Patrick Beverley

Northwest Notes: Ingles, Edwards, Beverley, Reed

Jazz swingman Joe Ingles, recently ruled out for the season with an ACL tear, seems likely to either see his expiring $14MM contract traded or waived by Utah, writes Sarah Todd of the Deseret News.

Todd writes that wing Danuel House appears likely to ink a guaranteed deal with Utah, but that the team may need more help than that. The Jazz also have a $7.4MM trade exception they could use to their advantage. Until the team makes another addition to its roster, Todd projects Eric Paschall to see more run in the absence of Ingles.

Tony Jones of The Athletic concurs that it seems probable House will get a guaranteed deal in the wake of the Ingles injury. Jones opines that Ingles will be tough to replace as a reliable wing shooter and ball-handler, particularly in the pick-and-roll. Jones notes that the Jazz, hopeful to make a championship push this season, will most likely look to shore up their roster beyond just keeping House around.

There’s more out of the Northwest Division:

  • Timberwolves second-year swingman Anthony Edwards is confident he can reach All-Star levels, possibly even this season, writes Marc Spears of the Undefeated. “My main goal is to get into the All-Star Game,” Edwards said ahead of the NBA revealing coaches’ picks tonight for the 2022 game in Cleveland next month. “I know I am going to get in the Rising Stars Game [this season]. I want to be in [the] All-Star Game.” The 20-year-old is averaging 22.3 PPG, 5.0 RPG, and 3.7 APG, with shooting splits of .443/.363/.807 across 40 games for the 26-25 Timberwolves this year. Responding to a question about his ceiling as a player, Edwards was optimistic. “I don’t think I got one,” he said. “I think I can be as good as anyone.”
  • When asked about the possibility of being dealt at or before the impending trade deadline this season, Timberwolves guard Patrick Beverley indicated that he hopes to stick around in Minnesota, both for the rest of this season and perhaps past it, per Chris Hine of the Star Tribune (Twitter link). “It’s been great here,” Beverley said of his tenure in Minnesota. “Especially trying to establish a culture, a winning culture here … They allowed me to be myself here. Allowed me to do my thing, and that’s affected on and off the court on the team.”
  • Nuggets shooting guard Davon Reed expressed confidence that he has shown he can be more than a “fringe” player in the league, per Mike Singer of the Denver Post. “I can defend multiple positions, I can make open shots and, given the opportunity, I can make plays for my team as well,” Reed said. He has certainly earned rave reviews from head coach Michael Malone. “Every time that kid gets a chance to play, he goes out there and plays at a high level,” Malone said. Reed’s shooting numbers, albeit across a fairly modest 14.4 MPG while taking just 3.4 field goal attempts and 0.2 free throw looks a night, have been encouraging: .500/.476/.800.

Western Trade Rumors: Covington, Nurkic, Beverley, Culver, Lakers

Of the veteran Trail Blazers who are candidates to be traded by the February 10 deadline, Robert Covington has been described as the most likely one to be moved, says Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report. Ben McLemore‘s name has also emerged in recent trade discussions, Fischer adds.

Conversely, there doesn’t seem to be any momentum toward a trade involving Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic, according to Fischer. Marc Stein said something similar in a recent Spotify Greenroom session, suggesting he hasn’t heard Nurkic’s name mentioned much in his recent conversations with teams. Stein gets the sense there’s not a “huge amount” of interest in the veteran center (hat tip to HoopsHype).

Nurkic himself recently told Jason Quick of The Athletic that he doesn’t think he’ll be traded this season. If the latest reports from Fischer and Stein are accurate, he may be right.

Here are a few more items from around the Western Conference:

  • The Timberwolves are exploring some possible trade avenues involving Patrick Beverley ahead of his upcoming free agency, Fischer reports. Responding to that report, Minnesota-based reporters Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News and Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic (Twitter links) said that head of basketball operations Sachin Gupta is casting a wide net and is willing to discuss anyone besides Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards. However, neither Wolfson nor Krawczynski expects Beverley to be traded.
  • The Grizzlies aren’t considered likely to make any major moves at the trade deadline, but they may receive inquiries on fourth-year swingman Jarrett Culver, Fischer writes. There’s so much leaguewide interest in wings who can play defense that Culver – who isn’t currently part of Memphis’ rotation and will be a free agent this summer – could appeal to another team, Fischer explains.
  • The Lakers, who continue to shop veteran wing Kent Bazemore, have been mentioned as a potential suitor for big man Paul Millsap if he reaches the buyout market, says Fischer. Brooklyn is still looking to trade Millsap.

Northwest Notes: DSJ, Zeller, Nuggets, Beverley, Azubuike, Kalaitzakis

The Trail Blazers will keep Dennis Smith Jr. on their roster through the salary guarantee date, ensuring that he receives his full salary for 2021/22, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link).

Smith won a training camp battle to earn a regular season roster spot and has averaged 5.4 PPG and 3.3 APG in 19 games (17.2 MPG). While his shooting numbers (.396 FG%, .273 3PT%) are below his mediocre career rates, Smith has apparently made enough of an impress on the Trail Blazers to stick around as the team’s 14th man. He’ll earn a $1,789,256 salary ($1,669,178 cap hit) for the season.

Wojnarowski also provides another updates on the Trail Blazers, tweeting that center Cody Zeller is expected to be available vs. Cleveland on Friday night. Zeller, who hasn’t played since December 6, missed time due to a knee injury and a stint in the health and safety protocols, but it appears he’s been cleared to return on both fronts.

Here’s more from around the Northwest:

  • Nuggets forwards Jeff Green and Zeke Nnaji are no longer in the health and safety protocols, but two-way rookie Petr Cornelie has entered them, tweets Mike Singer of The Denver Post. Because the team still has one player in the COVID-19 protocols, hardship signee Davon Reed can remain active.
  • The Patrick Beverley trade has been a major coup for the Timberwolves, according to Jim Souhan of The Star Tribune, who says the veteran guard has been an “ideal leader” for the young team. Minnesota gave up Jarrett Culver and Juan Hernangomez to land Beverley.
  • Udoka Azubuike hasn’t played much for the Jazz since being selected with the 27th pick in the 2020 draft, but he logged a career-high 16 minutes in his first ever start on Wednesday in Denver, holding his own against Nikola Jokic. Tony Jones of The Athletic has the story on the young center’s unexpected showcase, which came with Rudy Gobert and Hassan Whiteside unavailable. “I’m not going to lie to you, I was a little nervous,” Azubuike said. “I just came back from (an ankle) injury, and I’m playing against the MVP? That was a lot to process.”
  • Georgios Kalaitzakis, the 60th overall pick in the 2021 draft who was waived by Milwaukee earlier this season, has signed an NBA G League contract, as our JD Shaw recently reported (via Twitter). The 23-year-old Greek forward joined the Oklahoma City Blue and appeared in his first game with the Thunder‘s affiliate on Thursday.

Northwest Notes: Faried, Jazz, Monroe, Reed

Kenneth Faried is joining the Grand Rapids Gold for the coming NBA G League season, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). Although Grand Rapids is the Nuggets‘ affiliate, Faried will remain an NBA free agent and will have the ability to join any team. If he doesn’t receive any NBA offers in the coming days, we should expect to see the 32-year-old in action for the Gold when the G League regular season begins on January 5.

Here’s more from around the Northwest:

  • In the latest episode of the HoopsHype podcast, Michael Scotto and The Athletic’s Tony Jones spoke about potential trade options for the Jazz, Danny Ainge‘s role with the franchise, and more. Jones expects Utah to be “really aggressive” in exploring the trade market for potential upgrades, reiterating that the team is definitely looking for one more perimeter player who can defend at a high level.
  • Veteran guard Patrick Beverley is a big fan of what Greg Monroe brings to the Timberwolves and said on Tuesday that he’d like to see the team retain Monroe for the entire season, tweets Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic. Monroe has averaged 9.0 PPG, 7.5 RPG, 5.0 APG, and 2.0 SPG in two games since joining Minnesota on a 10-day deal.
  • Davon Reed‘s second 10-day contract expired overnight, so he’s technically no longer on the Nuggets‘ roster, but the team is considering how to keep him in the mix, as we relayed on Tuesday. With no players currently in the health and safety protocols, Denver’s options for keeping Reed would be to waive someone on the standard 17-man roster or to apply for a non-COVID hardship exception based on the team’s four injured players.

COVID-19 Updates: Suns, Blazers, Rockets, Wolves, More

Here are the latest health and safety protocols updates from around the NBA:

Entering the protocols:

  • Jae Crowder and Elfrid Payton have become the first two Suns players to enter the COVID-19 protocols, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).
  • The Trail Blazers‘ outbreak continues to grow, with Jusuf Nurkic and Cody Zeller among the players now in the protocols, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). Seven Portland players have been placed in the protocols since Friday.
  • Rockets guard Garrison Mathews became the second Houston guard to enter the protocols today, joining teammate D.J. Augustin, per Tim MacMahon of ESPN (Twitter link).
  • Timberwolves big man Naz Reid is now in the health and safety protocols, bringing Minnesota’s list of affected players up to eight, tweets Chris Hine of The Star Tribune.
  • The Thunder announced today that they’ve placed rookie guard Tre Mann in the protocols. Oklahoma City now has two players affected — Mann and Darius Bazley.

Exiting the protocols:

  • Point guard De’Aaron Fox returned to action on Sunday when the Kings hosted Memphis. Fox had been in the health and safety protocols since December 16.
  • A pair of TimberwolvesPatrick Beverley and Josh Okogie – are no longer in the health and safety protocols, tweets Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News. They’re both listed as questionable for Monday’s game vs. Boston.
  • Clippers forward Marcus Morris has cleared the health and safety protocols, though he remained inactive on Sunday as he goes through a reconditioning period, tweets Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN.
  • Cavaliers wing RJ Nembhard was no longer listed on the team’s injury report on Sunday and played vs. Toronto, so he’s out of the protocols. Isaac Okoro has exited the protocols too, though he’s still working his way back, according to head coach J.B. Bickerstaff (Twitter link via Kelsey Russo of The Athletic).

Timberwolves’ Beverley, Vanderbilt Enter Protocols

The Timberwolves‘ COVID-19 outbreak appears to have affected a couple more players, as Shams Charania of The Athletic reports (via Twitter) that guard Patrick Beverley and forward Jarred Vanderbilt have entered the health and safety protocols.

Beverley and Vanderbilt join Anthony Edwards, Josh Okogie, and Taurean Prince in the protocols, bringing the total number of Wolves players impacted to five.

If Beverley and Vanderbilt have tested positive for COVID-19, they’ll be out for 10 days or until they return two consecutive negative tests at least 24 hours apart.

The news may be of concern to the Mavericks, since both Beverley and Vanderbilt were in the starting lineup when Minnesota faced Dallas on Sunday night. Beverley played almost 31 minutes, while Vanderbilt logged over 38 minutes.

Timberwolves Notes: Russell, Edwards, Rubio, Starters

Point guard D’Angelo Russell may be having a down year shooting the ball (.383/.330/.817), but he’s proven to be an essential player for the Timberwolves, writes Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic. Krawczynski argues that Russell might be the team’s most important player this season due to his unexpected two-way impact — he’s defending with gusto for the first time in his career — and the lack of other play-makers on the roster. 

Krawczynski relays that the 12-15 Wolves, currently the No. 9 seed in the West, are 0-5 without Russell this season — each defeat by double figures. They are a respectable 12-10 when he plays. He writes that Russell’s willingness to shoot creates space for teammates, and his presence on defense has been a boon. Head coach Chris Finch praised Russell’s communication when playing zone defense.

He’s smart, knows where he should be, knows where his teammates should be, so yes, for sure, he can anchor the defense with his voice,” Finch said. “Certainly gives confidence to those guys that they know what’s behind them.”

Here’s more from Minnesota:

  • Second-year wing Anthony Edwards has been in a slump recently, but Finch isn’t alarmed by his drop in efficiency, per Chris Hine of the Star Tribune. “He’s just kind of overthinking things,” Finch said. “And as he works through that he’ll come out the other side better and in a better rhythm. I’ve seen it a million times with a lot of guys, and it’s just part of the process. Teams go through it, players go through it.”
  • Although he was upset when it occurred, Ricky Rubio acknowledges that his trade from Minnesota to Cleveland over the summer was for the best, Hine writes in a separate article. “Things didn’t work out for a year over there (Minnesota), so I think we were looking for a change, both of us, at the end of the day,” Rubio said. “It’s something that happened in a way that I didn’t expect, but this is the business that we’re in.”
  • In another piece for the Star Tribune, Hine notes that Minnesota’s starting lineup of Russell, Patrick Beverley, Edwards, Jarred Vanderbilt, and Karl-Anthony Towns has proven to be highly effective — when healthy. As Hine observes, the group has the best five-man net rating in the league at +49.6 in 127 minutes.

Northwest Notes: Campazzo, Hyland, Bol, Dozier, Dort, Gobert

Nuggets guard Facundo Campazzo, who played professionally in Argentina and Spain from 2008-20 before arriving in the NBA, will be a free agent at the end of the 2021/22 season. However, Campazzo said this week that he has no intention of returning to Europe or to his home country to continue his career next year — his goal is to remain in the NBA beyond his current deal, despite playing a lesser role than he did internationally.

“My mind is 100 percent set on this, in the NBA,” Campazzo said, per David Fernandez Novo of AS.com (hat tip to RealGM). “This league demands the most out of you both physically and mentally.”

Campazzo, 30, has averaged 21.1 minutes per contest in 88 games for Denver since the start of the 2020/21 campaign and has moved up on the depth chart since Jamal Murray tore his ACL in the spring. So far this season, he’s averaging 5.7 PPG and 2.6 APG on .409/.362/.810 shooting in 23 games (19.0 MPG).

Here’s more from around the Northwest:

  • The Nuggets had Bones Hyland and Bol Bol available on Wednesday after the two players cleared their quarantine and exited the health and safety protocols, as Mike Singer of The Denver Post tweets.
  • Nuggets swingman PJ Dozier underwent surgery to repair his torn left ACL this week, the team confirmed (via Twitter). Dozier, who has been ruled out indefinitely, is expected to miss the rest of the season.
  • Thunder wing Luguentz Dort met the starter criteria when he made his 23rd start of the season on Wednesday night, based on the NBA’s adjusted rules for 2021/22. Dort has a $1,930,681 team option for ’22/23, but if Oklahoma City picks up that option, he’d be eligible for unrestricted free agency in 2023. Turning down the option would allow the team to re-sign Dort as a restricted free agent in 2022. In that scenario, his qualifying offer would be worth about $4.87MM.
  • Despite losing to the Jazz by 32 points on Wednesday, Timberwolves guards Patrick Beverley and Anthony Edwards didn’t exactly heap praise on their opponents after the game. As Sarah Todd of The Deseret News relays, Beverley suggested that three-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert isn’t guarding the best players on the court, while Edwards said that Kristaps Porzingis is a better rim protector than Gobert. “I don’t get why we couldn’t finish on Rudy Gobert,” Edwards said. “He don’t put no fear in my heart.” The Wolves and Jazz will face each other three more times this season, including twice more in December, Todd notes.

Patrick Beverley Out At Least Two Weeks

The Timberwolves are expected to be without veteran guard Patrick Beverley for at least the next couple weeks, head coach Chris Finch said today (Twitter link via Jace Frederick of The St. Paul Pioneer Press).

Beverley, who suffered a left adductor strain in Wednesday’s win over Miami, had already been ruled out for Friday’s contest in Charlotte. He’ll miss several games beyond that one, with Finch suggesting today that the Wolves will reevaluate the injury in two weeks. If Beverley is able to get back on the court two weeks from today, he’ll miss Minnesota’s next seven games.

Beverley, who was traded to the Timberwolves in the offseason, had started 12 of his 16 games for the club so far, averaging 8.1 PPG, 4.5 APG, and 4.4 RPG in 25.4 minutes per contest. He also handles many of the tougher perimeter defensive assignments, so the team will miss him in matchups like the one against Hornets guard LaMelo Ball tonight.

With Beverley on the shelf, Malik Beasley and Jordan McLaughlin appear to be the best candidates for a bump in minutes. The Wolves have been playing well as of late, riding a five-game winning streak that has them back at .500 (9-9). They’ll be looking to maintain that momentum for the next couple weeks without their fourth most-used player available.

Western Notes: Howard, Davis, Mitchell, Doncic, Dragic, Beverley

Dwight Howard tried to downplay his altercation with Anthony Davis during the Lakers’ loss to Phoenix on Friday night, according to Dave McMenamin of ESPN. The two big man had a verbal exchange on the bench during the second quarter.

“We squashed it right then and there,” Howard said. “We just had a disagreement about something that was on the floor. We’re both very passionate about winning.”

Davis said of the spat, “it’s over with.” Howard is one of many Lakers bench players signed to a one-year, veteran’s minimum contract.

We have more from the Western Conference:

  • The Kings surprised a lot of people when they drafted a guard, Davion Mitchell, in the lottery for the second straight year, but Mitchell is already making an impression with his ball-hawking defense, Jason Anderson of the Sacramento Bee tweets. Swingman Buddy Hield has high praise for the rookie. “I think he’s the best on-ball defender in the league,” he said. “The way he hawks the ball is different. His lateral movement. The way he closes out is different. It’s just a special gift he has.”
  • The Mavericks will play Toronto on Saturday in a matchup of Luka Doncic and Goran Dragic at the point. The Slovenian national team members could soon join forces in the NBA, Callie Caplan of the Dallas Morning News notes. There were rumors swirling during the offseason after Dragic was traded to the Raptors that he could eventually wind up in Dallas. That could happen closer to the trade deadline or perhaps next summer, when Dragic becomes a free agent.
  • Patrick Beverley will make his Timberwolves debut on Saturday after serving a one-game league suspension. He’s says his impact on the young Minnesota roster will go beyond the stat sheet, Chris Hine of the Minneapolis Star Tribune writes. “Born leader, came natural for me since I was a kid, very outspoken,” Beverley said. “Even some of my ex-Clippers guards, teammates [Thursday] night after their loss to Golden State, they called me and we chopped it up a little bit. I always have a good positive spirit, positive energy. That just kind of rubs off on people every night.”