. ESPN’s Dave McMenamin agrees, citing league sources who say that Ham’s head coaching job is “very much in jeopardy.”

The Athletic’s reporters and McMenamin both say that the Lakers will take a few days to review the situation and assess what went wrong this season before making a decision on Ham’s future.

Although the Lakers finished with more regular season wins (47) than they did a year ago when they made the conference finals (43), there was a sense that this year’s team lacked an “effective direction” from the coaching staff at times, per The Athletic, and there were people within the organization confused by the way that Ham used his starting lineup and rotation over the course of the season.

As both The Athletic and McMenamin detail, Ham used a series of starting groups earlier in 2023/24 that frequently featured players like Taurean Prince and Cam Reddish, often at the expense of players that the franchise viewed more as part of its core, such as Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura, and D’Angelo Russell.

There was a sense that Prince and Reddish were given opportunities to play through their mistakes that Reaves, Hachimura, Russell, and others weren’t, per The Athletic, and some team sources suggested to ESPN that the Lakers would have finished with a better record – and a higher playoff seed – if they had stuck to a starting lineup of Reaves, Hachimura, and Russell alongside LeBron James and Anthony Davis earlier in the season.

“The job of a coach is to make the best out of what you have,” a team source told McMenamin. “And he wasn’t doing that.”

Reporting from both The Athletic and ESPN also pointed to Ham’s response to a post-Game 2 comment from Davis (“We have stretches where we just don’t know what we’re doing on both ends of the floor”) as troubling. Rather than downplay – or even agree with – Davis’ comment, Ham took exception, praising his coaching staff and telling reporters that he would “agree to disagree” with his star big man.

Team sources told The Athletic that Ham’s rebuttal unnecessarily amplified Davis’ initial comment and questioned whether engaging in a back-and-forth with one of the franchise’s cornerstones was a good idea. A club source who spoke to McMenamin, meanwhile, was “confounded” by Ham’s lack of accountability and questioned the wisdom of praising the preparedness of his staff after the Nuggets had run their winning streak vs. the Lakers to 10 games.

According to The Athletic, the contract Ham signed in 2022 was a four-year deal worth approximately $5MM per season, so there are still two seasons left on it. If they make a coaching change, the Lakers would eat the remainder of that contract.

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