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Giannis Antetokounmpo Questionable For Game 4

September 5th, 2020 at 5:06pm CST by Arthur Hill

With the season on the line Sunday, the Bucks may not have their MVP on the court. Giannis Antetokounmpo has been listed as questionable for Game 4 against Miami with an ankle issue, tweets Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press, who adds that Antetokounmpo had a “very noticeable limp” today.

The injury occurred early in the first quarter of Game 3 and Antetokounmpo was seen grimacing in pain throughout the night, according to Eric Woodyard of ESPN. He still managed to put up 21 points, 16 rebounds and nine assists and said afterward that the ankle felt “great” and “it wasn’t bothering me at all.”

Antetokounmpo was named Defensive Player of the Year earlier this week and is expected to be named MVP for the second straight season. The Bucks are 5-5 in games he has missed this year, according to StatMuse.

In other injury news around the league:

  • Rockets forward Danuel House left Friday’s game early, but the team explained it was for precautionary reasons and he won’t have to enter the concussion protocol, tweets Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle. Coach Mike D’Antoni said House was fine after the game.
  • LeBron James has a sore right groin, Anthony Davis has a sprained left finger and Rajon Rondo is suffering back spasms, but the Lakers list all three as probable for Sunday, according to Feigen (Twitter link).
  • The Heat are listing Kelly Olynyk as questionable for Game 4 with the right knee issue that caused him to miss Friday’s game, tweets Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald.
  • Point guard Tremont Waters will be available for today’s Game 4, the Celtics announced. He had been sidelined with a sprained knee.
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Rockets Notes: Fertitta, House, Carmelo, Westbrook

August 8th, 2020 at 5:38pm CST by Arthur Hill

Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta doesn’t have a reputation as a free spender, but he promises money won’t stand in the way of bringing a championship to Houston, writes Jerome Solomon of The Houston Chronicle. The Rockets made moves at the trade deadline the past two years to escape the luxury tax, including a four-team deal this season that unloaded Clint Capela and brought in Robert Covington. However, Fertitta insists the tax isn’t the team’s top consideration.

“We don’t make basketball decisions of two or three million dollars based on the luxury tax,” Fertitta said. “Our whole budget this year was to be in the luxury tax.”

General manager Daryl Morey says Fertitta hasn’t ordered him to stay under the tax threshold, and the team will almost certainly exceed it next season with Russell Westbrook and James Harden each earning more than $41MM. With two former MVPs in the backcourt, Fertitta vows to spend whatever it takes to win a title.

“We want to be champions,” he said. “You win a championship, it’s probably worth $30-50 million dollars the following year to you from sponsorships, and people wanting to buy tickets and everything else. So you want to spend the money to win a championship.”

There more Rockets news to pass along:

  • Danuel House is taking advantage of his opportunity in Orlando and once again looks like the perfect small forward for the Rockets’ system, observes Rahat Huq of Forbes. Eric Gordon was supposed to move into the starting lineup after the hiatus, but a sprained ankle has prevented him from playing. Huq notes that an improvement on defense has made House more viable as a starter.
  • Carmelo Anthony‘s success in Portland has raised questions about whether the Rockets gave up on him too quickly last season, but it was an arrangement that was never going to work, contends Brian T. Smith of The Houston Chronicle. Smith argues that Anthony wasn’t willing to adapt his game and was an awkward fit with Harden, Chris Paul and coach Mike D’Antoni.
  • Westbrook and Gordon are both improving physically, but they have been ruled out for Sunday’s game against the Kings, tweets Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle. Bruno Caboclo, who is suffering from an ankle injury, won’t play either.
  • In case you missed it, Harden has been named as a finalist for MVP honors.
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Western Notes: Clippers, Lakers, House, Blazers

July 29th, 2020 at 9:25pm CST by Jovan Alford

The Lakers and Clippers will play in the second game of Thursday’s “re-opening” night. However, both teams could be missing key players.

According to Anthony Slater of The Athletic, Lou Williams and Montrezl Harrell are listed as out on the status report, while Patrick Beverley is considered questionable for the Clippers (Twitter link). For the Lakers, Anthony Davis is listed as questionable, while LeBron James, Kyle Kuzma, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope are listed as probable and should play.

With Williams in quarantine for 10 days, the Clippers are hoping Beverley, who just returned to the NBA’s Walt Disney Campus after being away for a personal matter, can step in.

Davis practiced on Wednesday with goggles on after being poked in the eye last week against the Magic. All signs point to the Lakers forward playing tomorrow night.

Here’s more from around the Western Conference:

  • Clippers head coach Doc Rivers spoke at length about how deep his team’s roster is despite missing multiple players, writes Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN. “Well, a deep roster is built for that,” Rivers said. “And we’ve done that. Now, when you have five and six guys out at one time, that’s asking too much on any roster. By the time the [seeding] games start, we won’t have that many out, but we’ll have maybe two to three key guys out, and that’s asking a lot.” As previously noted, Los Angeles will be without Williams and Harrell on Thursday night. But Kawhi Leonard echoes the same sentiment of his head coach about the depth of the roster.“I knew that we had a pretty deep squad,” he said. “I knew how talented we could be. It’s about executing now.”
  • With Eric Gordon being sidelined for two weeks with an ankle injury, Danuel House will be inserted into the Rockets’ starting lineup, per Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle (Twitter link). This season, House has started in 47 games for Houston, while averaging 10.2 PPG and 4.2 RPG. He is also shooting 36.3 percent from three-point range.
  • Trail Blazers head coach Terry Stotts told reporters this week that he expects to have a full team available for Friday’s seeding game against the Grizzlies, per Jason Quick of The Athletic (Twitter link). Portland currently trails Memphis by 3.5 games for the eighth seed in the Western Conference playoffs.
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Eric Gordon To Miss Time With Ankle Injury

July 29th, 2020 at 9:55am CST by Arthur Hill

Rockets guard Eric Gordon may be sidelined for up to two weeks after turning his left ankle in the team’s final scrimmage Tuesday night, writes Tim Bontemps of ESPN. X-rays were negative, and Gordon will be re-evaluated today.

The injury occurred late in the second quarter when Gordon landed awkwardly after jumping to make a pass. He was helped to the sidelines by teammates and wasn’t able to place much weight on the ankle.

“Hurts a little bit. He doesn’t really swell, so we won’t know until tomorrow the extent of it,” coach Mike D’Antoni told Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle after the game. “He’s going to be out a few days.”

D’Antoni moved Gordon into the starting lineup when the team reconvened in Orlando. The versatile guard has been through a difficult season since signing a four-year, $76MM extension in September. He missed six weeks after arthroscopic surgery on his right knee in mid-November and struggled with his shot after returning. Gordon is averaging 14.5 PPG, the lowest in his four years in Houston, and is shooting a career-worst 37% from the field.

There was optimism that Gordon turned a corner during the hiatus, as he reported to Orlando 12 pounds lighter, which he credited to diet changes and alterations to his workouts. He is considered a vital cog for the Rockets to succeed with their extreme small-ball lineup.

“To me it just makes sense that you do it, because one, Eric is probably our best perimeter defender,” D’Antoni said in explaining the decision to start Gordon. “So when another team has a superstar in there, he has to guard that. Two, if you don’t start him, then he’s resting for 12 minutes when he is not tired to start the game or in the second half.”

D’Antoni hasn’t decided who will take Gordon’s place as a starter while he is out of action. Bontemps notes that Ben McLemore started the second half last night, but Danuel House, who started 47 games this season, is also an option.

“We’ll see,” D’Antoni said. “It’s an easier rotation because Danuel has to back up (Robert) Covington at the 4, but Danuel could probably start. We’ll see what happens.”

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Rockets Notes: House, Gordon, Tucker, Westbrook

February 21st, 2020 at 8:28pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Rockets will have to sort out their starting lineup and bench rotation due to recent additions and subtractions and coach Mike D’Antoni will do a lot of experimenting, Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle writes. The first order of business is to choose between forward Danuel House Jr. and guard Eric Gordon as the fifth starter in the team’s small-ball lineup. House started and played 19 minutes on Thursday against Golden State but Gordon was sidelined by a shin injury.

Gordon hopes that D’Antoni doesn’t waste too much time making up his mind.  “As a player, it’s a totally different mentality when you’re starting or coming off the bench,” he told Feigen. “We definitely have to get our roles set as we go on.”

We have more on the Rockets:

  • Golden State forward Draymond Green believes the Rockets’ small-ball look is working because of P.J. Tucker‘s unselfish play as a very undersized center, Feigen relays in another story. “They look good at it,” said Green, who has played a lot of center in small ball units with the Warriors. “And they have some guys that are good at it. It helps a lot having P.J. because he can anchor that lineup. If you throw another shooter, a guard out there, it’s not going to work. The person that makes it work is P.J.”
  • By trading center Clint Capela, the Rockets opened up more space for Westbrook to operate, as Kelly Iko of The Athletic details. Westbrook believes it has made a difference. “I just try to find ways to make an impact,” Westbrook said. “Obviously, with this style of playing, different guys on the floor have to be able to guard in a lot of space, which is to my advantage. See, internally, we don’t think it’s small ball. We just play our personnel and go compete, and that’s it.”
  • Westbrook becomes nearly as efficient a scorer as James Harden when there isn’t a true center on the floor, as Kelvin Pelton of ESPN details. His true shooting percentage in those lineups is the best in his entire career. Westbrook never developed pick-and-roll chemistry with Capela and he’s benefited from having help defenders pulled away from the basket since he’s surrounded by 3-point shooters, Pelton adds.
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Rockets Notes: House, D’Antoni, Blossomgame, Shabazz

October 27th, 2019 at 10:23am CST by Arthur Hill

Danuel House credits Rockets assistant coach John Lucas for helping him to stay focused when it appeared his NBA dream may not work out, writes Sean Deveney for Forbes. House reached out to Lucas after being waived by the Wizards in March of 2017. A broken wrist had sidelined him for more than two months and he had gotten into just one game – less than a minute of playing time – with his first NBA team.

“Shut your mouth,” said Lucas, who first met House at age 13 at a Houston basketball camp. “Shut your mouth and get ready for your next opportunity.”

That came the following year with the Suns, but House found a more permanent home last season with the Rockets. He spent most of the year as a two-way player, but started 13 NBA games and eventually earned a three-year contract.

“I also told him he would be an NBA player,” Lucas recalled. “You could see he was good enough for that. I just never imagined we’d be together with the same team.”

There’s more from Houston:

  • Mike D’Antoni was among the first coaches to successfully challenge a call, but he doesn’t believe teams should keep their right to challenge if they’re correct, relays Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle. Under the newly adopted rule, coaches get to use the challenge once per game, whether they’re right or wrong. “Then you could have 20 or 30 challenges a game,” D’Antoni said. “I could see why they don’t do it.”
  • The Rockets’ G League affiliate has traded for Jaron Blossomgame, who was with Houston during the preseason. Blossomgame’s returning player rights were held by the Canton Charge, who agreed to give him up in exchange for Gary Payton II. Blossomgame impressed Rockets coaches during camp, and he was considered as a candidate for one of the team’s two-way slots.
  • The Rockets weren’t able to hold onto Ronshad Shabazz after signing and waiving him last weekend. Shabazz was selected by College Park, the Hawks‘ affiliate, with the 13th pick in Saturday’s G League draft.
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Western Notes: Walton, Chandler, Nuggets, Hardaway

September 28th, 2019 at 11:56am CST by Dana Gauruder

Kings players already feel a closer bond with new coach Luke Walton than they did with previous coach Dave Joerger, Jason Jones of The Athletic reports. Having a coach that would help bring in free agents and make current roster members want to stay in Sacramento is part of the reason why Walton was hired.

“He just comes in, and it’s an instant connection,” Kings guard Buddy Hield told Jones. “He’s played before so he knows that player relationship and now he’s a coach so he knows how to relate to us, so that’s big coming from him.”

We have more from the Western Conference:

  • Mentoring Clint Capela is a major reason why the Rockets brought in veteran center Tyson Chandler, Kelly Iko of The Athletic writes. Chandler signed a one-year contract in July. The Rockets want Capela to become an elite defensive presence and anchor and Chandler will help facilitate that process.
  • Rockets guard Eric Gordon enters the preseason as a starter but Danuel House could make a push for that status, Iko adds in the same piece.
  • The Nuggets have promoted John Beckett from director of player development to full-time assistant coach, Chris Dempsey of Altitude Sports tweets. Ognjen Stojakovic has taken over Beckett’s previous spot, while Boniface N’Dong has been added to the player development staff.
  • Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle believes Tim Hardaway Jr. has been cleared to participate in training camp, Dwain Price of the team’s website tweets. Hardaway met this week with the surgeon that performed the surgery in April on his left tibia and got a positive review. Hardaway’s availability for camp would coincide with the anticipated timetable following the surgery.
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Southwest Notes: Pelicans, Powell, House, Grizzlies

September 26th, 2019 at 6:00pm CST by Luke Adams

The Pelicans have become the latest NBA franchise to add a female assistant coach to their ranks, announcing today in a press release that WNBA Hall-of-Famer Teresa Weatherspoon has joined the franchise as a player development coach.

According to the Pelicans, Weatherspoon and newly-hired coach A.J. Diggs will serve as two-way assistant coaches, working closely with the club’s two-way players and accompanying them as they go back and forth between the Pelicans and the Erie BayHawks. Currently, New Orleans’ two-way players are Josh Gray and Zylan Cheatham.

“I am thrilled to welcome and AJ and Teresa to our coaching staff here in New Orleans,” Pelicans head coach Alvin Gentry said in a statement. “As we continue to put an increased emphasis on player development, AJ and Teresa will play an integral role with our younger players and will be a huge asset to our players and staff both here in New Orleans and Erie.”

Weatherspoon is the second former WNBA star to be hired the Pelicans this offseason, joining Swin Cash, who was named the club’s VP of basketball operations and team development.

Let’s round up a few more items from around the Southwest…

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Rockets Re-Sign Danuel House To Three-Year Deal

July 17th, 2019 at 9:49am CST by Luke Adams

JULY 17: The Rockets have made it official, formally announcing in a press release that they’ve re-signed House. Head of basketball operations Daryl Morey welcomed House back on Tuesday night (via Twitter).

JUNE 30: The Rockets and free agent forward Danuel House have agreed to a three-year deal worth $11.1MM, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (via Twitter).

The deal represents a victory for House, who turned down a guaranteed three-year, minimum-salary offer from the team when he was on a two-way contract. House reached his 45-day allotment and spent several weeks in the G League before having his deal converted to a standard NBA contract in mid-March.

The 26-year-old was placed on waivers twice this year before blossoming with the Rockets midway through the season. He appeared in 39 games, starting 13, and averaged 9.4 PPG while shooting 42% from 3-point range.

Houston is well over the cap and only holds Non-Bird rights on House, so it will have to use part of its exception to sign him.

David Weiner of Clutch Fans (Twitter link) estimates a first-year salary for House of $3.524MM, which would leave the Rockets with $2.194MM remaining if they use the taxpayer mid-level exception or $5.734MM if they opt for the non-taxpayer MLE. The team is close enough to the tax line that either option is feasible.

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Tyus Jones, Danuel House To Become RFAs

June 26th, 2019 at 12:25pm CST by Luke Adams

The Timberwolves have issued a qualifying offer to point guard Tyus Jones, ensuring that he’ll be a restricted free agent when the new league year begins on Sunday, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (via Twitter). Jones’ qualifying offer is worth $3,573,205.

Jones, 23, played an increased role for the Wolves in 2018/19, averaging 6.9 PPG and 4.8 APG in 68 games (22.9 MPG). While his qualifying offer will make him a restricted free agent, it’s not clear whether he’s in Minnesota’s long-term plans under new head of basketball operations Gersson Rosas. The club’s point guard position is in flux this offseason, with Jeff Teague entering the final year of his contract and Jones and Derrick Rose both hitting the open market.

Meanwhile, Danuel House has yet to receive his own qualifying offer from the Rockets, but Houston will make that official in the coming days, making him an RFA, tweets Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle. House’s QO is worth a projected $1,876,700.

House emerged as a reliable rotation piece for the Rockets last season, averaging 9.4 PPG and 3.6 RPG with a .468/.416/.789 shooting line in 39 games (25.1 MPG). After the 26-year-old initially joined the team on a two-way deal, Houston attempted to sign him to a longer-term deal, but he resisted, forcing a one-year agreement.

House and his camp didn’t want to be locked into a multiyear minimum-salary contract, preferring to try their luck in restricted free agency this summer. Now they’ll get that opportunity.

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