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Pacific Notes: Murray, Warriors, Paul, Clippers

October 22nd, 2022 at 11:01pm CST by Arthur Hill

COVID-19 delayed Keegan Murray‘s NBA debut, but the Kings rookie was on the court tonight, writes Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. Murray had to sit out Wednesday’s season opener while recovering from the virus, but he was able to practice the past two days without any limitations.

“You can’t tell he had COVID,” De’Aaron Fox said. “Obviously, he’s still a rookie and he’s learning, but I think he’s excited and we’re excited to have him out there for a game that counts.”

Murray, the fourth pick in this year’s draft, raised expectations with a strong performance during Summer League and followed that by averaging 16.0 PPG while shooting 70.6% from the field and 70% from three-point range in two preseason games. He’s looking forward to performing for Sacramento fans after seeing the enthusiasm they brought to opening night.

“We have one of the best fan bases in the NBA,” Murray said. “So just being able to play in front of them and get a win — that’s my biggest goal — I think it will be really special once I’m able to get back on the floor.”

There’s more from the Pacific Division:

The Warriors boast a deep and talented roster that will eventually lead to tough decisions for head coach Steve Kerr, writes Kendra Andrews of ESPN. Kerr used an 11-man rotation in the season opener, with nine players logging at least 15 minutes. “You have 11 guys that probably deserve the opportunity to play,” Stephen Curry said. “There’s going to be different lineups every night, especially early in the year. … We’re going to have to develop that chemistry as we go. You’re going to continue to try and experiment and give guys opportunities to go out and hoop.”
Chris Paul‘s early-season scoring decline shouldn’t be a long-term concern for the Suns, according to Gerald Bourguet of PHNX Sports. Bourguet notes that Paul has been concentrating on getting his teammates involved in the offense, and he ranks second in the league with 21 assists. Bourguet states that the team’s more pressing issues are a lack of bench production and a wide difference in the number of free throws they’ve shot compared to opponents.
Clippers owner Steve Ballmer unveiled his new streaming service tonight, per Andrew Greif of The Los Angeles Times. ClipperVision is available without a cable subscription and will show 74 of the team’s 82 games. Six live stream options are offered for each game, and one includes former NBA players providing guest commentary.

Fox Feels Comfortable In Small Market

October 22nd, 2022 at 10:01am CST by Dana Gauruder

De’Aaron Fox signed a five-year extension in November 2020 and he hopes to continue his relationship with the Kings for many seasons, as he told Sam Amick of The Athletic. “I’ve never been the type of person that wants a big market,” Fox said. “(So) if I can go to a small market, and then win, those are the types of things that I feel like are more important to me. It’s being able to bring winning back to the city. That is definitely my goal.”

Injury Notes: Garland, Embiid, Curry, J. Murray, More

October 21st, 2022 at 8:26pm CST by Rory Maher

Cavaliers point guard Darius Garland, a first-time All-Star last season, has been ruled out of Saturday’s game at Chicago due to his eye injury, according to Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com (Twitter links). Garland didn’t travel with the team and the “current feeling” is that Garland is “improbable” to play in Cleveland’s home opener on Sunday against Washington, Fedor adds.

Garland suffered a lacerated eyelid when he was inadvertently poked in the eye by Gary Trent Jr. in the second quarter of the Cavs’ 108-105 loss to the Raptors on Wednesday. Fedor reported on Thursday that Garland does not have structural damage and won’t require surgery.

Here are some more injury-related notes from around the NBA:

Sixers head coach Doc Rivers says that Joel Embiid‘s conditioning was impacted by plantar fascitiis during the offseason, as Noah Levick of NBC Sports Philadelphia relays. “He had a little plantar fasciitis before the season started — before training camp — and that took him off his conditioning program,” Rivers said. “And so he’s back on that. But listen, he’s playing with the right intentions. He just didn’t play well, and that’s OK, too. That’s going to happen. We’ve still got to win those games.” The Sixers dropped their first two games of the season, with Embiid looking pretty sluggish. Rivers reiterated that Embiid is no longer dealing with the injury, but needs to regain his rhythm and conditioning.
Guard Seth Curry (offseason ankle surgery) is likely to travel with the Nets for their two-game road trip next week, but “probably” needs more practice time before he returns to action, head coach Steve Nash said on Friday (Twitter link via Brian Lewis of The New York Post).
Nuggets guard Jamal Murray, who played his first regular season game on Wednesday since suffering a torn ACL in April 2021, is out for Friday’s game against the Warriors, head coach Michael Malone told reporters (Twitter links via Kendra Andrews of ESPN). According to Andrews, Malone said the Nuggets are resting Murray because Friday is the first of a back-to-back. However, that might not be the case for the entire season, Malone added.
No. 4 overall pick Keegan Murray will make his debut on Saturday against the Clippers after being a full participant in Friday’s practice, a source tells ESPN’s Marc J. Spears. Murray was fully cleared by the Kings after exiting the health and safety protocols, Spears writes.
Dillon Brooks (left thigh soreness) and Ziaire Williams (right knee soreness) missed their second consecutive games for the Grizzlies on Friday, the team announced (via Twitter). Memphis won its opener against New York and defeated Houston in game two.

Brown Focused On Playoffs; Brown And Sabonis Improving Kings' Vibe, Culture

October 20th, 2022 at 1:45pm CST by Rory Maher

Kings head coach Mike Brown says he’s focused on ending the team’s 16-year playoff drought, which is an NBA record. “We love the fans. We do. And they’re great fans, but even if the fans didn’t feel like we needed to make the playoffs, I’m not here to coach regular-season games. It’s just as simple as that,” he said (Twitter link via Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee).
Brown and center Domantas Sabonis have helped improve the Kings‘ vibes and culture, writes Chris Biderman of The Sacramento Bee. Brown has brought consistent energy and a “serious-yet-playful” personality to the team, while Sabonis hosted several teammates at his new offseason home in Napa, California to watch last season’s Finals and play pickup games. “The vibes were great,” Sabonis told The Bee. “If you’re an average team and if your off-court (dynamic) is amazing, you’re not an average team any more, you’re definitely better. I’m a firm believer in that.” As Biderman notes, it was the first offseason as a King for Sabonis, who only appeared in 15 games with Sacramento in ’21/22 after he was acquired from Indiana in a February trade.

Health Updates: LaVine, Garland, Turner, K. Murray

October 20th, 2022 at 8:00am CST by Luke Adams

After being ruled out for the Bulls‘ regular season opener due to “left knee management,” Zach LaVine told reporters that his absence was simply precautionary and that the left knee he underwent arthroscopic surgery on in the spring still felt fine. However, head coach Billy Donovan offered a different story when he spoke to the media, writes Rob Schaefer of NBC Sports Chicago.

“There was a lot of very, very physically demanding practices, to be quite honest with you, coming out of the Milwaukee game,” Donovan said, referring to last Tuesday’s preseason finale. “And I think after a few of those, he felt some discomfort.”

As Donovan observed, the Bulls open the season with seven games in 11 days, so they didn’t want to ride their star swingman too hard out of the gate. LaVine’s absence won’t be “a long-term thing where he’s out for weeks,” according to Chicago’s head coach, who insisted that any discomfort LaVine felt didn’t come as a surprise to the club and is part of the recovery process.

“This is not, to me, anything that is unexpected,” Donovan said. “He’s going to experience, at times, whatever word you want to use, discomfort, soreness, whatever it is.”

Here are a few more updates on health issues from around the NBA:

Cavaliers point guard Darius Garland left Wednesday’s opener in the second quarter after getting hit in the face by Toronto’s Gary Trent Jr. during a steal attempt and sustaining a left eyelid laceration, writes Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com. “His head and everything was clear,” head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “But he was cut and bleeding pretty bad from the inside of his eyelid.” According to Fedor, there’s no clarity yet on how much time Garland might miss, but the consensus among those who saw him after the game was that the eye “looked like it was in bad shape.”
Myles Turner‘s ankle sprain isn’t considered serious, Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle said after Wednesday’s game, according to Scott Agness of Fieldhouse Files (Twitter link). It’s still unclear when Turner will return to action after missing Indiana’s opener on Wednesday, but it sounds like the team isn’t expecting it to be a long-term issue.
Kings rookie forward Keegan Murray cleared the NBA’s health and safety protocols on Wednesday and was in attendance at shootaround, though he didn’t play in the team’s season opener, tweets James Ham of ESPN 1320 Sacramento. Murray should be ready to make his regular season debut soon, after he clears the necessary conditioning benchmarks.

Several Players Set To Receive Salary Guarantees

October 19th, 2022 at 3:00pm CST by Luke Adams

Most players who are still on non-guaranteed contracts as the NBA’s regular season begins won’t have their salaries for 2022/23 fully guaranteed until January. The league-wide salary guarantee date is January 10, and teams must waive players on non-guaranteed contracts on or before January 7 in order to avoid being on the hook for the full-season salaries.

However, a number of players on non-guaranteed deals have language in their contracts that calls for them to receive full or partial guarantees if they’re not waived before their team’s first game of the regular season. Those players are as follows:

Full guarantees:

Dalano Banton (Raptors): Partial guarantee ($300,000) increases to full guarantee ($1,563,518).
Keita Bates-Diop (Spurs): Non-guaranteed salary ($1,878,720) becomes fully guaranteed.
Justin Champagnie (Raptors): Partial guarantee ($325,000) increases to full guarantee ($1,637,966).
Tre Jones (Spurs): Partial guarantee ($500,000) increases to full guarantee ($1,782,621).

As our full list of early salary guarantee dates shows, Isaiah Joe (Sixers), Josh Jackson (Raptors), and D.J. Wilson (Raptors) also would’ve had their salaries become fully guaranteed if they had remained under contract through their teams’ first regular season games. However, they were all waived within the last week. Joe has since signed with the Thunder on a deal that includes a guaranteed first-year salary.

Partial guarantees:

Matthew Dellavedova (Kings): Non-guaranteed salary ($2,628,597) becomes partially guaranteed ($250,000).
Haywood Highsmith (Heat): Partial guarantee ($50,000) increases to $400,000.
Luke Kornet (Celtics): Partial guarantee ($300,000) increases to $1,066,639.
Chima Moneke (Kings): Partial guarantee ($250,000) increases to $500,000.
Markieff Morris (Nets): Non-guaranteed salary ($2,905,581) becomes partially guaranteed ($500,000).
KZ Okpala (Kings): Partial guarantee ($250,000) increases to $500,000.
Edmond Sumner (Nets): Partial guarantee ($250,000) increases to $500,000.

Guarantee dates are a matter of negotiation between a team and a player, so there’s nothing stopping a club from approaching a player and asking him to agree to push that date back. If a player feels as if he’ll be waived if he says no, he may agree.

This happened last season, for instance, when Isaac Bonga‘s and Sam Dekker‘s contracts with the Raptors called for their salaries to be fully guaranteed as of opening night. Both players assented to moving their guarantee dates back to November 6. When that new deadline arrived, Toronto opted to retain Bonga and guarantee his full salary while waiving Dekker.

In other words, it’s not yet a sure thing that all the players mentioned above will get the guarantees described here, even if they remain under contract through Wednesday (or Tuesday, in Kornet’s case). We may get word in a day or two that a couple of them agreed to postpone their salary guarantee dates.

For the most part though, we should count on this group of players receiving some added security, with a handful of names coming off our list of players who still have non-guaranteed salaries.

California Notes: Jackson, Wall, Zubac, Kings, Poole

October 16th, 2022 at 10:23pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue has claimed that a report indicating that Reggie Jackson had won the L.A. starting point guard gig over John Wall did not come from him, and that he has yet to make a final decision, according to Andrew Greif of The Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles will play its first regular season contest this Thursday.

“Both guys are in a great position, and their mindset is in the right place,” Lue said. “It is about winning. It is not about who’s the starter, who’s the best player. It’s about the right fit and trying to win, and both of those guys are on board with that.”

Here’s more out of California:

Clippers center Ivica Zubac spoke with Mark Medina of NBA.com for a wide-ranging conversation that touched on the team’s hoped-for title contention this season, its stars’ injury woes, the development of Zubac around the rim, and more. Zubac also gave head coach Tyronn Lue a rave review. “Ty has been around the team and me for a while, even before he became a head coach,” Zubac noted. “He’s been seeing the progress for a while. It’s in big part thanks to him. He’s been pushing us. Last season, he asked me to do some things on the court that he hadn’t asked me to do in a while. He involved me more offensively. I think that was a big part of my progression.”
Following a rigorous training camp, the Kings opted to retain point guard Matthew Dellavedova, forward Chima Moneke, and power forward KZ Okpala into the regular season. Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee breaks down how the new Sacramento additions made the grade. All are currently signed to non-guaranteed deals with the team. “As training camp has gone on, [Moneke] is trending upwards,” head coach Mike Brown said. “I think the initial shock of being in the NBA and the speed and athleticism and all that stuff caught him off guard a little bit, but he belongs on this level and he can help us. I think KZ, too. Both of those guys were two of my first calls, even before I really got the job.” Brown also raved about Dellavedova’s effort on defense. “If Davion [Mitchell] ain’t going hard, he will get embarrassed by Delly… If [De’Aaron] Fox isn’t going hard, he will get embarrassed by Delly. To have a guy like that raises the level of intensity.”
Warriors reserve guard Jordan Poole signed a four-year contract extension with Golden State worth up to $140MM. Now, new details have emerged about the contract’s various incentives. Anthony Slater of The Athletic unpacks the deal, revealing that – beyond the guaranteed $123MM – Poole will make an extra $1.25MM per year (i.e. $5MM across all four seasons) depending on how far the team gets in the playoffs. He will net an additional $1MM for each year he wins the league MVP award (so a very, very hypothetical total of $4MM), plus $1MM annually per every Defensive Player of the Year award. Considering his skillset, earning either honor even once seems fairly far-fetched. Poole could earn $500K per season should he qualify for an All-NBA team (there are a total of 15 such slots available) and another $500K annually should he qualify for an All-Defensive Team (there are 10 available openings). Slater notes that it is possible Poole grows into being an All-NBA talent, but is skeptical he could ever be an elite defender or named the league MVP.

Injury Updates: Suggs, Nets, Westbrook, Bogdanovic

October 16th, 2022 at 12:55pm CST by Luke Adams

Magic guard Jalen Suggs, who was diagnosed with a left knee capsule sprain and bone bruise after leaving the team’s October 7 preseason game, will be available when Orlando opens its regular season on Wednesday in Detroit, head coach Jamahl Mosley said on Sunday (link via Khobi Price of The Orlando Sentinel).

It’s a somewhat surprising update, since bone bruises can be troublesome ailments and the Magic have generally taken a conservative approach when bringing back young players from injuries during the last couple years.

One orthopedic surgeon who spoke to Price last week speculated that the capsule sprain would take about two-to-four weeks to heal, while the bone bruise might extend Suggs’ recovery timeline beyond that. However, that surgeon didn’t assess Suggs first-hand, and it appears the former No. 5 overall pick will comfortably beat that estimated timeline.

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

The Nets confirmed today that Joe Harris (foot) and Seth Curry (ankle) will not be available for the team’s regular season opener on Wednesday, tweets Kristian Winfield of The New York Daily News. Harris and Curry, both of whom are coming back from ankle surgery, will continue to go through contact practices this week, with Brooklyn expecting to offer another update on Thursday.
Russell Westbrook‘s left hamstring injury isn’t considered serious, according to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports, who tweets that the Lakers guard will be listed as day-to-day after undergoing some tests. There’s no structural damage to the hamstring, Haynes adds.
Hawks swingman Bogdan Bogdanovic is making progress as he continues to recover from knee surgery, but he’s unlikely to be available for the team’s regular season opener on Wednesday, head coach Nate McMillan told reporters on Sunday (Twitter link via Lauren L. Williams of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution).
While Kings rookie forward Keegan Murray isn’t dealing with an injury, he has been placed in the NBA’s health and safety protocols, reports Sean Cunningham of Fox 40 Sacramento (Twitter link). It’s unclear if Murray will be cleared to play in the team’s regular season opener on Wednesday.

Kings Waive Sam Merrill, Set Roster For Season

October 15th, 2022 at 4:15pm CST by Luke Adams

Veteran guard Matthew Dellavedova and forwards KZ Okpala and Chima Moneke have claimed the final three spots on the Kings‘ 15-man roster to open the regular season, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).

Veteran wing Sam Merrill had also been vying for a regular season roster spot, but the Kings have opted to waive him, as Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee tweets.

The team also cut Jeriah Horne and Alex O’Connell, per James Ham of ESPN 1320 Sacramento (Twitter link), who says the plan is for both players to join the Stockton Kings, Sacramento’s G League affiliate.

Okpala earned some starts at power forward for Sacramento this preseason and always seemed like a safe bet to make the roster. Dellavedova, meanwhile, looked like a logical keeper after the team waived another veteran point guard, Quinn Cook. Moneke has spent the last several years playing in international leagues and will be getting his first shot in the NBA as a 26-year-old rookie.

Okpala and Moneke currently have partial guarantees worth $250K and will earn another $250K if they remain on the roster through Wednesday. Dellavedova is on a non-guaranteed contract and will also get $250K for sticking through Wednesday.

Merrill’s contract included a $150K partial guarantee. The Kings will be on the hook for that amount unless he’s claimed on waivers on Monday.

Kings Sign Horne, O’Connell; Waive Iwundu, Ford

October 14th, 2022 at 1:42pm CST by Luke Adams

The Kings have completed a series of minor roster moves, according to Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee (Twitter link), who reports that the team signed Jeriah Horne and Alex O’Connell to Exhibit 10 contracts while waiving Wes Iwundu and Jordan Ford.

Horne’s deal with the Kings was first reported in June, shortly after he went undrafted out of Tulsa. He and O’Connell, another undrafted rookie who spent his last two college seasons with Creighton, will likely be waived within the next day or two and then become affiliate players for the Stockton Kings, Sacramento’s G League affiliate.

Iwundu and Ford, who were signed on Thursday, are also presumably ticketed for Stockton. Both players’ G League returning rights had been held by other teams, but the Kings acquired Iwundu’s rights from the Cleveland Charge on Thursday after acquiring Ford’s rights from the Ontario Clippers in August.

Sacramento still has 20 players on its preseason roster after its latest series of moves. That number will have to be reduced to 17 (15 on standard contracts and two on two-ways) by Monday evening.