Landry Shamet

Knicks Notes: Towns, Thibodeau, Hart, Shamet

January 9th, 2025 at 3:20pm CST by Rory Maher

Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns missed his third game of the season on Monday. Two of his absences have been related to patellar tendinopathy in his right knee. It’s a very common injury, but that doesn’t mean it can’t become serious down the line, according to a surgeon who spoke to Stefan Bondy of The New York Post.

“It’s the most common injury I see in basketball athletes. It’s not even classified as an injury half the time because it just kind of exists and people live with it,” said Dr. Abi Campbell, the director of the NYU Langone Center for Women’s Sports Medicine. “The fact that it’s flared up so severely that he’s had to take time out either points to the fact that it’s cautionary in order to maintain him for the next set of games. Or, it’s having such a severe flare-up that he’s not going to be able to play at full capacity and he has no other option but to come out.

“If that’s the case, I think that in the offseason the only option is to have it fully addressed because it seems like it’s been lingering and not getting better.”

Campell, who has not treated Towns or viewed his medical records, told Bondy that patellar tendinopathy is a “microtearing of the tendon” and a “chronic issue.” She guessed that Towns has likely been dealing with the injury for “years.” While it can be painful and result in limited function, it’s typically manageable — until it flares up again.

“In order to heal, there are a lot of options but unfortunately most of them [like a PRP injection] need to be done in the offseason because they require some down time,” Campbell said. “So the natural way — which I’m sure he’s been doing for a long time — is doing blood-flow restriction training to try to strengthen your quad muscle to take the load off the patellar tendon, all those straps and braces you see them wear. And resting.”

Here’s more on the Knicks, who are currently the No. 3 seed in the East with a 25-13 record:

Head coach Tom Thibodeau has been criticized by the media over the years for playing rotation regulars a lot of minutes. Mikal Bridges (39.1), Josh Hart (37.7) and OG Anunoby (36.5) rank first, second and seventh in the league in minutes per game, with Jalen Brunson (35.0) at No. 23 and Towns (34.6) at No. 30. Towns believes the criticism is misguided, as Bondy relays (via Twitter). “I feel like y’all give him flack all the time,” Towns said. “No matter where he is. But y’all keep talking about him and that means he keeps getting a job and that means everyone keeps respecting him and knowing what he can do for a team. He’s done it in Chicago, he did it in Boston, he did it with us in Minny. And he’s doing it here. Even before I got here. So say what you want about Thibs — he gets the job done.”
Hart has accumulated six technical fouls this season, but he’s working to avoid them going forward, according to Bondy. “Some of the techs I got, I haven’t even cursed so I kind of been surprised by them,” Hart told The Post. “So I’m not going to say what ref but I asked him, ‘Do I have a bad reputation? Or what? Man-to-man, let me know. Because I’m trying to work on it.’ And he was just like, ‘No, you’re an amazing competitor. But sometimes in the heat of competition, it’s like you’re against us, too. Like you look at it 8 on 5.’ Which I do sometimes. So I think my complaining and getting techs hurts us. We’re giving them free points or the ball or whatever it is and those kind of things. So it’s just something I’m trying to be more cognizant of and work on.”
Veteran guard Landry Shamet recently had his contract guaranteed after New York decided to retain him past the cut-down deadline. He tells James Edwards III of The Athletic that he appreciates the opportunity to have a second chance with the Knicks after being cut during preseason due to a shoulder injury. “Playing for a lot of different teams, a lot of different teammates, seeing a lot of different situations, great players, different coaching styles, I think you just build up your memory bank and things you can draw from,” Shamet said. “I’m grateful for the journey I’ve had so far and thankful to be here and try to build and grow with this group.”

Knicks Notes: Shamet, Towns, Brunson, Robinson

December 29th, 2024 at 11:03am CST by Arthur Hill

Now that he’s back with the Knicks, Landry Shamet talked to Stefan Bondy of The New York Post about the injury that nearly cost him his latest NBA opportunity. Shamet was on his way to earning a roster spot in October when he dislocated his shoulder four days before the final cuts had to be made. Because his contract wasn’t guaranteed, the team let him go to give him time to heal, then re-signed him last week.

“There’s stretches in the first week where it’s just really acute and I can’t even lift my arm to wash under my arms or brush my teeth,” Shamet said. “There’s periods of time where you’re like, ‘God,’ And that’s what I talk about with the mental piece. Not only are you dealing with injury, rehabbing something you’ve never dealt with before, but now you’re away from your teams, kind of out of rhythm. So that part could be challenging. And there were days for sure where it was pretty bleak. Like, ‘Groundhog Day.’ Like, ‘Ahh, we’re still here. It still hurts.’ But then you had days where there were big jumps and you’re like, ‘OK.’ So both feelings were prevalent.”

Shamet could have opted for surgery, but after consulting with doctors he chose to let the shoulder heal naturally so he could resume playing more quickly. Bondy notes that the non-surgical path was a risky option, and it didn’t work for Julius Randle when he suffered a similar injury last season.

Shamet has seen his playing time gradually increase in his three games since returning, and he appears headed for a place in the rotation after posting seven points and two steals in 10 minutes Friday night. Shamet provides another veteran at the wing who can help reduce the burden on the starting lineup.

There’s more from New York:

Karl-Anthony Towns has been a tremendous addition for the Knicks, but he hasn’t been able to shake the foul problems that often plagued him in Minnesota, Bondy notes in a separate story. Coach Tom Thibodeau wants Towns to be more focused about avoiding unnecessary fouls that can force him to come out of games. “There’s good aggressive fouls and there’s fouls that are obviously cheap that you have to clean up,” Thibodeau said. “I think that’s the important thing for him to understand — the difference between the two and how it’s being called.”
Jalen Brunson heard some “MVP” chants Saturday night at Washington as he scored 55 points in an overtime victory, per Steve Popper of Newsday. It was Brunson’s third 50-point game since joining the Knicks, which ties him for second in franchise history. “We needed it,” Josh Hart said. “This one was a tough one for us. Back-to-back. I felt a little old today. So a lot of us felt the same way. We were a little slow. But he made big shots. That’s why he’s the captain. Find a way to win.”
It looks like Mitchell Robinson will be sidelined until at least late January, so it could be hard to trade him by the February 6 deadline, James L. Edwards III of The Athletic states in a mailbag column. Edwards expects the Knicks to look for another center on the trade market, and he suggests that Isaiah Stewart would fit well with the current roster if the Pistons would accept Robinson and Precious Achiuwa in return.

Knicks Notes: Towns, Brunson, Shamet, Sims

December 25th, 2024 at 1:02pm CST by Arthur Hill

Karl-Anthony Towns has played on Christmas Day before, but this year’s game is special because it’s at Madison Square Garden, writes Zach Braziller of The New York Post. Towns, who grew up in the New York area, was always far from home in his previous Christmas contests, but an offseason trade to the Knicks has him playing in front of family members and friends.

“It’s my first one home,” he said. “I never got to do that. So this is going to be fun, to be able to do it in front of your family. It’s crazy for me growing up in this area and to be watching the Knicks always play on Christmas Day, watching [Carmelo Anthony] go crazy on Christmas Day. And now to be in a position where I get to have my name in the history of Knicks players to play on Christmas, it’s a huge honor.”

Braziller notes that Christmas Day games have been a tradition for the Knicks dating back to 1947, and today’s contest marks their 12th one in the past 15 years. Although some NBA players would prefer to be off for the holiday, Towns considers it an honor to be included.

“I like playing basketball. It’s a great Christmas present for me,” he said. “I get to go out there and lace the shoes up and play. So I’m excited.”

There’s more from New York:

Offseason trades for Towns and Mikal Bridges have made the Knicks less reliant on Jalen Brunson to carry the offense, Braziller adds in a separate story. The latest example came Monday when they comfortably beat Toronto despite an off night from Brunson, who was limited to 12 points while shooting 4-of-13 from the field and 0-of-5 from beyond the arc. Brunson is taking 4.4 fewer shots per game than he did last season, but his shooting percentages and assist rate have improved. “I think it’s going to open it up for him even more,” Bridges said. “When you have to respect everybody, you can’t help as much. You don’t help, it’s going to be tough to guard him. Just trying to keep teams honest, so they have to play straight up, and that’s when JB will be in kill mode.”
Landry Shamet only played one minute in his first game back with the Knicks, but Ian Begley of SNY states in a mailbag column that he’s likely to get a chance to earn a spot in the rotation. Begley points out that the team has one of the lowest-scoring bench units in the league and suggests that Shamet may be able to ease the burden on the starting guards and wings.
The Knicks were asking for at least two second-round picks in return for backup center Jericho Sims when teams inquired about him during the offseason, Begley adds. Sims may be expendable once Mitchell Robinson returns from offseason ankle surgery.

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.”

Knicks Notes: Cap Situation, Starting Five, Hart, Anunoby

December 23rd, 2024 at 4:40pm CST by Luke Adams

After waiving Matt Ryan and signing Landry Shamet, the Knicks are operating approximately $535K below their hard cap for the 2024/25 season.

Ryan will count toward the cap for $621,439 in dead money, while Shamet’s new cap hit is $1,343,690, though he’ll technically earn $1,682,008 if he remains under contract beyond January 7 on his minimum-salary deal (or if it’s already fully guaranteed, which has not been confirmed).

Due to that small gap between their team salary and the second tax apron, New York will be unable to fill their 15th roster spot until later in the season, once the prorated veteran’s minimum dips low enough to fit below the hard cap.

Their cap situation could change if they continue to swap players in and out of that 14th spot, if they sign anyone to a 10-day contract, or if they make an in-season trade. But based on their current team salary, the Knicks would be able to add a veteran as a 15th man as of March 1, when the cap hit for a prorated minimum deal would be $527,878.

Here’s more on the Knicks:

Good injury luck – along with an aversion to load management – has allowed the Knicks to establish cohesion with their new-look starting lineup, writes Stefan Bondy of The New York Post. The team’s five starters have missed a total of just three games (two for Karl-Anthony Towns and one for Josh Hart) and the group has played a league-leading 459 minutes together, posting a +7.0 net rating. Only two other five-man lineups around the NBA have logged more than 250 minutes so far this season.
While the Knicks were in New Orleans over the weekend for a game against the Pelicans, Hart credited his former head coach Willie Green for “changing the trajectory” of his career. Hart was a Pelican when Green took over as the team’s coach in 2021. “He was my third coach in three years,” Hart said, according to Bondy. “Coming off Stan (Van Gundy), where I probably had one of the worst years of my career. And Willie just kind of believed in me. I didn’t want to come back (to New Orleans), but I talked to him and we got on the same page at the beginning of that year. … He trusted in me as a player, but more so as a person. And that really gained my confidence. … He changed things for me.”
The Knicks raised eyebrows over the offseason when they re-signed OG Anunoby to a five-year deal worth $212.5MM, the most total guaranteed money any team committed to a free agent in 2024. But Anunoby is rewarding the team’s belief in him so far — he hasn’t missed a game this season, has increased his scoring averaged to 16.6 points per game, and – as Steve Popper of Newsday writes – has continued to play his usual form of lock-down defense. “I know OG puts a lot of guys in jail,” Hart said on Saturday. “He’s someone we’re good with putting him on the island with whoever, big or small, and he’s going to change shots. I don’t understand how he does half of it. … He’s a monster to a defense all by himself and he should be a first-team or second-team All-Defense for sure. We’re comfortable with that matchup against him and anybody.”

Knicks Add Landry Shamet, Waive Matt Ryan

December 23rd, 2024 at 8:37am CST by Dana Gauruder

DECEMBER 23: The Knicks have announced the signing of Shamet (Twitter link). Both roster moves are now official.

DECEMBER 22: The Knicks have agreed to a standard contract with guard Landry Shamet, ESPN’s Shams Charania reports. It’s a one-year deal, James Edwards III of The Athletic tweets.

To make room for Shamet and remain under the second-apron hard cap, the Knicks have waived forward Matt Ryan, the team’s PR department tweets.

It’s not surprising New York brought back Shamet. who dislocated his shoulder during the preseason while participating in Knicks training camp. He remained with the Westchester Knicks in the G League while rehabbing his injury and the NBA club was simply waiting for him to get back to full strength. Coach Tom Thibodeau commented on Shamet’s status a week ago.

“It’s good to see him out there healthy again,” Thibodeau said then. “(But) there’s a number of things that have to happen before he can play with us.”

Shamet was likely to make the opening night roster prior to the injury. He had signed a non-guaranteed, minimum-salary contract during the offseason.

He was waived before opening night. Shamet appeared in 46 games with Washington last season and averaged 7.1 points in 15.8 minutes per contest. He has also played for Philadelphia, the Los Angeles Clippers, Brooklyn and Phoenix in 348 total regular season outings.

Ryan was inked to a non-guaranteed contract in early November and appeared in nine Knicks games, but logged very few minutes in those outings.

Assuming he goes unclaimed on waivers, Ryan will count for $621,439 in dead money on New York’s books. The cap hit for Shamet’s contract will depend on when he officially signs — if it’s officially finalized on Monday, the deal will carry a cap charge of $1,343,690 for the Knicks.

Atlantic Notes: Knicks/Raptors Dispute, Shamet, Simmons, Beekman, Celtics

December 17th, 2024 at 3:02pm CST by Luke Adams

The NBA has scheduled an arbitration hearing regarding the Knicks/Raptors dispute for late July, reports Stefan Bondy of The New York Post (Twitter link). As Bondy points out, that means the hearing will occur nearly two years after the Knicks initially filed a lawsuit against the Raptors and over a year after a U.S. District Court judge referred the matter back to the league.

The Knicks filed a suit in August 2023 alleging that former video coordinator Ikechukwu Azotam illegally took thousands of proprietary files with him to a position with the Raptors and shared them with his new club. New York was seeking $10MM in damages from Toronto.

The Raptors, referring to the suit as “baseless,” argued that the issue ought to be resolved through the NBA’s arbitration process rather than in court. The Knicks countered by contending that commissioner Adam Silver can’t provide an impartial ruling due to his close relationship with Raptors chairman Larry Tanenbaum, who is also the chairman of the league’s Board of Governors.

The Knicks, who have put out statements every step of the way criticizing the league for its handling of the situation, did so again on Tuesday.

“Last June, the Courts ordered the NBA to arbitrate this theft of proprietary and confidential files – and now, after the NBA sat on this for seven months, we are being told that we will finally get a hearing in another seven months,” an MSG spokesperson said (Twitter link via Bondy). “We remain skeptical because the NBA has consistently demonstrated no desire to address this matter, most likely due to the fact that the Chairman of the NBA is the defendant.”

We have more from around the Atlantic:

Landry Shamet, who dislocated his shoulder during the preseason, returned to action on Monday for the Westchester Knicks, scoring 10 points on 4-of-10 shooting in 20 minutes. There has been a belief that the Knicks will re-sign Shamet once he’s healthy and ready to contribute at the NBA level, but that won’t happen quite yet, according to head coach Tom Thibodeau, who attended Monday’s game (Twitter video link). “It’s good to see him out there healthy again,” Thibodeau said. “(But) there’s a number of things that have to happen before he can play with us.”
Ben Simmons played a season-high 31 minutes on Monday in his first game as the Nets‘ primary point guard following the trade of Dennis Schröder, but struggled running the offense and turned the ball over six times in a blowout loss to Cleveland, notes Brian Lewis of The New York Post. “I think it’s just reading the game. When you speed up, you’re gonna have more errors,” said Simmons, who was making an effort to push the pace. “But that’s on me to just know where my guys are gonna be and taking care of the ball as a point guard.”
New Nets two-way player Reece Beekman wasn’t active on Monday, but he’s embracing his new opportunity after being sent to Brooklyn in the Schröder trade, Lewis writes in a separate New York Post story. “For this to be my rookie year and not even halfway through the season for me to get traded is a little crazy,” Beekman said. “But that’s life in the league. So I just got to be able to adjust fast. Just blessed for this opportunity. New situation, but got to get settled in and be ready to hoop. Just do whatever the team needs. I’m coming in with a work-hard mentality and try to do what’s best for the team to put ourselves in a better position.”
Brian Robb of MassLive takes a look at what the Celtics can and can’t do on the trade market this season, given their second-apron restrictions, and considers whether the team has any areas of need to address.

How Injuries To Players On Non-Guaranteed Contracts Have Impacted Teams’ Caps

December 6th, 2024 at 10:01pm CST by Luke Adams

In most cases, an NBA team has the ability to waive a player on a non-guaranteed contract at any time before the league-wide salary guarantee date on January 7 to avoid being on the hook for the remainder of that player’s salary.

However, that equation changes if the player is injured at the time he’s placed on waivers. In that case, one of two rules applies:

If the player’s contract includes Exhibit 9 language, the team incurs a cap hit of $15K when the injured player is waived.
If the player’s contract does not include Exhibit 9 language and he’s waived on or before January 7, the team continues to pay the player until he has fully recovered from the injury or for the rest of the season, whichever comes first.

Cases that fall into the first category often fly under the radar unless the injury is serious or the player is a well-known veteran, since $15K isn’t enough to make a noticeable dent in a team’s overall salary. However, there were a couple notable instances this fall of players on Exhibit 9 contracts suffering injuries and counting against their respective teams’ caps for $15K.

One was Knicks guard Landry Shamet, who appeared on track to make New York’s opening night roster before he dislocated his shoulder in the preseason. The Knicks waived Shamet and took on a $15K cap hit in the process, which isn’t entirely insignificant for a team currently operating just $581K below its second-apron hard cap. That extra $15K cap charge won’t majorly alter the Knicks’ plans, but it’ll force the team to wait a couple extra days to fit a 15th man under its hard cap later in the season.

Lakers camp invitee Jordan Goodwin also sustained an injury during the preseason, resulting in a $15K cap hit. Los Angeles had been operating just $45K below the second apron, so accounting for Goodwin’s $15K cap charge moved the team to within $30K of the second apron. Again, that shouldn’t really affect the way the Lakers handle business on the trade market or in free agency during the season, but even that slight difference is notable for a team operating with such a razor-thin margin below the restrictive second apron.

Spurs camp invitee Nathan Mensah is the other player who was injured in camp and left his team with a $15K cap charge. But San Antonio is operating way below the luxury tax line and will barely notice that extra $15K.

Exhibit 9 contracts are only effect during the summer and preseason. Once the regular season begins, there are no players on contracts with Exhibit 9 language — a player like Shamet, if he had made the Knicks’ regular season roster, would have had his Exhibit 9 contract turned into a standard one-year non-guaranteed deal.

That means the second rule outlined above applies to any player on a non-guaranteed contract who suffers an injury between opening night and January 7. Pacers center James Wiseman is the most noteworthy example so far in 2024/25.

Wiseman remains on Indiana’s roster for now and his contract is still non-guaranteed, but even if the club waives him today, his full $2,237,691 cap figure will remain on the Pacers’ cap for the rest of ’24/25, since his torn Achilles tendon is expected to sideline him for the rest of the season. Indiana has to continue paying Wiseman until he recovers from his injury or until the end of the season, so waiving him will create no cap relief.

While the Pacers aren’t right up against a hard cap or an apron threshold like the Knicks and Lakers are, the $2.2MM+ cap charge for Wiseman is far more significant than a $15K hit for an Exhibit 9 player, and it could have a real impact on what Indiana can do on the trade market. Currently, the team is hovering just $500K below the luxury tax line.

The Pacers will want to avoid becoming a taxpayer this season, so their ability to take on an extra salary in a trade is now noticeably more limited than it would be if they could cut Wiseman and remove more than two-thirds of his cap hit from their books.

Eastern Rumors: Knicks, B. Brown, Stewart, Springer, Bulls

December 2nd, 2024 at 2:06pm CST by Luke Adams

Since Landry Shamet dislocated his shoulder during the preseason, scuttling his chances of making the Knicks‘ opening night roster, reports have indicated that the club is highly likely to re-sign him if and when he gets healthy.

Michael Scotto of HoopsHype confirms as much and adds another detail to those reports. According to Scotto, if Shamet returns, the hope in New York is that Matt Ryan – who is currently on a non-guaranteed contract – will clear waivers and rejoin the club on a two-way deal.

The Knicks have an open 15-man roster spot, but don’t have enough breathing room below their hard cap to carry both players on standard deals, so Ryan would have to be cut if Shamet re-signs.

Here are a few more rumors from around the Eastern Conference:

Although the Raptors declined offers of multiple second-round picks for Bruce Brown at last season’s trade deadline, there’s a widespread belief that the versatile swingman will be back on the trade block this season, per Scotto. Brown, who is on an expiring $23MM contract, continues to make his way back from arthroscopic surgery on his right knee and appears to be getting closer to making his season debut.
Isaiah Stewart‘s demotion to a bench role this season for the first time since his rookie year has led executives around the NBA to believe that the Pistons‘ big man will be available on the trade market this season, according to Scotto. Stewart is in the first season of a four-year, $60MM contract that features flat annual cap hits of $15MM.
Confirming previous reporting, Scotto says the Celtics gauged the trade market for Jaden Springer and his $4MM expiring contract in the fall. While there were teams willing to take on Springer if it means acquiring draft compensation from Boston, the C’s weren’t interested at that time in giving up draft capital to move off of the guard’s contract, Scotto reports. It will be interesting to see if that changes before the trade deadline.
Explaining the recent uptick in trade rumors surrounding the Bulls, Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times says, citing a source, that the only new development in Chicago is that the team is “starting to look at a more responsible asking price” for veterans like Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic. The Bulls remain unwilling to attach a first-round pick to LaVine though, Cowley notes.

Atlantic Notes: Maxey, Brown, Tatum, Knicks, Barnes

November 20th, 2024 at 10:09pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Sixers All-Star point guard Tyrese Maxey explained his thinking behind some of the comments he made during a team meeting on Monday, writes Tony Jones of The Athletic. Philadelphia had fallen to a 2-11 record after losing to the Heat and former Sixers star small forward Jimmy Butler.

Maxey reportedly called out All-NBA Philadelphia center Joel Embiid for tardiness issues and occasional unexcused absences.

“I wanted to speak up,” Maxey said. “I felt the need to do that because I wanted to share that we are better than what we have shown on the floor. There was a lot said, but it is what it is. We said what we had to say and we have to figure out a way to move on to the rest of the season. Everyone understands what’s at stake. Everyone is feeling the hurt.”

Despite an awful start to their season, the Sixers reportedly have no plans to fire either head coach Nick Nurse or general manager Daryl Morey.

Maxey, who had missed Philadelphia’s last six games, suited up alongside fellow All-Stars Embiid and Paul George for the first time this season against Memphis on Wednesday.

There’s more out of the Atlantic Division:

On Tuesday, Celtics All-Stars Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum helped Boston to end the Cavaliers‘ 15-game winning streak to open the year with beefed-up, physical defense, writes Jay King of The Athletic. “I thought both of them handled the pressure and the physicality well,” head coach Joe Mazzulla said. “We played a little bit slower, but it was more important to get to the proper spacing. It was more important to get our drive-and-kick reads. And they did a great balance of handling the pressure, driving to attack, driving to get to the free-throw line, driving to find guys.” By dropping Cleveland’s record to 15-1, the reigning champs in Boston proved that they remains the class of the conference until further notice, opines Jared Weiss of The Athletic.
The Knicks are finally starting to mesh after a shaky start to the season, writes Ian Begley of SNY.tv. New York is currently riding high on a three-game win streak. “Just gelling, continuity, getting more acclimated with each other,” new trade acquisition Karl-Anthony Towns said of the club’s improvement. “Just understanding what everyone’s going to do and how they’re going to cut and just building trust with each other.”
Begley also notes that Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau continues to reiterate how much he liked the fit of free agent guard Landry Shamet with New York. Shamet, signed to a training camp deal, was cut after suffering a shoulder injury during the preseason. He has been rehabilitating while with New York’s Westchester NBAGL affiliate. Begley anticipates that, should Shamet recover this season, he will have a home with the Knicks.
Raptors All-Star forward Scottie Barnes was cleared to fully participate in practice Wednesday for the first time since suffering an orbital bone fracture last month. Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca notes that Barnes’ eventual return could give Toronto a sense of what it has in its present core. The team’s intended starting five of Barnes, Gradey Dick, Immanuel Quickley, RJ Barrett, and Jakob Poeltl has not logged a single minute together yet this season. Grange notes that Barnes will be on a minutes restriction and will don protective goggles when he does return. “We all know how to play with each other,” Barnes said. “We had some reps at it, but we couldn’t get that many due to some injuries. But now we all know how to fit in with each other, play with each other, get each other going, and we know what we all like. We’ve been at it for a little while. We’ll get things going with time.”

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