Atlantic Notes: Rivers, Ntilikina, Langford, Nets Big Three
New Sixers head coach Doc Rivers deserves a lot of credit for the 18-7 Philadelphia’s current perch as the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference standings, according to Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Rivers commands respect in the Sixers locker room due to his championship pedigree and prior success across head coaching stops in Orlando, Boston, and most recently Los Angeles. Sixers center Joel Embiid is enjoying his best season as a pro thus far, averaging career-bests in scoring (29.1 PPG), steals (1.4 SPG), and shooting (.547/.377.855).
There’s more out of the Atlantic Division:
- Knicks reserve guard Frank Ntilikina is not traveling with New York for the team’s game against the Wizards tomorrow despite continuing to test negative for the novel coronavirus, according to Ian Begley of SNY. Ntilikina has been held out of team activities since Tuesday after contact tracing determined he had been close to someone who later recorded a positive test for COVID-19.
- Celtics head coach Brad Stevens indicated in comments today that reserve guard Romeo Langford will not be back with the club until after the NBA All-Star break in March, per Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald (via Twitter). Langford had a right wrist surgery to address torn ligaments in his shooting wrist in September.
- The Nets still hope to improve the on-court dynamic between their new Big Three of All-Stars Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden now that everybody is healthy, writes Brian Lewis of the New York Post. “It’s funny,” head coach Steve Nash noted. “[It’s been] four weeks already, Kevin and [Irving] and James have played 5 ½ games, if you include the Raptors game, together.”
Wizards Granted Disabled Player Exception For Bryant
The NBA has awarded the Wizards a $4.16MM disabled player exception to account for the loss of starting center Thomas Bryant, per Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). Bryant will miss the rest of the season after suffering a torn left ACL last month. Charania adds that the disabled player exception expires on April 19.
The disabled player exception can be applied toward adding a player via free agency, on the waiver wire, or in a trade. The Wizards’ new $4.16MM DPE is half of Bryant’s $8,333,333 salary for the 2020/21. Any new player added through the DPE cannot be making more than that $4.16MM amount, plus $100K.
[RELATED: 2020/21 NBA Disabled Player Exceptions]
There are a few more stipulations for the Wizards to take into account. The DPE can only be used on one player, and only for the length of a one-year deal. A free agent can only be added for the single year of the exception. Any player gained through a trade or waivers has to be in the last season of his contract.
Journeyman center Alex Len has already been added to help make up for the positional loss of Bryant, and is currently starting in Bryant’s stead. Backup Robin Lopez is sharing the center minutes burden. The 6-16 Wizards may use the new exception to address one of their other needs across their underperforming roster.
Trae Young Fined $20K
The league has docked Hawks All-Star point guard Trae Young $20K as a result of “directing inappropriate language” toward a referee over a contested foul no-call after a 118-117 loss to the Mavericks yesterday, per an official NBA announcement.
The league indicated in its press release that the play in question, wherein Mavericks center Willie Cauley-Stein made contact with Young while taking a step on a screen, was accurately ruled on the floor during game action as a moment of incidental contact, and thus not a foul on Cauley-Stein.
The 6’1″ third-year lead guard out of Oklahoma is averaging 26.6 PPG, 9.5 APG, and 4.2 RPG across 22 games this season. He holds a slash line of .419/.369/.889.
With the loss, the Hawks have slid to 11-13 for the 2020/21 season. Atlanta, now the No. 8 seed in the packed East, is merely 2.5 games removed from the third-seeded Nets and only 2.5 games better than the current No. 13 seed, the Magic.
DaQuan Jeffries Returns To Kings Practice
Kings swingman DaQuan Jeffries has returned to team practice, per Jason Jones of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Jeffries was on a two-way contract during his 2019/20 rookie season, but the club elevated him to its 15-man roster and fully guaranteed his deal ahead of the 2020/21 season. He has yet to play in a regular season game during this sophomore campaign.
Back soreness was the initial culprit behind Jeffries’ lack of availability for Sacramento in all but one preseason game this year. While recuperating, Jeffries incurred a Grade 3 left ankle sprain in December after landing on Jabari Parker‘s foot during a scrimmage, which sidelined him until now.
Jeffries appeared in 13 games for Sacramento during his rookie season, averaging 10.8 minutes per contest.
Jason Anderson of the Sacramento Bee tweets that Jeffries has been listed as questionable to return to the court for the Kings in a Friday contest against the Magic.
Southwest Notes: Rockets, Smoothie King Center, Porter, Bey
The Rockets have dealt with changing lineups in three straight games as they juggle the availability of their injury-prone veteran guards. Head coach Stephen Silas notes that the ongoing lineup flux has impacted potential team chemistry, as Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle relays.
“As far as continuity of the group and really getting a feel for where your role is and how you can be effective in the scope of the group, it does affect it quite a bit,” Silas said of the Rockets’ lineup changes.
There’s more out of the Southwest Division:
- After starting the NBA season by allowing 800 fans inside their home arena, the Smoothie King Center, the Pelicans bumped that total up to 1,440 on January 29. They will be increasing their fan capacity again starting next week, to 1,900 fans, starting February 17 against the Trail Blazers, according to Christian Clark of NOLA.com.
- Once word got out of swingman Kevin Porter Jr.‘s locker room outburst, which effectively doomed his time in Cleveland, the Rockets immediately called the Cavaliers about his availability, according to Kelly Iko of The Athletic, who says a future second-round pick was considered a small price to pay, given Porter’s upside. “He just wants to play, hasn’t had an opportunity to really play much this season,” head coach Stephen Silas said of Porter.
- The Mavericks have sent rookie small forward Tyler Bey from the Long Island Nets to the Salt Lake City Stars as the NBAGL 2021 season in Orlando gets underway, according to an official team tweet.
Southeast Notes: Young, Magic, Wizards, Biyombo
Unlike some other probable All-Stars who have expressed reluctance about playing in a potential March 7 All-Star Game in Atlanta, Hawks point guard Trae Young has said he would relish the opportunity to participate if he earns a second straight All-Star berth, according to Sarah K. Spencer of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“I understand both sides,” said Young, who is averaging 26.7 PPG, 9.2 APG, and 4.0 RPG for the 11-12 Hawks. “Obviously, it’s in Atlanta, I’d love to be a part of it, if there is a game.”
There’s more out of the Southeast Division:
- Magic assistant general manager Matt Lloyd spoke with Josh Robbins of The Athletic about how the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has impacted Orlando’s scouting process. “We’ve gotten to the point with technology where we have so much to study,” Lloyd acknowledged. “Every game is on film… But there is still an advantage of being able to see how prospects look in person. There’s always going to be that one element of being in an arena or in a gym and being able to size players up to get some sort of sense of their real physicality, their size, their length and how fast they are.”
- The Wizards have been performing better when $41.4MM point guard Russell Westbrook sits, according to Fred Katz of The Athletic. In a somewhat alarming trend, Washington is 4-3 without Westbrook and 2-12 with him this season. Washington is 7.7 points per 100 possessions worse when Westbrook plays for the club this year.
- Hornets center Bismack Biyombo is relishing his role as a mentor with a scrappy Charlotte team, according to Kurt Helin of NBC Sports. Biyombo has become a key advisor to rookie guard LaMelo Ball, the No. 3 pick in the 2020 draft. “I was telling LaMelo when I first got to the league I was his age because I came from overseas as well,” Biyombo said. “The transition, how far you grow from playing overseas versus when you see kids who come out of college, it’s totally two different mindsets.”
Northwest Notes: Towns, Conley, T-Wolves, Hernangomez
Timberwolves star center Karl-Anthony Towns continues to recover from the novel coronavirus. Minnesota head coach Ryan Saunders has noted that Towns has made some strides recently as he works his way back, according to Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic (Twitter link).
“He’s really been able to push himself,” Saunders said of the Timberwolves’ leading scorer. “Our medical group has been able to try to simulate certain stints during a game, the stopping and going, what that might feel like with his lungs.” Krawczynski adds in a separate tweet that Saunders says Minnesota’s medical team needs to examine the way Towns’s lungs respond to “high-intensity work.”
There’s more out of the Northwest Division:
- The Jazz can take cold comfort in the fact that, while star point guard Mike Conley is out indefinitely with a hamstring injury, the injury is not considered as severe as a similar hamstring injury he suffered last season, Tony Jones of The Athletic tweets.
- The Timberwolves‘ youngest players have surprisingly emerged as some of Minnesota’s best, as Michael Rand of The Star Tribune details. Jordan McLaughlin, Anthony Edwards, Jaylen Nowell, Jaden McDaniels, Naz Reid, and Jarred Vanderbilt have impressed with their play of late.
- After missing nearly three weeks of action due to COVID-19, Timberwolves power forward Juan Hernangomez is now striving to break back into Minnesota’s rotation, according to Chris Hine of The Star Tribune. His younger teammates Vanderbilt and McDaniels have supplanted him in the power forward rotation for now, though Hernangomez enjoyed a productive nine-minute stint last night. “I’m probably the MVP of waiting for my chance,” Hernangomez said. “I’m happy for the young guys to develop. If I get my chance, I’m going to try to do my best.”
Texas Notes: White, Kleber, Rockets, Mavericks Arena
After Spurs guard Derrick White returned on January 30 from his second major toe injury since August, he quickly returned to the impressive level he had been displaying during last summer’s restart in Orlando, according to Jeff McDonald of The San Antonio Express-News.
The Spurs have been the beneficiaries of White’s improvement. The club is 3-2 since White’s return, as of this writing, and has won three games in a row. At 14-10, San Antonio is the No. 5 seed in a crowded Western Conference field.
There’s more out of the Lone Star State:
- Despite having recovered from a bout with COVID-19, Mavericks forward Maxi Kleber continues to adjust to life on an NBA court, according to Brad Townsend of the Dallas Morning News. “I still feel slow,” Kleber said.
- The Rockets will be using a strict load management-style maintenance plan for their three core guards for the indefinite future, according to Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle. Houston’s starting back court tandem of John Wall and Victor Oladipo, plus sixth man Eric Gordon, will all sit for at least one game in the team’s upcoming back-to-back sets. “It’s something we’ve talked about the last three weeks or so, four weeks maybe,” head coach Stephen Silas said of the plan. “With John and Vic being primary ballhandlers, that makes it a little harder. Now, you add Eric to the mix [of players sitting], it makes it really hard.”
- The Mavericks brought 1,500 first responder fans back into their home arena, the American Airlines Center, for the first time this season during a 127-122 victory over the Timberwolves yesterday, according to Eddie Sefko of Mavs.com. “The atmosphere was obviously better,” Dallas wing Tim Hardaway Jr. said. The fans were socially distanced within the 19,200-capacity arena.
Iman Shumpert Out 1-2 Weeks With Hamstring Strain
Newly re-signed Nets wing Iman Shumpert will have to wait another week or two to make his season debut for a new-look Brooklyn club after straining his left hamstring, head coach Steve Nash said today, per Malika Andrews of ESPN (Twitter link).
Shumpert re-joined the Nets on January 31 on a non-guaranteed veteran’s minimum contract. The injury must be quite recent, as Nash suggested in statements made earlier this week that Shumpert was “completely available” to play.
As Bobby Marks of ESPN notes (via Twitter), Shumpert’s partially-guaranteed deal with the franchise only becomes fully guaranteed if he remains under contract through February 24, just beyond Nash’s established two-week recovery window.
It will be interesting to see whether the Nets opt to waive Shumpert in favor of another free agent wing. Defensive-oriented free agent swingmen who could be had in Shumpert’s stead include Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, most recently with the Mavericks, and former Thunder wing Andre Roberson.
Patrick Beverley May Return During Clippers’ Road Trip
Clippers starting point guard Patrick Beverley may suit up for the first time since January 24 during Los Angeles’s upcoming two-game road trip, head coach Tyronn Lue said today, per Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN (via Twitter). Knee soreness has sidelined Beverley over the past eight games.
As Andrew Greif of the Los Angeles Times notes (via Twitter), before the team will officially OK a return, L.A. is holding out to observe Beverley’s continued recovery. Beverley, in his fourth season with the Clippers, is averaging 8.1 PPG, 4.4 RPG, 2.1 APG, 1.0 SPG and 0.8 BPG. The 6’1″ defensive-oriented vet boasts a shooting slash line of .400/.414/.762.
The 32-year-old out of Arkansas is currently in the second season of a three-year, $40MM deal he signed to remain in Los Angeles in the summer of 2019, a transformative period for the Clippers roster.
All-Star Clippers small forward Paul George, however, will not be joining L.A. as the team travels to face the Timberwolves and Bulls, Greif adds in a separate tweet. Greif suggests the Clippers will assess George’s health when they returns to their home market this weekend. George has been absent for the past two games with a bone edema in his foot.