The Trail Blazers figure to be one of the more active teams in the trade market and Sean Highkin of the Rose Garden Report lists a handful of players who could be moved if the right offer comes along. That group includes Jerami Grant, Deandre Ayton, Anfernee Simons, Matisse Thybulle and Robert Williams.
Grant may be at the top of that list, according to Highkin — there’s a market for the productive veteran forward and there will never be a better time for the Blazers to move him. Rival teams are indicating that two first-rounders is more than they’re willing to give up for Grant, but that could change by the deadline. Grant had a 32-point game against San Antonio on Friday.
We have more from the Northwest Division:
In an lengthy interview with Spencer Davies of RG.org, Nuggets wing Christian Braun says he has learned from a number of veterans over the course of his three NBA seasons, including Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic. Braun, who is posting career highs in several statistics, will be eligible for a rookie scale extension next offseason.
“I mean, I’ve learned a ton in my years, not just from [Jokic]. Each player I’ve played with, I think, has done a good job of helping me out,” Braun told RG. “Just watching KCP [Kentavious Caldwell-Pope] and Bruce [Brown] and how they played off of [Jokic] helped me a lot, and they were always quick to reach out and tell me what they thought or what they saw.
” … You can take a little bit from each person. I think I’ve tried to take a little bit from each of the guys that have been in the league for a long time. Whether it was Ish Smith, DJ [DeAndre Jordan], they all do little things. Jeff Green. Just watching each person’s routine and try to take a little part of each of their routine that I like and make it mine and do it my way.
“But just watching [Jokic’s] approach and the way he was in the training room, the way he’s on the court, the way he approaches each game, his routine, his consistency. Each person, like I said, has good parts of their routine that I try to put into mine, but I’m still learning every day and trying to implement different things.”
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In mid-September, perhaps the most surprising news of the NBA offseason occurred: Adrian Wojnarowski announced that he was retiring from ESPN and the news industry as a whole. It was later reported that he would become the general manager of the basketball program at St. Bonaventure, with the school confirming the news.
Speaking to his friend and former Yahoo Sports colleague Chris Mannix, who now works for Sports Illustrated, Wojnarowski explained his decision to leave his position at ESPN to work for his alma mater. He took a major pay cut, going from $7.3MM to $75K annually, but he was “burned out” by the always-on nature of his previous job. He was already advising the school on its search for the new position, as well as doing most of the work the job entailed.
“What I was doing, it just wasn’t fulfilling anymore,” Woj said. “I was just done. This is what gets me excited. To learn something new, to be part of something like this. It’s a whole new challenge.”
Wojnarowski, 55, also revealed that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in March, which he alluded to in his retirement statement (“time isn’t in endless supply”), but the prognosis is good — he told Mannix he isn’t experiencing any symptoms, having been diagnosed early, and the cancer is “pretty limited in scope.”
Wojnarowski sent out a tweet addressing the diagnosis. “Appreciate all the kind words and concern but I’m going to be fine. My goal in sharing a prostate cancer diagnosis is to encourage screening and testing among men. Early diagnosis will make all the difference for me —- and many others too.”
There are more interesting details on Woj’s decision in Mannix’s story, which is worth reading in full.
Here are some more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
Stephen Silas was an NBA assistant for two decades from 2000-20, spending time in Charlotte, New Orleans, Cleveland, Golden State, and Dallas, establishing himself as a legitimate head coaching candidate and eventually being hired by Houston to fill that role.
However, Silas’ three-year stint with the Rockets didn’t go well. His .250 winning percentage (on a 59-177 record) is the worst in NBA history among 168 coaches with at least 200 games under their belts. His next stop wasn’t any better, as he spent the 2023/24 season as an assistant to Monty Williams on the 14-68 Pistons. Having been let go along with Williams this past offseason, Silas is coaching Team USA’s AmeriCup qualifying roster as he resets following a challenging few years.
“I’ve been enjoying the family time, and it’s important because, like, obviously my dad (former NBA player and coach Paul Silas) passed a couple years ago, and now I have a daughter who is a senior in high school, and I can actually go to the parent-teacher conferences and be there when she comes home and be there for homecoming and stuff like that,” Silas said, according to Joe Vardon of The Athletic. “It is really cool at a time that I probably needed to have after three years in Houston, one year in Detroit which wasn’t very successful. Kind of like take a step back, enjoy the fam’, do the USA thing. It’s really cathartic for me.”
As Vardon writes, a successful stint with USA Basketball could revitalize Silas’ stock and help him earn a new NBA role in 2025. Some of his players, such as Robert Covington and Frank Kaminsky, are also viewing their time with Team USA not just as an opportunity to represent their country but as a chance to show NBA teams they’re still capable of contributing.
“This is a great opportunity just to show people that I’m healthy,” Covington said. “I’ve got four or five years left of basketball in me.”
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The NBA has rescinded a technical foul called against Nuggets guard Russell Westbrook in Tuesday’s game against Memphis, writes Bennett Durando of The Denver Post. Durando notes that Westbrook seemed more puzzled than angry when he got whistled for the T for staring at Santi Aldama while running back on defense.
“I knew it wasn’t a tech,” Westbrook told reporters. “You guys know if I’m gonna get a tech, I’m gonna earn it. So I didn’t say anything, that one. So I’m happy that (the league) looked over and got it rescinded.”
The decision saves Westbrook a $2K fine and takes away a negative from a history-making night. The 36-year-old point guard came off the bench for 12 points, 10 rebounds and 14 assists, marking his 200th career triple-double.
“When you set a standard of doing something consistently, people don’t know how to react to it, and I love that,” he said. “That’s the best part of the journey, just being able to do things that haven’t been done.”
There’s more on the Nuggets:
Third-year wing Christian Braun is learning from Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic in his first season as a full-time Nuggets starter, writes Bennett Durando of The Denver Post. Murray, whose locker is next to Braun’s, often tells the 23-year-old to stay in attack mode.
“‘Keep shooting the ball. Keep being aggressive. Get up more attempts,’” Braun told The Post. “Constantly. When he’s hurt. When he’s not playing. He’s, before the game, telling me he wants me to do this. During the game, he sees this. He’ll point it out. … It’s not just shooting. He wants to challenge me. ‘Hey, I want you to pick this guy up full court.’”
Braun has been one of the bright spots of the early portion of the season in Denver, establishing new career highs in several categories (16.6 PPG, 5.3 RPG, 1.0 SPG and 1.0 BPG on an elite .558/.500/.818 shooting line in 35.3 MPG) while being tasked with slowing down the opposing teams’ top perimeter scorer. He has also posted a positive plus/minus in each of the Nuggets’ nine games thus far.
Here are a few more notes from the Northwest Division:
While general manager Calvin Booth has taken some criticism during the past couple years for letting veteran role players get away in free agency and attempting to replace them with youngsters, several recent Nuggets first-round picks are making positive strides this fall, having come up big in the team’s two wins this week.
With starters Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon unavailable due to injuries, Denver has leaned on 2022 first-rounders Peyton Watson and Christian Braun and 2023 first-rounder Julian Strawther in closing lineups alongside Nikola Jokic and Michael Porter Jr. That five-man unit has a net rating of +41.7 in 18 minutes in the past two games, both of which the Nuggets won by two points.
“I’m saying to myself, ‘Holy s–t … I never envisioned this lineup being out there to close the game,'” head coach Michael Malone said after Monday’s victory over Toronto, per Vinny Benedetto of The Denver Gazette (subscription required). Malone went back to the same group in the fourth quarter two days later to help secure a win over the undefeated Thunder.
“Talk about the epitome of ‘Project Dynasty,'” Watson said after Monday’s win, before earning his first start of the season, logging 34 minutes, and making a game-saving block in Wednesday’s victory. “Obviously, me and CB came in together, and that’s my road dog, but also adding Julian to our young core, it meant a lot to us. That was just kind of a little preview of what’s to come for us.”
Here’s more on the Nuggets:
Jazz forward Lauri Markkanen has been ruled out for a second consecutive game, according to Andy Larsen of The Salt Lake Tribune, who tweets that Markkanen will be unavailable on Saturday in Denver. Utah’s leading scorer also missed Thursday’s loss to San Antonio after exiting Tuesday’s game vs. Sacramento early due to low back spasms.
According to Larsen (Twitter link), Markkanen doesn’t anticipate a lengthy absence, indicating today that he believes he’ll return to action at some point during the team’s current road trip. That trip will include stops in in Chicago (on Monday), Milwaukee (Thursday), and San Antonio (next Saturday) before Utah returns home on November 12.
Here’s more from around the Northwest:
Timberwolves point guard Mike Conley spoke in more detail this week about the left wrist injury he has dealt with for the last few years, admitting that it prevented him from golfing over the summer after he fell on the wrist last season and aggravated an old ligament issue, per Jerry Zgoda of The Minneapolis Star Tribune. Still, Conley has gotten used to playing through the injury and plans to continue doing so.
“When I’m 50, I’ll get surgery, not right now,” he said. “The surgery is a little bit complex and I’ve been playing with it for years, so I feel like I’ll just finish it.”
Entering Friday’s bout with Denver, Conley was shooting just 22.6% from the field through Minnesota’s first four games this season, including 27.3% on three-pointers. While the wrist issue may be a factor in the veteran’s shooting struggles, the sample size is small and he’s confident those numbers will improve once he gets through an early-season adjustment period.
“I’m just trying to work back the strength of it,” Conley said. “That’s the biggest thing. The pain and stuff is gone. But there are some times when I’ll shoot it and think, ‘Ah, that’s good,’ and it’ll be like two feet short. So you’re just trying to gauge the differences and work through that as the season goes forward.”
Here’s more from around the Northwest:
In an interesting feature story, which is worth reading in full, ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne explores the philosophical “disconnect” developing within the Nuggets as they try to capitalize on Nikola Jokic‘s remaining prime years.
As Shelburne writes, Denver has lost four veteran role players — Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Bruce Brown, Jeff Green and Reggie Jackson — from the team that won the championship in 2023. General manager Calvin Booth acknowledges those departures have created some internal tension between the players and coaching staff and the front office.
“There was this urge to compete, especially from the players and the coaches and even myself,” Booth told ESPN. “You want to win, especially coming off the heels of winning the championship. And that’s probably where the tension started.
“What are you guys trying to do? Are you trying to win? Are you trying to develop? I think everybody had the best intent going in. There was buy-in. But I think competition and the focus on that can distract you from the buy-in.”
Multiple sources tell Shelburne that the Nuggets have been discussing a contract extension with Booth for months, and a deal is expected to be reached soon. Booth has largely focused on finding young players on affordable contracts to build out the Nuggets’ depth due to the roster-building restrictions of the new tax aprons, but head coach Michael Malone has typically turned to more proven veterans.
Shelburne points to big man Zeke Nnaji as “perhaps the best example” of the disconnect between Booth and Malone. After the Nuggets signed him to a four-year, $32MM rookie scale extension last offseason, the 23-year-old Nnaji saw his minutes and effectiveness decline in 2023/24, and he has only played two minutes through the first four games of this season.
Here’s more on the Nuggets, all courtesy of Shelburne: