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Pelicans Notes: Zion, Davis, Griffin, Gentry

November 29th, 2019 at 10:20am CST by Arthur Hill

Excitement is building in New Orleans for the debut of Zion Williamson, even though a target date hasn’t been set, writes Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated. The top pick in this year’s draft is recovering from meniscus surgery, and a return before Christmas is still considered possible. He is able to do partial, weight-bearing workouts, but hasn’t been cleared to take contact.

“He’s dying to be back out here,” Pelicans head coach Alvin Gentry said. “He’s taking his rehab very, very serious. He’s chomping on the bit. We’d love to have him out there because he is a game-changer. Who wouldn’t want him out there? … It’s been tough for him only to be able to play in the preseason and not play now. He’s going to be special regardless because he is a team-first guy. And team-first guys seem to succeed in this league and have an impact on their team.”

The Pelicans are expecting Williamson to contribute right away when he does return. After a 6-12 start marked by a long string of injuries, executive vice president David Griffin said the team needs Williamson’s “energy” and “unbridled joy” for the game.

“He’s a monster,” Jrue Holiday added. “Having Zion has been really cool. He definitely surprised me professionally. Obviously, coming from college at 19, he is a little kid at heart. But the way he handles it is like an ultimate professional.”

There’s more from New Orleans, all from Spears:

  • Former Pelicans star and fellow No. 1 pick Anthony Davis met with Williamson when the Lakers traveled to New Orleans this week. Davis could have been Zion’s teammate, but didn’t back off from his trade request after the Pelicans won the draft lottery. “I told him to get healthy,” Davis said. “Obviously, they’re waiting on his return and they’re trying to hold on until he gets back.”
  • Gentry cites “a change of culture” since Griffin was hired to run the organization in April. The move was part of a front office overhaul that included adding Trajan Langdon as general manager and former WNBA star Swin Cash as vice president of basketball operations and team development. “The players know that everything is first class,” Gentry said. “Not that it hadn’t been before. But just the overall feeling and overall environment in a more positive way.”
  • One change that wasn’t made was on the bench, where Gentry was retained despite a 33-49 record last season and a 145-183 mark in his first four years in New Orleans. Griffin had previous experience with Gentry in Phoenix and is confident that he can eventually produce a winner. “Everybody says, ‘Why didn’t you start over with a new coach?’ ” Griffin said. “‘Well, I don’t know a lot of other coaches that I went to the conference finals with, with a roster similar to this.’ The fearless Alvin that coached the 2010 Suns to the conference finals is a different animal than he was able to be here. My job is to get to channel as much of that person as I can because that was a masterful job that I watched him do.”
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Alex Poythress Signing With Turkish Team

November 29th, 2019 at 9:01am CST by Arthur Hill

Alex Poythress, a two-way player with the Hawks last season, will sign with Galatasaray in Istanbul, Turkey, according to Emiliano Carchia of Sportando. Poythress began the season with the Jilin Northeast Tigers in the Chinese Basketball Association.

Poythress got into 21 games for Atlanta last year, averaging 5.1 points and 3.6 rebounds in 14.5 minutes per night. The 26-year-old power forward started his NBA career in April of 2017, appearing in six games with the Sixers. He joined the Pacers on a two-way deal the following season and played 25 games.

Poythress will replace former NBA center Ben Moore on the Galatasaray roster. Moore, who played two games for the Pacers during the 2017/18 season, asked to be released from his commitment with the Turkish team so he could return to the United States and be closer to his family following the death of his grandfather. He plans to seek a spot in the G League.

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Community Shootaround: NBA’s Most Pleasant Surprises

November 28th, 2019 at 8:49pm CST by Luke Adams

Over the first five-plus weeks of the 2019/20 season, a handful of teams from each conference have been among the NBA’s most pleasant surprises, outperforming preseason expectations. Since it’s Thanksgiving Day in the United States, it only seems right for tonight’s Community Shootaround discussion to focus on those teams – and players – that fans should be most thankful for so far this season.

In the East, the Celtics and Raptors were expected to be among the conference’s strongest playoff contenders, but few expected them to be quite this good. With matching 13-4 records, Boston and Toronto are nearly on a 63-win pace in the early going. It seems unlikely that either team will maintain that pace, but they look like legit contenders. The Raptors, who have been missing Kyle Lowry and Serge Ibaka due to injuries, have been especially impressive, relying on youngsters Pascal Siakam and Fred VanVleet en route to their fast start.

The Heat and Pacers are among the East’s other pleasant surprises so far. Led by Jimmy Butler and rookies Tyler Herro and Kendrick Nunn, Miami is 12-5 and has yet to lose at home. Meanwhile, things could have gone south for an Indiana team already missing Victor Oladipo after it dropped its first three games and Myles Turner went down with an injury, but the Pacers have won 11 of their last 14 since then, with Turner returning earlier this month.

Further down the standings, the Wizards (6-10) and Hornets (7-12) are outside the Eastern playoff picture, but not by much. They were expected to be among the league’s bottom-dwellers, but have been surprisingly competitive.

Out West, the Lakers were viewed as a probable contender, but their league-best 16-2 start has still raised some eyebrows. The LeBron James/Anthony Davis duo hasn’t exactly been suffering through any growing pains so far, and the supporting cast has done its part.

Thanks to a leap to superstardom by Luka Doncic (30.1 PPG, 10.0 RPG, and 9.5 APG through 17 games), the 11-6 Mavericks are currently a top-five team in the West and look like a legit playoff team. The Timberwolves (10-8) and Suns (8-9) haven’t been quite as convincing as Dallas, but both Minnesota and Phoenix are currently in the top eight in the conference despite being viewed as near-locks for the lottery.

We want to know what you think. Which teams (and players) have you been most pleasantly surprised by so far in 2019/20? Which strong starts do you believe are sustainable? Are there any in particular that you’d like to see continue?

Head to the comment section below to weigh in with your two cents!

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Injury Updates: Kyrie, McGruder, E. Davis, Fall

November 28th, 2019 at 7:11pm CST by Luke Adams

After missing Wednesday’s game in Boston, Nets point guard Kyrie Irving has also been ruled out of Friday’s rematch with the Celtics in Brooklyn, as Brian Lewis of The New York Post writes. Irving, who continues to deal with a right shoulder impingement, will miss his eighth consecutive game as a result of the injury.

The Nets and Celtics face one another four times this season, but the next two games won’t take place until after the All-Star break. Irving’s first opportunity to play his old team will be on March 3, when the Nets travel to Boston again for a prime-time showdown on TNT.

The Nets did get some good injury news on Thursday, as the team announced that center DeAndre Jordan has been listed as probable for Friday’s game vs. the Celtics after missing Brooklyn’s last two contests.

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

  • Rodney McGruder, who has been playing a regular rotation role for the Clippers during the team’s seven-game winning streak, has been ruled out of Friday’s game vs. San Antonio after suffering a right hamstring strain on Wednesday, per the team. As Mirjam Swanson of The Orange County Register details, head coach Doc Rivers is prepared to be without McGruder “for a while,” though the club has yet to announce any sort of timeline for the swingman’s recovery.
  • Veteran center Ed Davis appears to be nearing a return for the Jazz. Davis, who was diagnosed with a fractured fibula nearly four weeks ago, has been upgraded to questionable for Utah’s game in Memphis on Friday, tweets Ben Dowsett of Forbes.
  • Celtics rookie big man Tacko Fall was diagnosed with a right knee bone bruise this week while playing for the Maine Red Claws, Boston’s G League affiliate (Twitter link). Fall is off to a good start in Maine, with 15.0 PPG, 10.8 RPG, and 2.7 BPG in six games (24.0 MPG), but he’ll miss at least the next week or two, according to the team.
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2019/20 NBA Trade Candidate Series

November 28th, 2019 at 5:49pm CST by Luke Adams

Over the course of the 2019/20 NBA season, up until February’s trade deadline, we’re keeping an eye on potential trade candidates from around the NBA, monitoring their value and exploring the likelihood that they’ll be moved. Each of these looks at possible trade candidates focuses on a specific division, as we zero in on three players from that division.

This season’s trade deadline falls on February 6, so we should have plenty of time to visit and revisit all six divisions a few times before the deadline passes and teams become ineligible to make in-season deals.

Each installment in our trade candidate series for the 2019/20 season is linked below, along with a description of which players we discuss in each piece. We’ll continue to update this page – which can be found under the “Hoops Rumors Features” sidebar of our desktop page, or in the “Features” section of our mobile site – as we add new entries over the coming weeks and months.

Eastern Conference

Atlantic

Central

Southeast

Western Conference

Northwest

Pacific

Southwest

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Hoops Rumors’ 2019/20 NBA Reverse Standings

November 28th, 2019 at 4:16pm CST by Luke Adams

Throughout the 2019/20 NBA season, Hoops Rumors will be maintaining a feature that allows you to keep an eye on what the 2020 draft order will look like. Our 2019/20 Reverse Standings tool, which lists the NBA’s 30 teams from worst to first, will be updated daily to reflect the outcomes of the previous night’s games.

Our Reverse Standings are essentially a reflection of what 2020’s draft order would look like with no changes to lottery position. We’ve noted each club’s odds of landing the No. 1 overall pick, based on the league’s current lottery format.

[RELATED: Hoops Rumors Glossary: Draft Lottery]

In instances where two non-playoff teams or two playoff teams have identical records, the order in our standings isn’t necessarily definitive — for draft purposes, the NBA breaks ties via random drawings, so those drawings would happen at the end of the year. Of course, the 14 non-playoff teams all draft before the 16 playoff teams, even if some non-playoff teams have better records than playoff teams. Our reverse standings account for that.

Traded first-round picks are included via footnotes. For example, the note next to Cleveland’s pick says that the Cavaliers will send their pick to the Pelicans if it’s not in the top 10. As of today, Cleveland has the NBA’s fourth-worst record, meaning that pick wouldn’t change hands, even if several teams were to leapfrog the Cavs in the lottery.

Our Reverse Standings tracker can be found at anytime on the right sidebar under “Hoops Rumors Features” on our desktop site, or on the “Features” page in our mobile menu. It’s a great resource not just for monitoring a team’s draft position, but also for keeping an eye on whether or not traded picks with protection will be changing hands in 2020. So be sure to check back often as the season progresses!

Note: Mobile users are advised to turn their phones sideways when viewing the Reverse Standings in order to see team records and lottery odds.

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Lakers Notes: Kuzma, Ingram, Davis

November 28th, 2019 at 2:54pm CST by ChrisCrouse

Kyle Kuzma continues to search for his fit on this year’s Lakers, as Dan Woike of the Los Angeles Times writes.

“It’s tough sometimes, but you just have to be positive, have an even-keeled mindset. But that’s easier said than done,” Kuzma said. “It’s something I’ve got to kind of figure out. But it isn’t anything I can’t handle.”

Kuzma has scored 10 or fewer points in half of the 14 games he’s played this season. In 70 games last season, he scored 10 or fewer just seven times as well.

Here’s more from Los Angeles:

  • Brandon Ingram spoke with Mark Medina of USA Today about the environment in Los Angeles last season. “The team was a little rattled. Coming in every day, it wasn’t always good,” Ingram said. “It wasn’t always good energy.” The former No. 2 overall pick was sent to New Orleans in the Anthony Davis deal.
  • The trade talks surrounding half the players on the Lakers became public last season and while it would have been better to keep the discussions out of the spotlight, Ingram says he isn’t too bothered by how everything went down. “I’ve never been in a position of GM. I don’t know how it could’ve been handled,” Ingram said (via Medina’s piece). “I know it’s hard decisions to be made. I know these decisions had to be made to make them a better team, and they’re obviously a better team this year. So I don’t know how I would’ve handled it. They had to handle it how they handled it, and it worked out great.”
  • Davis, who has been reunited with DeMarcus Cousins in Los Angeles, believes the duo could have done great things in New Orleans if they would have been given more time together, Kyle Goon of the Orange County Register relays. The Pelicans allowed Cousins to leave in free agency in 2018.
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Kyrie Irving Hears Boston Heckling From Miles Away

November 28th, 2019 at 1:37pm CST by ChrisCrouse

Kyrie Irving didn’t make the trip to Boston on Wednesday as his team took on the Celtics. Despite his absence, the TD Garden was filled with anti-Irving chants and the streets of Boston were filled with posters calling the point guard a coward. Irving heard the heckling from miles away.

“It happens all the time and Tonight just shows how Sports/Entertainment will always be ignorant and obtrusive,” Irving wrote in a lengthy Instagram post. “It’s one big SHOW that means very little in the real world,” Irving posted on social media (via Brian Lewis of the New York Post).

The Celtics will take on the Nets again on Friday (in Brooklyn this time) and Irving, who is nursing a shoulder injury, has a chance to play in that matchup. While he won’t get a chance to see many of his former fans, he will get a chance to connect with old teammates and his former coach Brad Stevens, who defended the point guard before Wednesday’s contest.

“That’s one of the things that, unfortunately, when you’re really, really good at something, the level of scrutiny is even higher,” Stevens said. “He’s one of the best players in the NBA. The level of scrutiny is unfair, but it comes with the territory of all those guys. That’s why it’s so important that we constantly remind ourselves of how good they are.”

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Anthony Davis Quickly Adjusting To Los Angeles Spotlight

November 28th, 2019 at 12:43pm CST by ChrisCrouse

Playing for the Lakers comes with added attention, scrutiny and a spotlight unlike most other places in the NBA. Anthony Davis is quickly adjusting to that environment in his first year with the Lakers and he takes pride in thriving it.

“It just shows the world,” Davis said. “I think the world didn’t believe that I was able to do the same things in ‘the spotlight.’”

Davis and LeBron James take turns addressing the media during practices in Los Angeles. Having James on the team alleviates the pressure for Davis to speak with reporters at times and James, who is one of the most scrutinized athletes of all time, lending Davis plenty of advice since he came out west.

“At the end of the day, we’re all human, so you have great days and sometimes you have bad days. And I think he’s handled it as well as you can, as well as any human can, and he’s enjoying the process, being in a situation like you said he hasn’t been in before,” James said. “He got some of it last year … everybody was bringing his name up, every talk show, every radio show if you watch that type of stuff, his name was being mentioned. So a lot of the attention there, and rightfully so. That’s the caliber of basketball player he is. So I think he’s handled it with a lot of gracefulness, and it’s pretty cool to be around.”

Rajon Rondo, who played in both New Orleans and Los Angeles with Davis, believes the big man is well-suited to handle the spotlight.

“It’s a big shock, big difference,” Rondo said. “From a media standpoint, I’m sure there were days in New Orleans where he didn’t have to talk to media even though he’s Anthony Davis. … He’s born for this. He hasn’t had it in his career but he’s born for it.”

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Heat Notes: Winslow, DeRozan, Leonard

November 28th, 2019 at 11:27am CST by ChrisCrouse

Justise Winslow made his return to the lineup on Wednesday, playing 34 minutes in his first game back from a concussion. After the game, coach Erik Spoelstra said that the plan moving forward is not to have the Duke product play that much.

“I had no intention of playing him that much. K-Nunn got hit in the chest. He couldn’t play. Duncan got five fouls. So thank goodness we had Justise for those minutes,” Spo said (via Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald.

The team was also without Jimmy Butler, who missed the contest because he was not feeling well. Butler is expected to be back in action on Friday, so that will also cut into Winslow’s playing time.

Here’s more from Miami.

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