Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Northwest Notes: Lillard, Deck, Mitchell, SGA

May 19th, 2021 at 7:50pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Trail Blazers All-Star point guard Damian Lillard still hopes to eventually lead the team that drafted him to a title, writes Jason Quick of The Athletic. In an interesting bit of trivia, Quick says that Lillard has gone above and beyond in researching what it takes to do this. He has spoken with championship-winning players (including his new teammate Norman Powell, who won with the Raptors in 2019) and coaches with the goal of integrating their wisdom into his title quest.

“I want that more than anything,” Lillard said of winning a title for the Trail Blazers. “Not just to say I won a championship. But I want to do it in this city. I want to have a parade on Broadway and ride past El Gaucho (steakhouse). That’s what I think of. Every time the playoffs [are] starting, I’m going into it like, ‘Is this going to be the year that we shock the world or that we come up big?’

“I mean, I see every year when we get to this point as pivotal,” Lillard told Quick. “Because at every point, it’s an evaluation: Where do we go from here? Like, can we get the job done as we are? And if not, where do we go from here? What is the change that needs to be made? And I don’t know where that change comes from, you know, maybe we … I don’t know if it’s moving players, I don’t know if it’s a coaching change … whatever it is that happens in the NBA, the changes that are made when you look at the postseason and what you consider success and failure, and things like that, and what changes you have to make to improve or give yourself a better chance.”

There’s more out of the Northwest Division:

Recently-added Thunder rookie power forward Gabriel Deck hopes to represent Team Argentina in this summer’s rescheduled Olympics, but will remain in Oklahoma City for the next few weeks, tweets Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman.
The top-seeded Jazz will face the Western Conference’s yet-to-be-determined eighth seed when they begin their postseason this weekend, but the health of All-Star shooting guard Donovan Mitchell remains in question, writes Eric Walden of the Salt Lake Tribune. Mitchell has been unable to play through a full team practice since spraining his ankle in a 119-111 defeat of the Pacers on April 16. “Whenever he’s healthy, we’ll have him back,” Mitchell’s teammate Joe Ingles said, delivering an expert non-answer.
As Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander continues to recover from a foot injury, he is holding out hope that he will be healthy enough to suit up for the Canadian national team in this summer’s Olympic qualifiers, tweets Joe Mussatto of the Oklahoman.

Northwest Notes: Morris, Jazz Depth, SGA, Carmelo

May 4th, 2021 at 8:39pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Nuggets reserve point guard Monte Morris is nearing his return to the floor, tweets Mike Singer of the Denver Post. Morris is “definitely getting closer” to suiting up again for Denver, head coach Michael Malone said.

Nevertheless, Singer notes that Morris will remain sidelined for the next few games as he continues to rehabilitate from a hamstring injury that has kept him out since April 16.

There’s more out of the Northwest Division:

With Jazz All-Star guards Donovan Mitchell and Mike Conley both absent, Utah has been able to showcase the depth of its roster, writes Tony Jones of The Athletic. Wing Bojan Bogdanović has become a prime scoring option on the perimeter for Utah, and even greener players like two-way rookie point guard Trent Forrest have stepped up to help the Jazz remain very much in the race for the West’s top seed.
Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault has revealed that star guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is still grappling with a “significant” plantar fascia tear, tweets Joe Mussatto of the Oklahoman. “It’s not something that you should really mess around with,” Daigneault said. “If we got aggressive with him, it could compromise him long term, which makes no sense for us for a player that is as important to our franchise as he is.” Gilgeous-Alexander has been sidelined since March with the injury.
After scoring 14 points in a 123-114 loss to the Hawks, veteran Trail Blazers forward Carmelo Anthony has cracked the NBA’s all-time top 10 scoring list, writes Casey Holdahl of Trailblazers.com. “Top 10 in anything of all-time is a special moment, so I don’t want to take this moment for granted,” said Anthony. “I don’t want to downplay it, I’m excited about it, I’m blessed to be able to accomplish this in year 18. I think that’s what people should look at, the fact that I’m in my 18th season.” Anthony has been a productive offensive contributor during his second season with Portland. He will be a free agent this summer.

Injury Notes: Holmes, Bagley, Butler, Augustin, Hayward, SGA

April 14th, 2021 at 8:48pm CST by Arthur Hill

Kings center Richaun Holmes will miss at least three games with a strained right hamstring, writes Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. After suffering the injury in Monday’s game, Holmes underwent an MRI that revealed the extent of the damage.

He will be held out of tonight’s game against the Wizards and won’t accompany the team on a two-game road trip to face the Suns and Mavericks. Holmes is averaging 14.1 points, 8.9 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game this season.

“We’ll see how he’s doing as we get back into town,” coach Luke Walton said. “Clearly, we’ll miss him. He’s had an incredible year for us so far and he’s a big part of what we’re trying to do.”

There are more injury updates from around the league:

The Kings got good news about Marvin Bagley III, who will rejoin the team Thursday in Phoenix, according to Jason Jones of The Athletic (Twitter link). Bagley has been away from his teammates while rehabbing a fracture in his left hand, and there were plans for him to return to the club when he was close to being able to play again.
Heat forward Jimmy Butler had an injury scare involving his ankle in Tuesday’s game, but he will be in the starting lineup tonight in Denver, tweets Ira Winderman of The Sun-Sentinel. “There’s no doubt about it, that Jimmy will always want to go,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. “But we evaluated him today and he passed all the tests with the trainers and that allowed him to where we all feel comfortable, him going tonight.”
Rockets guard D.J. Augustin had an MRI today on his sprained left ankle, tweets Mark Berman of Fox 26 Houston. Coach Stephen Silas said Augustin is using crutches and a walking boot and has been ruled out at least through Monday. Danuel House, who hasn’t played since April 4 due to a sprained ankle, and Eric Gordon, who has been sidelined since March 11 with a groin strain, are also both expected to miss another week or so.
Hornets forward Gordon Hayward still has a protective boot on his strained right foot, according to Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer (Twitter link). He is expected to be re-evaluated early next month.
Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was projected to be out through at least mid-April with plantar fasciitis, but his condition hasn’t been re-evaluated yet, coach Mark Daigneault told Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman (Twitter link).

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Out Until At Least Mid-April

April 1st, 2021 at 11:57am CST by Luke Adams

Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander still isn’t close to a return, according to head coach Mark Daigneault, who said on Wednesday that the guard will be out for at least the first half of April, per ESPN’s Royce Young. Gilgeous-Alexander has been diagnosed with plantar fasciitis in his right foot.

“(Mid-April) will be our next touchpoint with him,” Daigneault said, indicating that Gilgeous-Alexader will be reevaluated in about two weeks. “He’s progressing and doing his thing.”

Gilgeous-Alexander has had his best season as a pro so far in 2020/21, averaging 23.7 PPG, 5.9 APG, and 4.7 RPG on .508/.418/.808 shooting in 35 games (33.7 MPG).

However, as Young observes, the Thunder want to be careful with SGA’s workload, since the team is coming off a shortened offseason and the former lottery pick may play for Team Canada in the Olympic qualifiers this summer, resulting in another abridged break between seasons.

Additionally, the 20-27 Thunder are signaling that they’re not exactly going all-out in a push for one of the final playoff spots in the West this season, having traded away veteran guard George Hill and sat big man Al Horford. Still, the expectation is that Gilgeous-Alexander will return before the end of the season, says Young.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander To Miss Time With Plantar Fasciitis

March 24th, 2021 at 8:16pm CST by Arthur Hill

Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will be out for an extended time with plantar fasciitis in his right foot, tweets Bryan Keating of KOCO-TV in Oklahoma City.

“I don’t want to use long-term because it’s vague, but it’s not day to day,” coach Mark Daigneault told reporters. “It’s going to be a more significant amount of time than day to day. This one is an injury that we need to now take a look at.”

Daigneault described the injury as “a little bit more cumulative,” rather than something that happened on one play (video link). He added that the extent of the injury was just discovered today. He noted that Gilgeous-Alexander is a “higher-minute player” and said the condition is a result of wear and tear on the foot.

“I think he walked in this morning and that’s when we started to kinda unpack it,” Daigneault said. “I don’t have a ton of detail on it to be honest with you. It’s happened pretty quickly today.”

Daigneault said the team was hoping to avoid this type of injury by aggressively resting players. He pointed out that players are coming off a short offseason after participating in the restart last summer, and they’re facing a shorter-than-normal break once this season ends.

Gilgeous-Alexander has emerged as a star since being traded to Oklahoma City in the summer of 2019. He’s averaging a career-high 23.7 points per game this year and shooting 41.8% from three-point range.

Northwest Notes: Nuggets, Jazz, Diallo, Wolves

March 16th, 2021 at 11:44am CST by Luke Adams

After an up-and-down start to the season, the Nuggets have played some of their best basketball as of late, winning six of their last seven games and rising to the No. 5 seed in the West. With the trade deadline around the corner, the team will likely consider ways to upgrade its roster and cement its status as a contender, but JaMychal Green said on Monday night that he doesn’t believe a trade is necessary.

“We have everything we need,” the Nuggets forward said, per Mike Singer of The Denver Post (Twitter link).

Asked if he agreed with Green’s assessment, Nuggets guard Jamal Murray replied, “I’d be crazy if I didn’t. I believe every year we have everything we need. That’s just how I think, that’s just how we play, that’s just how we believe in each other” (Twitter link via Singer).

The NBA announced on Monday that it has concluded its investigation into Elijah Millsap‘s allegations that Jazz executive Dennis Lindsey made a racially insensitive comment during a 2015 exit meeting and found no evidence to support the claim, writes ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. The league interviewed Lindsey, GM Justin Zanik, and head coach Quin Snyder – all of whom were present at the meeting – as well as Millsap and agent Daniel Hazan. Lindsey, Zanik, and Snyder all denied the statement was made, while Hazan said Millsap hadn’t made him aware of it during his two season with the Jazz, per Wojnarowski.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who played college ball with Hamidou Diallo at Kentucky, admitted it was tough to see his Thunder teammate traded to Detroit, as Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman details. “It sucks. A guy that’s super close that I love playing around, love being around,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “But it is what it is. It’s the NBA. It’s a business. The front office, it’s not my job, it’s their job. They make decisions like that and they felt like it was best for the team and for Hami. My job’s to go play basketball.”
Chris Hine of The Star Tribune considers how much stock to put into the trade rumors linking the Timberwolves to John Collins.

Northwest Notes: SGA, Murray, Beasley, Jazz

January 27th, 2021 at 7:00pm CST by Luke Adams

Thunder point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is looking forward to getting the chance to play Chris Paul and the Suns for the first time this season on Wednesday, as Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman writes. Paul served as a mentor for Gilgeous-Alexander in Oklahoma City last season, and the two guards have remained close even after CP3 was dealt to Phoenix.

“Obviously me and him built a bond over the past year, to where he’s almost like a brother to me,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “We talk about everything. How life’s going, how the teams are doing, how we’re doing.”

Gilgeous-Alexander added that it was a “blessing” to play with a veteran star like Paul last season, and that the bond the two former teammates built has had “even more of an impact than the on-the-court stuff,” per Mussatto.

Here’s more from around the Thunder:

Nuggets guard Jamal Murray was fined $25K on Wednesday for an incident that occurred during Monday’s win over Dallas, according to an NBA press release. During the third quarter of that game, Murray struck Mavericks wing Tim Hardaway Jr. in the groin area. Murray was assessed a Flagrant Foul 2 and was ejected.
After signing a lucrative new long-term deal with the Timberwolves in the offseason, Malik Beasley wants to win the Most Improved Player award and help lead the team to the playoffs this season, as he tells Ben Stinar of Forbes.
The Jazz‘s G League affiliate (the Salt Lake City Stars) officially announced its roster for the upcoming season, while the Thunder‘s affiliate (the Oklahoma City Blue) named Bradford Burgess an assistant coach. The Stars’ roster includes Yogi Ferrell, who will be an affiliate player for the Jazz after a brief stint with the Cavaliers earlier this month.

Thunder Exercise Options On Gilgeous-Alexander, Bazley, Jerome

December 27th, 2020 at 4:23pm CST by JD Shaw

The Thunder have exercised the fourth-year contract option on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander ($5.5MM), plus the third-year options on Darius Bazley ($2.5MM) and Ty Jerome ($2.4MM), the team announced in a press release. All options are for the 2021/22 season.

Gilgeous-Alexander, widely considered to be the club’s best player, averaged 19.0 points and 5.9 rebounds per game this past season. He also shot an impressive 47% from the floor and 35% from downtown, doing so at just 21 years of age.

Bazley, a 20-year-old forward, was acquired by the team in the 2019 NBA Draft. He was selected No. 23 overall in the event, holding per-game averages of 5.6 points, four rebounds and 18.5 minutes last season.

As for Jerome, he was taken with the very next pick in 2019, starting his career in Philadelphia. Oklahoma City acquired the 23-year-old and others as part of the Chris Paul trade with Phoenix last month.

After surprising onlookers during the 2019/20 season, the Thunder have accelerated their rebuild by acquiring several draft assets and young players. The team is well-positioned to succeed in the future and will have Gilgeous-Alexander, Bazley and Jerome all under contract next season.

Thunder Notes: Arena, Rebuild, Gilgeous-Alexander

December 2nd, 2020 at 8:45am CST by Luke Adams

The Thunder announced this week that “concerning trends” in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in Oklahoma have prompted the team to open the 2020/21 season without fans in Chesapeake Energy Arena.

“We will continue to monitor and evaluate the situation over the coming weeks to determine when fans will be able to attend our games,” the team said in its statement.

It’s a reversal of course for the franchise — the Thunder had initially planned for a limited number of fans to be in attendance at their home games, as Royce Young of ESPN writes. However, the team determined in recent weeks that even significantly reducing the capacity of Chesapeake Energy Arena may not be satisfactory to address health and safety concerns.

Here’s more on the Thunder:

In a Q&A with Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman, Thunder head of basketball operations Sam Presti explained why he felt the time was right to fully launch the club’s rebuild this offseason. “When you step back and take a clear-eyed, rational view of the season we had last year, and all of the randomness that occurred in our favor, the loss of future value we would be relinquishing for a small probability of replicating those performances, it was clear that the most objective path was to prioritize the future,” Presti said.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander‘s role as a centerpiece of the Thunder’s rebuild has been unaffected by the significant roster overhaul in Oklahoma City this fall. “We’re putting a lot in faith in him and showing him he’s a central figure to a lot of things we ultimately want to be,” Presti said (Twitter link via Young).
Berry Tramel of The Oklahoman says that, while he “despises” tanking, he understands why going that route is the best way forward for the Thunder.
In case you missed it, the Thunder have officially signed No. 17 pick Aleksej Pokusevski to his rookie contract, as we detailed earlier this morning.

Doncic, Porzingis, SGA Among Players Out For Monday’s Games

August 10th, 2020 at 11:09am CST by Luke Adams

Mavericks stars Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis won’t play in Monday’s game against Utah, according to the league’s official injury report. Dallas will also be without starting forward Dorian Finney-Smith.

Doncic and Porzingis are both listed out due to “injury recovery” — right ankle for Doncic and left knee for Porzingis. Finney-Smith, meanwhile, is dealing with a left hip strain.

At 42-30, the No. 7 Mavericks are two games behind the sixth-seeded Jazz (43-27), so today’s game has seeding implications. If the Mavs lose, they’ll be locked into the No. 7 seed in the West. Utah, just a half-game behind the No. 5 Thunder, could still move up a spot or two in the standings, though the team may prefer to remain at No. 6 if it means avoiding the Rockets in the first round. Houston has eliminated the Jazz in the postseason in each of the last two years.

Donovan Mitchell has also been downgraded from questionable to out for today’s game due to a left lower leg peroneal strain, according to the Jazz (via Twitter).

Meanwhile, per the league’s injury report, the Thunder will be without Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (right calf contusion), Steven Adams (left lower leg contusion), Danilo Gallinari (left ankle injury maintenance), and Nerlens Noel (right ankle sprain), in addition to missing Dennis Schröder, who remains out for personal reasons after attending the birth of his child.

Those absences bode well for the Suns, who will need to remain undefeated in the bubble in order to keep pace in the race for the Western Conference’s final playoff spot. As we detailed earlier today, Phoenix won’t technically be eliminated from postseason contention with a loss, but it would make the path to a play-in spot a whole lot more difficult.