Cam Thomas

Nets Notes: Kings Trade Talks, C. Johson, Thomas, Sharpe, K. Johnson

January 8th, 2025 at 5:16pm CST by Arthur Hill

Jordi Fernandez‘s experience in Sacramento makes him a valuable resource for Nets general manager Sean Marks as he engages in trade talks with the Kings, Brian Lewis of The New York Post writes in a subscriber-only piece. While the topics might include the future availability of De’Aaron Fox, the more immediate concern is Sacramento’s interest in Cameron Johnson, Lewis adds. The Post reported last summer that the Kings topped the list of teams hoping to acquire Johnson, and his trade value has only increased in the midst of a career-best season.

Brooklyn is believed to be asking for the equivalent of two first-round picks in exchange for Johnson. Lewis suggests that Sacramento could meet that price by offering rookie guard Devin Carter, along with a future first-rounder and other players to match salaries. That’s where input could be valuable from Fernandez, who spent two years as an assistant with the Kings before the Nets hired him as their head coach during the offseason, along with assistant coaches Deividas Dulkys and Dutch Gaitley, who also left Sacramento for Brooklyn.

“I look at the coaching staff and the front office — that relationship and that dynamic — as a partnership,” Marks said. “It’s not something where I’m telling you what to do and you go and do it, or vice versa. This is something that I should rely on them, because at the end of the day their experiences and their interactions with players — whether it’s from other teams or just being on the court — they’re up close. I’m not in the foxhole down on the court with them.

“So it would behoove me to talk to them and rely on their input. And I think, one, it’s being honest right off the get-go at the start of the season. And even before that when Jordi signed up. I mean, Jordi and I had heart-to-hearts of ‘hey, look, we’re going to build this and this is how we’re going to build it. We want to be a partnership together on this.’ So he’s been nothing but fantastic in that realm.”

There’s more from Brooklyn:

In the same story, Cam Thomas talks to Lewis about the frustration of dealing with another strain of his left hamstring two games after returning from the first one. Thomas is guaranteed another long absence, as he won’t be reevaluated until January 19 when the Nets return from an upcoming six-game road trip. “Me dealing with what I’m dealing with is tough,” he said. “But we’ve still got enough guys in here to play; we’ve got to go out there and keep playing. I’m gonna keep fighting through, keep fighting through it. I’m going to just keep going.”
Day’Ron Sharpe posted season highs with 16 points and 13 rebounds in 22 minutes Monday night, Lewis states in a separate story. Sharpe, who will be a restricted free agent this summer, is averaging 9.5 points and 8.0 boards in his last four games while shooting 53.3% from the field. “I feel like I still got some room to go. I just feel like this is the start of it,” he said. “About three games ago, I feel like I really was starting to feel like myself again. Just coming back from the injury and not playing for months, I’m just still trying to figure my way out. And I feel like this is the start of it.”
It’s no secret that the Nets are tearing down their roster in hopes of landing a high lottery pick, but the players and coaches have offered a consistent public message throughout the process, per Bridget Reilly of The New York Post (subscription-only). “I wouldn’t say it’s hard. We all understand it’s part of the business, and that this is what we signed up for on Day 1,” said Keon Johnson, one of several young players getting increased minutes during the makeover. “But one thing we can control is what’s in front of us. Night in and night out, we don’t know who is going to be laced up. We don’t know who is going to be playing, but it’s just a better opportunity for everybody to be prepared and hope that your number is called.”

Nets Notes: Thomas, Russell, Williams, December Trades

January 4th, 2025 at 9:49pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Nets aren’t sure what caused Cam Thomas‘ latest hamstring strain, coach Jordi Fernandez told reporters, including Bridget Reilly of The New York Post, before tonight’s game. Earlier today, the team announced that Thomas won’t be reevaluated until after the upcoming West Coast trip, which means he’ll be out of action for at least nine games.

Thomas has only played twice since returning from his first hamstring injury, scoring 25 points in 25 minutes Monday at Orlando and 24 points in 22 minutes Thursday at Milwaukee. It’s believed that the hamstring issue reemerged sometime during that second game.

“I think it was discomfort,” Fernandez said. “Because at some point, I can see the difference between the first half and second half, energy-wise and efficiency. But I can also think, ‘Well, you haven’t played in a while, so, you know, you’re not as fresh,’ so I don’t know. I have no idea, but, you know, he did a good job getting back and being ready to play. He started great, the two games. Orlando, and being able to get back, both games were very efficient in the first stint he played. And now this injury is — I feel for him because obviously we want CT with us, and he was doing a great job scoring efficiently. And you know, day-to-day, we want to have him around, and we will have him around, it’s just not on the court. But we know he’ll be back soon.”

There’s more from Brooklyn:

The Nets’ injury woes got worse in Saturday’s game against Philadelphia as D’Angelo Russell didn’t return after halftime due to a right shin contusion, Reilly states in a separate story. Russell was playing for just the third time since being acquired from the Lakers last weekend. Fernandez pulled his starters midway through the third quarter of the blowout loss, and Tosan Evbuomwan made his Nets debut after signing a two-way contract on Wednesday.
The team got a lift this week with the return of Ziaire Williams, who missed nearly a month with a knee injury, Reilly adds in another piece. The 23-year-old forward, who was added in a trade with Memphis over the summer, could see increased playing time while Cameron Johnson is sidelined with a sprained right ankle. “He made winning plays all over,” Fernandez said after Williams helped to seal a victory over the Bucks. “His energy was contagious. His deflections. Obviously, he made a couple of big shots, 2-for-4 from three, and the six rebounds, being all over the place. He was amazing. A lot of times, it’s just thinking, ‘I’m going to do whatever it takes for our team to win,’ and he did, and he was a big part of the win.”
In his latest Substack column, Jake Fischer examines whether the Nets got sufficient value by trading Dennis Schröder and Dorian Finney-Smith in December rather than waiting until closer to the deadline.

Nets’ Cam Thomas, Cameron Johnson To Miss Time With Injuries

January 4th, 2025 at 3:40pm CST by Luke Adams

Nets guard Cam Thomas, who missed over a month in November and December due to a left hamstring strain, sustained a new strain in the same hamstring during the team’s game on Thursday vs. Milwaukee, the Nets announced today (Twitter link via Brian Lewis of The New York Post).

According to the club, Thomas will be reevaluated following Brooklyn’s upcoming West Coast road trip. That trip begins next Friday in Denver and runs through January 19 in Oklahoma City. So even if Thomas is ready to make his return after that trip – which is hardly a lock – he’d miss the Nets’ next nine games.

It’s a discouraging setback for a player who is looking to build his case for a significant payday as a restricted free agent next summer after not agreeing to terms on a rookie scale extension with the Nets prior to the 2024/25 season. Thomas has been Brooklyn’s leading scorer when healthy, averaging 24.7 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 3.4 assists in 32.3 minutes per game across 19 outings (17 starts), with a shooting line of .448/.375/.876.

In addition to not having their top scorer available, the Nets will be missing their second-leading scorer for the next few games as well. According to the club, forward Cameron Johnson is expected to be out for at least the next three contests due to the right ankle sprain he sustained on Thursday against the Bucks.

Brooklyn’s next three games are at home, vs. the Sixers on Saturday, the Pacers on Monday, and the Pistons on Wednesday. According to today’s announcement, Johnson will be reevaluated before the team heads out West next week for its six-game trip.

Johnson is the Nets’ top trade candidate, so making sure he’s fully healthy in advance of this season’s February 6 deadline will be a priority for the team.

In addition to their updates on the two Cams, the Nets stated that Trendon Watford, who is on the shelf with a left hamstring strain, has resumed individual on-court workouts and will be reevaluated in one week. Watford hasn’t played since December 16.

Nets Notes: Thomas, Clowney, Leadership, Williams

December 31st, 2024 at 5:04pm CST by Arthur Hill

After starting the season with a 9-10 record, the Nets lost for the 10th time in their last 13 games on Sunday in Orlando, but there was a silver lining. As Brian Lewis of The New York Post writes, leading scorer Cam Thomas was active for the first time since November 25 and said after racking up 25 points, six assists, and six rebounds in just 25 minutes of action that he “felt great” in his return.

“Obviously a little sore, you know playing, come back and playing high intensity like that,” said Thomas, who was coming off a hamstring strain. “So I am a little sore right now, but at the end of day, I feel good. Felt great, playing out there. Just got to do the other things for game rhythm, conditioning and fatigue. Just getting all that back to where I was, but until I get back to that, I’ll feel good. Be ready. Be CT again.”

Thomas, who started each of his first 17 games of the season, came off the bench on Sunday and was on a minutes restriction — his 25 minutes were a season-low, excepting the game in which he got injured. He’ll likely face some form of minutes limit for a few more games while he works his way back to 100%.

“Some of the shots I was missing (Sunday), I don’t normally miss those,” he told reporters, including Lewis. “I think some of that is just, you know, obviously fatigue and legs, and just getting back to playing these kind of minutes with the defense, you know, keying in on it, almost, I just got to get back in the flow, in the flow of things.”

Here’s more on the Nets:

Noah Clowney will rely on the lessons he learned from Dorian Finney-Smith now that his former teammate has been traded to the Lakers, Lewis states in a separate story. Clowney, who’s proving himself worthy of increased minutes by averaging 13.0 points and 5.2 rebounds over the last six games, said Finney-Smith taught him to keep each game in perspective. “I got a lot of different types of advice,” Clowney said. “Just keeping a level head through it all, knowing what a long-term goal is, things like that. It’s 82 games, you know? You can’t stress over all things like that.”
Trading away Finney-Smith and Dennis Schröder in the past two weeks has left a lack of veteran leadership in Brooklyn, notes Bridget Reilly of The New York Post. That was evident Sunday as the Nets couldn’t hold onto a 17-point fourth quarter lead against the Magic. “Today we just needed one more grown-up to bring the guys together and calm everybody down and execute on the defensive end and win the game,” coach Jordi Fernandez said. “And it didn’t happen. So I put that on all the guys on our team that are over 23 years old, that those are our grown-ups. And if you cannot do that, then it’s just going to be tough.”
Nets wing Ziaire Williams, who has missed the team’s past 11 games due to a left knee sprain, was a full participant in Tuesday’s practice and hopes to play in one half of Brooklyn’s back-to-back set vs. Toronto on Wednesday and Milwaukee on Thursday, tweets Lewis.
Sources tell Lucas Kaplan of NetsDaily that the Nets are highly motivated to use their projected $70MM in cap space this summer “if the right opportunity” comes along. Kaplan cautions against being too aggressive about spending at this stage of the rebuild and recommends tanking for another season before moving forward in the summer of 2026.

Luke Adams contributed to this post.

Kings Notes: Trade Talks, Brown, Fox, Carter

December 30th, 2024 at 4:21pm CST by Rory Maher

As the Kings began to slide down the Western Conference standings over the past several weeks, the front office contemplated making smaller trades “just to change things up,” and also discussed larger deals involving Bulls wing Zach LaVine, Pelicans forward Brandon Ingram, Nets guard Cam Thomas, and Wizards forward Kyle Kuzma, league sources tell Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.

According to Shelburne, the Kings consulted with former head coach Mike Brown on whether to make roster or coaching staff changes prior to parting ways with the 2023 Coach of the Year.

“Nobody wanted to fire Mike,” one Kings source told Shelburne. “He’s a good coach. People here really care about him. Until the very last moment we were trying to make it work.”

Sources tell Shelburne that general manager Monte McNair, assistant GM Wes Wilcox, team president Matina Kolokotronis and owner Vivek Ranadive had “several calls and meetings” to discuss Brown’s future with the organization during Sacramento’s recent 0-5 homestand. McNair ultimately called Brown to inform him of the decision as Brown was driving to the airport to board a team flight to L.A. — the timing and execution of the move drew criticism from around the NBA.

After speaking to Brown, McNair and Wilcox called De’Aaron Fox, DeMar DeRozan and Domantas Sabonis to let them know, but none were consulted beforehand, Shelburne reports.

Shelburne also confirms a report from The Athletic stating that Kings players had grown weary of Brown publicly bashing the team in post-game press conferences.

For what it’s worth, Marc Stein writes that it’s a “struggle to find anyone around the league” who thinks the firing of Brown was justified (Substack link).

Here’s more on the Kings:

There has been some speculation that Fox may have been unhappy with Brown, in part because of the way the veteran coach criticized him for committing a disastrous foul in the closing seconds of Thursday’s loss to Detroit, but the former All-Star tells Shelburne he enjoys being coached hard and was on good terms with Brown. “I feel like there’s this perception that people thought that we were at odds,” Fox says. “You can ask anybody in this organization: me and Mike have never even had an argument. We could disagree with something. We talked about it and it was gone.”
According to Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report, there have been “grumblings in NBA circles” suggesting that Fox will ask to be traded before the February 6 deadline. With that in mind, Pincus comes up with a hypothetical deal that sees Fox land with the Rockets.
Rookie guard Devin Carter made his NBA G League debut with the Stockton Kings on Saturday and was recalled prior to Sunday’s matchup with the Lakers, though he didn’t end up playing in what would have been a back-to-back (Twitter link via Sean Cunningham of Fox 40 Sacramento). Still, it’s obviously a positive development, as Carter is inching closer to making his NBA regular season debut following offseason shoulder surgery.

Nets Notes: Russell, Thomas, Johnson, Scott

December 29th, 2024 at 1:52pm CST by Rory Maher

Following the reported trade that will see the Nets send Dorian Finney-Smith and Shake Milton to the Lakers for D’Angelo Russell, Maxwell Lewis and three second-round picks, Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated suggested (via Twitter) that Russell could be a buyout candidate to monitor.

Michael Scotto of HoopsHype hears that isn’t being considered (Twitter link), with the two sides planning for Russell to head to Brooklyn for a second stint as Net. The impending free agent made his lone All-Star appearance with the team back in 2018/19, Scotto notes.

As Keith Smith of Spotrac writes, part of the reason a Russell buyout seems unlikely is because he earns $18.7MM, well over the non-taxpayer mid-level exception, so he would be ineligible to sign with teams operating over either of the tax aprons if he were released.

Russell has never been known for his consistency and that has been particularly true in ’24/25, with the former No. 2 overall pick seeing his averages drop across the board, including career lows in points (12.4) and minutes per games (26.2). The 28-year-old has started 510 out of 600 regular season games in which he’s appeared during his 10-year career, but has come off the bench for the majority of this season, making just 10 starts in 29 appearances.

Here’s more from Brooklyn:

The Nets will get their leading scorer back on Sunday vs. Orlando, tweets Brian Lewis of The New York Post. Cam Thomas, who was previously listed as probable, will return to action after missing the past 13 games with a left hamstring strain. Brooklyn went just 4-9 without the 23-year-old — the team’s offense was ranked eighth in the league prior to the injury, but was 29th in the games he missed, according to Lewis (Twitter links). “He’s done a great job to get himself healthy and ready to play with his teammates…We’re excited to have him back,” said head coach Jordi Fernandez. “His teammates were excited. He was excited, had a smile on his face. So it’s a good day for us.”
Forward Cameron Johnson was sidelined on Friday with a hip contusion but he’ll return on Sunday as well, Lewis adds. According to Ian Begley of SNY.tv (Twitter link), rival teams that continue to be under the impression that the Nets value Johnson and have placed a high asking price for him in trade talks, though it’s unclear what specifically they’re looking for in return. The 28-year-old is posting career highs in several statistical categories.
The Nets’ G League affiliate in Long Island has completed a trade, acquiring Tre Scott and a 2026 NBAGL second-round pick from the Osceola Magic in exchange for big man Patrick Gardner. Scott holds two games of NBA experience, having suited up for Cleveland on a 10-day contract back in ’21/22.

Nets Notes: Claxton, Thomas, Williams, Clowney

December 25th, 2024 at 7:59pm CST by Rory Maher

Nic Claxton cashed in as a free agent last summer, re-signing with the Nets on a four-year, $97MM+ contract. However, he isn’t meeting his own expectations thus far in 2024/25, and Brian Lewis of The New York Post (subscriber link) argues Brooklyn’s starting center isn’t living up to the team’s investment, either.

“I’m not pleased with nothing, honestly,” Claxton said. “I need to be better, more consistent.

“Everywhere: rebounding, free throws, protecting the rim, more blocks. I need to do everything better. Be more aggressive on offense. Everything.”

Claxton’s numbers are down across the board in 2024/25, with the 25-year-old averaging 9.3 points, 7.0 rebounds, 2.0 assists, and 1.3 blocks per game while shooting 59.4% from the floor in 23 appearances (24.8 MPG). Last season, he averaged 11.8 PPG, 9.9 RPG, 2.1 APG and 2.1 BPG while shooting 62.9% from the field in 71 games (29.8 MPG).

In fairness, Claxton has also dealt with injuries, having missed all of preseason action with a hamstring injury and then dealing with a lower back strain which required him to receive an epidural injection. But the Nets have been more effective when he isn’t playing, which certainly isn’t what they were hoping for after giving him a big contract.

Here’s more from Brooklyn:

Cam Thomas (left hamstring strain), who played 5-on-5 on Monday, will be sidelined again on Thursday, Lewis writes for The New York Post. The Nets are eager to get their leading scorer back in the lineup — their offense has sputtered in the month he’s been out, Lewis notes. “It’ll be nice when we get Cam Thomas back just to have some … a real half-court bucket, half-court scorer,” Claxton said. “That’ll be good. We’re missing him right now a lot.”
Ziaire Williams (left knee sprain) is also nearing a return, but he’ll miss at least one more game, having been ruled out of Thursday’s matchup in Milwaukee, Lewis adds. Both Thomas and Williams will be restricted free agents next offseason if they’re tendered qualifying offers.
Noah Clowney has been playing some of his best basketball of the season after a “desultory effort” vs. Cleveland on Dec. 16 saw the second-year big man foul out with two points, two rebounds and two turnovers in 17 minutes, according to Lewis. Clowney credited an attitude adjustment for his improved play. “My main goal since the Cleveland game has been to be better energy-wise for my team,” Clowney said. “A lot of body language issues I had, and I’m trying to be an energy-giver. I feel like — I was told — [there’s] no neutral energy. It’s either bad or good. So try to give good energy. So that’s been my main goal, as far as how I play. [You] make shots sometimes, you don’t make shots sometimes. Do what you can on the defensive end. Just try to control what you can.”

Eastern Notes: Shamet, Nets, Lillard, Middleton, White

December 24th, 2024 at 5:46pm CST by Luke Adams

Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau is happy to have Landry Shamet back on his roster after the veteran wing recovered from the dislocated shoulder he suffered during preseason with the team. Praising Shamet for his leadership and ability to play multiple positions, Thibodeau said the 27-year-old had a “great” training camp and was deserving of a roster spot once he was healthy.

“He’s been around, he’s played in big games,” Thibodeau said (Twitter video link). “He knows how to play off people extremely well. The three-point shooting, he can handle the ball (or) play off the ball.”

After officially re-signing with the Knicks on Monday, Shamet was active for the club’s game vs. Toronto and made a brief appearance in the fourth quarter with 84 seconds left and New York holding a 16-point lead. He made a 13-footer on his first possession for the Knicks’ final points of the night.

“I was so amped up today, man, I’ve been chomping at the bit for a while,” Shamet said after the win, according to Peter Botte of The New York Post. “It just felt good to be back in the building, suit it up, be with the guys, lock in on a game plan, and be a teammate. I’m just grateful that I felt good to get in the game there at the end and kind of just see the first one go in.”

Here’s more from around the Eastern Conference:

Injured Nets guards Cam Thomas and Ziaire Williams are nearing their respective returns, per Brian Lewis of The New York Post, who says both players participated in 5-on-5 action on Monday. “It seems like they’re getting close,” head coach Jordi Fernandez said. Thomas (left hamstring strain) has been out since November 25, while Williams (left knee sprain) hasn’t played since Dec. 1.
Bucks guard Damian Lillard missed Monday’s game due to an illness, but the calf issue that sidelined him on Saturday has improved, tweets Eric Nehm of The Athletic. “He’s doing much better,” head coach Doc Rivers said. “I expect him to possibly be ready (for Thursday’s game vs. Brooklyn), but then he gets sick.” Rivers, who jokingly referred to the illness affecting Lillard, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and other Bucks as the “Vegas flu,” clarified on Monday that the bug began circulating before the NBA Cup semifinals. “About a week before Vegas, (this illness) has gone down the chain of guys getting sick, but it happens,” Rivers said.
With Lillard and Antetokounmpo unavailable vs. Chicago on Monday, Bucks forward Khris Middleton looked like his old All-Star self for a second straight game, scoring a team-high 21 points on 9-of-15 shooting in just 23 minutes to lead the club to a comfortable 21-point victory. Jim Owczarski of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has the story.
Coby White‘s .414 FG% and .358 3PT% are his lowest marks since his rookie year, and he has been especially struggling as of late, shooting 27.8% on three-pointers since Nov. 27. But the Bulls guard isn’t using ankle and groin injuries as an excuse, tweets K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Sports Network, and his teammates aren’t worried about him, according to Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times. “There’s ups and downs throughout an NBA season,” Zach LaVine said on Monday. “We’ll all be OK.”

Injury Notes: Strus, Embiid, Suggs, Booker, Nets

December 20th, 2024 at 1:17pm CST by Luke Adams

Cavaliers wing Max Strus, who initially hoped to make his season debut last Friday, is being listed as questionable for tonight’s Central Division showdown with the Bucks and has a chance to suit up for the first time this season, writes Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com.

Strus sustained a hip contusion early in the preseason and was nearing a return from that injury when he sprained his right ankle during an individual workout just days before the season opener. He has been recovering from that sprain for the last two months.

“Nine weeks is a very long time,” Strus said on Thursday. “It’s been hard. There’s been definitely dark days. But this is the best team. Best vibes ever been around. These guys have made it easy and kept me involved and kept me around and made sure to reach out at times when I needed it. I’m itching to get back.”

As Fedor writes, Strus’ impending return is coming at a good time, given that the player who replaced him at small forward in the starting five – Isaac Okoro – is now sidelined with an injury of his own. Strus will be on a minutes restriction upon returning, so he may not reclaim his starting role right away, Fedor writes, but there’s excitement within the organization about how he’ll fit in head coach Kenny Atkinson‘s offense.

“It’s been fun to watch from the outside, but also frustrating that I haven’t been able to be a part of it. Hopefully sometime soon I could join the party,” Strus said. “The way we’ve played offense and scored the ball, it’s kind of everything I’ve wanted to do since I’ve been here. We struggled with that last year.”

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

Sixers star Joel Embiid (sinus fracture) practiced on Wednesday and Thursday and is considered questionable to play on Friday vs. Charlotte, tweets Tim Bontemps of ESPN. The 76ers announced on Monday that Embiid would be reevaluated in one week, but it sounds like he has a good chance to return to the court before that one-week evaluation date.
Magic guard Jalen Suggs sustained an ankle injury on Thursday vs. Oklahoma City, as Jason Beede of The Orlando Sentinel tweets. Suggs injured the ankle late in the first half and started the third quarter, but was pulled after less than four minutes and didn’t play the rest of the night. “As he comes out in the second (half) I just saw there wasn’t a high pace,” head coach Jamahl Mosley explained. “I mean, there were moments of it but I just want to make sure he’s going to be OK for the long haul.” Orlando is already playing without forwards Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner, so the team will be hoping Suggs doesn’t have to miss much – if any – time.
[UPDATE: Suggs has been listed as probable to play on Saturday vs. Miami, per Beede.]
Suns guard Devin Booker exited Thursday’s game vs. Indiana in the third quarter with left groin tightness and didn’t return, writes Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic. Booker’s status for Saturday’s game vs. Detroit remains unclear.
Nets guards Cam Thomas (left hamstring strain) and Ziaire Williams (left knee sprain) are making progress in their respective recoveries but aren’t yet cleared for contact, according to head coach Jordi Fernandez (story via Bridget Reilly of The New York Post). “They’ve been able to shoot, and that’s all they’re doing right now,” Fernandez said. “It’s step by step.” Meanwhile, Nets forward Trendon Watford was out for Thursday’s game due to left hamstring soreness — Watford missed the first 13 games of the season due to a left hamstring strain.

New York Notes: Achiuwa, Brunson, McBride, Thomas, Claxton

December 6th, 2024 at 8:19am CST by Tristan Tucker

Knicks big man Precious Achiuwa made his season debut on Thursday after missing the first 22 games of the season with a hamstring injury. ESPN’s Tim Bontemps first reported (via Twitter) that Achiuwa’s debut was dependent on how warmups went. He ended up playing 12 minutes in a blowout win over Charlotte, finishing with two points and four rebounds.

Achiuwa’s return is a boon for a Knicks team that has had its frontcourt depth depleted by injuries in the early going. Center Mitchell Robinson has yet to play this season as he deals with an ankle issue, which left Jericho Sims and Ariel Hukporti as the team’s only true bigs behind Karl-Anthony Towns until Achiuwa’s return.

The Knicks sit at 14-8, good for fourth in the Eastern Conference. They opened the season 5-6 before beginning to really click and winning nine of their last 11 games. New York made big offseason swings for both Towns and Mikal Bridges, the former coming right before the beginning of the regular season.

Adding Achiuwa should only help the team continue its climb up the standings. A part of the OG Anunoby deal last December, the former Raptor made 18 starts for New York in 2023/24 across his 49 appearances. He averaged 7.6 points, 7.7 rebounds, 0.6 steals and 1.1 blocks per game for the Knicks.

According to the New York Post’s Peter Botte, Achiuwa received an ovation in his return.

“[The reception] means a lot to me. Obviously, New York to me is very dear to my heart,” Achiuwa said. “So just being able to go out there and hearing the crowd, it meant a lot to me. … Watching from the sideline has been very tough, but just being out there and knowing that the crowd is behind me throughout the whole process has been very reassuring.”

We have more from New York:

Knicks star guard Jalen Brunson took a hard hit in New York’s win over Charlotte on Thursday, exiting the game late in the third quarter and not reutrning, according to Newsday’s Steve Popper. It doesn’t sound like anything serious though, as the Knicks were up big late when Brunson returned to the bench and likely held him out for precautionary reasons. He was sporting a wrap on his back/ribs, but said after the game that he felt amazing.
The three-year, $13MM extension Miles McBride signed approximately one year ago is looking like a bargain for the Knicks. He became integral to the team in the second half of last season, averaging 11.0 PPG while making 36.8% of his three-point attempts in the 2024 playoffs. Through 17 games this season, McBride is averaging career highs of 11.2 PPG and 2.8 APG on a career-best shooting split of .462/.435/.909. In a subscriber-only story, Stefan Bondy of the New York Post explores what the young guard would earn if he were signing a new contract now, positing that the deal would likely be somewhere in the range of $10-12MM annually. The former West Virginia guard expressed no regrets about signing his contract when he did, though. “There are a lot of people that are out here struggling, and I’m having fun,” McBride said. “I’m playing well. I’m on a great team. I’m more than happy.”
High-scoring Nets guard Cam Thomas has missed the last five games for Brooklyn while he nurses a hamstring injury. According to the New York Post’s Brian Lewis, Thomas is still in the early stages of his recovery and there’s no timetable yet for his return. “I’m just doing whatever the performance team has me doing. It’s still early,” Thomas said. “I’m just doing whatever they have me doing, just a little bit here and there. But it’s all right.”
Nets center Nic Claxton — who signed to a four-year, $100MM extension last offseason — fluctuated between the bench and starting unit in the first 14 games of the season while dealing with a back injury. Lucas Kaplan of NetsDaily questions whether there’s any reason to worry about Claxton, who averaged just 8.5 points per game in those first games of the season. “I think in professional sports, especially in this league, a lot of these guys play with bumps and bruises. What we need them is to believe that they’re good to go,” head coach Jordi Fernandez said. “And if we feel like a guy is not confident, we’re gonna let them make the decisions, I think that’s fair. If you play and you are afraid to get hurt, guess what? You’re going to get hurt. So we don’t want that for Nic or anybody in our group.” Claxton’s numbers are his lowest since becoming a starter and Kaplan suggests that he isn’t playing with the same level of explosiveness.
On the other hand, Lewis posits that Claxton is rounding into form after averaging 12.0 points, 7.7 rebounds, 1.0 steals and 1.0 blocks in his last three games (all starts). “Yeah, I’m getting there, for sure. It’s taking a while, but I’m getting there,” the Nets center said.

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