Washington Wizards Rumors | Hoops Rumors

O’Connor’s Latest: Tucker, Lowry, Beal, Vucevic

February 22nd, 2021 at 9:00am CST by Arthur Hill

The Bucks were pursuing Rockets forward P.J. Tucker in November and their interest hasn’t faded, league sources tell Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer. Tucker could help solidify a defense that has taken a step backward with the offseason losses of Wesley Matthews, Eric Bledsoe and George Hill, as well as the absence of Jrue Holiday, who has been in the NBA’s health and safety protocols since February 8. O’Connor notes that Donte DiVincenzo, Bryn Forbes and D.J. Augustin haven’t supplied the same presence on defense.

Tucker is considered to be available because of his age — he turns 36 in May — and his contract status. He will be a free agent this summer, and the Rockets’ attempts to sign him to an extension have been unsuccessful. Houston’s seven-game losing streak has the organization focused on building for the future.

However, the Rockets reportedly want a player in return, rather than more draft picks, which may be problem for Milwaukee. The Bucks gave most of their valuable assets to New Orleans in the deal for Holiday and may not have expendable young players who would be of interest to Houston. DiVincenzo is viewed around the league as their most valuable remaining trade chip, O’Connor notes.

O’Connor sheds light on a few more potential deals:

The Sixers, who hold the best record in the East, are hoping to make “major moves” before the March 25 trade deadline to improve their chances of winning a title. A name to watch, according to O’Connor, is Raptors guard Kyle Lowry, a Philadelphia native with an expiring contract. O’Connor states that the Sixers need a veteran guard who can create shots on the perimeter, and Lowry is likely the best option who could be considered available.
O’Connor confirms that the Wizards won’t make Bradley Beal available before the deadline, although the Celtics would be among the most interested teams if he were. Beal and Jayson Tatum have been friends since childhood, and the NBA’s leading scorer would give Boston a scary Big Three by teaming with Tatum and Jaylen Brown. However, O’Connor expects Beal and the Wizards to work out their future during the offseason.
Celtics fans may be wishing for Nikola Vucevic to solidify the team at center, but the Magic have shown no interest in trading him, executives around the league tell O’Connor. He remains the focus of the offense in Orlando and a favorite of the coaching staff.
O’Connor suggests Harrison Barnes could be a possibility for Boston if the Kings decide to part with him, or possibly Rockets guard Victor Oladipo if Boston is willing to give up assets despite reports that he wants to be in Miami. O’Connor believes Bulls forward Thaddeus Young is a more realistic target. The Celtics could absorb his $13.545MM salary with a portion of their traded player exception, and he would cost less in terms of assets than some of their other targets.

Southwest Notes: Winslow, Spurs, Van Gundy, Finney-Smith

February 21st, 2021 at 11:58am CST by Arthur Hill

Justise Winslow was thrilled to be back on the court Saturday night, making his debut for the Grizzlies and playing for the first time since January 8, 2020. Although he started slowly, missing his first nine shots from the field, Winslow got more comfortable as the game went on and finished with nine points and seven rebounds in 21 minutes.

“I’ve been looking forward to this day for a long time,” Winslow said (video link from the Memphis Commercial Appeal). “I was excited, a lot of nerves, to be honest, but just being out there competing was a lot of fun. In the first half, I was just trying to get that first bucket, you know, a little excited. But once I settled down, settled into my game, I felt pretty comfortable out there. But a lot of praise to this organization, helped me get back out there, and my teammates. They kept me very confident while I was out there playing.”

Winslow was sidelined with a hip injury when Memphis acquired him at last year’s trade deadline. The pandemic prevented his projected return in March, and he suffered a left hip displacement during the summer that he’s just recovering from.

Looking ahead, Winslow could be a valuable contributor to the Grizzlies’ reserve unit as a shot creator, slasher and perimeter defender, notes Evan Barnes of The Commercial Appeal.

There’s more from the Southwest Division:

With the Spurs in the middle of an unexpected break due to COVID-19, Jeff McDonald of The San Antonio Express-News talks to other coaches who have guided their teams through the same experience. San Antonio hasn’t played in a week after four players tested positive for the virus. The team is set to resume its season Wednesday at Oklahoma City if enough players are available. “It’s as mentally challenging as anything I’ve ever had to deal with,” Wizards coach Scott Brooks said. “… There’s nothing I can take from a past experience or even another coach’s past experience to be able to navigate through it. It’s something nobody has had to do.”
Pelicans coach Stan Van Gundy doesn’t believe youth should be an excuse for a fourth-quarter meltdown Friday against Phoenix, according to Scott Kushner of NOLA.com. New Orleans was outscored 41-12 as a big lead slipped away. “A lot of teams in this league have quarters like that,” Van Gundy said. “I’ll never throw the young card out there. We’re a basketball team with really talented people, and we didn’t get the job done in the fourth quarter.”
Getting back on the court after a week-long break will be a relief for Mavericks forward Dorian Finney-Smith, writes Callie Caplan of The Dallas Morning News. After testing positive for COVID-19 and spending two weeks in a Denver hotel last month, Finney was among the many who lost power this week amid freezing conditions in Texas.

Knicks Notes: Thibodeau, Beal, Robinson, COVID-19

February 20th, 2021 at 6:16pm CST by Arthur Hill

Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau has only nice things to say about the Timberwolves as he prepares to face them Sunday night for the first time since being fired two years ago, writes Marc Berman of The New York Post. Thibodeau helped Minnesota break a 14-season playoff drought in 2018, but was let go the following year. The Wolves are 43-93 since then, including a league-worst 7-23 this season.

“There’s a lot of good people there,’’ Thibodeau said. “I enjoyed my time there. It was a good experience. I was proud of what we were able to accomplish, but it was time to move on. Unfortunately there are a lot of former teams for me.’’

Thibodeau, who also had a front office role, spent just two and a half seasons with Minnesota, being let go midway through the 2018/19 season in favor of Ryan Saunders. He believed the team was heading in the right direction and could have accomplished more if he had stayed.

“There were things obviously we wanted to do better,” Thibodeau said. “That second year, we were very good. The third year I thought we had a really good chance as well even after the trade for Jimmy (Butler). That team was playing well.’’

There’s more from New York:

A report this week suggests that Knicks executive William “World Wide Wes” Wesley is working through backchannels to try to convince Wizards guard Bradley Beal to seek a trade to New York, relays Stefan Bondy of The New York Daily News. ESPN radio host Michael Kay said the tip comes from a “very good source” who told him that Wesley is “nudging” some of Beal’s representatives toward the arrangement.
Mitchell Robinson had no idea his hand was fractured when he suffered the injury in a February 12 game, according to Anthony Rieber of The New York Daily News. Robinson thought it was temporary numbness that he could shake off, but the diagnosis turned out to be far more serious. He had surgery this week and will be re-evaluated after the All-Star break. “So far, I feel great,” he said. “Basically, what I’ve been doing now is doing the bike, a little running here and there. I’ve been watching the team practice and trying to stay updated just in case they change something or something’s added. Other than just focusing in on that, just staying in shape.”
The Knicks played 30 games this season before having one canceled due to COVID-19 and that was because of issues involving the Spurs, notes Peter Botte of The New York Post. Frank Ntilikina is the only player to miss time because of contact tracing, and no one on the roster has tested positive for the virus.

Beal Goes From Missing 2020 All-Star Berth To Starting In 2021

February 18th, 2021 at 9:33pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

After missing out on All-Star inclusion altogether during the 2019/20 season, Wizards shooting guard Bradley Beal finds himself an All-Star starter for the first time this year. Fred Katz of The Athletic details Beal’s journey to starter status this season. “I definitely think the snub [last year] has a little bit to do with it,” Beal said. “I wouldn’t say all the way to the point to where I would start, but I think it was just gaining the recognition of last year and then it just carried over to this year and me just constantly working on my game and playing the way I’ve been playing.”

2021 NBA All-Star Game Starters Revealed

February 18th, 2021 at 6:22pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

The NBA has revealed its 2021 All-Star Game starters. Here are those names:

Eastern Conference

G Kyrie Irving, Nets
G Bradley Beal, Wizards
F/C Kevin Durant, Nets
F/C Giannis Antetokounmpo, Bucks
F/C Joel Embiid, Sixers

After missing all of the 2019/20 season while he recovered from a ruptured Achilles tendon, Durant is making his triumphant return to the All-Star Game. In his first appearance as a Brooklyn player, the 11-time All-Star will captain a team, having led the Eastern Conference in fan votes.

This is the seventh All-Star appearance for Durant’s teammate Irving. Antetokounmpo, the reigning two-time MVP, has just made his fifth All-Star game. A frontrunner for the 2021 MVP award, Embiid is appearing in his fourth such contest. Beal will be making his first All-Star start after playing as a reserve in the 2018 and 2019 All-Star contests. The Wizards are the No. 13 seed in the East.

Western Conference

G Stephen Curry, Warriors
G Luka Doncic, Mavericks
F/C LeBron James, Lakers
F/C Nikola Jokic, Nuggets
F/C Kawhi Leonard, Clippers

James, who was the top vote-getter in the Western Conference and the entire NBA with 5,922,554 fan votes, will again be a team captain. He will be suiting up for his 17th All-Star appearance, the third-most ever behind only fellow Laker legends Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (19 appearances) and Kobe Bryant (18). James was previously tied for making the third-most cumulative All-Star contests alongside Hall of Fame Nets and Sixers wing Julius Erving, who was selected into five ABA All-Star games and 11 NBA All-Star games.

Jokic, an early top MVP contender along with James and Embiid, will earn his first All-Star start in his third appearance in the game. Curry will partake in his seventh All-Star contest, while Leonard has just been voted into his fifth All-Star game.

Doncic barely edged out Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard to be the second All-Star guard next to Curry among the starters, Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports tweets. Despite extended absences from starters CJ McCollum, Jusuf Nurkic, and Zach Collins, the Blazers boast an 18-10 record, good for the No. 4 seed in the crowded West, largely thanks to Lillard. The Mavericks, meanwhile, are 13-15, the No. 10 seed in the West.

As was the case during the last two years, the top vote-getters of each conference will captain a team, and will be able to draft players from either conference. The “Elam Ending,” which made the conclusion of last year’s game much more entertaining than it had been in recent years, is set to return again this year.

Earlier today, the league officially announced that the 2021 All-Star Game is set to take place at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, as a one-night event on March 7. The evening will also include its three All-Star weekend mainstay events: the Skills Competition, the Three-Point Contest and the Dunk Contest.

A full list of fan voting totals is viewable at this Twitter link, courtesy of Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated. The complete voting breakdown by position and conference, including media and player votes, can be found at the bottom of this press release.

The league will announce the 14 players who will comprise the All-Star reserves on Tuesday, February 22, at 7 p.m. ET, per Omari Sankofa II of the Detroit Free Press (via Twitter).

Ish Smith Suffers Quad Injury, Out 6-8 Weeks

February 17th, 2021 at 5:25pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Wizards reserve point guard Ish Smith has suffered a right proximal quadriceps injury, and is expected to be sidelined for the next six to eight weeks, per an official team tweet. Washington will reassess his status after three weeks of rehabilitation.

Smith inked a two-year, $12MM contract with the Wizards in the summer of 2019. He will be an unrestricted free agent this summer. In 19 games with the Wizards this season, Smith is averaging 5.2 PPG, 4.7 APG, and 3.5 RPG across 20.6 MPG.

The 6’0″ veteran guard out of Wake Forest has already been unavailable for the past two Wizards games with the injury, as Fred Katz of The Athletic notes (Twitter link). In his stead, Raul Neto and Troy Brown have compensated for his minutes behind starter Russell Westbrook.

“It’s tough news,” head coach Scott Brooks said of the Smith injury, per Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington (Twitter link). “He does things that we’re not going to be able to replace in the second unit. He gives us that instant change of pace.”

John Wall Talks Return To Washington

February 17th, 2021 at 8:38am CST by Luke Adams

After returning to D.C. to face the Wizards this week, Rockets point guard John Wall said he’s done discussing the trade that sent him to Houston, but hopes he’s remembered in Washington for his community work off the court and not just his play on the court. Royce Young of ESPN has the story and the quotes from Wall, who added that he was disappointed not to be able to play in front of Wizards fans in his return.
Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today takes a closer look at how the Wizards made a clear choice to make Bradley Beal the face of their franchise when they traded Wall last fall.

John Wall Was “Shocked” By Trade To Houston

February 14th, 2021 at 11:01am CST by Arthur Hill

John Wall is speaking out about his former team before his return to Washington Monday night. In a lengthy interview with Fred Katz of The Athletic, Wall said he had planned to retire with the Wizards and was “shocked” to find out that he had been traded to Houston in December.

“I felt like I deserved the honesty and respect because I’ve been there for 10 years. I’ve been through the bad times,” Wall said. “… I never turned my back on the organization. I played through damn near every injury that a lot of people wouldn’t have played through. I played through broken hands in the playoffs. I think I did everything I could and gave everything I had, heart and soul to the organization on and off the court.

“Then everybody kept telling me, ‘No, it’s not true. Don’t believe it. Don’t believe it.’ And I’m like, I know Houston probably called them first. But it’s part of the business. Why wouldn’t you call if somebody wants to be traded? You know what I mean? And it’s not nothing, just having conversations. And that’s all I wanted. If you’re having conversations, that’s cool, I get it. Nobody could ever tell me the truth about it.”

Wall didn’t single out anyone in the front office who he thought was being dishonest, but he did explain how he learned his time in Washington was about to end. On the night before the deal was announced, Wall received a two-word text message from Wizards general manager Tommy Sheppard that read, “PLEASE CALL.” Rumors of a Wizards-Rockets trade had been circulating for about two weeks, so Wall knew what Sheppard was going to say.

The Rockets called him a few minutes later, and the next day he was on a plane to Houston.

The deal surprised Wall because he said the Wizards had shown so much support while injuries sidelined him for nearly two full seasons. He spent much of the fall working out in Los Angeles, and the team had made public and private statements about how much he had done to bounce back from surgeries to remove bone spurs from his left heel and to fix a ruptured Achilles.

Wall was returning to Washington from Los Angeles when the first report surfaced that the Wizards were talking to the Rockets about a swap involving Russell Westbrook.

“Somebody hit me and was like, ‘You know you’re on the trade block with Russell Westbrook.’ I’m like, ‘Ain’t no way I’m on the trade block,’” he said. “You know what I mean? I haven’t played in (two) years. And I was like, I know it’s part of the business. I said all I ever wanted from the start was honesty. You know what I mean? Just tell me the truth, what it was. I can deal with it.”

Wall said after the trade became official, one of his first phone calls was to Bradley Beal, his backcourt partner for eight years. Wall described the conversation as “emotional” and said both of them were crying. After a night of “trying to clear my mind,” Wall visited the practice facility to say goodbye to teammates and staff members, then headed to Texas.

Wall still watches all the Wizards’ games and cast an All-Star vote Saturday for Beal. He said his biggest regret about being traded is that he and Beal never got a chance to show they can still be successful together.

“The number one goal is, you didn’t give me the opportunity for me and Brad to run it back, like y’all said we (would),” Wall said. “That was (my) and our ultimate goal. It was, ‘OK, we’re gonna give it one more shot.’ If it’s just one year or two years, we were gonna give it one more shot just to see. … And it’s just crazy we never got to do that. I don’t think they wanted to do that. I think they moved forward and did whatever they wanted, which is cool. But that was the most frustrating thing than anything. Like, to have an opportunity to run it back with my brother and playing with the guy, the level he’s on now.”

Knicks Notes: Robinson, Noel, Beal, Quickley

February 13th, 2021 at 9:02pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Knicks may use some small-ball lineups while center Mitchell Robinson is sidelined with a fractured hand, writes Steve Popper of Newsday. The team is planning a group effort to replace Robinson, who anchors the defense with 1.5 blocks, 1.2 steals, and 8.4 rebounds per game. Nerlens Noel will likely become the starter, with Taj Gibson seeing increased playing time, but coach Tom Thibodeau is willing to use Julius Randle in the middle beside Kevin Knox or Obi Toppin.

“It’s always part of what we can do,” Thibodeau said. “I think in looking at what Mitch provided and what Nerlens provided, I thought that was a strength, and then maybe what Taj provides, as well. But I think Obi is playing at a high level right now, and that second group has a lot of speed and they can get up and run the floor.”

There’s more on the Knicks:

Noel was the team’s starting center during the preseason while Robinson was learning Thibodeau’s system, and the coach is confident he can slide back into that role, Popper adds in a separate story. “Any time a player like Mitch goes down, you don’t replace him individually,” Thibodeau said. “You have to do it collectively. And that’s where we feel good about our team. I think Taj, going in, his experience will help. Nerlens has done a terrific job for us. We want to make sure we maintain the defensive component of our team and I think those two guys can do that.”
The Knicks have plenty of assets on hand and the new front office is willing to package several of them in return for a star player, sources tell Stefan Bondy of The New York Daily News. One possible target is Wizards guard Bradley Beal if he changes his mind about wanting to stay in Washington. An unidentified general manager tells Bondy it would likely take three first-round picks, two pick swaps, a young player and an expiring contract to land Beal. Rockets guard Victor Oladipo and Bulls guard Zach LaVine have also been mentioned as possibilities if the Knicks don’t want to pay that price.
John Wall keeps close tabs on fellow Kentucky players and is impressed by the progress of Knicks rookie Immanuel Quickley, according to Marc Berman of The New York Post. “He’s someone I respect,’’ Wall said. “I’m very happy for him to get the opportunity. I’m glad he’s showing people he’s more than just a shooter. That’s a lot of what people thought. The way he runs the point-guard position has been good. It’s going to be good to go against him.”

Team's Struggles Continue After COVID-19 Pause

February 12th, 2021 at 5:25pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Wizards are 3-8 since returning from their coronavirus pause, prompting Scott Cacciola of the New York Times to take a closer look at the team’s struggles.