Lebron James Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Lakers Notes: LeBron, Play-In Tournament, West, Jones

February 2nd, 2022 at 7:30pm CST by Arthur Hill

LeBron James is looking at a variety of potential treatments for the swelling in his left knee, but he won’t consider platelet-rich plasma therapy, also known as PRP, Dave McMenamin of ESPN said on “NBA Today” (video link). James is being treated away from the team, and Lakers coach Frank Vogel said he has the full support of the organization in that decision, McMenamin adds.

James is listed as doubtful for tonight’s game against the Trail Blazers, and McMenamin said he’s expected to miss his fourth straight game since the swelling developed on the team’s last road trip. He was sent home early from that trip, and the Lakers have no intention of trying to play him until the swelling is gone, according to McMenamin.

There’s more on the Lakers:

James was one of the most outspoken critics of the play-in tournament last year, but it looks like the Lakers’ only hope to save their season, writes Bill Oram of The Athletic. At four-and-a-half games out of sixth place and five games ahead of 11th, L.A. is comfortably in the play-in range. With that in mind, James’ possible extended absence isn’t being met with panic. “The No. 1 goal is that he’s healthy for the long haul,” Vogel said, “and everything else is less important after that.”
Lakers legend Jerry West says his relationship with the franchise has deteriorated over the years, Sam Amick of The Athletic writes in a profile of West as one of the 75 greatest players in NBA history. West was particularly upset over the decision last year to rescind the lifetime season tickets for him and his wife that were promised by late owner Dr. Jerry Buss. “Sometimes you feel like you’re discarded, like a piece of trash,” said West, now a consultant with the Clippers. “And there’s a couple of people over there — not (owner Jeanie Buss) — but there’s a couple of people over there that, uh … I don’t get it. I don’t. … I always had a great relationship with Jeanie — at least I thought I did. I don’t know where it is now.”
Lakers two-way player Mason Jones was named the G League Player of the Month for January, tweets JD Shaw of Hoops Rumors. Jones averaged 28 points, 8.8 rebounds and 6.6 assists per game during the month.

LeBron James May Miss A Few More Games

February 1st, 2022 at 11:28am CST by Luke Adams

Despite some optimism that LeBron James might be able to return to action for the Lakers as soon as Wednesday, the star forward will remain sidelined for Wednesday’s contest vs. Portland and could miss a few more games, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).

James is dealing with a left knee injury. An MRI on the knee only showed swelling and no structural damage, but both LeBron and the Lakers want to play it safe, according to Charania. The plan is to wait until the irritation in James’ knee subsides before having him return to action.

After hosting the Blazers on Wednesday, the Lakers visit the Clippers on Thursday and then host the Knicks on Saturday. It’s unclear whether James will be able to return by the weekend or if his absence will extend into next week. Los Angeles will host the Bucks next Tuesday and visit the Blazers next Wednesday.

While the Lakers’ priority is to make sure James is healthy down the stretch and in the postseason, the team could certainly his presence in the lineup — he has now missed three games, and L.A. lost all three, slipping to 24-27 on the season. The club is the No. 9 seed in the West, but is in no immediate danger of falling out of the play-in picture, with the 11th-seeded Spurs five games back.

Malik Monk has been inserted into the Lakers’ starting lineup during James’ absence and will likely remain there until LeBron returns.

Western Notes: Williams, James, Robinson-Earl, Murray

January 31st, 2022 at 8:57pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Suns coach Monty Williams and his staff will coach Team LeBron (James) at the All-Star Game in Cleveland, according to an ESPN report. Phoenix is guaranteed to have the best record in the conference before the cutoff date of February 6. Williams will coach in the All-Star Game for the first time, and he’ll be the first Phoenix head coach to do so since Mike D’Antoni in 2007.

We have more from the Western Conference:

An MRI on James’ left knee revealed only general swelling and he might return to action as soon as Wednesday, Lakers coach Frank Vogel told ESPN’s Dave McMenamin and other media members. James has missed the last three games. “Just going to keep an eye on it day to day,” Vogel said.
The Thunder assigned Jeremiah Robinson-Earl to their G League affiliate, the Oklahoma City Blue, for a Monday afternoon game, according to a team press release. It was somewhat surprising, since Robinson-Earl has started 36 games for the Thunder and has averaged 24.7 MPG this month. Head coach Mark Daigneault said it was part of the development process, Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman tweets. “Obviously on the surface it looks a little peculiar,” he said. “What I’d say is, one thing that we’ve learned and that we’re trying to apply is that changing environments, changing circumstances, changing roles is good for development.”
Klay Thompson, Victor Oladipo and Zach LaVine are among the opposing players who have reached out to Nuggets guard Jamal Murray during his recovery from a serious knee injury, Mike Singer of the Denver Post writes. Those players have also gone through the process of a long rehab.

LeBron James Sent Home For Treatment On Knee

January 30th, 2022 at 10:41am CST by Arthur Hill

LeBron James, who had already been ruled out of today’s game in Atlanta, has been sent back to Los Angeles to undergo treatment on his left knee, tweets Dave McMenamin of ESPN.

“As long as the swelling is there, he is going to be out,” Lakers coach Frank Vogel said in a pre-game meeting with reporters.

James underwent an MRI on the knee, but all it showed was swelling, according to Kyle Goon of The Orange County Register (Twitter link).

James has missed L.A.’s past two games with what the team is calling “left knee soreness/effusion.” After today, the Lakers don’t play again until Wednesday night when they host Portland.

Pacific Notes: Westbrook, LeBron, Warriors, Fox

January 29th, 2022 at 6:50pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Lakers hope Russell Westbrook‘s performance Friday night in Charlotte will lead to better things for the rest of the season, writes Kyle Goon of The Orange County Register. With LeBron James and Anthony Davis both sidelined by injuries, Westbrook exploded for 30 points in the second half and nearly rallied the team to a road win.

Westbrook was the Lakers’ prize acquisition of the offseason, but his fit with the other two stars has been questionable so far. Although his name has been mentioned in trade rumors, Westbrook remains confident that he can make it work in L.A.

“I think ultimately when myself and A.D. and Bron is on the court, we got to be able to figure that out to where I can still keep my same speed and pace to the basket and allow me to make the game easy for them,” he said. “And it’s something that we even briefly talked about after the game, about positioning and things they saw tonight from sitting on the bench, to be able to help them out.”

There’s more from the Pacific Division:

James will miss his third straight game Sunday at Atlanta because of “left knee soreness/effusion,” tweets Dan Woike of The Los Angeles Times. The Lakers are listing Davis as questionable.
The Warriors had to adjust after Klay Thompson‘s return, but Thursday’s win over Minnesota showed how dangerous Golden State can be when all the pieces are working, per Kendra Andrews of ESPN. Thompson and Stephen Curry combined for 52 points and the Warriors shot 58.3% as a team from three-point range. “It’s a really good indicator of what our team can look like with Klay back and everybody healthy, for the most part, in terms of our shooters,” coach Steve Kerr said. “With these last couple of games, the spacing that we’ve had and the ball movement, we’ve gotten great shots.”
Kings guard De’Aaron Fox had to miss his fourth straight game tonight with pain in his left ankle, tweets James Ham of ESPN 1320.“Don’t know how long he’ll be out,” said interim coach Alvin Gentry. “It is a sore ankle. That’s been it. He dresses, he tries it and then he’s really the only one that knows the pain threshold of where it is or anything. All it is is an ankle right now, there’s not anything else going on.”

Pacific Notes: Moon, Barnes, AD, LeBron, Johnson

January 28th, 2022 at 6:50pm CST by Rory Maher

Xavier Moon, who recently completed three 10-day hardship contracts with the Clippers, is determined to make it back to the NBA, according to Andrew Greif of The Los Angeles Times. Moon’s last game was in New York City against the Knicks, and he said it was a surreal experience.

“Watching these games on TV, Madison Square Garden, everybody doing what they do and getting a chance to take the court?” Moon said. “Man, surreal.”

The 27-year-old NBA rookie has plenty of international experience, having made stops in France, England, Israel and Canada. Upon hearing that some G League teams were interested in his services late last summer, Moon decided to buy out his contract with an Italian club and give things a shot closer to home, Greif writes.

“I was like, I think I’ll hold off from going overseas this year,” Moon said. “And I think that was probably one of the better decisions that I made.”

Moon appeared in six games with the Clippers, averaging 5.5 PPG, 1.7 APG, and 1.5 RPG in 13.8 MPG. In 17 games with Agua Caliente, the team’s G League affiliate, he has averaged 13.3 PPG, 4.7 RPG, 6.6 APG, and 1.4 SPG on .489/.386/.864 shooting.

Here’s more from the Pacific Division:

The Kings are in a tailspin, losing 12 of their last 14 games to fall to 18-32 on the season, 13th in the West, and Harrison Barnes is understandably frustrated with the team’s performance, per Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. “It’s a range of emotions: frustration, anger, embarrassment, disappointment. You can go down the list,” Barnes said after posting 28 points and nine rebounds in the loss to the Hawks on Wednesday. “No one prepares and wants to lose, wants to go through losing the way we’ve been going about it. There’s a lot of frustration, but it’s on us to get out of this.”
Anthony Davis said X-rays on his right wrist came back negative after injuring it on a dunk over Joel Embiid in the Lakers‘ loss to Philadelphia on Thursday, ESPN’s Dave McMenamin tweets. Davis will miss Friday’s game against Charlotte with wrist soreness, McMenamin relays in a separate tweet.
LeBron James is also inactive Friday night for the Lakers and is considered day-to-day with left knee soreness, as Kyle Goon of the Southern California News Group details. In a follow-up tweet, Goon notes that James’ knee is swollen on top of being sore, so the team is being cautious with the 37-year-old star.
Within the same article from Goon, Stanley Johnson says he’s thrilled he was able to turn his 10-day deals with the Lakers into a standard contract that will cover the remainder of the season, with a team option for next year. “I couldn’t have dreamed of something like this in wildest my dreams,” Johnson said. “Obviously, I wanted it. … Seeing a 10-day guy with a fit like this, it’s happened before. And it will happen again. But it doesn’t happen a lot.”

Andrew Wiggins Named All-Star Starter; Morant Selected For First Time

January 27th, 2022 at 6:31pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Western Conference starter pool for next month’s NBA All-Star Game included a big surprise.

Warriors forward Andrew Wiggins was chosen along with Lakers forward LeBron James and Nuggets center Nikola Jokic among Western Conference frontcourt candidates. Grizzlies guard Ja Morant was also named a starter for the first time, joining Warriors guard Stephen Curry as the backcourt duo in the starter pool, NBA Communications tweets.

James will be a team captain once again because he is the All-Star starter from the West with the most fan votes in the West.

Wiggins was third in the most recent fan voting results among Western Conference frontcourt players but the fan vote counted for only 50% in the selection. Player voting accounted for 25% and the media also had a 25% say.

Wiggins is averaging 18.1 PPG. He beat out more decorated Western Conference frontcourt players such as Rudy Gobert, Anthony Davis, Deandre Ayton, Karl-Anthony Towns and Draymond Green.

Morant’s selection is much less controversial. He’s averaging 25.8 PPG, 6.9 APG and 5.9 RPG. However, Luka Doncic, Donovan Mitchell and Suns guards Devin Booker and Chris Paul also had compelling cases to be starters.

Pacific Notes: Green, Kuminga, Curry, James, Howard

January 17th, 2022 at 5:25pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Warriors announced on Sunday that defensive stalwart Draymond Green would miss at least two weeks of action due to lingering calf and back injuries. Coach Steve Kerr said they’re playing it safe with Green’s injury issues at this stage of the season, Anthony Slater of The Athletic tweets.

“The main thing is to be safe and cautious,” Kerr said. “It’s a long season. That’s my sense. That we’re being cautious.”

With Green out, lottery pick Jonathan Kuminga will get expanded playing time. Kuminga irritated the staff with a disinterested performance in a G League game last week but the Warriors won’t hold that against him, according to Slater.

“He didn’t run the floor hard. It was disappointing,” Kerr said. “We talked to him about it. He understood and responded well. This is all part of the process for JK. There’s a lot to absorb and learn.”

We have more from the Pacific Division:

Stephen Curry left the Warriors’ road trip early but it shouldn’t be an area of concern, according to Slater (Twitter link). Curry has a hand injury that the club believes is minor. He could play against Detroit on Tuesday.
The Lakers have dropped below the .500 mark by losing their last three games, including a 37-point thumping by Denver. LeBron James went on social media and pledged to fans the team will get untracked soon. “Lakers Nation I apologize and promise we’ll be better,” James proclaimed on his Twitter feed.
The decision to start Dwight Howard against the Nuggets shows the Lakers can only go so far with small ball lineups, Kyle Goon of the Orange Country Register writes. Coach Frank Vogel doesn’t want James banging against top-level centers such as Nikola Jokic. Howard will still have a role off the bench when Anthony Davis returns, Goon adds.

Pacific Notes: Westbrook, Lakers, LeBron, Moon, Ayton

January 16th, 2022 at 8:42pm CST by JD Shaw

Lakers star Russell Westbrook said he didn’t have a response to Magic Johnson‘s recent criticism of his team’s effort, Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com writes.

Johnson recently called out the team for a lack of enthusiasm, tweeting the following: “After being blown out by the Nuggets 133-96, we as Lakers fans can accept being outplayed but we deserve more than a lack of effort and no sense of urgency. Owner Jeanie Buss, you deserve better.” When asked to comment, Westbrook was blunt in his response.

“I do not have a reaction,” he said. “Everybody is entitled, in this world, to their opinion. Regardless of what that it is. You can either take it and run with it or you can take it and put it in one ear and out the other or you cannot respond to it.

“Magic’s entitled to his opinion. And he’s not here every day. He’s not around us every day. He’s not aware of what’s going on internally with us and trying to figure things out. But I have no response to that. … Like I said, everyone in this world is entitled to their opinion and that’s that.”

Johnson spent his entire 13-year career with the Lakers, making the All-Star team 11 times and winning five NBA titles. He was also the team’s president of basketball operations from February of 2017 to April of 2019.

Here are some other notes from the Pacific Division:

Bill Oram of The Athletic further examines Johnson’s comments on the Lakers, noting that LeBron James has stayed publicly silent. Los Angeles has lost three straight games and owns just a 21-22 record. Anthony Davis has only played 27 games, while James has appeared in just 31.
Clippers guard Xavier Moon is showing he belongs on the team, Mirjam Swanson of the Orange County Register writes. As Hoops Rumors first reported, Los Angeles signed Moon to a third 10-day hardship deal last week, choosing to keep him after his impressive play. “I love his pace, he knows how to play … to come to a team like this and perform the way he has, it shows he’s a good player and that he’s definitely making a case that he belongs,” head coach Tyronn Lue said. “So it’s just good to see. He has a skill set and he just needed an opportunity and the opportunity we’ve given him, he’s definitely taking advantage of it.”
Suns center Deandre Ayton exited the team’s game against the Pistons early on Sunday, Duane Rankin of the Arizona Republic writes. Ayton suffered a right ankle sprain and didn’t return for the second half. It’s unclear how much time he may miss.

Western Notes: Adams, Zubac, LeBron, House, Nowell

January 7th, 2022 at 9:57pm CST by Rory Maher

Grizzlies starting center Steven Adams has entered the NBA’s COVID-19 protocols, the team’s PR tweets. Adams had been the only member of the team to play in every game this season, per Chris Herrington of The Daily Memphian (Twitter link).

In other COVID-19 news, Clippers center Ivica Zubac has cleared the protocols and is listed as questionable (reconditioning) for Saturday’s game against Memphis, per the Clippers’ PR department (via Twitter).

Here’s more from the Western Conference:

The Lakers have found success with LeBron James at center lineups, and Nekias Duncan of BasketballNews relays that it’s the next evolution of James’ lengthy career. Duncan writes that in 345 minutes with James as the lone big man, his per-36 averages are 32.1 points, 9.9 rebounds, 6.5 assists (2.0 turnovers), 1.8 steals, and 1.5 blocks with a 61/41/83 shooting line. More importantly, L.A. has outscored opponents by 7.2 points per 100 possessions during those minutes.
Since the Jazz were only carrying 13 players on standard contracts, there was some uncertainty about whether Danuel House had received a traditional or hardship exception 10-day deal, but Keith Smith of Spotrac tweets that it used a hardship exception. House’s contract won’t count against the salary cap or luxury tax, but it’s still an opportunity for him to potentially earn a roster spot with Utah, as the team is only carrying 14 players on standard deals. He had 13 points, four rebounds, and four assists in 26 minutes in his debut Friday, a 122-108 loss to Toronto.
With the Timberwolves shorthanded due to COVID-19 absences, Jaylen Nowell stepped up and earned his guaranteed contract, writes Chris Hine of The Star Tribune. Hine notes that Nowell was averaging 13.9 points over his last 10 games entering Friday, while shooting 50% from the field and 36% on three-pointers. Nowell concedes he may not be the most explosive player, but he’s still finding ways to be effective. “I watch a lot of older players and how they maneuver and got to the rim,” Nowell said. “I’m not the most explosive guy. I have a little bit of explosiveness, so I can use that to my advantage. … I’ve got to find certain ways to get to the spots I want.”