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Injury Notes: Caruso, Bulls, Bucks, Embiid, Hartenstein

April 19th, 2024 at 5:36pm CST by Rory Maher

Bulls defensive ace Alex Caruso will be available for tonight’s play-in tournament game in Miami, head coach Billy Donovan said (Twitter link via K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago).

Guard Ayo Dosunmu (quad) and center Andre Drummond (ankle) will be active too, Donovan added. All three players had previously been listed as questionable.

Caruso was said to have sustained a “significant” left ankle sprain in Wednesday’s play-in victory over Atlanta, but the swelling subsided over the past couple days and he told reporters on Friday morning he expected to suit up. The injury was an aggravation of a previous sprain.

Duncan Robinson, who has been battling a back issue, will be available tonight for the Heat, tweets Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald. Robinson was technically active for Wednesday’s loss to Philadelphia, Chiang notes, but he didn’t see any action — that might change with Jimmy Butler sidelined due to a knee sprain.

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

Bucks guard Damian Lillard was a full practice participant on Friday, but two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo (left calf strain) was unable to do any live drills, according to a report from ESPN. Reserve guard A.J. Green, who sat out Tuesday’s practice with a left ankle sprain, was able to go through most of Friday’s practice. There have been mixed messages from Milwaukee on Antetokounmpo’s status, with president Peter Feigin saying he”definitely will not be back for Sunday,” when the Bucks will host the Pacers in Game 1 of their first-round series. Head coach Doc Rivers is still holding out hope that the perennial All-NBA First Team member will be ready though, per ESPN. “I don’t know yet,” Rivers said. “We’re still hoping. He hasn’t done anything. Would we throw him out there? Yeah, we would. For us, still we’re not sure.”
Speaking of Lillard, the Bucks‘ All-Star said he aggravated his Achilles tendon in Sunday’s loss to Orlando, but his adductor has been giving him the most trouble, as Eric Nehm of The Athletic relays (Twitter links). Lillard missed four games over the past few weeks with various injury designations, but he said the week off has helped him recover.
Sixers center Joel Embiid is officially questionable for Saturday’s Game 1 in New York with what the team is calling left knee injury recovery, tweets Fred Katz of The Athletic. Embiid, who missed a few months after tearing his meniscus in January, has been considered questionable for nearly every game since he returned to action at the beginning of April.
Since January 20, Knicks center Isaiah Hartenstein has only played 30-plus minutes five times due to Achilles soreness. However, two of those instances came in his last two regular season games, and he said he’s ready for an increased workload in the postseason, according to Katz (Twitter link).

NBA’s Playoff Bonus Money Up 25% For 2023/24

April 19th, 2024 at 9:41am CST by Luke Adams

The pool of bonus money for NBA playoff teams this season will be worth approximately $33.7MM, according to Kurt Badenhausen and Lev Akabas of Sportico, who say the figure represents a 25% increase over last year’s total playoff bonuses.

The top six teams in each conference earn bonuses based on their regular season records, while the 16 playoff teams will also receive a chunk of money from the playoff pool, increasing the value of their payout with each series win. That bonus money will be divvied up among the players on each club’s roster.

Teams eliminated in the play-in tournament won’t be able to claim any of the playoff bonus money.

The breakdown for 2024’s playoff pool money is as follows:

Regular season achievements:

Best record in NBA (Celtics): $844K
No. 1 seeds in each conference (Celtics, Thunder): $739K each
No. 2 seeds (Knicks, Nuggets): $591K each
No. 3 seeds (Bucks, Timberwolves): $443K each
No. 4 seeds (Cavaliers, Clippers): $361K each
No. 5 seeds (Magic, Mavericks): $280K each
No. 6 seeds (Pacers, Suns): $198K each

Postseason achievements:

Teams participating in first round (all 16 playoff teams): $453K each
Teams participating in conference semifinals (eight teams): $552K each
Teams participating in conference finals (four teams): $923K each
Losing team in NBA Finals: $3,692,000
Winning team in NBA Finals: $8,549,000

A team that makes a deep playoff run would be entitled to more than one of the bonuses listed above.

For example, if the Celtics were to win the championship, their payout from the playoff pool would be worth a total of nearly $12.1MM — that amount would include their bonuses for posting the NBA’s best record, claiming the East’s No. 1 seed, making the first round, making the conference semifinals, making the conference finals, and winning the NBA Finals.

Injury Notes: Giannis, Butler, Bulls, Pelicans/Kings

April 19th, 2024 at 7:20am CST by Luke Adams

After Adrian Wojnarowski reported on Tuesday that the Bucks are preparing to be without Giannis Antetokounmpo for the start of their first round series against Indiana, Shams Charania of The Athletic confirmed on Thursday on Stadium’s Playoff Preview show (Twitter video link) that the star forward’s status “is still in doubt” for the series.

“He has been rehabbing daily with that strained calf, getting treatment,” Charania said. “He has had even some stationary workouts on the court, but he is doubtful to start the series. I’m told this injury could be anywhere from two to four weeks, potentially. We know his superhuman ability, but that clearly puts his status for this series in jeopardy.

“The Bucks (and) Giannis have to have some level of caution in being careful with this calf injury. Already this season, Giannis has had Achilles tendinitis, a hamstring injury as well, and now this calf strain. The last thing (they) would want is for him to get back, rush on the floor with a calf injury, not being 100% and then potentially tweaking that or leading to even worse injuries.”

Crucially, Charania didn’t clarify whether or not the two-to-four-week timeline he cited applies retroactively — Antetokounmpo has been sidelined since April 9 as a result of the injury, so he has already been out for 10 days. Assuming the projected recovery timeline described by Charania began on the date of the injury, the two-time MVP still has a chance to play at some point in round one.

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

Jimmy Butler‘s agent Bernie Lee took exception with Thursday’s reports that his client would miss several weeks as a result of his knee injury, suggesting that they were premature, as Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald relays (via Twitter). “We’re going to see the doctor later today,” Lee said on Thursday afternoon, “and it just blows my mind that somebody that wasn’t in the arena has somehow come up with a medical timeline of something that literally four of us, one is the person that got hurt, and me, the person that has conversations with everything, that everything gets filtered through. We don’t even know and now we’re having to live in someone else’s created reality of you know something that I didn’t know.” The Heat subsequently confirmed that Butler had sustained an MCL sprain, though the team didn’t offer any sort of timeline beyond ruling him out for Friday’s play-in game. MCL sprains are typically multi-week injuries.
Bulls role players Alex Caruso (left ankle sprain), Ayo Dosunmu (right quad contusion), and Andre Drummond (left ankle sprain) have all been listed as questionable for Friday’s play-in game vs. Miami. Dosunmu and Drummond, who were also both listed as questionable for Tuesday’s contest, seem like relatively safe bets to play, while Caruso is expected to be a game-time decision.
There are no surprises on the Pelicans/Kings injury report for Friday, though the absences on each side are notable. Zion Williamson (left hamstring strain) is the only New Orleans player sidelined, while Sacramento is missing Malik Monk (right knee sprain) and Kevin Huerter (left shoulder surgery).

Damian Lillard Limited In Return To Practice

April 17th, 2024 at 8:55pm CST by Arthur Hill

Bucks guard Damian Lillard returned to practice today after sitting out Tuesday due to left adductor pain that started over the weekend, according to an Associated Press story. Lillard did some shooting and “all of the walk-through stuff,” according to coach Doc Rivers, who hopes to have him more active when practice resumes Friday. Milwaukee was 1-8 without Lillard this season.

Bucks Notes: Lillard, Giannis, Green, Portis, Edens

April 16th, 2024 at 4:00pm CST by Luke Adams

Bucks point guard Damian Lillard didn’t participate in the team’s practice on Tuesday, tweets Eric Nehm of The Athletic. Lillard said after Sunday’s game that his sore left adductor muscle was bothering him at times, citing “little irritation-type moments” (link via Jim Owczarski of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel).

As Nehm relays (via Twitter), head coach Doc Rivers told reporters on Tuesday that Lillard has undergone imaging, which came back clean, so today’s absence from practice was mostly just about giving him “a little more rest.”

“I think it’s that,” Rivers said when asked if the adductor was still bothering Lillard. “His Achilles. His groin. We want him to be as close to 100 percent as possible, if you can be that at this point.”

Teammate Bobby Portis downplayed Lillard’s lack of involvement in Tuesday’s practice session, noting that Game 1 of the Bucks’ series against Indiana is still several days away.

“I mean, to start off, man, it wasn’t a shock or anything that Dame sat out,” Portis said, per Nehm (Twitter link). “It’s, what, Tuesday? The game’s on Sunday. I don’t want nobody to put too much stress on that. I think we kind of blow things out of proportion too much.”

Here’s more on the Bucks:

Giannis Antetokounmpo (calf strain) and A.J. Green (ankle sprain) also missed Tuesday’s practice, tweets Nehm. A report earlier today indicated that Milwaukee is preparing to be without Antetokounmpo for the start of round one.
Portis discussed several topics in an interview with Shams Charania of Stadium (Twitter video link), including his Sixth Man of the Year candidacy and a February trade rumor involving him and then-Mavericks forward Grant Williams. “When I got hints of (that rumor), I’m like, no way I’m getting traded for – excuse my French, that’s my guy, I love competing against him – but I shouldn’t get traded for Grant Williams,” Portis said. “That don’t even sound right. … I don’t know how that moves the needle. The things I do and the things he can help the team do are just different.”
Wes Edens spoke to Jim Owczarski of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about his first 10 years as the Bucks’ co-owner and his expectations for the next decade, stressing that he has no plans to sell his stake in the team anytime soon, like his fellow co-owner Marc Lasry did last year.
Owczarski’s feature also includes quotes from various members of the Bucks organization discussing the impact that the current ownership group has had on the franchise in the last decade. “He brought a winning culture,” Khris Middleton said of Edens. “He’s a great businessman and him and his partners wanted to bring that business culture of winning to our sports team. He did a lot. He had his hands on a lot of things, on the day-to-day operations as far as making sure things were running smoothly and put people in place that he had confidence in that can take us to the next level as a world-class, first-class organization.”

Bucks Preparing To Be Without Giannis For Start Of Playoffs

April 16th, 2024 at 9:39am CST by Luke Adams

The Bucks are preparing to be without star forward Giannis Antetokounmpo when they tip off their first-round series vs. the Pacers on Sunday, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

Antetokounmpo missed the final three games of the regular season due to an injury that the Bucks diagnosed as a left soleus (calf) strain. Shams Charania of The Athletic reported on Monday that there was some “real doubt” about Giannis’ ability to return for Game 1 this weekend, so Wojnarowski’s update today doesn’t come as a major surprise.

According to Woj, the Bucks are hopeful that treatment on Antetokounmpo’s calf strain will allow the two-time MVP to return sometime later in the series. He has been undergoing treatment “around the clock,” sources tell ESPN.

It’s a bit of déjà vu for the Bucks, who saw their superstar go down with a back injury in Game 1 of their first-round series vs. Miami a year ago. That injury cost Antetokounmpo two-and-a-half games of a series that the Heat ultimately won in five.

Milwaukee, which went 4-5 without Giannis this season, won’t want to put its franchise player at risk of a more serious injury by rushing him back too soon, but will want to do everything in its power to avoid a repeat of that 2023 scenario in this year’s playoffs.

Antetokounmpo is expected to show up on most MVP ballots this spring after averaging 30.4 points, 11.5 rebounds, and a career-high 6.5 assists in 35.2 minutes per game across 73 games for the Bucks. His 61.1% mark on field goal attempts this season also represented a career high.

Pistons Seeking President Of Basketball Operations

April 15th, 2024 at 8:57pm CST by Luke Adams

8:57pm: The Pistons officially announced (via Twitter) that they’re planning to make front office changes and will hire a new head of basketball operations, who would work directly under team owner Tom Gores. Weaver and the current basketball operations executives will remain in their current positions while the search takes place, per the team.

3:05pm: The Pistons have decided they will hire a president of basketball operations, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic, who reports (via Twitter) that the search process will begin this week.

Local reporters, including James L. Edwards III of The Athletic and Omari Sankofa II of The Detroit Free Press, had been suggesting this would happen. Prior to Charania’s report, Sankofa tweeted that the Pistons were expected to “formalize” their search for a president of basketball operations within the next day or so.

As Sankofa and Edwards have written, it doesn’t sound as if general manager Troy Weaver would be dismissed as a result of this change to the front office. However, it would certainly be a demotion for Weaver, who has functioned as the team’s head of basketball operations since being hired in 2020. Under the new structure, he would report to Detroit’s new president of basketball operations.

According to Sankofa (subscription required), the Pistons would likely want to fortify the front office with other executives who are either below Weaver in the hierarchy or on the same level. If Weaver and the Pistons aren’t on the same page with ownership’s plan to revamp its front office, it’s possible the two sides could go their separate ways, but it doesn’t appear that’s the plan for now.

It has been a dismal four years in Detroit since Weaver was hired away from the Thunder to replace Ed Stefanski atop the Pistons’ basketball operations department. The club hasn’t won more than 23 games in a season during that time, compiling an overall record of 74-244 (.233).

There was some hope entering the 2023/24 season that the team’s young core – including Cade Cunningham, Jalen Duren, Isaiah Stewart, Ausar Thompson, and Jaden Ivey – might be ready to take a step forward and get the Pistons into the play-in mix. Instead, the team finished dead last in the NBA with a 14-68 mark, setting a new league record for most consecutive losses in a single season (28).

While there have been no concrete reports yet on which candidates might receive consideration for the president of basketball operations position in Detroit, Edwards listed some ideas in his latest article for The Athletic, identifying Jon Horst (Bucks), John Hammond (Magic), Neil Olshey (formerly of the Trail Blazers), Bryson Graham (Pelicans), and Dwane Casey as possible fits.

Marc Stein (Twitter link) confirms that there’s a belief the Pistons will have interest in exploring the viability of hiring Horst away from Milwaukee.

Rivers Looks Forward To Facing Pacers; Giannis' Status Uncertain

April 15th, 2024 at 11:06am CST by Arthur Hill

Bucks coach Doc Rivers is looking forward to a playoff matchup against Indiana, which was 4-1 against Milwaukee this season, according to Jamal Collier of ESPN. They haven’t faced each other since January 3, which was before Rivers took over the team. “Indiana has had our number all year, so perfect opponent,” Rivers said. “They’ve played great against us. They have great confidence against us. We’ll have great focus because we’re going to have to.”
Giannis Antetokounmpo may not be available for the start of that series, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). The Bucks star hasn’t played since Tuesday when he suffered a soleus strain in his left calf, and Rivers confirmed over the weekend that there are doubts about his status for the opener.

Eastern Conference’s Top Six, Play-In Tournament Set For 2024

April 14th, 2024 at 3:23pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

It came down to a blown DeMar DeRozan overtime buzzer beater attempt, but the Knicks finally clinched the Eastern Conference’s No. 2 seed by winning a nationally broadcast ESPN clash against the Bulls this afternoon.

Earlier in the day, several other East playoff and play-in clubs wrapped up their 2023/24 regular seasons, thus cementing the conference’s top 10 heading into the postseason. Six teams won between 47 and 50 games, with three clubs sporting identical 47-35 records.

Obviously the Nos. 7 and 8 seeds will be determined by the play-in tournament, which will tip off mid-week. That will thus dictate the 1-8 and 2-7 matchups of the first round.

Here is the finalized order of the Eastern Conference’s top 10 for the 2024 postseason:

Boston Celtics (64-18)
New York Knicks (50-32)
Milwaukee Bucks (49-33)
Cleveland Cavaliers (48-34)
Orlando Magic (47-35)
Indiana Pacers (47-35)
Philadelphia 76ers (47-35)
Miami Heat (46-36)
Chicago Bulls (39-43)
Atlanta Hawks (36-46)

Two matchups are now locked in, while two are yet to be determined.

The No. 3 Bucks will square off against the No. 6 Pacers. Indiana owns a 4-1 season record against Milwaukee (they faced off during the semifinals of this year’s inaugural in-season tournament). Milwaukee’s two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo sat out the team’s final three games of the regular season due to a left calf strain, and his status for the beginning of the playoffs is unclear.

The No. 4 Cavaliers will play the No. 5 Orlando Magic. Those two teams have split their season series, 2-2.

Per the NBA, here is the breakdown of this year’s Eastern Conference play-in tournament schedule, slated to start this Wednesday, April 17 via ESPN:

No. 7 Philadelphia will host No. 8 Miami at 6 p.m. CT. The victor will advance as the No. 7 seed to play the Knicks, who will be without All-Star power forward Julius Randle for the duration of the playoffs.
No. 9 Chicago will host No. 10 Atlanta at 8:30 p.m. CT. The winner will advance to play whichever team loses the 7-8 matchup.
The loser of the Sixers/Heat matchup will host the winner of Bulls/Hawks on Friday, April 19. That contest’s winner will move on to play the Celtics as the East’s No. 8 seed.

The first round of the playoffs will officially tip off on Saturday, April 20.

Lillard Probable Sunday; Portis, Teammates Believe He Should Win Sixth Man

April 14th, 2024 at 9:34am CST by Rory Maher

Bucks guard Damian Lillard, who was sidelined for Friday’s loss to Oklahoma City, is probable for Sunday’s regular season finale in Orlando, tweets Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald. As Chiang notes, the Heat need Milwaukee to beat the Magic to have a chance of moving out of the play-in tournament. If the Bucks win, Milwaukee would secure the East’s No. 2 seed.
Bucks forward/center Bobby Portis believes he should be the frontrunner for the Sixth Man of the Year award and his teammates agree with that assessment, according to Eric Nehm of The Athletic. “We’ve played together four years now,” two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo said. “I think every single year he’s been the Sixth Man of the Year, hands down.” The award typically favors high-usage guards, not big men whose offensive roles are limited by the team’s roster construction, Nehm observes, but Portis has put together a strong season, averaging 13.7 PPG and 7.4 RPG on .506/.401/.787 shooting while appearing in every game (24.4 MPG).