Rockets Notes: Durant, Eason, Finney-Smith, Offense
The Rockets‘ trade for Kevin Durant accelerated their expectations after the incremental success the team experienced last season, but they’ve found it surprisingly difficult to replace the grit provided by Dillon Brooks, writes The Athletic’s William Guillory in a mid-season retrospective of the trade co-written with Doug Haller.
Guillory notes that after starting the season 16-6, Houston began struggling to replicate the physicality and intensity of last season’s squad, to the consternation of head coach Ime Udoka. Losing two players, plus the top-10 pick that became Khaman Maluach, to bring in Durant also hurt the team’s depth, a problem exacerbated by the ACL tear that has sidelined Fred VanVleet for the entire season to this point.
However, Durant has still been fantastic, according to Guillory, who says swapping the aforementioned strengths of last year’s team to bring in a bona fide number one scoring option was a trade-off the team took a calculated risk on. Because the Rockets’ offense has struggled when teams overload on Durant and force someone else to score, Guillory notes that there could be some trade deadline tinkering to bring in another depth piece, but he doesn’t expect a big move for a starting-level point guard.
In terms of which team has “won” the trade six months after the fact, Guillory believes that both Houston and Phoenix ultimately got what they wanted, but if he had to pick a side, the Suns have come out ahead — the Rockets have yet to prove themselves to be top-tier contenders, while the Suns have exceeded expectations and are currently just one game behind Houston in the standings.
We have more from the Rockets:
- According to Udoka, Tari Eason is nearing a return to playing unrestricted minutes as he continues to work his way back from a right ankle sprain suffered in early January, reports Varun Shankar of the Houston Chronicle (via Twitter). Eason played 28 minutes in Thursday’s overtime loss to the Sixers, contributing 13 points along with nine rebounds and four steals. It was the eighth time Eason had played 28 or more minutes this season, but he missed the following game on Friday against the Pistons due to right ankle management.
- In the same tweet, Shankar notes that Udoka expects Dorian Finney-Smith‘s road to a full workload to take longer as he looks to regain his rhythm following offseason ankle surgery. Udoka drew a parallel to how the team brought Steven Adams along last season, keeping his minutes per game below 15 until March, when he began logging longer stretches on the court. Finney-Smith is averaging a career-low 15.5 minutes in the 13 games he’s suited up for this season, and has struggled with his outside shot, knocking down just 28.6% of his threes despite 35 of his 44 field goal attempts this season coming from behind the arc.
- Udoka doesn’t believe that a point guard trade is incoming, writes ESPN’s Michael C. Wright. “We’ve always been confident and talked about our depth and relying on all these guys with Aaron [Holiday] and Jae’Sean [Tate] and guys that aren’t playing as much,” he said. “We want to see what [Amen Thompson and Reed Sheppard] look like with a year of point guard play under their belt and getting Fred back eventually. For now, we want those guys to grow into that role.” Instead, the team has built an offense that dominates inside (with the seventh-highest percentage of points coming in the paint), crashes the glass, and is efficient from three, despite not being prolific. Adams’ Grade 3 ankle sprain could make it trickier for the team to maintain its edge on the offensive glass. In his absence, the team will turn to Clint Capela as the primary backup center, with Jabari Smith Jr. expected to play some minutes as a small-ball five.
Bulls Notes: Guards, Trade Deadline, Giddey, Rose
The Bulls defeated the Timberwolves on Thursday night in a game that could serve as something of an audition for several Chicago guards, notes Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times.
Cowley had previously reported that the Wolves, on the lookout for additional backcourt depth, have potential trade interest in Tre Jones, Coby White, and/or Ayo Dosunmu. On Thursday, Jones had a clutch layup to give the Bulls the lead with 31.1 seconds remaining while White put up 22 points with four rebounds and four assists.
Julia Poe of the Chicago Tribune (subscription required) explored the same subject, considering which Bulls guard might appeal most to Minnesota and what the Wolves would offer for each player.
While White has struggled to remain healthy this season, Poe writes that his strong play of late, which includes a healthy stretch in which he hasn’t missed three games in a row since early December, could assuage concerns about his durability. However, White’s $12.9MM cap hit is the largest of the three.
Dosumnu’s $7.5MM salary would be much easier for the Wolves to match, while his defensive presence and knock-down off-ball shooting could make him a nice fit in lineups next to Anthony Edwards.
As for Jones, his appeal could stem in part from his long-term team control, as there are still two more years left on his contract after this season, Poe observes. She adds that he’s not Minnesota’s preferred target, but he’s played well this season and could provide the Wolves with the type of steady floor general they could use as Mike Conley has aged out of a starting spot.
We have more from the Bulls:
- Head coach Billy Donovan says he doesn’t believe that the upcoming stretch of games will be a significant factor in determining the team’s approach at the trade deadline. “With the number of guys we have that are going to be free agents at the end of the season, I just think there’s probably going to be conversations they have, but a lot of it is going to be does it make sense? You have to have (trade) partners to do that, right?” Donovan said. “I’m sure they’re all in communication and talking, and they’ve always been very gracious to come to me and say, ‘This is what we’re talking about, this is what’s going on.’ But I haven’t had any of that or anything that would indicate these next (six) games before the trade deadline are going to be really critical for the team.” The Bulls’ coach adds that when vice president of basketball ops Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley aren’t on the road scouting, he’s in touch with them every day, and he expects any deal that is made to be somewhat down to the wire. “It seems like all the movement happens the day before (or) the day of (the deadline), so to speak, where there’s so much activity,” he said.
- The Bulls have won four straight games, and Josh Giddey‘s return from his 25-day absence due to a hamstring strain has been a big part of the last two victories over Minnesota and Boston, Poe writes. In the matchup with the Wolves, Giddey came off the bench to score 21 points with five assists and six rebounds in 26 minutes. “I felt good,” Giddey said after the game. “It felt like normal basketball. When I got out there tonight, it was nothing new. … I didn’t feel rusty. It didn’t feel like I’d been out too long.” While his shot didn’t fall against the Celtics, he still managed 10 assists and eight rebounds in 24 minutes off the bench. More importantly, Giddey’s return allows the team to get an extended look at the backcourt pairing of him and White. Poe notes that the team is consistently better when those two are on the court, while K.C. Johnson of CHSN adds (via Twitter) that it appears that Giddey will remain coming off the bench for the near future as he ramps up his workload.
- After the Bulls’ victory over the Celtics on Saturday, the team retired franchise legend Derrick Rose‘s jersey in an emotional ceremony attended by Rose’s former teammates, writes Jamal Collier for ESPN. Rose is just the fifth Bull to have his jersey retired, along with Jerry Sloan, Bob Love, Michael Jordan, and Scottie Pippen. “We wanted to honor him, but we wanted to take the time to actually really plan something really, really special,” Bulls president Michael Reinsdorf said. “I guess we could have done it last year, but I feel like this is the right way to do it. Give him time to prepare and give us time to ramp up to the big day.” Rose says that even though he’s now retired, he’s still chasing rarefied air, this time in the business world. “The astute group of people that I’m chasing after, they’re not on the ‘gram,” he said. “They’re reading. I feel like that’s the sacrifice I have to make right now. In order to get to my goals, I have to make a gambit move.”
NBA Announces Schedule Updates For Two Monday Games
Monday’s game between the Pacers and Hawks has been moved up to 12:30 pm CT due to inclement weather in Atlanta, the NBA announced on Sunday (via Twitter).
A second game on Monday will be played earlier as well, with the Sixers and Hornets now slated to tip off at 2:00 pm CT due to the weather conditions in Charlotte, per the league.
The NBA postponed two games on Sunday because of Winter Storm Fern.
As Brad Rowland notes (Twitter link), the Pacers-Hawks game was originally scheduled for 6:30 pm CT. The Sixers-Hornets contest was originally set for 6:00 pm, tweets Rod Boone of The Charlotte Observer.
Jonathan Kuminga Diagnosed With Bone Bruise In Left Knee
3:45 pm: Curry will be active today, tweets Nick Friedell of The Athletic.
3:21 pm: Fifth-year forward Jonathan Kuminga underwent an MRI on Friday which revealed he has a bone bruise in his left knee, the Warriors announced in a press release (Twitter link). Kuminga hyperextended his left knee in the second quarter of Thursday’s loss at Dallas and did not return.
Kuminga has been ruled out for Sunday’s game at Minnesota. The team will monitor his progress and will determine a reevaluation date “in the coming days,” per the release.
The seventh overall pick of the 2021 draft, Kuminga demanded a trade out of Golden State on Jan. 15. The 23-year-old had been out of the rotation for over a month, but was recently reinserted into the lineup in the wake of Jimmy Butler‘s season-ending torn right ACL.
Kuminga played very well in his two appearances last week prior to the injury, recording 30 points (on 10-of-13 shooting), six rebounds, four assists and three steals in 30 total minutes. Overall, he’s averaging 12.1 PPG, 5.9 RPG and 2.5 APG on .454/.321/.742 shooting in 20 games (23.8 MPG).
In other Warriors injury news, Stephen Curry experienced right knee soreness on Saturday and is questionable for Sunday’s game, head coach Steve Kerr told reporters, including Anthony Slater of ESPN (Twitter video link). The star guard will warm up before determining whether he can play tonight.
De’Anthony Melton and Al Horford will suit up on Sunday, but neither will play in Monday’s rematch with the Wolves, Kerr added.
Devin Booker Out At Least One Week With Right Ankle Sprain
January 25: Booker, who was ruled out of Sunday’s game vs. Miami, will miss at least one week, which is when he’ll be reevaluated, the team announced today (Twitter link via Shane Young).
January 23: In the same game in which his teammate Jalen Green was ruled out after just four minutes due to hamstring tightness, Suns star Devin Booker appeared to suffer a right ankle injury, tweets Gerald Bourguet of Suns After Dark.
Booker’s injury occurred in the closing seconds of the third quarter of Friday’s contest at Atlanta (Twitter video link via ESPN). After having his defensive rebound dislodged by Mouhamed Gueye, Booker started jogging up the court, but then noticed that Grayson Allen — who had picked up the loose ball — dribbled the ball off his leg and out of bounds.
Since he was distracted and looking at Allen on the sideline, Booker was unaware of the presence of Onyeka Okongwu, who was also looking at Allen lose control of the ball, and inadvertently stepped on the Hawks big man’s left foot, causing his right ankle to roll.
Booker immediately collapsed to the court in pain and began grabbing at his ankle. He was eventually helped up with assistance and limped off the court, proceeding straight to the visitor’s locker room, per Brad Rowland of Locked On Hawks (Twitter link). The 29-year-old guard did not return to the game.
A four-time All-Star, Booker had 31 points (on 12-of-21 shooting), four rebounds and three assists in 28 minutes, with the Suns up seven entering the final frame. They only managed 12 points in the final period without their best player and wound up losing 110-103.
If Booker misses additional time as a result of his ankle injury, Allen, Collin Gillespie and Jordan Goodwin are among the Suns guards who could receive more minutes.
NBA Postpones Sunday’s Mavericks-Bucks Game Due To Weather
The Mavericks and Bucks won’t play on Sunday in Milwaukee, the NBA announced (Twitter link). The game will be rescheduled at a future date.
According to Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News, who first reported the news (via Twitter), the Mavericks were stuck on their team plane for multiple hours due to inclement weather in Dallas. The plane was still being de-iced as of 1:30 pm CT, Townsend adds (Twitter link).
Although it was floated as an outside possibility, the game will not be rescheduled for Monday, per Grant Afseth of DallasHoopsJournal.com (Twitter link). Townsend hears the most likely date for the rescheduled game is February 19.
The Mavericks are now deplaning in Dallas after the game was postponed, tweets Marc Stein of The Stein Line, who confirms the game is likely to be rescheduled after the All-Star break.
The Mavs-Bucks contest is the second game the league has rescheduled on Sunday due to the major storm in North America. The first was the Nuggets-Grizzlies matchup in Memphis.
Southeast Notes: F. Wagner, Bam, Spoelstra, Jovic, Risacher
Magic forward Franz Wagner will miss his third straight game on Monday at Cleveland, but his injury designation has changed from left ankle soreness to left high ankle sprain injury management, per Jason Beede of The Orlando Sentinel (Twitter link).
As Beede notes (via Twitter), Wagner missed five-plus weeks — a span of 16 games — due to the high ankle sprain before returning for a pair of overseas contests in Berlin (his hometown) and London. Head coach Jamahl Mosley said the German star did some light shooting ahead of Saturday’s game vs. Cleveland, but didn’t take contact (Twitter video link).
Asked by Beede whether Wagner may have rushed back from the injury, Mosley said he’s focused on the present and future and not the past.
“I can’t … Those are things that I’m not looking at,” Mosley said. “When he said he could go, he went. And when we thought he could go, he went. You can’t look back and say what we could or should have done at the end of the day. In that moment, it’s how he felt and then that’s what we’ve got to be smart [about] moving forward with him.”
Here’s more from the Southeast:
- Head coach Erik Spoelstra and star big man Bam Adebayo had some heated words during a team meeting on Saturday morning ahead of the Heat‘s blowout victory over Utah, writes Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel. “Spo kind of went off on us, especially on Bam, which I think kind of set the tone,” Nikola Jovic said. “When you start talking to the captain first, we just knew we had to take more responsibility and be more locked in. So I think it’s simple as that. Just maybe we had a little more pressure on us and it helped.” Spoelstra was upset by the team’s defensive performance in Thursday’s loss at Portland. For his part, Adebayo downplayed the exchange, Winderman adds. “I mean, it definitely is clearing the air in the room,” Adebayo said. “All that being said, we like when coach confronts us. It’s just he’s gotta be prepared when we bark back. We’re all grown men at the end of the day, so we don’t like what he said, we can always have a man-to-man conversation.”
- Fourth-year forward Jovic is having a down season after inking a four-year, $62.4MM rookie scale extension in October. He says he’s still adjusting to Heat‘s new motion-based offense, according to Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald. “I’m adapting,” Jovic said. “Like I always say, whatever coaches need us to do, I’ll do it. I mean, I’m not a guy who you build a system around right now. We’re not going to build our offense around me. So for right now, it’s just whatever coaches need me to do and whatever playstyle they want to play, I just have to adapt. So I don’t think post-ups are going to be a big part of the game. Maybe at one point.”
- Hawks forward Zaccharie Risacher has been assigned to the team’s G League affiliate, the College Park Skyhawks, for a Sunday practice, tweets Brad Rowland of Locked On Hawks. Risacher, the top pick in the 2024 draft, has missed eight straight games with a left knee bone contusion. The 20-year-old wing is expected to be reevaluated in the next day or two.
Sunday’s Nuggets-Grizzlies Game Postponed Due To Weather
Sunday’s game between the Nuggets and Grizzlies has been postponed due to inclement weather in the Memphis area, the NBA announced (via Twitter).
The game will be rescheduled, though the date has yet to be determined, per the league.
A major winter storm has been impacting a large portion of North America since Saturday night and is expected to continue through Monday. The Mavericks originally planned to fly to Milwaukee after Saturday’s game against the Lakers but were unable to due to the weather in Dallas.
According to Marc Stein of The Stein Line (Twitter link), the Mavericks are still on the team plane awaiting clearance to travel ahead of a 6:00 pm CT tipoff time against the Bucks. Depending on what happens in the next couple hours, that game may be postponed as well.
Pacific Notes: Booker, Green, Schröder, LaVine, Jones, Bogdanovic, Bufkin
Suns star Devin Booker will miss Sunday’s game against Miami due to a right ankle sprain, tweets Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel. The 29-year-old guard sustained the injury in Friday’s loss at Atlanta.
While Booker will be out, his teammate Jalen Green has a chance to suit up — he’s listed as questionable with what the team is calling right hamstring injury management. Green also exited Friday’s game early after experiencing tightness in his right hamstring.
We have more from around the Pacific Division:
- Dennis Schröder offered a profane response to hearing his name pop up in trade rumors, per Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. Several Kings, including the veteran guard, have been the subject of rumors leading up to the February 5 deadline with Sacramento holding the fourth-worst record (12-34) in the NBA. “I don’t give a f–k about that,” Schröder said after Friday’s loss in Cleveland. “At the end of the day, I enjoy every single day being in the NBA. I don’t take it for granted.”
- The Kings will be playing without Zach LaVine during Sunday’s game at Detroit, Anderson adds in another story. The two-time All-Star was ruled out of today’s game due to lower back soreness.
- Clippers forward Derrick Jones Jr. (right knee sprain) and guard/forward Bogdan Bogdanovic (left hamstring injury management) were limited participants in Saturday’s practice, head coach Tyronn Lue told reporters, including Law Murray of The Athletic (Twitter link). Both players will be out again for Sunday’s contest vs. Brooklyn.
- Kobe Bufkin‘s 10-day contract with the Lakers expired on Thursday night and he since been re-acquired by G League’s South Bay Lakers, notes Dave McMenamin of ESPN (via Twitter). The 15th overall pick in the 2023 draft, Bufkin appeared in four games with Los Angeles, averaging 3.0 points in 11.3 minutes per contest.
Spurs’ Devin Vassell Set To Return Sunday
Spurs wing Devin Vassell, who has missed the team’s past 13 games due to a left adductor strain, is set to return on Sunday against New Orleans, writes Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News.
Vassell was a full participant in Saturday’s practice and expects to be on a minutes limit in his first appearance since December 29.
“I don’t know what the minutes will look like, but I am definitely excited to be out there,” he said. “I don’t think the minutes restriction will be too crazy, but you just have to be cautious with this type of injury. I haven’t played for like a month, so I still have to work my way back into shape. But I’m ready to go.”
A native of Georgia, Vassell started each of San Antonio’s 32 games to open the 2025/26 campaign prior to suffering the injury. The 25-year-old guard/forward averaged 15.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.4 assists in 31.9 minutes per contest while shooting 37.9% from three-point range.
According to Orsborn, Vassell is glad he decided not to rush back from the groin injury before he was fully healthy.
“With an injury like this, you don’t want to come back and then have to sit out again because it starts nagging you,” Vassell said. “I’ve been getting some good workouts in with my guys and I just feel good. I’m ready to go. But it’s definitely tough whenever you have to sit out and watch your teammates play. You feel like you can help. It always tests you mentally, for sure.”
The Spurs, who hold an overall record of 31-14, went 8-5 in Vassell’s absence, Orsborn notes.