Knicks Notes: Barrett, Brunson, Grimes, Quickley, Sims
Knicks small forward RJ Barrett helped provide a big lift to New York in a must-win Game 5 effort, writes Brian Lewis of The New York Post.
Lewis notes that Barrett has been the Knicks’ most consistent contributor in their ongoing series against the Heat, aside from star point guard Jalen Brunson. Barrett is averaging 22.0 PPG and 4.8 RPG in the series.
Barrett scored 26 points while shooting 8-of-17 from the floor in the Game 5 win. He also helped defend Miami’s star small forward Jimmy Butler.
“I thought [All-Star power forward Julius Randle] and RJ were terrific,” head coach Tom Thibodeau said following the game.
There’s more out of New York:
- Thibodeau also had high praise for Brunson, who scored 38 points while playing all 48 minutes of the Knicks’ eventual 112-103 victory over the Heat Wednesday, per Fred Katz of The Athletic (Twitter links). “I’ve never seen anyone work the way he does,” Thibodeau said. “What can you say about the guy? He’s just incredible.”
- Brunson’s colleague, Quentin Grimes, also played all 48 minutes in the victory, in his second start of the series, writes Peter Botte of The New York Post. Grimes served as the team’s primary defender against Butler, and he held the 2023 All-NBA Second Teamer under 20 points for the first time in the playoffs so far. “He’s probably been the best player of the playoffs so far,” Grimes said. “So knowing I have that matchup every night, I have to be more disciplined and probably have to play 48… Forty eight or 25, it really doesn’t matter to me. I’ve just got to make sure I’m locked in on him defensively and try to do whatever I can to slow him down.”
- The Knicks have announced (Twitter link) that guard Immanuel Quickley is doubtful to suit up for Game 6 due to a sprained left ankle, while reserve center Jericho Sims will miss yet another contest as he continues to recover from a right shoulder surgery. Quickley was initially listed as doubtful for Games 4 and 5 before being ruled out.
Warriors’ Andrew Wiggins Questionable For Game 6
Warriors forward Andrew Wiggins has seen his status downgraded to questionable ahead of his team’s must-win Game 6 against the Lakers on Friday, per Anthony Slater of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Slater reports that Wiggins has suffered a left costal cartilage fracture. This is the area of the rib cage that connects the ribs to the sternum.
It’s discouraging news for the Warriors, who are coming off a blowout 121-106 Game 5 win over Los Angeles on Wednesday. In that victory, Wiggins scored 25 points on 10-of-18 shooting, his best output in 12 playoff games this season. He also pulled down seven rebounds, dished out an assist and notched one steal.
For the series, the 6’7″ combo forward out of Kansas is averaging 16.8 PPG, 6.0 RPG, 2.8 APG, and 0.6 SPG across 33.2 MPG. The Lakers still lead the Warriors 3-2, meaning Golden State will have to win out to advance to its second straight Western Conference Finals appearance.
If Wiggins sits, it will be fascinating to see which player head coach Steve Kerr opts to insert into his starting lineup. Among Warriors players already seeing rotation minutes in this series, Moses Moody makes the most positional sense, but perhaps Kerr will decide to reinsert a bigger floor spacer like JaMychal Green back into his first five, or shift center Kevon Looney to a starting role and move Draymond Green back to power forward.
Nuggets’ Jamal Murray Upgraded To Available For Game 6
Nuggets point guard Jamal Murray has been given the green light to suit up tonight in a possible closeout Game 6 against the Suns, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Murray had previously been considered questionable to play due to a non-COVID-19 illness that has also impacted his other teammates.
Having Murray available will allow Denver to field a relatively healthy lineup against a Phoenix team that will be down two starters in point guard Chris Paul, still out with a left groin strain, and center Deandre Ayton, who will be shelved for the first time in this series with a rib contusion he sustained in Denver’s Game 5 victory.
Murray has been a huge component of the Nuggets’ success thus far in helping lead the club to a 3-2 series. The 6’3″ guard has averaged 24.6 PPG, 7.0 APG, 5.0 RPG, and 1.0 SPG through the first five games.
Denver leads the best-of-seven series 3-2, and will now carry a significant health advantage into Phoenix. The action tips off at 9 pm CT.
Warriors Notes: Poole, Wiggins, Payton, Game 5
Warriors guard Jordan Poole has had an erratic second-round performance against the Lakers. Around the league, his overall postseason play this year has rival executives unsure to what extent Golden State still views the 23-year-old as a foundational piece for the younger core of its roster, writes Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report.
Poole inked a four-year extension worth a guaranteed $123MM this past summer. That lucrative new deal will take effect next season.
“I don’t know why the Warriors rushed to overpay him,” an executive told Pincus. “They could have given him the same money this summer. At least then, they’d know what his contract would mean to their situation,” the Eastern Conference executive continued. “He’s earning more than [Andrew] Wiggins, and Wiggins is way more valuable than Poole.”
Pincus wonders if the Warriors may look to offload Poole’s contract and negotiate new long-term deals with veterans Draymond Green, who has a player option for 2023/24, and Klay Thompson, who will be extension-eligible next season.
There’s more out of Golden State:
- Wiggins holds no hard feelings about how his entry into the NBA played out, writes Mark Medina of Sportsnaut. Wiggins, the No. 1 draft pick in 2014, was selected by the Cavaliers before becoming the centerpiece of a trade to the Timberwolves that landed Kevin Love in Cleveland. Lakers All-NBA small forward LeBron James, now Wiggins’ opposition in his Warriors’ ongoing second-round playoff series, went on to appear in four straight NBA Finals alongside Love. “It’s the business side of basketball,” Wiggins said. “People get traded all the time. At the end of the day, they have a ring and I have a ring. It worked out.”
- In a conversation with Marc J. Spears of Andscape, Warriors guard Gary Payton II spoke about his offseason free agency, a challenging injury, and his return to the Warriors at the trade deadline. Payton wanted to re-sign with Golden State, where he had just won a title in 2022, as a free agent, but instead wound up taking a more lucrative three-year, $26.1MM deal with the Trail Blazers. “This is probably like my only one [long-term deal],” Payton said. “You know me, I’m like, ‘Yeah. I ain’t got probably one or two of these left, so I got to take it.'” A core muscle injury temporarily put his trade back to the Warriors in jeopardy, but ultimately Golden State decided to go through with the deal and bring him back. He’s now starting in the team’s second-round playoff series. “It was just a little hill,” Payton said of the injury. “But I feel like last year showed them last season if fully healthy can happen.”
- Payton’s move to the starting lineup, an efficient shooting night inside the arc for Stephen Curry, more proactive offense from Green, and improved play from Poole and Wiggins are credited by Medina in a separate piece as key reasons the Warriors saved their season on Wednesday in a Game 5 home win.
Celtics Shifting Robert Williams Into Starting Five
Ahead of a potential elimination game tonight in Philadelphia, the Celtics have opted to swap center Robert Williams into their starting lineup for guard Derrick White, per Shams Charania and Jared Weiss of The Athletic.
The Sixers, led by newly-minted league MVP Joel Embiid and veteran point guard James Harden, currently lead Boston 3-2, and have an opportunity to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in 22 years with a home victory tonight.
As The Athletic’s duo notes, Williams had served as the team’s All-Defensive Team starting center during Boston’s 2021/22 season, which resulted in an NBA Finals run. Injuries have limited his availability this season, and he has been used in more of a reserve capacity, with White replacing him in a smaller first five.
“Just [gives] us a different look,” Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said of the switch, Weiss tweets. “Rob gives us a lift on the defensive end.”
Sources inform Charania and Weiss that backup guard Payton Pritchard could also see additional time tonight after enjoying an active run in mop-up duty during the end of a Game 5 blowout loss.
Central Notes: Pacers, Pistons, Duren, Cavs
Indiana will be hosting six prospects on Friday for the team’s first pre-draft workout, the Pacers announced in a press release.
The six players are UConn’s Andre Jackson, UCLA’s Jaime Jaquez, Missouri’s Kobe Brown, Creighton’s Arthur Kaluma, North Dakota State’s Grant Nelson, and Liutauras Lelevicius, a Lithuanian prospect who played for Zalgris II this past season.
Jackson (30), Jaquez (32), Brown (43), Kaluma (90), and Nelson (94) all appear on ESPN’s top-100 prospects list, while Lelevicius is unranked. The Pacers control their own lottery pick, two late first-rounders (26th and 29th), and two second-round picks (either 50th or 32nd, plus 55th).
Here’s more from the Central:
- Hiring the right head coach, having a successful draft, and acquiring forward depth in free agency are among the top offseason priorities for the Pistons, according to Mike Curtis of The Detroit News (subscriber link), who thinks the team should pursue Nets restricted free agent Cameron Johnson.
- Pistons center Jalen Duren, who was recently named to the All-Rookie Second Team, was mostly pleased with his debut season, but he’s going to work on his conditioning and consistency in year two, Curtis writes in another subscriber-only story. “Consistency is a huge word,” Duren said. “To be great, you have to be consistent. For me, it’s honestly just being locked in and trying to understand what’s going on. ‘Being where my feet are,’ I like to say, and try to take over games, dominate games and affect games in any way possible. … I feel like that will come. I’m excited about what I can be in this league.”
- Josh Richardson, Kelly Oubre, Max Strus, Gary Trent Jr. and Jalen McDaniels could be the types of wings the Cavaliers choose to go after in free agency with their mid-level exception, Kelsey Russo states in a mailbag for The Athletic. I don’t see Trent falling to that price point, especially since he could just opt in to his $18.8MM player option if he isn’t confident about getting a better payday, but the other four might be attainable (whether or not they’d be a good fit is another story).
Suns’ Ayton Out For Game 6; Nuggets’ Murray Questionable
The Suns have ruled out center Deandre Ayton for Thursday’s pivotal Game 6 against Denver due to the rib contusion he sustained in Game 5, league sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
On Wednesday, Phoenix ruled out point guard Chris Paul, who is battling a left groin strain, while Ayton was listed as questionable. Something troublesome must have been discovered during his medical evaluation, as the big man has been downgraded to out.
The team will now be playing without two starters in an elimination game, as the Suns trail the Nuggets 3-2 in their second-round series.
John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 FM (Twitter link) hears that guard Landry Shamet will enter the starting lineup tonight — I’m assuming that will be in place of Cameron Payne, who has been filling in for Paul, and not for Ayton. Backup centers Jock Landale and Bismack Biyombo figure to see extended playing time in the middle with Ayton out.
Andy Bailey of Bleacher Report argued before the news broke that the Suns would be better off giving the majority of Ayton’s minutes to Landale. Phoenix is minus-59 in Ayton’s 149 minutes in the series, but plus-27 in Landale’s 74 minutes.
The Nuggets might be shorthanded as well. Guard Jamal Murray is questionable with a non-COVID illness that has been traveling through the team, according to Harrison Wind of DNVR Sports (Twitter links).
Murray was unable to participate in Thursday’s shootaround, which was cut short due to the illness that’s going around, but Denver is hopeful he’ll be able to suit up, tweets Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN. Head coach Michael Malone and a “handful of players” are among those who have been affected, Youngmisuk adds.
And-Ones: Thompson Twins, Dekker, In-Season Tournament, More
Amen Thompson and Ausar Thompson, twin brothers who bypassed college to compete in the Overtime Elite program, are projected lottery picks in the upcoming 2023 NBA draft. Israel Gutierrez of ESPN recently caught up with the brothers during Game 3 of the first-round series between Atlanta and Boston.
While much of the hype leading up to June’s draft has centered on French phenom Victor Wembanyama, the projected top overall pick, and G League Ignite’s Scoot Henderson, a projected top-three pick, Amen says he’s confident he’s one of the top players in the world.
“They always bring up those names, ‘How you going to pass Victor and Scoot, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,” Amen said. “And it’s just like, I’m going to do my thing. I’m going to run my race. And I think if I run my race, I’m one of the best players there is.”
The biggest question marks surrounding Amen and Ausar are the level of competition they faced at OTE and their jump shots, writes Gutierrez. Both players worked extensively on their jumpers over their two years at OTE, but it’s still a focus for improvement going forward.
“I’m improving on shooting, working on pick and roll reads, just reads in general,” Ausar said, per Gutierrez. “My ability to get paint touches, collapse the defense and kick it out for others. Then for myself, just getting open and being able to rise up over defenders and hit a jump shot, or get to the cup.”
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Former NBA forward Sam Dekker, a 2015 first-round pick, has signed a long-term extension with the London Lions of the British Basketball League, the team announced in a press release. The team captain averaged 18.2 PPG, 5.6 RPG and 2.9 APG during the 7Days EuroCup last fall and is under contract through 2026, per the Lions.
- Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic spoke to four NBA players who are Premier League fans about the NBA’s new in-season tournament, which will begin next season and was roughly modeled on European soccer tournaments. All four like the idea and believe it could be an interesting way for younger teams to get experience in a more competitive environment. “It’s gonna be really good for our league,” Pacers guard T.J. McConnell said. “Seasons can — not necessarily drag on — but adding an in-season tournament there just to like reinvigorate fan interest and give something that the players are playing for, another competitive type of environment, I think it’s going to be really good.”
- Although the majority of the moves didn’t draw as much attention as the blockbusters over the past year, five guards acquired via trades have made a significant impact in their respective teams’ playoff runs, writes John Hollinger of The Athletic. The five players Hollinger points to are the Nuggets‘ Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (a trade he says he wasn’t a fan of at the time, but has been proven very wrong), the Knicks‘ Josh Hart, the Celtics‘ Malcolm Brogdon, the Sixers‘ De’Anthony Melton, and the Lakers‘ D’Angelo Russell.
Bucks Notes: Griffin, Coach Search, Giannis, Budenholzer, More
The Bucks have been granted permission to interview Raptors assistant coach Adrian Griffin for their head coaching vacancy, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (via Twitter).
After a nine-year NBA career, Griffin quickly made the transition to coaching. He actually got his start as an assistant with Milwaukee back in 2008/09, Wojnarowski notes.
Griffin has also been an assistant with Chicago, Orlando, Oklahoma City. He has been with Toronto since ’18/19.
The 48-year-old has interviewed (or was expected to interview) for nearly every open head coaching job over the past season-plus, including the vacancies that popped up after the ’22/23 season concluded for the Rockets, Pistons, Raptors and now the Bucks. Griffin just completed his 15th season as an assistant.
Here’s more on the Bucks:
- While general manager Jon Horst has shown an openness to interviewing a wide range of candidates, the fact that he went with an experienced head coach who’d had previous success during Milwaukee’s coaching search in 2018 might inform how he’ll approach the process this time around, writes Eric Nehm of The Athletic. Horst has stated that expectations are much higher now than five years ago, so he will likely once again value experience and winning, Nehm notes.
- Star forward Giannis Antetokounmpo took to Instagram to thank former head coach Mike Budenholzer, posting photos of the two embracing after winning the championship in 2021, according to Jamal Collier of ESPN. “Thank you for five meaningful years Coach,” Antetokounmpo wrote. “We accomplished something unbelievable and I’m forever grateful.”
- Antetokounmpo had been named to the All-Defensive First Team for four straight seasons prior to ’22/23, but despite finishing sixth in Defensive Player of the Year voting, he didn’t make either of the two All-Defensive teams this season. He took to social media again to voice his apparent displeasure at the snub, per Christopher Kuhagen of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “I’m tired of the disrespect. I’m coming,” the former Defensive Player of the Year wrote.
- Jim Owczarski of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel recently joined Michael Scotto on the HoopsHype podcast to discuss the Bucks’ coaching search, possible offseason moves, how the new CBA will affect the team, and more.
Bucks’ Jrue Holiday Named Teammate of the Year
Bucks guard Jrue Holiday has been voted the 2022/23 Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year, the NBA announced in a press release. A panel of league executives select the 12 finalists (six from each conference) for the award, while current players vote on the winner.
The award “recognizes the player deemed the best teammate based on selfless play, on- and off-court leadership as a mentor and a role model to other players, and commitment and dedication to team,” per the NBA.
Here are the 12 finalists, listed in order of their total points received (players received 10 points for a first place vote, seven for second, five for third, three for fourth, and one point for fifth place):
- Jrue Holiday, Milwaukee (1,359)
- Mikal Bridges, Brooklyn (1,190)
- Stephen Curry, Golden State (1,117)
- Derrick Rose, New York (1,097)
- Udonis Haslem, Miami (1,023)
- Damian Lillard, Portland (857)
- Harrison Barnes, Sacramento (772)
- Damion Lee, Phoenix (666)
- Darius Garland, Cleveland (547)
- Grant Williams, Boston (535)
- Jaren Jackson Jr., Memphis (497)
- Aaron Gordon, Denver (376)
It’s the second straight Teammate of the Year award for Holiday, and third in the past four seasons. Lillard won in ’20/21. The only other active player to have won the award is Minnesota guard Mike Conley, who took it home in ’18/19 with Memphis. The award was introduced in ’12/13.