Stephen Curry Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Stephen Curry Talks About Returning To Action

March 5th, 2020 at 2:00pm CST by Arthur Hill

Stephen Curry plans to resume a regular playing schedule now that his fractured left hand is fully healed, tweets Anthony Slater of The Athletic. The Warriors guard met with reporters this afternoon ahead of his return to the court tonight after missing 58 games.

Curry hopes to play in all 20 of Golden State’s remaining games, saying he doesn’t want it to be a “now you see me, now you don’t” situation. He has had “talks” with the team about playing on back-to-back nights, but no decision has been reached, relays Nick Friedell of ESPN (Twitter link). The Warriors have four back-to-backs remaining.

He also spoke about adjusting to playing again without being concerned about his hand (video link). “Hopefully there aren’t any thoughts and I get to play my game the way I see it, react and make plays without hesitation,” Curry said. “If I need to make a left-handed pass or finish with my left or defend and get a deflection or take a hit with it.”

Curry also hasn’t given up hopes of playing for Team USA in the Olympics this summer (video link). “Right now the focus obviously is just trying to stay healthy these last 20 games,” he said, “get my rhythm back, get to the level of basketball I know I’m capable of playing.”

Stephen Curry Cleared To Return Thursday

March 4th, 2020 at 7:21pm CST by Arthur Hill

7:21pm: The Warriors have confirmed Curry’s return (Twitter link).

6:30pm: Stephen Curry has received medical clearance to play in Thursday’s game against the Raptors, tweets Anthony Slater of The Athletic.

A source tells Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area that Curry’s trip to the G League was limited to just one day because plans were in place for him to play tomorrow (Twitter link). Another source said Curry will be in Golden State’s lineup barring some “catastrophic” occurrence.

Curry will return after missing 58 games with a broken left hand he suffered on October 30. With him and fellow Splash Brother Klay Thompson out of action, the Warriors have fallen to the bottom of the NBA with a 14-48 record. Curry was averaging 20.3 points, 5.0 rebounds and 6.5 assists through the season’s first four games before the injury.

Injury Updates: Dunn, LaVine, Curry, Oubre, Dedmon

March 3rd, 2020 at 2:05pm CST by Luke Adams

The Bulls‘ frontcourt has been getting a little healthier lately, with Otto Porter and Wendell Carter returning to action within the last few days and Lauri Markkanen making good progress as well. However, the team isn’t in the clear yet when it comes to injuries, especially in the backcourt.

Speaking today to reporters, including K.C. Johnson of The Chicago Tribune (Twitter link), Bulls head coach Jim Boylen confirmed that Kris Dunn will miss the rest of the 2019/20 season. That update doesn’t come as a surprise — we heard nearly two weeks ago that Dunn’s season was in jeopardy as a result of his right MCL sprain. He’ll be eligible for restricted free agency this summer and won’t meet the starter criteria, which will reduce the value of his qualifying offer, as we detailed in that February story.

Meanwhile, the Bulls’ leading scorer, Zach LaVine, confirmed that he’ll remain on the shelf for Wednesday’s game in Minnesota after missing Monday’s contest vs. Dallas (video link via Tony Gill of NBC Sports Chicago). LaVine added that his quad strain will probably sideline him for about a week.

Here are more injury updates from across the NBA:

A Thursday return vs. Toronto is a possibility for Warriors star Stephen Curry, head coach Steve Kerr said today (video link via Anthony Slater of The Athletic). Curry’s return date was pushed back after he originally targeted March 1, but it sounds like he’s pretty close.
Suns forward Kelly Oubre will undergo surgery on his torn right meniscus, according to John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7. Oubre’s recovery timetable remains unclear — an update is expected to be provided on Wednesday, per Arizona Sports 98.7.
The Hawks announced in a press release today that injured center Dewayne Dedmon (elbow) has been cleared to practice on Wednesday. GM Travis Schlenk said in an appearance on 92.9 FM in Atlanta that the Hawks “fully expect” Dedmon to be available on Friday (Twitter link via Kevin Chouinard).
Asked today if Derrick Rose will return this season, Pistons head coach Dwane Casey was noncommittal, tweets Rod Beard of The Detroit News. “We’ll just see how he feels. I wouldn’t put that in concrete,” Casey said. “… I don’t know what he would gain from it by coming back (for the final weeks). We haven’t made that decision yet.” Rose, who is recovering from a sprained ankle, will be re-evaluated in two weeks.

NBA G League Assignments/Recalls: 3/2/20

March 2nd, 2020 at 7:37pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Here are Monday’s assignments and recalls from across the NBA G League:

The Warriors assigned guard Stephen Curry to its affiliate in Santa Cruz and then recalled the former MVP, according to a team press release and Twitter post. Curry got in a practice with the G League club as he prepares to return from a broken left hand. The team also assigned forward Alen Smailagic to Santa Cruz. Smailagic has appeared in 19 games with Santa Cruz this season, posting averages of 15.2 PPG and 6.1 RPG in 25.9 MPG.
The Pacers recalled center Goga Bitadze and forward Alize Johnson from the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, the team’s PR department tweets. Bitadze, the team’s first-round selection, has averaged 3.0 PPG in 8.5 MPG while making 46 appearances for the Pacers. Johnson, a 2018 second-rounder, has seen action in 12 NBA games this season.
The Magic recalled guard Melvin Frazier from Lakeland, the team’s PR department tweets. A 2018 second-round pick, Frazier has appeared in 14 games with Orlando this season.
The Bulls assigned and then recalled power forward Lauri Markkanen from the Windy City Bulls, the team tweets. Markkanen participated in a practice as part of his rehab process. He has been sidelined since January 22 with a stress reaction of his right pelvis.
The Clippers assigned big man Mfiondu Kabengele and guard Terance Mann to their Agua Caliente affiliate, according to the team’s PR department. A late first-rounder last June, Kabengele has appeared in 12 Clippers games. Mann, a rookie drafted in the second round, has seen action in 35 NBA games.
The Jazz assigned forward Juwan Morgan and guard Rayjon Tucker to the Salt Lake City Stars, according to the G League transactions log. A pair of undrafted rookies, Morgan has appeared in 16 Jazz games this season while Tucker has made 14 NBA appearances.

Warriors: Stephen Curry On Track To Play In March

February 29th, 2020 at 11:53am CST by marksuleymanov

As he continues his recovery from hand surgery, Warriors point guard Stephen Curry remains on track to return “at some point in March,” the team announced in a press release Saturday (Twitter link).

Curry will practice with the G League’s Santa Cruz Warriors on Monday, ruling him out of an originally-reported Sunday return against the Wizards. Shams Charania of The Athletic, who first reported that Curry would play on Sunday, tweets that the star guard had been preparing to do so, but the two sides ultimately agreed that he needed more practice time.

The two-time NBA MVP has missed all but four games this season after undergoing surgery to repair a broken left hand. In those games, he averaged 20.3 PPG and 6.5 APG for the reigning Western Conference champions. With Curry and Klay Thompson sidelined and Kevin Durant departed, the Warriors have endured a miserable season, sporting an NBA-worst 12-47 record.

Curry’s return will not mark a late-season addition for Golden State hoping to make a postseason push. Instead, it will be an opportunity for the three-time NBA champion to finish out a difficult season for the Warriors on a high note.

Warriors Notes: Bowman, Curry, 2020 First-Rounder

February 28th, 2020 at 8:50am CST by Luke Adams

Rookie guard Ky Bowman injured his right ankle late in the Warriors‘ blowout loss to the Lakers on Thursday night, and head coach Steve Kerr said after the game that he expects Bowman to miss some time as a result of that injury.

“He rolled his ankle pretty well,” Kerr told reporters, including Ali Thanawalla of NBC Sports Bay Area. “It’s not going to be a day-to-day thing. He’s going to be out a little bit. He won’t go on the trip (to Phoenix) and I think he’ll get an MRI (on Friday).”

With Andrew Wiggins and Jordan Poole also banged up, the Warriors’ backcourt might be extremely thin on Saturday vs. Phoenix. However, there’s a chance reinforcements could be coming by Sunday in the form of a two-time MVP.

Here’s more on that, along with a couple other Warriors-related notes:

Kerr intends to meet with general manager Bob Myers, the team’s training staff, and Stephen Curry on Friday after practice to set a concrete plan for Curry’s return from a broken left hand, per ESPN. A report earlier this week indicated that Curry is on track to get back on the court on Sunday vs. Washington, but the team has yet to confirm that decision.
Not that there has been any doubt for months, but the top-20 protected 2020 first-round pick Golden State traded to the Nets in last summer’s Kevin Durant/D’Angelo Russell sign-and-trade is now officially protected as a result of Thursday’s loss, writes Anthony Slater of The Athletic. Instead of sending a first-rounder to Brooklyn, the Warriors will instead owe the Nets their 2025 second-round pick (unprotected).
In case you missed it, we relayed a handful of Warriors-related items on Thursday, including news of the team officially signing Mychal Mulder to a 10-day contract, along with notes on Dragan Bender and Joe Lacob.

Steph Curry Expected To Return For Warriors On Sunday

February 26th, 2020 at 3:41pm CST by Luke Adams

FEBRUARY 26: After Curry went through his second full-speed scrimmage today, head coach Steve Kerr said he’d like to see the star guard scrimmage a little more, downplaying the notion that a Sunday return is locked in (video link via Anthony Slater of The Athletic).

“If it’s Sunday, great,” Kerr said. “If it’s not, that’s fine too.”

FEBRUARY 25: Warriors star Stephen Curry will return to action on Sunday following his four-month recovery from a broken left hand, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (via Twitter).

The March 1 contest, a home game vs. the Wizards, is the one Curry has been eyeing as a potential target date for more than a month. Now, barring an unexpected setback within the next few days, it appears he’ll meet that target date.

At 12-45, the Warriors rank dead last in the NBA, 4.5 games behind the Timberwolves, the next-worst team in the Western Conference. Although the team has no playoff hopes at this point, getting Curry back for the last month-and-a-half of the season will give the Dubs an opportunity to see how the two-time MVP meshes with some of the team’s new contributors.

Andrew Wiggins is the most notable of the Warriors’ newest additions, but Curry has also seen little to no playing time alongside youngsters like Eric Paschall, Ky Bowman, and Marquese Chriss, all of whom look like good bets to be part of next year’s squad.

Curry’s presence will add some extra intrigue to the Warriors’ matchups vs. contenders down the stretch. Following Sunday’s game against Washington, six of Golden State’s next seven contests will be against the Nuggets, Raptors, Sixers, Clippers, and Bucks.

While Curry’s return is around the corner, his fellow Splash Brother won’t be suiting up for the Warriors this season. The club publicly ruled out Klay Thompson for the season last week.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Curry Scrimmages, Confirms March 1 As Target Date To Return

February 22nd, 2020 at 6:33pm CST by Arthur Hill

Stephen Curry has cleared another hurdle in his quest to return to action March 1, relays Anthony Slater of The Athletic. Team doctors cleared Curry for full contact and he participated in his first scrimmage today since breaking his left hand in late October.

Speaking with reporters afterward, the Warriors guard confirmed that he has set next Sunday as his target date to return to action. Although he will need another positive week of rehab to make that happen, all indications are that the healing process is nearly complete.

Curry explained the details of the injury, which involved nerve damage in addition to the break. That’s why his recovery time will be about four months, rather than the usual two when a clean break happens.

“This was a serious one that had a lot of nuances to it with the two surgeries and the nerve damage and stuff I’m still dealing with,” he said. “Everything is new. If it was an ankle thing, I’d tell you everything every step of the way.”

Curry also shared his memories of the play, which happened when Suns center Aron Baynes tried to take a charge on a drive to the basket. Both players fell to the court and Baynes landed directly on top of Curry’s hand, causing the damage. Because Curry is right-handed, the injury shouldn’t affect his shooting, but Slater notes that much of his game is based on the ability to dribble, pass and make layups with either hand.

“I’m getting used to what the new normal is,” Curry said of the recovery process. “It definitely feels different than the right (hand). But you try to get to the point when you’re playing basketball, you don’t think about it — whether it feels all the way same or not, it doesn’t really matter, as long as I’m not worried about the things I’m trying to do, the strength part of it and how it bounces back the next day after pushing it in contact stuff. … Anybody who has had surgery knows it takes a long time to get back to true normal. Functionally speaking, where I’m not out there on the court thinking about it, that’s where I’m trying to get it to.”

With Klay Thompson already sidelined with a torn ACL, Curry’s injury eliminated any chance the Warriors may have had to reach the playoffs. Golden State is focused on returning to title contention next season, and Curry believes the team added an important piece in the deadline deal that brought Andrew Wiggins from the Timberwolves.

“I’ve been watching and seeing what he’s capable of on a nightly basis,” Curry said. “He’s a walking 20 points. The intangibles he can bring, in terms of speed, cutting, length on defense, all those things, will be a fun process to build that chemistry. This is a 15-month journey to spring next year.”

Latest On Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson

February 19th, 2020 at 11:52am CST by Luke Adams

Two-time MVP Stephen Curry practiced for the Warriors on Tuesday for the first time since he broke his left hand in October, writes Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area. It’s a positive step forward in Curry’s recovery process, though he hasn’t yet advanced to taking contact or scrimmaging.

“I don’t know when he’s going to be allowed to scrimmage,” head coach Steve Kerr said. “It’s not this week or anything. But he looks really good. He’s gaining strength, gaining confidence. He has been putting himself through some brutal workouts, so his conditioning is about as good as it can possibly be for somebody who hasn’t been able to scrimmage.”

Despite the Warriors’ 12-43 record, team owner Joe Lacob tells Mark Medina of USA Today that the idea of sitting Curry for the rest of the season is “not even a discussion internally.” Curry has been aiming for an early-March return, and while there’s no guarantee he’ll meet that target date, the Warriors are expected to re-evaluate him and issue an update on February 28, tweets Poole.

Kerr is looking forward to getting the star guard some minutes alongside newly-acquired forward Andrew Wiggins, as ESPN’s Nick Friedell details.

“I think it’s important for Steph and Andrew to get to know each other and to play together,” Kerr said. “I think it’s important for Steph to play without all the guys we’ve lost who are not gonna be back next year — Kevin (Durant) and Andre (Iguodala) and Shaun (Livingston). … He only got three games before his injury, I think it was, so it’s important for him to feel the difference, because it feels different for us.”

Meanwhile, Lacob hasn’t closed the door on the idea of Thompson making it back to the court at the end of this season, once he has recovered from his torn ACL. The team intends to re-evaluate Thompson this week, per Medina.

“Klay might come back for a few games at the end. He might not,” Lacob said. “That doesn’t matter so much. Maybe we’ll err on the cautious side. Maybe. That’s up to him.”

In spite of Lacob’s comments, Kerr isn’t counting on getting both of his veteran sharpshooters back in the lineup before the end of the 2019/20 season.

“With Steph, there’s a definite timetable,” Kerr said, according to Poole. “It’s easy to look and say that in a couple weeks, Steph is going to be ready to play. I don’t know exactly what day. But Klay is a long way from that. I don’t even entertain any thoughts of Klay playing this year.”

USA Basketball Announces 44 Finalists For 2020 Olympic Roster

February 10th, 2020 at 10:21am CST by Luke Adams

USA Basketball has formally announced a preliminary group of 44 players who are candidates to be part of the program’s roster for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

The final roster will only consist of 12 players, so most of these finalists won’t actually play for Team USA at the Olympics. Some will likely withdraw from consideration, while others simply won’t make the final cut. However, these players have all expressed interest in being involved in the process.

“This is the first step in USA Basketball identifying the 12 players who will represent the United States as members of the 2020 U.S. Olympic Men’s Basketball Team in Tokyo,” said USA Basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo.

“… Over the course of the remainder of the NBA season we’ll continue to monitor all of the athletes. Selecting the 12-man USA roster will obviously be an extremely challenging and difficult process, and we will again attempt to select the very best team possible to represent our country and who we hope will be successful in our difficult mission of repeating as Olympic champions for a fourth consecutive Olympics.”

Although the U.S. men’s team has won three consecutive Olympic gold medals, the program had a disappointing showing at last year’s World Cup, finishing in seventh place. Team USA will be looking for a bounce-back performance in Tokyo this summer, with many players from that World Cup squad among the 44 finalists announced today.

Here’s the full list of players who are candidates to play for Team USA at the 2020 Olympics:

Bam Adebayo (Heat)
LaMarcus Aldridge (Spurs)
Harrison Barnes (Kings)
Bradley Beal (Wizards)
Devin Booker (Suns)
Malcolm Brogdon (Pacers)
Jaylen Brown (Celtics)
Jimmy Butler (Heat)
Mike Conley (Jazz)
Stephen Curry (Warriors)
Anthony Davis (Lakers)
DeMar DeRozan (Spurs)
Andre Drummond (Cavaliers)
Kevin Durant (Nets)
Paul George (Clippers)
Draymond Green (Warriors)
James Harden (Rockets)
Montrezl Harrell (Clippers)
Joe Harris (Nets)
Tobias Harris (76ers)
Gordon Hayward (Celtics)
Dwight Howard (Lakers)
Brandon Ingram (Pelicans)
Kyrie Irving (Nets)
LeBron James (Lakers)
Kyle Kuzma (Lakers)
Kawhi Leonard (Clippers)
Damian Lillard (Blazers)
Brook Lopez (Bucks)
Kevin Love (Cavaliers)
Kyle Lowry (Raptors)
JaVale McGee (Lakers)
Khris Middleton (Bucks)
Donovan Mitchell (Jazz)
Victor Oladipo (Pacers)
Chris Paul (Thunder)
Mason Plumlee (Nuggets)
Marcus Smart (Celtics)
Jayson Tatum (Celtics)
Klay Thompson (Warriors)
Myles Turner (Pacers)
Kemba Walker (Celtics)
Russell Westbrook (Rockets)
Derrick White (Spurs)