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Western Notes: Kings, Tucker, McCollum, JRE, Thunder

November 7th, 2023 at 12:59pm CST by Luke Adams

With De’Aaron Fox on the shelf due to a right ankle sprain, the Kings are struggling to establish their identity and display the sort of physicality and stalwart defense that head coach Mike Brown wants to see, per Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. After suffering back-to-back blowouts to the Rockets in Houston on Saturday and Monday, Brown suggested changes might be coming to the rotation.

“I’ve got to evaluate some things,” Brown said. “In this business, you always have to have a sense of urgency, but you have to believe in what you do whenever you make any type of change or any time you do this instead of that. For me, I’m going to go back and I’m going to watch the film, and if I feel the same way after the film, then I’ve got to try to make sure I keep trying to put five guys out there who are going to do what we ask, which is to play together and play the right way while playing fast and bringing a sense of physicality.

“I always have a 24-hour rule, especially after something like this,” Brown continued. “So, I’m going to sleep on it and I’m going to watch this film, and if you earn a chance to play, I’m going to play you. Nobody’s position on this team is sacred.”

The Kings, winners of 48 games last season, are off to a 2-4 start in 2023/24 and rank 22nd in the NBA in defensive rating (114.0).

Let’s round up a few more notes from around the Western Conference…

New Clippers forward P.J. Tucker admitted on Monday that, despite the trade rumors that swirled around teammate James Harden all offseason, he hadn’t anticipated being part of a Harden deal. “I wasn’t expecting to get traded, so I didn’t know,” Tucker told Stefan Bondy of The New York Post. “It kind of came out of nowhere.”
Pelicans head coach Willie Green told reporters on Monday that the team doesn’t have any new details on CJ McCollum‘s collapsed right lung, but expressed optimism that the ailment isn’t too serious, writes Christian Clark of NOLA.com. “We don’t think it’s too bad,” Green said. “But we have to run more tests and see where we are after that.” As Clark observes, McCollum dealt with a similar health issue during his time in Portland and it cost him 18 games.
Jeremiah Robinson-Earl‘s two-way contract with the Pelicans is just a rest-of-season deal, Hoops Rumors has learned. That means Robinson-Earl will be eligible for restricted free agency at the end of the 2023/24 season, assuming he plays out his new contract.
Some rival scouts and executives think the Thunder are capable of being a top-four seed in the West this season, but head of basketball operations Sam Presti is preaching patience and appears in no rush to accelerate his team’s contention timeline, as Tim MacMahon details in an interesting feature for ESPN.com.

Examining Why The Kings Are Having Trouble Scoring

November 6th, 2023 at 11:55am CST by Arthur Hill

Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee examines what’s gone wrong with the Kings, who are struggling to score after having the highest-rated offense in league history last season.

Injury Notes: Murray, Fox, Gilgeous-Alexander, Fultz, Beal

November 5th, 2023 at 9:50pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Nuggets guard Jamal Murray departed their game against Chicago on Saturday after just 10 minutes. He’s been diagnosed with a right hamstring strain and won’t be available for Denver’s contest against New Orleans on Monday, Harrison Wind of DNVR Sports tweets.

We have more injury-related updates:

Kings guard De’Aaron Fox won’t play against Houston on Monday due to an ankle injury, according to James Ham of TheKingsBeat.com (Twitter link). It’ll be the third straight game that Fox has been out of the lineup.
Thunder star guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will miss his second straight game on Monday due to a left knee sprain, Brad Rowland tweets.
Magic guard Markelle Fultz, who’s dealing with left knee soreness, is listed as questionable to play on Monday against Dallas, according to Jason Beede of the Orlando Sentinel. Fultz has missed the last two games. Gary Harris (strained right groin) has already been ruled out.
Bradley Beal could make his Suns debut as early as Wednesday against Chicago, according to Duane Rankin of the Arizona Republic. Beal has been sidelined since training camp due to a back ailment.

Pacific Notes: Harden, Warriors, Santa Cruz, Kings Depth, Booker

November 4th, 2023 at 11:54am CST by Tristan Tucker

New Clippers guard James Harden discussed his desire to help the team win a championship during his introductory presser on Thursday, and the Clippers are much closer to winning a chip by acquiring him, Mirjam Swanson of The Orange County Register opines. However, Swanson argues that trading for Harden puts the Clippers under more public scrutiny, adding Harden to a list of big-name players alongside Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and Russell Westbrook.

The fit between Harden and Westbrook, who have played together twice before in Houston and Oklahoma City, will be interesting to watch unfold. Andrew Greif of the Los Angeles Times further explores the fit, adding that coach Tyronn Lue said he hasn’t yet talked to the two about splitting ball-handling duties.

“I don’t predict the future. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t know, bro,” Westbrook said. “But it’s going to be a process. It’s going to be ups and downs, going to be good games, bad games. It’s not just going to come together and mesh and we’re going to be perfectly fine. That’s unrealistic expectations for everybody. The realistic expectations, like I said, it’s going to be a process. I don’t have the answer to what that is.”

Harden said he’s used to adjusting his playing style, having done so in Brooklyn and Philadelphia alongside other superstars, though he expressed displeasure with his role in Philly.

“Somebody that can have that dialogue with me and understand and move forward and figure out and make adjustments on the fly throughout the course of games, that’s all I really care about,” Harden said. “It’s not about me scoring … 34 points. I’ve done that already.”

Harden is in the final year of his contract and will earn about $35.6MM this season.

We have more from the Pacific Division:

The Warriors are off to a 5-1 start, but they are still figuring out certain lineups, The Athletic’s Anthony Slater observes. In particular, head coach Steve Kerr is still working through the team’s closing unit, and Jonathan Kuminga, Andrew Wiggins and Gary Payton II are all fighting for spots in that lineup, with Payton closing out Friday.
In the same article, Slater reports the Warriors sent Brandin Podziemski and Trayce Jackson-Davis to the G League to get playing time in training camp with Santa Cruz. However, Draymond Green argued that the Warriors played with low energy on Friday and that not having the young players there hurt the team. “Next time we have an in-season tournament game, we need them here,” Green said. “You always talk about young guys bringing energy, that’s their job. We don’t have to tell those young guys to bring energy. They do every single day. I wasn’t overly shocked our energy wasn’t there because they lift our energy level. … We need them here. They are a big part of the fabric of this team. We missed them [Friday].“
With both De’Aaron Fox and Trey Lyles still out for the Kings, Sacramento’s depth is being tested early on, The Sacramento Bee’s Jason Anderson writes. Davion Mitchell and Sasha Vezenkov have been taking on the majority of Fox’s and Lyles’ minutes.
After returning to play Thursday, Suns guard Devin Booker is out again for Saturday’s contest against the Sixers, according to Duane Rankin (Twitter link). Head coach Frank Vogel is “hopeful” Booker will play in the second game of the team’s back-to-back on Sunday against the Pistons, but that the short turnaround mixed with ankle soreness is holding him out today.

Injury Notes: Kyrie, Thunder, Mann, Lyles

November 3rd, 2023 at 3:00pm CST by Luke Adams

After missing the last two games due to a sprained left foot, Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving has been upgraded to available for Friday’s game vs. the Nuggets, as first reported by Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).

The Mavericks are the only undefeated team left in the Western Conference, but will face a tough matchup in their first in-season tournament game tonight as they visit the defending champions in the altitude of Denver, so they’ll be happy to have Irving back in their lineup.

Here are a few more injury-related updates from around the NBA:

There’s good and bad news on the injury front for the Thunder. Center Jaylin Williams will be available for the first time this season on Friday after having been sidelined with a right hamstring strain. However, star guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is among the team’s unavailable players vs. Golden State due to a left knee sprain (Twitter links via Rylan Stiles of Locked on Thunder).
Clippers guard/forward Terance Mann, who has yet to play this season due to what the team is calling a sprained left ankle, said in a YouTube video that he “overstretched” a muscle or “maybe tore it a little” (hat tip to Andrew Greif of The Los Angeles Times). Mann added that there’s no timeline for his return and he’s still focused on trying to reduce the swelling in the ankle.
The Kings have ruled out forward Trey Lyles for at least two more games, the team announced today (Twitter link via Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee). Lyles, hampered by a left calf strain, has yet to suit up for Sacramento this season.

Clippers Trade Filip Petrusev, Cash To Kings

November 1st, 2023 at 8:23pm CST by Luke Adams

8:23pm: The trade is official, the Clippers announced (via Twitter).

7:59 pm: The Clippers will send Petrusev and cash to the Kings in exchange for the draft rights to Luka Mitrovic, a source tells Andrew Greif of The Los Angeles Times (Twitter link). Mitrovic, a 30-year-old forward currently playing in Serbia, was the final pick in the 2015 draft.

3:02pm: The Clippers and Kings have agreed to a trade that will send big man Filip Petrusev and cash to Sacramento, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link).

Petrusev was dealt to Los Angeles along with James Harden and P.J. Tucker in the blockbuster trade that was officially completed on Wednesday. However, Law Murray of The Athletic reported at the time of the agreement that the Serbian rookie wasn’t in the Clippers’ plans and wasn’t expected to remain on the roster.

By trading Petrusev to Sacramento, the Clippers will open up a second roster spot on their 15-man squad. Under the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, a team can only carry fewer than 14 players on standard contracts for up to 14 days at a time and 28 total days during a season, so Los Angeles will have to replace Petrusev on its roster sooner rather than later.

Even after the Clippers add a 14th man, I’d expect them to keep their 15th roster spot open for the time being in order to maintain some flexibility and to avoid increasing their projected luxury tax bill.

The Kings, meanwhile, entered the season with an open roster spot of their own and will now use it to take a look at Petrusev, a draft-and-stash prospect who was selected 50th overall in 2021 and joined the 76ers two years later.

The 6’11” forward/center, who played college ball at Gonzaga, won a EuroLeague championship with Anadolu Efes in 2022, earned a Serbian League title with Crvena Zvezda in 2023, and was part of the Serbian national team that finished second at the 2023 FIBA World Cup.

Assuming the terms of his contract aren’t being adjusted as part of the trade, Petrusev’s salary is currently only partially guaranteed for $559,782 (50% of his full salary), so the Kings could waive him at some point with no real financial penalty if they want to reopen that 15th roster spot. His full cap hit is $1,119,563.

It’s unclear what the Kings are sending the Clippers in the trade, but based on the structure of the deal and how it’s been reported, I expect it to be either a heavily protected second-round pick or the draft rights to a player who will likely never sign an NBA contract.

De’Aaron Fox To Miss Time With Ankle Injury

October 30th, 2023 at 11:58am CST by Arthur Hill

11:58am: Fox suffered a moderate right ankle sprain and is expected to miss some time, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic. Sources tell Marc J. Spears of Andscape that the guard could return within a week (Twitter link).

7:59am: The Kings are determining the severity of an ankle injury that De’Aaron Fox suffered late in Sunday’s win over the Lakers, writes Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. A league source told Anderson that the team’s medical staff was examining Fox after the game and an update will be provided once the extent of the damage is clear.

The All-Star guard hurt his right ankle late in the fourth quarter, but returned to the court for the start of overtime despite being told to remain on the bench, according to Anderson. Head coach Mike Brown pulled him from the game after about 90 seconds, saying he was “limping really bad,” but he admires Fox’s toughness for attempting to play.

“(Fox) is tough as nails, man,” Brown said. “To try to show the grit that he showed and get out there to help us win a ballgame, that just speaks volumes to who he is and how much he wants to lay his body on the line to help his team.”

Fox was injured on a drive to the basket when he stepped on Gabe Vincent’s foot and rolled his right ankle. He remained on the ground for two to three minutes, Anderson states, then limped to the locker room with trainers before quickly returning to the team’s bench.

Fox checked back into the game and led a comeback that put Sacramento in front, but the Lakers forced overtime on a layup by LeBron James. Fox wasn’t supposed to stay in the game for the extra session, and Brown wasn’t aware that he was on the court until it was too late.

“So I started calling him, and he’s ignoring me,” Brown said. “He felt he could go, so he stayed on the floor, and then when I felt he really couldn’t go, we took him out.”

Anderson points out that Fox missed 17 games during the 2019/20 season with a Grade 3 sprain to his left ankle. The Kings have to hope the news isn’t as bad this time, as a prolonged absence would be a significant obstacle in what’s expected to be a tight Western Conference playoff race. Fox scored 37 points Sunday night, including 13 in the fourth quarter, and is averaging 31.3 points, 4.3 rebounds and 6.0 assists through three games.

Lyles Remains Out With Calf Injury

October 29th, 2023 at 5:31pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Kings coach Mike Brown did not rule out the possibility of a lineup change this evening against the Lakers. Shooting guard Kevin Huerter has struggled during the first week of the season. “There are plenty of guys who made mistakes, and when I evaluate the team, I’m not just looking at Kevin and thinking about taking Kevin out of the starting lineup,” Brown told Jason Anderson of the Sacramento Bee. “There are other changes that can be made, so I always — with the flexibility we feel we have with this team — that’s something that I always have to take a look at.” Huerter went scoreless in Sacramento’s home opener against Golden State on Friday.
Trey Lyles, who remained with the Kings on a two-year contract, will miss Sacramento’s game on Sunday with a left calf strain, James Ham of The Kings Beat tweets. Lyles has yet to make his season debut.

Western Notes: THT, K. George, Kings, Booker, Pokusevski

October 27th, 2023 at 4:00pm CST by Luke Adams

After letting several players battle for the role in training camp and preseason, the Jazz made Talen Horton-Tucker their starting point guard on Wednesday. According to Andy Larsen of The Salt Lake Tribune, head coach Will Hardy explained that a domino effect related to two other starters was a major factor in the decision.

“Talen pairs well with Jordan (Clarkson). Jordan is very much a good pairing with Lauri (Markkanen), because he provides a second threat offensively, a second ball-handler, a second play-maker, a second focal point of the offense,” Hardy said. “When we made the determination that Jordan was going to play with Lauri, Talen was the best fit to play with Jordan.”

As Larsen notes, of the players on Utah’s current roster, No. 16 overall pick Keyonte George is the best bet to be the point guard of the future. George had a solid debut, scoring eight points on 3-of-5 shooting in 19 minutes (Horton-Tucker had eight points on 3-of-9 shooting in 22 minutes), but Hardy isn’t ready to throw the rookie in the deep end by starting him and playing him heavy minutes.

“I think that Keyonte is a good player. I think we have high expectations for Keyonte and his future,” the Jazz coach said. “But in no way are we going into these games just saying, ‘Hey, we’re going to play Keyonte to play Keyonte.’ I thought he was reading the game well, he made some really good decisions. He made some great passes to shots that didn’t go in. But, I thought that in the flow of the game, he had a good thing going.”

Here’s more from around the Western Conference:

The Kings were the feel-good story of 2022/23, winning 48 games and snapping a 16-season playoff drought, but head coach Mike Brown isn’t satisfied with their achievements, telling the team entering this season that “good is the enemy of great,” as Anthony Slater and Sam Amick of The Athletic detail in an in-depth piece on the team’s desire to reach the next level. “I feel like he’s erased everything we did last year from his memory, from our memory,” Domantas Sabonis said of Brown. “He only brings up that we lost against the Warriors (in the first round of the playoffs). He’s definitely pushing us harder, and I love it. It’s fair. That happens usually (where) guys get complacent or think, ‘Oh, whatever we did last year.’ But if we don’t do all the little details, nothing’s going to change, you know?”
Suns guard Devin Booker missed Thursday’s game due to what has been diagnosed as a left mid-foot sprain, according to TNT’s Jared Greenberg (Twitter link), who says the injury occurred during Tuesday’s win over Golden State. Booker will undergo an MRI upon returning to Phoenix and is aiming to return to the court on Tuesday vs. San Antonio, a team source tells Greenberg.
When the Thunder announced on September 20 that Aleksej Pokusevski had sprained his right ankle in a workout, they said he would be reevaluated in six weeks. However, Pokusevski was active for the team’s regular season opener on Wednesday, beating a recovery timeline that would’ve sidelined him until November, tweets Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman. The fourth-year forward may not be part of Oklahoma City’s regular rotation at this point though — he only played two minutes of garbage time in Wednesday’s victory over Chicago.

Pacific Notes: George, Kawhi, Durant, LeBron, Huerter

October 25th, 2023 at 3:59pm CST by Luke Adams

As he enters his age-33 season, Clippers forward Paul George is thinking about the legacy he’ll leave behind when his NBA career is over, writes Andrew Greif of The Los Angeles Times. And George isn’t happy that he has no championship hardware to show for his four years in Los Angeles (or his nine NBA seasons before that), as injuries have repeatedly sidelined him and fellow star Kawhi Leonard.

“My legacy here is just haven’t been able to finish,” George said. “I think in a lot of ways, injury-prone, inability to finish. So can’t even say that — like, I never go into a summer like, ‘Hey, what do I need to work on to get better, what do I need to’ … I got to just try to find a way to stay healthy.”

The Clippers appear to approaching the 2023/24 season with a heightened sense of urgency. Head coach Tyronn Lue talked prior to training camp about a need to take the regular season more seriously and not just be looking ahead to the playoffs. And with both George and Leonard healthy entering the season for the first time in three years, the rest of the team has noticed a shift in the group’s collective mindset, Greif observes.

“Night-and-day different, just in terms of intensity at training camp,” Clippers guard Norman Powell said.

Here’s more from out of the Pacific:

Leonard, who underwent surgery on his torn ACL in July of 2021, spoke repeatedly last year about the idea that the injury requires a two-year recovery period to get back to full strength. The Clippers forward reiterated that point on Tuesday, confirming he feels as good now as he has since injuring his knee in 2021. “I feel good and I’m ready to go,” Leonard said, per Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN. “… Talking to guys [who suffered ACL injuries] and seeing when they do start feeling good or just trusting your knee, it’s just something that you feel and I mean one day just turns around for you.”
Suns forward Kevin Durant tells Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports that it was “good to have stability” this summer after a tumultuous final year in Brooklyn. Durant also admitted that he’s starting to think about what his life will look like after he retires from the NBA, though he added that he wants to play for “as long as I can.”
While much has been made over the years of LeBron James‘ desire to play with son Bronny James before he retires from the NBA, a new Beats by Dre commercial voiced by LeBron’s wife Savannah references the Lakers star’s desire to play with son Bryce James as well, notes ESPN’s Dave McMenamin (Twitter link). Bryce, 16, is three years younger than Bronny.
Kings head coach Mike Brown flirted during the preseason with the idea of having Chris Duarte replace Kevin Huerter in the team’s starting five, but Huerter will be the starter at shooting guard to open the season, Brown confirmed on Tuesday (Twitter link via James Ham of The Kings Beat).