Miles Plumlee Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Injury Updates: Knight, Pistons, Grizzlies, MPJ

December 12th, 2018 at 11:47am CST by Luke Adams

Brandon Knight, who hasn’t played in an NBA game since the 2016/17 season, is expected to make his Rockets debut next week, head coach Mike D’Antoni said on Tuesday evening (Twitter link via Tim MacMahon of ESPN.com). While Knight isn’t expected to take on a major role for his new team, he could help provide some backcourt depth if James Harden, Chris Paul, or Eric Gordon are banged up, perhaps regaining some trade value if he looks good.

As the Rockets prepare to welcome Knight to the active roster, they’re dealing with another injury to a rotation player. As Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle relays (via Twitter), James Ennis will miss Thursday’s game and will likely remain on the shelf for a few more days due to a right hamstring issue.

As Houston looks to get healthy, here are a few more health updates from around the NBA:

A pair of Pistons players, Glenn Robinson III and Henry Ellenson, have been diagnosed with ankle sprains and will be re-evaluated in two weeks, tweets Keith Langlois of Pistons.com. Ellenson had only appeared in two games this season, so his absence won’t impact the team significantly, but Robinson has started 16 games so far, averaging 16.0 MPG.
The Grizzlies provided updates on four players today, announcing in a press release that Dillon Brooks is expected to return by the end of the month while Chandler Parsons will be re-evaluated in two weeks. Jevon Carter and Yuta Watanabe are set to resume basketball activities within the next week, according to the club.
We haven’t heard much this season about Nuggets rookie Michael Porter Jr., who continues to recover from back surgery. However, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst hears that Porter is “looking impressive” and says Denver has been surprised with how well Porter has been shooting from beyond the arc.
Hawks big man Miles Plumlee recently underwent a non-surgical procedure on his left knee and will be re-evaluated on December 18, according to a press release from the team.

Southeast Notes: Plumlee, Cavanaugh, Magic, Wall

December 2nd, 2017 at 5:27pm CST by Arthur Hill

With Dewayne Dedmon and John Collins sidelined by injuries, Miles Plumlee made his first start today since joining the Hawks, notes Michael Cunningham of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Plumlee, who was part of Atlanta’s return from the Hornets in this summer’s Dwight Howard trade, had to overcome a right quad injury last month. He had played just two games for Atlanta before today’s start, which saw him post six points and seven rebounds in 19 minutes.

Plumlee, who is making $12.5MM this season and each of the next two, may get an extended chance to show what he can do as a starter. Dedmon is projected to miss three to six weeks with a left tibia stress reaction, while Collins will be out at least two weeks with a sprained AC joint in his left shoulder. Plumlee was a full-time starter for the Suns during his second season in the league in 2013/14, but has been used mainly in a reserve role since.

There’s more out of the Southeast Division:

Rookie power forward Tyler Cavanaugh may also see more playing time in the absence of Dedmon and Collins, Cunningham adds in the same story. The 23-year-old, who signed a two-way deal with the Hawks in early November, is mainly a stretch four, but was used in a lineup today with a point guard and three wings. Cunningham expects that alignment to continue until the front line is at full strength.
The Magic may need to consider trades to address their problems on defense, suggests Josh Robbins of The Orlando Sentinel. Orlando has been the worst defensive team in the league since November 11 based on points per possession and has lost 10 of 11 games in that span. Robbins points out that Jonathan Isaac‘s injury has been part of the problem, but adds that Elfrid Payton, Evan Fournier, Aaron Gordon and Nikola Vucevic all have issues on that end of the court.
Wizards guard John Wall provided an update on his injured left knee Friday, but isn’t sure when he’ll be able to play again, relays Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington. He had platelet-rich plasma treatment and viscosupplementation injections in the knee last weekend and is waiting for a medical report on how he is responding. Wall, who also this season has endured a sprained shoulder, sprained ankle, swollen knee, migraines and an illness that required an IV, said he tries to avoid missing games. “I’m the type of guy who likes to play through things,” he said. “It just got to the point where it was affecting my play. I tried to get through it as much as I could, but then everyone was like you have to care of it and think about the long-term, not just the short-term.”

NBA G League Assignments/Recalls: 11/19/17

November 19th, 2017 at 8:30pm CST by ChrisCrouse

Here are Sunday’s G League assignment and recalls from around the NBA:

8:30pm:

The Cavaliers assigned center Ante Zizic to their G League affiliate, Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com writes. The big man has seen limited action for the big league club this season.

5:02pm:

The Lakers have recalled Ivica Zubac and Josh Hart from South Bay Lakers, Mike Bresnahan of Spectrum Sportsnet tweets. In his latest two-game stint with Los Angeles’ G-League affiliate, Zubac averaged 21 points and 10 rebounds per contest.
The Knicks have assigned Damyean Dotson to their G-League affiliate, the Westchester Knicks, per the team’s Twitter feed.
The Heat have recalled Derrick Walton Jr. from their G-League affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce, the team announces via press release. Walton will continue to shuffle back and forth between the two clubs, as he’s on a newly established two-way deal.
The Hawks have recalled Nicolas Brussino, Tyler Dorsey, and Miles Plumlee, from the team’s G League affiliate, the Erie BayHawks, according to a team press release.

NBA G League Assignments/Recalls: 11/15/17

November 15th, 2017 at 10:59pm CST by Arthur Hill

Here are today’s G League assignments and recalls from around the NBA:

The Pacers sent center Ike Anigbogu to their Fort Wayne affiliate, the team announced on its website. A second-round pick in June, Anigbogu has seen limited playing time in Indiana, amassing 17 minutes in six games.
The Thunder recalled guard Terrance Ferguson, who was sent to Oklahoma City Blue on Tuesday. Ferguson turned in a 24-point performance for the G League team.
The Hawks assigned swingman Nicolas Brussino and center Miles Plumlee to their Erie affiliate. Brussino has appeared in four games for Atlanta, while Plumlee has yet to play because of a strained right quad.

Miles Plumlee Out At Least 2-3 Weeks

October 11th, 2017 at 6:34pm CST by ChrisCrouse

Miles Plumlee has a strained right quad and the injury will force him to miss the next few weeks, according to a team press release.

Plumlee will be reevaluated after two or three weeks, and the timeline means the Hawks will be without the center for several games to begin the year. Atlanta opens the season at Dallas next Wednesday and the franchise plays six additional games before the end of the month.

Plumlee arrived in Atlanta via the Dwight Howard deal and he was expected to be the team’s backup center behind free agent addition Dewayne Dedmon.

Mike Muscala should see additional minutes at the five and No. 19 overall pick John Collins, who had an impressive Summer League, could see more playing time over the next few weeks as a result of the Plumlee’s injury.

Hawks Trade Dwight Howard To Hornets

June 20th, 2017 at 10:50pm CST by Luke Adams

10:50pm: The trade is official, with the Hornets issuing a press release to formally announce it.

“We are excited to add a player of Dwight’s stature to our roster,” Hornets GM Rich Cho said in a statement. “He has been a very talented player, an elite rebounder and rim protector as well as a physical presence since the moment he entered the league. Howard’s best seasons came alongside Coach Steve Clifford and we believe their familiarity will make an immediate impact for the Hornets this upcoming season.”

8:04pm: The Hawks have agreed to a trade that will send Dwight Howard to the Hornets, reports Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated (Twitter link). According to Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical (Twitter link), Charlotte will receive Howard and the No. 31 pick in this year’s draft from Atlanta in exchange for Miles Plumlee, Marco Belinelli, and the No. 41 pick.

For Howard, who was a perennial All-NBA center earlier in his career, the Hornets will be his fifth team in the last seven years. Having left the Rockets for his hometown Hawks a year ago in free agency, Howard got off to a solid start in Atlanta, but by season’s end, he was frustrated with his diminishing role. For the season, Howard averaged 13.5 PPG and 12.7 RPG in 74 contests (all starts).

Howard’s move to Charlotte will set him up for a reunion with Hornets head coach Steve Clifford. Howard’s most successful and productive NBA seasons came when he was being coached by Clifford — the former assistant coach was on Orlando’s staff from 2007 to 2012, then joined the Lakers during Howard’s lone season in L.A.

Howard is set to earn guaranteed salaries of $23.5MM (2017/18) and $23.82MM (2018/19) over the next two seasons, so once again, the Hornets are showing a willingness to take on significant money. The team did that at the deadline, sending a pair of smaller expiring deals to Milwaukee in exchange for Plumlee.

Now, the Hornets will flip Plumlee and his $12.5MM annual salary, which looks relatively modest compared to Howard’s cap figure. Plumlee’s contract runs through the 2019/20 season, while Belinelli has one year left at $6.61MM. Although Charlotte adds a little money to its books, the team’s flexibility for this summer won’t be affected — the Hornets would have been an over-the-cap team either way.

As for the Hawks, Travis Schlenk‘s first major move as Atlanta’s general manager will see the team swap Howard for Plumlee, move down 10 spots in the second round, and add a three-point sharpshooter in Belinelli. The move will create a small amount of extra spending flexibility for the Hawks this summer, though it remains to be seen whether they’ll make a strong effort to re-sign their own free agents like Paul Millsap and Tim Hardaway Jr., or if they’ll use that room for other moves.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Southeast Notes: Heat, Plumlee, Hawks

May 4th, 2017 at 10:50pm CST by marksuleymanov

Despite seemingly messy breakups with Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade and missing the playoffs this season, the Heat are not concerned with difficulties of luring free agents to South Beach, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald writes. As Jackson notes, Bosh and the Heat seem to be on good terms despite the controversial circumstances surrounding the former All-Star’s battles with blood clots, which prompted to Heat to not play him this season. Also, an associate of Wade tells Jackson the Miami legend is open to playing for the team again in the future.

However, the team’s ultimate calling card may be its coach, Erik Spoelstra. In addition to coaching the Heat to two NBA titles during his tenure, Spoelstra has created a culture that allows players to thrive. Heat forward James Johnson explained to Jackson that “consistency” is the coach’s strength.

“When I say consistency, I [mean] it’s doing the same thing, not giving you the same minutes every game, but consistently getting on you enough, praising you a little bit, holding me to my word,” Johnson said. “When you get a consistent coach you look up to like coach Spo, it makes things easier.”

Miami’s culture includes rigorous training, which Jackson says will deter certain veteran players who do not want to add mileage to their bodies. As Spoelstra has said, the Heat are “not for everybody.”

Here is more news from the Southeast Division:

The Hornets announced earlier this week that center Miles Plumlee underwent successful arthroscopic debridement on his right knee. The expected recovery for the 28-year-old center is six to eight weeks, so he should be good to go this fall. Plumlee was sent to Charlotte as part of a February deal that included Spencer Hawes and Roy Hibbert going to the Bucks. In 13 games with the Hornets, Plumlee posted totals of 2.4 PPG and 3.2 RPG.
Former Hawks general manager Wes Wilcox was seemingly let go by Atlanta earlier this week, but will remain with the team in a different capacity. However, before that move was announced, Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Wilcox had been “in contact with other NBA teams and at least one college about other positions.”
Meanwhile, Mike Budenholzer will not retain his title as the Hawks’ president of basketball operations and will instead report — along with Wilcox — to whomever the Hawks hire to oversee basketball operations, per Vivlamore.

Southeast Notes: Magic, Green, Millsap, Hornets

April 23rd, 2017 at 12:58pm CST by Arthur Hill

If the Magic can’t land one of the candidates they want for team president, they will try to get a big name to fill the GM role, tweets Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders. Interim GM Matt Lloyd remains a candidate to keep his job either way, but would probably be more secure if Orlando can get a high-profile president. The Magic are reportedly interested in Cavaliers GM David Griffin, whose contract expires at the end of the season. Former Sixers GM Sam Hinkie probably won’t be a candidate, as a source told Kyler that Hinkie is looking for an “ideal situation” and isn’t ready to return to the NBA. (Twitter link).

There’s more from the Southeast Division:

The Magic won’t try to keep free agent forward Jeff Green, writes Kevin P. Smith of Real GM in his offseason preview. Green spent a year in Orlando after signing with the team last July. He averaged 9.2 points and 3.1 rebounds in 69 games, mostly as a reserve. Smith thinks there’s a better chance that Orlando could try to keep fellow free agent Jodie Meeks if he agrees to an affordable price. In the draft, the Magic may take advantage of a field rich in point guards to find a replacement for Elfrid Payton.
Re-signing free agent forward Paul Millsap will be an offseason priority for the Hawks, tweets Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal Constitution. The 31-year-old has been with Atlanta for the past four seasons, making the All-Star team in each one. He’s coming off a career-best scoring year at 18.1 points per game, along with 7.7 rebounds and a career-high 3.7 assists. “We are going to make every effort imaginable to keep him,” said Hawks owner Tony Ressler.
The Hornets face a tough offseason with no available cap room and probably the 11th pick in the draft, writes Lang Greene of Basketball Insiders. Charlotte’s best option to improve is through trades, with Greene mentioning Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Marvin Williams and Miles Plumlee as options because they all have deals that average less than $15MM annually. The Hornets also have a $1.7MM exception from the Troy Daniels deal that expires in mid-July.

Southeast Notes: Porter, Heat, Plumlee, Magic

February 22nd, 2017 at 4:17pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Wizards may not be finished dealing after a multi-player trade with the Nets this afternoon, tweets Tim Bontemps of The Washington Post. Washington will continue to look for help through Thursday’s trade deadline at 3 p.m. Eastern. Today’s deal, which sent Andrew Nicholson, Marcus Thornton and this year’s first-rounder to Brooklyn in exchange for Bojan Bogdanovic and Chris McCullough, clears cap space to help the Wizards re-sign Otto Porter this summer, notes David Aldridge of TNT (Twitter link). Nicholson, who had fallen out of the rotation in Washington, still has three seasons and nearly $20MM left on his contract.

There’s more from the Southeast Division:

Bogdanovic has a 15% trade kicker, notes Bobby Marks of The Vertical (Twitter link). That amounts to $157K, which Brooklyn will pay, but his cap hit for the Wizards is now $3.73MM.
The Heat will avoid any deadline moves that would tie up their future cap space, writes Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald. That makes them unlikely to pursue the Nuggets’ Wilson Chandler or the Nets’ Trevor Booker, who both have contracts that extend beyond this season. Jackson cites a rival GM who has spoken to Miami about a deal and believes “they seem content to stand pat.”
Miami expects to have Josh Richardson back in the lineup for Friday’s game, according to a tweet from the team. A foot injury has kept him out of the lineup since January 8th. “He’s had a healthy approach the last 4-5 weeks to prepare,” said coach Erik Spoelstra. Justise Winslow won’t be back this season, but he is making progress from shoulder surgery, the Heat noted (Twitter link), as his sling has been removed.
Hornets center Miles Plumlee will be out of action for at least two weeks with a right calf strain, the team posted on its website. An MRI revealed the second-degree strain, and Plumlee will be re-evaluated in 14 days. He has played just five games for Charlotte since being acquired from the Bucks in a February 2nd trade.
Despite a 21-37 record, the Magic have no plans to tank the rest of the season, according to Josh Robbins of The Orlando Sentinel. Orlando is currently fourth in our Reverse Standings and would have an 11.9% chance of winning the lottery. Coach Frank Vogel believes it would be a mistake to try to improve those odds by losing on purpose. “As a coach, you worry about one thing, and that’s getting a group of guys that haven’t won in five years to learn how to win,” Vogel said. “That’s more important than any one player you can add.”

Southeast Notes: Heat, Mahinmi, Smith

February 18th, 2017 at 1:59pm CST by Austin Kent

Pat Riley has to do more than just appease paying customers, writes Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel, the team president needs to steward the future of the Heat franchise. That means, despite the 13-game win streak that has suddenly put Miami within striking distance of the playoffs, the club would be wise to approach the February 23 trade deadline with caution.

This summer will be a pivotal one for the Heat, Winderman writes, citing things like Chris Bosh‘s contract situation and the fact that the club has already traded two of the club’s next four first-rounders as reasons why they ought to be smart about how they structure the team heading forward. The draft matters now more than ever, he adds, suggesting that hasty moves to load up on short-term assets this week would only hurt their 2017 draft position.

Winderman notes that the camaraderie in the Heat locker room is similar to that of the upstart 2004/05 Heat team anchored by a rookie Dwyane Wade, Lamar Odom and Caron Butler. That team started slow but rallied to become a playoff team. Tellingly, it wasn’t long after the turnaround when Riley opted to cash in his chips in the blockbuster deal that netted Shaquille O’Neal.

There’s more out of the Southeast Division:

It wasn’t long ago when Heat forwards Justise Winslow and Josh Richardson appeared to be reasonably untouchable, writes Ira Winderman in a separate piece for the Sun Sentinel, but Miami’s recent improvement may have altered that. Now that the club isn’t in position to land a Top 3 pick, Winderman says, the club might consider holding onto Goran Dragic more than anybody else.
After missing 50 games for the Wizards through the first four months of the season, Ian Mahinmi isn’t about to take time off during the All-Star Break, writes Chase Hughes of CSN Mid-Atlantic. The big man inked to a four-year, $64MM deal over the summer has been on a minutes restriction and will look to get himself back into a rhythm in the second half.
The return of Ian Mahimi has eaten into backup center Jason Smith‘s minutes but the consummate professional made an impression while filling in for the injured big man. “What he’s done the last two or three months is what he’s done his entire career and he’s been terrific,” Wizards head coach Scott Brooks tells Candace Buckner of the Washington Post. Smith has averaged close to 14 points and 9 rebounds per 36 minutes so far this season.
The Hornets complicated their cap situation when they acquired Miles Plumlee earlier this month but retain some expiring contracts that could be dealt ahead of the deadline. General manager Rich Cho, Bobby Marks of The Vertical explains, has made four trade deadline deals since his first year with the squad back in 2011.