Celtics’ Marcus Morris Won’t Play This Week
12:30pm: Morris participated in the non-contact part of today’s practice, but Stevens said he won’t play this week, tweets ESPN’s Chris Forsberg.
11:30am: Marcus Morris could be cleared to make his debut with the Celtics tomorrow if he is able to practice today, according to Steve Bulpett of The Boston Herald.
The team is being cautious with the seventh-year forward, who was acquired from the Pistons in an offseason trade. He sat out the first three games because of soreness in his left knee.
Coach Brad Stevens said the team plans to re-evaluate Morris’ condition this week, suggesting that he might be ready for Tuesday’s game against the Knicks.
Morris would be a welcome addition for a team that is still reeling from the season-ending injury to free agent addition Gordon Hayward last Tuesday. Morris averaged 14.0 points per game with the Pistons last season and would provide some needed scoring punch.
“And at the end of the day, I want Marcus to be able to come back and be healthy and feel good,” said Al Horford. “We don’t want any setbacks, so as much as we want him out there, he needs to get healthy.”
Boston has been using a young lineup in the absence of Morris and Hayward, starting rookie Jayson Tatum and second-year player Jaylen Brown. Morris promises to bring “veteranship” to the unit and is confident his knee will hold up for the season.
“As soon as I get there, I think it’ll be fine,” Morris said. “I’m a veteran. This is my seventh year in the league. I’ve just got to move around and cut. I think it’ll be very easy for me. It’s just playing basketball the right way.”
Suns Interested In Nets’ Unprotected First-Rounder
The Suns are ready to fully commit to rebuilding after firing coach Earl Watson and that includes trying to obtain the Nets’ unprotected first-rounder that currently belongs to Cleveland, writes Sam Amico of AmicoHoops.
Phoenix plans to explore trades involving veterans Eric Bledsoe and Tyson Chandler, among others, Amico adds. The organization sees Devin Booker, Josh Jackson and T.J. Warren as the building blocks for its future and would like to add other young talent to the mix.
Brooklyn’s pick has been seen as one of the league’s most valuable trade assets for several years. The Celtics obtained it in a 2013 trade involving Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett and shipped it to the Cavaliers in the offseason deal for Kyrie Irving.
Cleveland hasn’t committed to keeping the pick, but a source tells Amico the asking price will be extremely high and that Bledsoe and another player probably won’t be enough. The Cavs had offseason discussions with the Suns about obtaining Bledsoe in exchange for Irving and could use help at point guard with Isaiah Thomas expected to be sidelined until January.
Suns Notes: Assistants, Watson, McDonough, Bledsoe
Three Suns assistants were fired Sunday along with head coach Earl Watson, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. Nate Bjorkgren, Mehmet Okur and Jason Fraser were all dismissed after a meeting with management Sunday night. Bjorkgren served as a bench coach, while Okur and Fraser were part of player development.
Bjorkgren is a former G League head coach and an original member of Watson’s staff. Okur, who played 10 years in the NBA, joined the Phoenix staff at the start of last season. Fraser had been with the team since 2015.
Tyrone Corbin will be promoted to lead assistant under interim coach Jay Triano. A former head coach with the Jazz and Kings, Corbin is in his second season on the Suns’ staff.
There’s more news this morning out of Phoenix:
- Watson had a tumultuous relationship with GM Ryan McDonough during his two and a half seasons as head coach, Wojanarowski writes in the same story. They clashed frequently over a variety of topics, and owner Robert Sarver ultimately sided with McDonough. Watson, who leaves with an 87-142 record, offered a farewell message to the team and his fans. “Thank you to my Suns family, the Phoenix community and everyone who has supported me through this journey,” he said. “Life has unpredictable pivots that I embrace humbly and with great purpose.”
- Suns star Eric Bledsoe received a lot of attention for Sunday’s tweet that read, “I don’t wanna be here,” but it wasn’t the first time he expressed a desire to get out of Phoenix, according to John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 (Twitter link). The eighth-year guard met with with management before the season started to tell them he wanted to be dealt. On top of the losing, Bledsoe was unhappy when the team decided to shut him down because of soreness in his knees last March.
- Bledsoe was excited about the possibility of being traded to Cleveland over the summer as part of a rumored deal for Kyrie Irving, according to Sam Amico of AmicoHoops. The teams were close to completing the trade and Bledsoe was “depressed” when it fell through, a source tells Amico.
- The Suns’ problems stem more from the roster McDonough put together than Watson’s coaching, writes Mitch Lawrence of Forbes. Phoenix is trying to compete with four rookies and four second-year players, including a 19-year-old in Dragan Bender and three 20-year-olds. Lawrence states that Bledsoe and fellow veteran Tyson Chandler aren’t pleased with the youth movement. He also notes that McDonough hasn’t been able to find a franchise player despite picking fourth twice, fifth and eighth in the past five drafts.
- Former Suns stars Steve Nash and Dan Majerle are among the potential replacements for Watson suggested by Jordan Greer of The Sporting News. Others are Adrian Griffin, Ime Udoka, Monty Williams, Sean Miller, Jerry Stackhouse, Mark Jackson and Brent Barry.
Julyan Stone Expected To Miss 4 To 6 Weeks
The Hornets will be without Julyan Stone for the next four to six weeks because of a hamstring injury, the team announced on its website.
Stone has been diagnosed with a Grade 2 strain of his left hamstring, which occurred during Sunday’s practice. His injury is another blow to the backcourt depth for the Hornets, who are already missing Michael Carter-Williams, who had platelet-rich plasma treatments on both knees over the offseason.
Stone, 28, signed with Charlotte in late August after a prolonged effort to get out of his contract with an Italian team. He wanted to return to the United States to be closer to his ailing father.
Stone has appeared in both of the Hornets’ games so far, averaging 3.0 points and 2.5 rebounds in 9 minutes per night. He spent time with the Nuggets and Raptors before heading overseas.
Southwest Notes: Harden, Noel, Parsons
The Rockets brought in Chris Paul to ease the load on James Harden to initiate the offense every play down the court but that will have to change now that the veteran guard is expected to miss up to a month with a knee injury, Tim MacMahon of ESPN writes.
Suddenly the plan to ration Harden’s energy for late in the season has come crashing down. “That’s out the window,” Rockets head coach Mike D’Antoni said.
Last season Harden averaged a 29.1 points, 8.2 rebounds and 11.2 assists per game but appeared to be overworked toward the end of the season. The converted two-guard saw his playmaking skillset flourish under the tutelage of D’Antoni. This season, the Rockets were hoping to pick up where they left off as an offense but while preserving their franchise star’s health.
With Paul shelved, the Rockets will need to make sure that they build big enough leads to let reserve guard Bobby Brown come in and hold down the fort temporarily.
There’s more from the Southwest Division:
- While Nerlens Noel could end up making his mark on the Mavs franchise, finding him a significant workload on a nightly basis may be difficult, Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News writes. In three games this season, Noel has played 20, 27 and 16 minutes.
- It didn’t take long for Grizzlies fans to start booing Chandler Parsons this season. The 28-year-old that missed much of last season with an injury is in the second year of the four-year, $97MM contract he signed last summer. Parsons told the media, including Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal, that he’ll simply treat Grizz home games as away games.
- The Rockets have managed to win the first three games of their season but that doesn’t mean the offense is up to head coach Mike D’Antoni‘s standard. “Oh no, no, no,” D’Antoni told Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle. “We got a lot of things we have to clean up. We’re not real sharp right now. I was just telling the guys the biggest thing is preseason was about 10 days shorter than [previously]. With the preseason, we played eight games. That would be a normal preseason schedule.“
Kings Notes: Hield, Bogdanovic, Labissiere
Shooting guard Buddy Hield isn’t afraid of putting up shots, even the occasional ones that leave Kings fans scratching their heads. That’s just something head coach Dave Joerger will have to work with if it means keeping the prolific deep threat in a rhythm, Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee writes.
“I’m a shooting guard, so I’m trying to get as many shots as I can get,” Hield, who joined the Kings in the midseason trade that sent DeMarcus Cousins to the Pelicans last year, said. “They call me thirsty on the team. They say I’m thirsty because I’m always trying to get a shot up.”
Jones notes that Hield’s teammates don’t consider him selfish so they aren’t afraid to keep feeding him the ball if it means that he might get hot from the perimeter and change the outlook of a game.
“I’ve been reining him in, making him play the way we want to play,” said Joerger in his second year at the helm of the Kings. “[…] But then for certain guys at any moment you give them a little more latitude, and I think he’s one of those guys.”
There’s more news from Sacramento:
- After sitting out the first three games of the season, Bogdan Bogdanovic‘s status for Monday’s game against the Suns has been upgraded to probable, the team announced on its website. If he plays, it’ll be the 25-year-old draft-and-stash rookie’s NBA debut after signing the largest rookie contract in league history.
- It won’t be long before the Kings turn to Skal Labissiere as more of an offensive weapon, James Ham of NBC Sports writes. The 21-year-old sophomore has already made substantial improvements over the course of his young career.
- Despite how impressive De’Aaron Fox looks in his rookie season, it’s unlikely that the Lakers regret drafting Lonzo Ball, Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee writes in a question-and-answer with readers. Los Angeles knew exactly what they were getting in Ball and there’s a good choice that both end up becoming All-Stars.
Atlantic Notes: Hernangomez, Okafor, Irving
Count Knicks forward Kristaps Porzingis among those clamoring to see more minutes allotted for second-year center Willy Hernangomez. The 23-year-old has been called a building block by the team, Marc Berman of the New York Post writes, but has received just four minutes of action and a DNP-CD through two games this season.
Porzingis acknowledged the logjam in New York’s frontcourt but believes that Hernangomez is a talented player worthy of a spot in the Knicks’ rotation.
“He deserves it. But we have a lot of big guys on the floor and I understand everybody’s fighting for those minutes. And not everybody is going to get what they deserve,” Porzingis, who leads the club with 36.5 minutes per game, said.
There’s more from the Atlantic Division:
- A slimmed down Jahlil Okafor made his season debut for the Sixers on Saturday and Brian Seltzer of the team’s official site writes that the big man performed admirably. A 20-pound lighter Okafor posted 10 points and nine boards in his first game of the year. “He shows why he was the third player chosen [in 2015],” head coach Brett Brown said. “[Because] he really can score.”
- The league has fined Celtics guard Kyrie Irving $25K for using inappropriate language with a fan, the league announced in an official press release Sunday.
- It’ll take a while for Raptors rookie OG Anunoby to acclimate to an NBA schedule, Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun writes. Fortunately, a handful of teammates have weighed in with some helpful (and foreboding) advice.
Northwest Notes: Blazers, Westbrook, Hood, Nelson
In a conversation with The New York Times’ Marc Stein, Carmelo Anthony explained that his decision not to waive his no-trade clause for the Trail Blazers was rooted in logistics, not basketball, reports John Canzano of The The Oregonian/OregonLive.
“We had a fair bit of discussion about Portland…,” Stein said of his talk with Anthony. “… He did say that it meant a lot to him how badly those guys wanted him. I think it really was the distance (that caused him to not be interested). I don’t think it was about Portland, the place… I don’t think it was about Portland, I think it was about family… presumably his wife and son are going to stay in New York for the bulk of the year. He was in constant contact with (Damian) Lillard and (C.J.) McCollum.”
Here’s more news from the Northwest:
- The Thunder’s Russell Westbrook scored only six points on 2-of-11 shooting to go along with seven turnovers in Saturday night’s 96-87 loss to the Utah Jazz. As reported by ESPN’s Royce Young, Westbrook appears to still be adjusting and adapting to the acquisitions of Paul George and Carmelo Anthony; however, Westbrook insists that this season is no different than any other. “It’s the same thing [as last season],” Westbrook said. “Basketball’s been the same for years. It’s still the same game. Obviously different players, but the game still tells you what to do. If you need to score, you score, if not, you don’t. It’s very simple.”
- Despite not playing Saturday night against Oklahoma City as the result of a calf injury, Rodney Hood of the Jazz is primed to make his return to the court sooner than originally feared, as reported by Jody Genessy of The Deseret News. Despite the initial concern after Hood had to be helped off the court by teammates, Jazz coach Quin Snyder was apparently never too worried. “I’ve kind of conditioned myself to not jump to conclusions about those things one way or the other,” Snyder said when asked about being relieved the injury wasn’t worse. “Sometimes when they don’t look as bad, you kind of feel like, ‘Oh, it’s not that bad,’ and then it ends up to be worse.”
- Jameer Nelson tweeted out a thank you to the City of Denver and the Nuggets early Friday morning after being released by the team on Wednesday. The Nuggets would have been on the hook for the entirety of Nelson’s $4.74MM salary if he had remained on the free agent market. However, as noted by Bobby Marks of ESPN, Denver will have the right to set-off approximately $470K at season’s end as a result of Nelson signing a pro-rated minimum salary contract with the Pelicans on Saturday.
Pelicans Sign Jameer Nelson To One-Year Deal
Oct. 22: The Pels have officially signed Nelson, the team announced in a press release.
Oct. 21: The Pelicans have reached an agreement on a one-year deal with free agent point guard Jameer Nelson, reports Shams Charania of The Vertical. Nelson was on the open market for less than 24 hours, having cleared waivers on Friday evening after being cut this week by the Nuggets.
Nelson, 35, has 13 years of NBA experience under his belt, with stints in Orlando, Dallas, Boston, and Denver. Most recently, he appeared in 148 games over the last two and a half seasons for the Nuggets, providing some stability at the point guard position as the club looked to incorporate youngsters Emmanuel Mudiay and Jamal Murray.
After struggling in 2015/16, Nelson bounced back last season, averaging 9.2 PPG and 5.1 APG in 75 games (39 starts) for the Nuggets. However, with Denver intent on adding Richard Jefferson this week, Nelson was the odd man out when the club needed to open up a roster spot.
Upon clearing waivers, Nelson reportedly drew interest from the Rockets, Nets, and Hornets in addition to the Pelicans. All four of those clubs are dealing with injuries at the point guard spot. In New Orleans’ case, it’s Rajon Rondo on the shelf, recovering from sports hernia surgery.
Rondo is expected to return to the court next month, but Nelson may remain in the Pelicans’ rotation at that point. Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reported earlier today that the veteran point guard was seeking an opportunity where he’d have a chance to play a significant role, so presumably New Orleans doesn’t just view him as an interim solution.
The Pelicans don’t currently have an open spot on their roster, so they’ll need to trade or waive a player if they intend to finalize Nelson’s deal right away. If New Orleans waits until after its third game, the team would become eligible for a hardship exception and would be granted a 16th roster spot to sign Nelson without cutting anyone.
Hardship exceptions are awarded to clubs carrying at least four players who have missed three or more consecutive games due to injury or illness. Rondo, Alexis Ajinca, Frank Jackson, Omer Asik, and Solomon Hill will all fit that bill for the Pelicans.
Meanwhile, it’s also worth keeping an eye on the tax line and the hard cap for the Pelicans. Adding Nelson on a fully guaranteed deal without waiving anyone would take New Orleans into the tax and move the team dangerously close to its hard cap.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Pelicans Waive Jordan Crawford
Oct. 22: The Pelicans officially waived Crawford today, the team announced in a press release.
Oct. 21, 4:27pm: The Pelicans asked the NBA to guarantee that their request for an injury exception would be granted before signing Nelson, tweets Adrian Wojanarowski of ESPN. When that appeal was denied, New Orleans had to waive a player before Nelson could be added to the roster.
3:24pm: The Pelicans are waiving guard Jordan Crawford, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link). Crawford’s contract is only partially guaranteed for $250K, so most of his salary will come off New Orleans’ cap.
Today’s agreement with Jameer Nelson would have pushed the Pelicans into the luxury tax, but letting Crawford go will allow them to sneak back under the tax threshold and will provide some breathing room below the hard cap. New Orleans will actually create a small amount of savings through the two transactions due to Crawford’s $1.7MM cap hit, as Bobby Marks of ESPN details.
New Orleans could have waited until after tomorrow’s game to apply for a hardship exception in order to sign Nelson. Due to mounting injuries, the Pelicans will still be eligible for the exception, which would allow them to add a 16th player, but it’s not clear whether or not take advantage of it.
Crawford, who will turn 29 on Monday, appeared in 21 total games during his stint with New Orleans at the end of last season and the start of this year. In those games, he averaged 13.6 PPG and 3.0 APG in just 22.6 minutes per contest. He’ll reach free agency early next week, assuming he clears waivers.