Jonathan Isaac Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Southeast Notes: Isaac, Beal, Bryant, Bamba

July 13th, 2020 at 7:25pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The prospects for Magic forward Jonathan Isaac playing during the league restart are improving, Chris Hays of the Orlando Sentinel writes. Isaac, who hasn’t played since he injured his left knee on New Year’s Day, hasn’t been allowed in contact drills yet but he is participating in other team drills. He’s “optimistic” about returning, according to Josh Robbins of The Athletic (Twitter link). “I have no reservations in my mind about it,” Isaac said. “If I’m ready to play and if I get the clearance, I’m ready to go.”

We have more from the Southeast Division:

Wizards All-Star guard Bradley Beal, who will sit out the restart, has joined a group of investors bidding to buy the New York Mets, according to Vaughn McClure of ESPN. Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce is also part of the group that has joined forces with Alex Rodriguez and pop star Jennifer Lopez attempting to purchase the team. The group has submitted an initial bid of $1.7 billion.
Wizards center Thomas Bryant reportedly tested positive for COVID-19 last week. However, it appears Bryant will eventually join the club in Orlando, Ava Wallace of the Washington Post tweets. “He’ll be back with us in a little while,” teammate Troy Brown said. “The biggest thing is making sure he’s OK.”
Magic big man Mohamed Bamba used the time off to bulk up, he told Hays in a separate Orlando Sentinel story. “My mentality the whole entire time we were quarantined was to gain an inch every day and it really took, literally, every day going through it to get to where I am,” Bamba said. “It took changing my diet, it took intense workouts and it took leaning on the Magic’s strength and conditioning staff to provide a plan for me.”

Magic Notes: Coronavirus, Fultz, Aminu, Isaac

July 7th, 2020 at 3:51pm CST by Luke Adams

The Magic became the first team to report to the NBA’s Walt Disney World campus on Tuesday, but not all of the team’s players were in attendance. Here are a few of the latest updates on the Magic:

A player on the Magic – who hasn’t been identified – tested positive for COVID-19 and didn’t accompany the club to Disney, tweets Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press. According to Nick Friedell of ESPN (Twitter link), president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman said the Magic expect the player to rejoin the team once he’s cleared to do so.
Point guard Markelle Fultz has a non-coronavirus personal matter to address and has been excused from reporting to the NBA’s campus for now, according to Reynolds (Twitter links). He’s expected to rejoin the club at some point too.
Injured forward Al-Farouq Aminu didn’t travel with the team to Disney and is continuing his rehab work at the Magic’s practice facility, tweets Roy Parry of The Orlando Sentinel. It’s not clear whether Aminu still has a chance to return this season.
The Magic’s other injured forward, Jonathan Isaac, is with the club at the NBA’s Disney campus, notes Parry (Twitter link). Isaac continues to rehab the knee injury that has sidelined him since the start of January, but remains unlikely to play this summer. “He’s at the stage where he can do a little light court stuff, but that’s about it,” Weltman said of Isaac, according to Josh Robbins of The Athletic (Twitter link).

Southeast Notes: Iguodala, Beal, Magic, Hornets

June 30th, 2020 at 3:45pm CST by Luke Adams

Andre Iguodala turned 36 years old in January, but that didn’t stop him and the Heat from agreeing to a contract extension when he was dealt to Miami at the February trade deadline. Speaking to Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald, Iguodala said that the new deal, which provides a $15MM guarantee for 2020/21 and a $15MM team option for ’21/22, was something both sides pushed for at the time of the trade.

“Both sides knew the window we have — my window and the team’s window,” the Heat forward said. “We all know about when teams want cap space. It’s hard to get acclimated with a group of guys in two months. The locker room is a special place. I wanted to be somewhere where I could grow with the guys, a lot of the young talent that I have a good impression of, help them grow, especially Bam (Adebayo), Kendrick Nunn, Tyler (Herro) and Duncan (Robinson). I didn’t want it to be a two-, three-month thing.”

As Jackson points out, the Heat hadn’t expected to be a major player on the 2020 free agent market, so adding $15MM for Iguodala to next season’s books shouldn’t hurt the team. And in the 2021 offseason, the $15MM team option can be turned down with no penalty if the club needs to create cap room.

Here’s more from around the Southeast:

General manager Tommy Sheppard said this week that the Wizards will be “very protective” of star guard Bradley Beal during the NBA’s restart, but there’s no indication Beal won’t play as the team pushes for the final playoff spot in the East, writes Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington.
Magic head coach Steve Clifford still isn’t committing one way or the other on whether Jonathan Isaac and Al-Farouq Aminu will be available this summer, per Josh Robbins of The Athletic (Twitter link). Asked today about the two injured forwards, Clifford replied, “They’re both in here working every day. … I just think it’s really early to try to make an intelligent decision on anything like that.”
Joe Wolf, who has been the head coach of the Hornets‘ G League affiliate for the last two seasons, won’t have his contract with the Greensboro Swarm extended, the club announced today in a press release.

Latest On Jonathan Isaac, Al-Farouq Aminu

June 10th, 2020 at 8:16pm CST by ChrisCrouse

Jonathan Isaac‘s rehab from his sprained left knee is going well, sources tell Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel. However, it’s widely expected that Isaac will not play once the season resumes. The Magic have been cautious with bringing their young talent back from injury, as they were with Isaac previously, Mohamed Bamba, and Markelle Fultz.

The status of Al-Farouq Aminu, who underwent knee surgery back in January, is also up in the air, though it doesn’t sound like he’ll rejoin the team. Getting healthy and getting in basketball shape are two different objectives.

“They have not played basketball in a long, long time,” president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman said. “So it’s more than just saying, ‘Your knee is strengthened.’ It’s a matter of reconditioning and making sure that we’re not putting any of our players at risk for further injuries. So we’ll see as we go along how we get there. But I’m not prepared to apply any timeline or anything like that at this point. They’ve got a lot of work ahead of them.”

If the two forwards are not playing, it’s hard to see them joining the team in Disney World. The Magic are the current owners of the eighth seed in the East, sitting 5.5 games ahead of the Wizards for that spot.

Isaac, Aminu Unlikely To Play Until Next Season

June 5th, 2020 at 8:43pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Magic forwards Jonathan Isaac and Al-Farouq Aminu are unlikely to return this season despite the extended layoff, according to Roy Parry of the Orlando Sentinel.

Isaac suffered a knee injury on New Year’s Day and hasn’t played since that game in Washington. Isaac was establishing himself as a defensive force before the severe left knee sprain.

Aminu hasn’t played since November 29. Aminu underwent arthroscopic surgery in early January to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee.

The Magic were granted a disabled player exception for Aminu but were denied another one for Isaac’s injury.

“Not a whole lot of news there,” Orlando president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman said of the duo. “As always, we’re going to wait and see how they respond to rehab. They’re both working very hard.”

Both players have guaranteed contracts for next season and the Magic plan to proceed with caution. Orlando is currently No. 8 in the Eastern Conference as play is expected to resume on July 31.

“There’s a difference of being healthy and then being safely healthy,” Weltman said. “It will have been a long, long time since those guys played and you know organizationally that we’re never going to put our guys in a position where they’re exposed to any sort of risk of injury. So that being said, we’ll just continue to see how they progress.”

Injury Updates: Gordon, Kaminsky, Blazers, Isaac

May 22nd, 2020 at 8:48pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Rockets shooting guard Eric Gordon expects to be able to play if the 2019/20 NBA season resumes, per Fox 26 Houston’s Mark Berman (Twitter link). Gordon, who underwent November right knee surgery, has been in and out of the lineup since then. The extra two months off (and counting) provided by the pause in NBA play has been beneficial for Gordon’s health.

“I’ll be ready to roll (if play resumes),” Gordon said. “I can only focus solely on this team and basketball.”

There are further health updates from around the NBA:

Suns big man Frank Kaminsky, out since January with a right patella stress fracture, claims that he is now “ready to make a push towards playing again” if the NBA resumes regular season play, according to Gina Mizell of The Athletic (Twitter link).
The Trail Blazers frontcourt will be getting some serious reinforcements if the NBA’s regular season returns, The Athletic’s Jason Quick reports. Starting center Jusuf Nurkic, sidelined since breaking his leg on March 25, 2019, and starting power forward Zach Collins, out of commission since undergoing surgery for a dislocated left shoulder three games into his season, are now both fully healthy. Blazers All-NBA guard Damian Lillard expressed excitement for their return to what had been an injury-ravaged Portland roster. “It’s going to be a completely different situation, and we’ll be close to full strength,” Lillard said.
The status of Magic forward Jonathan Isaac for the rest of the 2019/20 season remains up in the air, according to Josh Robbins of The Athletic (Twitter link). A serious knee injury paused Isaac’s third season on January 1st. Isaac, one of the team’s most promising young players, ran on an Alter-G anti-gravity treadmill earlier this week. This marked the first time he had run at all since the injury.

Mixed Reviews On Jonathan Isaac’s Future

May 6th, 2020 at 7:15pm CST by ChrisCrouse

Jonathan Isaac suffered a severe left knee sprain on January 1 while playing the Wizards in Washington, D.C. and suddenly, a player who was enjoying a breakout season had even more question marks.

The 22-year-old, who is expected to make a full recovery, will be eligible for a rookie-scale extension during the 2020 offseason and there are varying opinions on his value in the league, as Josh Robbins of The Athletic reports.

“Before he got hurt, I thought he was the best defensive player in the league,” one NBA scout told Robbins. “His ability to defend multiple positions, his size, his length, quickness, understanding of what was going on and how to guard people, recovery, instincts — I think he has a potential to be a premier defensive player in the league. I just think the sky’s the limit for him.”

The Magic will try to lock him up long-term, but it’s unclear how much they are willing to pay the former No. 6 overall pick. Isaac only played 27 games during his rookie season. He managed to participate in 75 games during the 2018/19 campaign before his knee woes limited him to just 32 this season.

“The durability remains a huge issue,” a second NBA scout said. “His scoring and shooting still is problematic. He’s not a No. 1, No. 2 or No. 3 (option on offense), and that’s what they drafted him to be at sixth in the draft. He’s another guy who was somewhat over-drafted. He’s young and all that, but to me, you’ve got to have a scoring and shooting component.”

Southeast Notes: Isaac, Augustin, Hornets, Carter

April 1st, 2020 at 8:59pm CST by Arthur Hill

In an interview with Josh Robbins of The Athletic, Magic forward Jonathan Isaac expressed hope that he can return if the season doesn’t resume for a while. Isaac is working his way back from a severe knee sprain he suffered in early January.

“If I’m ready to play when this thing adjourns, I want to play,” he said. “I can’t really speak for the front office. I can’t speak for everybody as a whole. At the end of the day, it really comes down to them because they want to make sure that everything is good, that I’m preserved and everything. And that’s great. But if I’m in a place where my knee is great, my mental (outlook) is great, my spirit is great and I’m in a place where I can play a game and I have a couple of weeks of conditioning, a couple of weeks of basketball where I’m like, ‘I’m set and I’m ready to play,’ then I’ll go ahead and play.”

This is the second injury-shortened season in three years for Isaac, who was averaging 12.0 PPG in 32 games before getting hurt. He added that his ability to train is limited right now because the team facility is shut down.

There’s more from the Southeast Division:

Magic guard D.J. Augustin hasn’t lost hope that the season will resume, writes Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated. “The only hard part if we do come back this season is guys having a rhythm and skills being on point,” Augustin said. “But in terms of being in shape, I will be in shape when we come back. I’m hoping we come back. We’re missing the game, and the fans are missing the game. I feel like we had a lot to prove this season. We were in a good spot. … I’m hearing things may pick up in July and go into September.”
To help his young team understand postseason intensity, Hornets coach James Borrego is having players watch old playoff games during the break, according to Zach Lowe of ESPN. He picked a seven-game series from 2012 between the Lakers and Nuggets. “Part of this is to show them what physical playoff basketball looks like,” Borrego said. “This is where we want to get to someday. Let’s study it.”
In the latest episode of his Winging It podcast with the Ringer, Hawks veteran Vince Carter talks about the possibility that he may have already played his final NBA game.

Eastern Notes: Dunn, Mykhailiuk, Pistons, Isaac

March 30th, 2020 at 7:58pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Lauri Markkanen’s fit in the Bulls’ offense is the biggest question facing the franchise, Mark Schanowski of NBC Sports Chicago writes. The organization must figure out if he can become a consistent 20-point, 10-rebound player. There will probably be little roster turnover but the organization is likely to allow point guard Kris Dunn to walk. The Bulls would have to give Dunn a $7.1MM qualifying offer to make him a restricted free agent but they are already deep at point guard.

We have more Eastern Conference news:

Swingman Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk at minimum established himself as a solid rotation player with the potential to be a key piece for the Pistons, according to Keith Langlois of the team’s website. Mykhailiuk doused the perception that he’s just a 3-point shooter by displaying his offensive versatility this season, including times when he functioned as a primary ballhandler. The team holds a $1.66MM option on Mykhailiuk’s contract for next season and there is little question that they’ll exercise it, Langlois adds.
The Pistons will have a top-10 draft pick and they’ve been buried in film study during the hiatus, Rod Beard of the Detroit News writes. Detroit had the fifth-worst record when play was halted. “The whole league is watching video,” senior advisor Ed Stefanski said. “We’ve seen some (of the top prospects). Everyone has a bank of information on players, so we’re all in the same boat.”
Magic forward Jonathan Isaac is continuing his rehab from a severe knee sprain, even though the team’s practice facility is shuttered, as Josh Robbins of The Athletic details. Isaac, who suffered the injury at the beginning of the calendar year, is following a workout program designed by the team’s training staff from his home. “They’ve got a detailed layout of everything that I’ve got to do,” he said. “They send it to me and I get it done. But it works. I like it that way. I know what I’ve got to do each day, and I put some music on and I knock it out.”

Eastern Notes: Boucher, Aminu, Heat, Celtics

March 16th, 2020 at 10:40pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Raptors forward Chris Boucher has apologized on social media for violating the team’s self-quarantine mandate, Blake Murphy of The Athletic tweets. Boucher was spotted grocery shopping in Toronto. The Raptors were asked to isolate themselves after playing the Jazz last Monday, two nights before Rudy Gobert became the first NBA player known to contract the coronavirus.

We have more from around the Eastern Conference:

Magic forward Al-Farouq Aminu might be able to play if and when the season restarts, Josh Robbins of The Athletic speculates. Aminu underwent surgery to repair torn meniscus cartilage in his right knee on January 7 and he was not wearing a brace last week, Robbins notes. Forward Jonathan Isaac, who injured his knee in early January, was still wearing a brace and would be less likely to return, Robbins adds.
With the stoppage in place, the Heat are back in the luxury tax with no viable options to change that status before season’s end, Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel writes. Miami appears resigned to accepting the tax as part of its 2019/20 payroll, having bypassed opportunities to get below the tax at the trade deadline and the March 1 buyout deadline, Winderman adds.
The Celtics will pay team-employed game night staff through the end of the regularly scheduled season, Jay King of The Athletic tweets. They have no current plan to help out the employees of TD Garden who work their games regularly, as they don’t own the arena, King adds.