After a 54-point drubbing at the hands of the Nuggets, the Trail Blazers bounced back with a win over the shorthanded Suns on Sunday in Phoenix, writes Joe Freeman of The Oregonian. Portland’s victory came at a cost, however, as Deni Avdija was forced to exit the game after 59 seconds when he tweaked his lower back — he was questionable entering the contest because of the injury.
As Sean Highkin of The Rose Garden Report (subscriber link) writes, Avdija first injured his back on January 11 and he has experienced multiple flare-ups since. The All-Star forward has missed 10 games over the past six weeks due to the injury and was clearly was less than 100% in some of his seven appearances over that stretch, Highkin adds.
“I’m not a doctor, but yeah, we’ve got to see what’s going on,” interim head coach Tiago Splitter said. “Dive deep and see what’s really happening.”
The Blazers would be better off resting their leading scorer for an extended period rather than having him constantly be in and out of the lineup, according to Highkin, who notes that Portland has the easiest remaining schedule (by opponent winning percentage) in the league and the team is likely locked into the play-in tournament regardless of whether Avdija plays or not.
Having the 25-year-old healthy for the stretch run and postseason should be the Blazers’ top priority, says Highkin.
Here are a few more injury updates from around the NBA:
- Coby White is expected to make his debut for Charlotte on Tuesday in Chicago, as the Hornets have listed the impending free agent as probable to suit up against his former team (Twitter link). White has been sidelined since Feb. 3 due to a left calf strain, but head coach Charles Lee said the 26-year-old guard has made “great strides” in his recovery.
- Warriors big man Kristaps Porzingis, who woke up sick on Sunday and didn’t play in the comeback victory vs. Denver, didn’t travel with the team for Golden State’s two-game road trip and isn’t expected to play on Tuesday at New Orleans or on Wednesday at Memphis, tweets Anthony Slater of ESPN. Porzingis has formally been ruled out of Tuesday’s contest.
- Magic guard Jalen Suggs is questionable to suit up for Tuesday’s game at the Lakers due to a back strain, per Jason Beede of The Orlando Sentinel (Twitter link). Suggs experienced back spasms last week in Thursday’s win in Sacramento and missed Orlando’s back-to-back road games over the weekend because of back issue.
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Really good rundown of KP’s contract here, everyone should read it and understand why GSW got him, its because of this:
“The Warriors could not only sign-and-trade Porzingis this summer, they would be able to sign-and-trade him and aggregate his salary in a bigger trade.
Porzingis is on a $30 million expiring deal, which makes him an interesting piece.
In the last two months of his contract, Porzingis is incentivized to show he can stay on the court and return to being a productive player.
He has only played 17 games this season (though his advanced metrics were excellent in that sample with the Hawks). He deteriorated in the second half of last year as he dealt with an illness, which was ultimately diagnosed as POTS. Lower-leg injuries have also sidelined him. But he was recently cleared to play, and could debut for the Warriors before the All-Star break.
If Porzingis can make himself available, he should fit well with the Warriors, who have long sought a center who can space the floor and protect the rim next to Green. It’s possible that the Warriors could look to re-sign him — at a much lower annual cost — in that case.
Or, the Warriors could look to sign-and-trade him in the offseason as part of a bigger deal. Without Kuminga, they lack the type of meaty, mid-sized salaries required for matching salaries to complete big trades. In this route, the Warriors would be able to aggregate his sign-and-trade salary, too.
The other option would be for the Warriors to let Porzingis walk, shaving $30 million off their books. That wouldn’t make them a cap space team, but it would likely get them out of the luxury tax.
The biggest advantage of getting out of the tax could be gaining the opportunity to sign a player like De’Anthony Melton to the non-taxpayer midlevel exception. Melton has been terrific this season, so he’ll likely decline his $3 million player option for 2026-27.”
link to sfstandard.com