Nuggets’ Watson Out At Least Four Weeks With Sprained Knee
The Nuggets will be without Peyton Watson for at least the rest of February, announcing today (via Twitter) that the reserve forward has been diagnosed with a right knee sprain.
Watson, who sustained the injury on Friday in the fourth quarter of Denver’s win over Philadelphia (video link), will be reevaluated in four weeks, according to the team.
A 2022 first-round pick, Watson has further solidified his place in the rotation in his third year with the Nuggets after averaging 18.6 minutes per game across 80 appearances in 2023/24. Through 48 games this season, he has averaged 8.1 points, 3.4 rebounds, 1.5 assists, and 1.2 blocks in 24.1 minutes per night, with a .471/.340/.752 shooting line.
Watson has been one of Denver’s more effective wing defenders, so his absence will have an adverse impact on the team on that end of the floor.
Julian Strawther, Jalen Pickett, and Zeke Nnaji are among the candidates to play increased roles during Watson’s absence. All three players saw more action than usual in Saturday’s win in Charlotte, with Nnaji logging a season-high 22 minutes.
Denver is also currently missing guard Russell Westbrook, who will be out for a second straight game on Monday vs. New Orleans due to a strained left hamstring.
Breaking Down Lakers/Mavs Blockbuster: Cap Details, Luka’s Next Contract, More
The Lakers and Mavericks officially finalized one of the most shocking trades in NBA history on Sunday, making a deal so unexpected that we had to make sure ESPN's Shams Charania hadn't been hacked before we published our initial story late on Saturday night.
Luka Doncic, a reigning MVP finalist who has made the All-NBA First Team five years in a row, has been sent to the Lakers along with Maxi Kleber and Markieff Morris, with 10-time All-Star Anthony Davis headed to the Mavericks alongside Max Christie and a 2029 first-round pick.
Utah also got involved in the deal, taking on Jalen Hood-Schifino from the Lakers and getting a future second-round pick from both Dallas and L.A.
Much has already been written - and will continue to be written - about why each team (especially Dallas) felt motivated to make this move. Today, while we're still reeling from the news, we want to dig into the nitty-gritty of the trade, exploring how it works from a cap perspective, examining how it impacts Doncic's future earnings, and considering what the Lakers and Mavs do next to follow this up.
Let's dive in...
Cap/Roster Check-Ins: Clippers/Jazz Trade, 10-Day Deals
It’s going to be a busy week at Hoops Rumors, with this year’s trade deadline just five days away. But while things are still relatively quiet, we want to take a closer look at how today’s trade between the Clippers and Jazz works from a cap perspective and where things stand with the few 10-day contracts that have been signed so far this season.
Let’s dive in…
The Clippers/Jazz trade
Utah’s cap flexibility:
The Clippers and Jazz have officially finalized a deal that sends P.J. Tucker, Mohamed Bamba, a 2030 second-round pick, and cash to Utah in exchange for Drew Eubanks and Patty Mills.
First and foremost, this is a reminder that for teams not encumbered by either tax apron, salary-matching rules in trades have never been more lenient. Bamba and Mills are on identical one-year contracts and each have a cap hit of $2,087,519 this season, but Tucker’s cap hit ($11,539,000) is more than double that of Eubanks ($5,000,000).
Teams operating below the first tax apron like Utah are permitted to take back up to 200% of their outgoing salary (plus an extra $250K) when they send out any amount up to $7.5MM. That means the Jazz are allowed to acquire up to $10,250,000 in incoming salary in exchange for Eubanks’ outgoing $5MM salary.
That’s not quite enough for Tucker, which is why Mills was added to the deal. With $7,087,519 in total outgoing salary, the Jazz’s maximum incoming amount increases to $14,425,038. That’s more than enough to accommodate both Tucker and Bamba, who are earning a combined $13,626,519, though Bamba’s minimum deal can be absorbed using the minimum salary exception, meaning salary-matching is only necessary to acquire Tucker.
The Jazz entered the day with a team salary of $143,653,620. This trade increased that figure to $150,192,620, which is still more than $20MM below the luxury tax line ($170,814,000). In other words, Utah has more than enough breathing room below the tax line to make this sort of deal two or three more times over before the deadline.
Of course, the Jazz don’t have enough expendable players to make exactly this sort of trade two or three more times. But the team could, for instance, take back extra salary when moving players like John Collins, Collin Sexton, or Jordan Clarkson, and also still has its $8MM room exception available to absorb a contract or two outright. That flexibility should serve Utah well and make the Jazz a team to watch for the rest of the week.
The Clippers’ tax-ducking:
Meanwhile, the Clippers were one of five NBA teams that entered the day on Saturday operating over the tax by less than $6MM — Los Angeles had been about $2.47MM above the tax line and has now moved to approximately $4.07MM below that threshold.
Steve Ballmer is the richest team owner in the NBA, so he probably barely would’ve noticed if he’d to pay L.A.’s relatively small projected tax bill of $6.2MM. But the Clippers will now be in position to receive a share of the tax distribution for non-taxpayers too. The exact amount of that per-team distribution remains up in the air depending on what other moves are made this week, but it could be in excess of $15MM. That’s not nothing.
Perhaps more importantly, after being a taxpayer for each of the previous four seasons, the Clippers move a step closer toward resetting their “repeater” clock. If they can avoid the tax at least once more in a coming season, the Clips will shed their repeater status and will only face standard tax penalties when they become a taxpayer again down the road, rather than the far more punitive repeater penalties.
The difference between standard and repeater penalties is substantial, especially with repeater rates set to rise in 2025/26, so resetting that clock is a big deal — it puts the Clippers in position to spend big on their roster a few years from now without still being on the hook for extra tax payments as a result of their high payrolls in the Paul George era.
The Pelicans, Cavaliers, Mavericks, and Warriors are the other four teams who are over the tax line by less than $6MM. I don’t expect all of them to try to get out of tax territory before Thursday’s deadline, but New Orleans, at least, is a virtual lock to do so and it’s possible one or two others will consider it.
Ten-day contracts
Branden Carlson and the Thunder:
Carlson’s second 10-day contract with Oklahoma City expired overnight on Friday, making him a free agent and reopening the 15th spot on the Thunder‘s roster. Because a player can’t sign three 10-day contracts with the same team in a season, the Thunder would have to offer Carlson a rest-of-season deal if they want to bring him back.
I don’t see that happening before Thursday’s trade deadline — my guess is that the Thunder will leave that 15th spot open for now in case they need to use it in a trade this week. If the spot remains free after that, they might consider their options on the buyout market over the next few weeks before making any final decisions on their 15th man.
Carlson is a candidate to fill that opening eventually. I also wouldn’t be surprised if the Thunder decide to promote Ajay Mitchell from his two-way contract to the standard roster and look to bring Carlson back on a two-way deal before the March 4 deadline for two-way signings.
However, Mitchell’s toe surgery, which may sideline him for the rest of the season, is a factor working in Carlson’s favor for that 15th spot — if Mitchell isn’t able to contribute in the playoffs, there will be no urgency for the Thunder to get him locked up before the summer.
For what it’s worth, Carlson was playing regular minutes off the bench with Isaiah Hartenstein sidelined and had made at least one three-pointer in eight straight games, but he was a DNP-CD in each of the two games after Hartenstein returned from his calf strain.
Orlando Robinson and the Raptors:
Now that Carlson’s 10-day deal has expired, Robinson’s second 10-day contract with Toronto is the only one in the league still active.
It has been a very quiet winter so far for 10-day signings, as our tracker shows — I expect things will pick up after the trade deadline when more teams open up roster spots, but as of now, the Raptors and Thunder are the only two teams that have signed any players to 10-day contracts this season.
Robinson’s contract is set to expire at the end of Thursday, hours after the trade deadline passes. Don’t be surprised if the Raptors end up terminating that deal one day early. They don’t have a game on Thursday, so Robinson would be the easy choice to be cut if they need to open up a spot to accommodate an extra incoming player in a trade.
Robinson has averaged 16.8 minutes per game in Toronto’s last four contests and looks like a candidate to earn either a standard or two-way rest-of-season contract if the Raptors can accommodate it after the trade deadline.
Hornets’ Okogie Out At Least Three Weeks With Hamstring Strain
After undergoing additional testing on the left leg injury he sustained on Friday vs. the Clippers, Hornets wing Josh Okogie has been diagnosed with a hamstring strain, the team announced today in a press release.
According to the Hornets, Okogie will be reevaluated in three weeks, with additional updates on his status provided as appropriate.
Okogie suffered the injury in the third quarter after stealing the ball from Clippers guard James Harden and converting a fast-break layup (Twitter video link). He ended up on the floor and was very slow to get up, then was subbed out of the game after converting his and-one free throw.
Okogie, who was traded from Phoenix to Charlotte in last month’s Nick Richards deal, had earned a major role off the bench in Charlotte and was playing his best basketball of the season for his new team.
The 26-year-old swingman averaged 10.0 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 2.7 steals in 21.2 minutes per game across seven outings as a Hornet, recording a solid shooting line of .434/.391/.789. He also had a very impressive +16.3 net rating — Charlotte outscored its opponents by 47 points when he was on the court, despite going 2-5 and being outscored by 15 points overall during those seven games.
There had been some speculation that the Hornets might look to flip Okogie for more assets prior to Thursday’s trade deadline, but this injury significantly reduces the odds of that.
Bulls Notes: Ball, LaVine, Vucevic, Buzelis
The 2024/25 season has already been a huge success for Bulls point guard Lonzo Ball, who returned from a two-and-a-half-year absence and three knee surgeries and has been an effective role player through his first 28 appearances of the season.
However, Ball continues to push for a larger role within Chicago’s rotation, as Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times and Julia Poe of The Chicago Tribune detail. While playing in back-to-backs remains off the table for the former No. 2 overall pick, team doctors agreed this week to increase Ball’s minutes restriction to 28, according to Poe.
“Every stage, they’ve wanted to see how he’s managed the minutes along the way,” head coach Billy Donovan said, per Cowley. “So it started at 16, then up to 22, then we got to 24. And as long as he feels good and he’s responding, that’s the biggest thing. How does he look the next day? And if he does have any swelling or soreness the next day, any difficulty, then they would start to monitor his minutes. But everything he’s done up to this moment with the restrictions that have been on him has been positive.”
Ball’s per-game averages of 7.0 points, 3.6 assists, and 3.4 rebounds in 21.1 minutes are all career lows, and his shooting percentages of 36.9% from the floor and 34.7% on three-pointers are below his career rates.
However, like he did in his first season with the organization back in 2021/22, Ball has made the Bulls a better team when he’s on the court. Chicago has outscored opponents by 4.6 points per 100 possessions during his 590 minutes of action and has been outscored by 6.1 points per 100 possessions during the 1,767 minutes he hasn’t played.
Here’s more on the Bulls:
- The Bulls have remained in contact with the Suns and Warriors with the trade deadline just five days away, a source tells Cowley, as the front office monitors where those two teams stand in the Jimmy Butler talks. Either one of those clubs could pivot to pursuing Zach LaVine and/or Nikola Vucevic if they don’t end up getting Butler, Cowley notes, though Golden State would be better positioned than Phoenix to make a run at one of those Bulls veterans. Chicago also remains interested in getting involved in a Butler deal as a facilitator, but that’s a longer shot, Cowley adds.
- Vucevic isn’t pushing for a trade and said he’s not thinking about leaving Chicago, given that he won’t be a free agent until 2026, but he acknowledged to Poe that – at age 34 – he wouldn’t mind being closer to title contention than he is this season with the 21-28 Bulls. “I’m getting closer to the end of my career,” Vucevic said. “I would like to be somewhere that’s in win-now mode.”
- Bulls rookie Matas Buzelis has been playing some of his best basketball of the season as of late. The first-year forward scored 12 points in each of his past two outings and was a plus-18 in 26 minutes of action in Friday’s win over Toronto as he continues to earn Donovan’s trust. “The biggest growth I’ve seen with him is quite honestly he plays a lot harder now,” Donovan said after Wednesday’s loss to Boston, according to Cowley. “Not that he didn’t play hard, but I don’t think he understood the level of intensity and energy he needs to raise himself up to.”
Dejounte Murray Suffers Torn Achilles Tendon
FEBRUARY 1: The Pelicans have formally confirmed that Murray has a right Achilles tear and will miss the rest of the season (Twitter link).
JANUARY 31: Pelicans guard Dejounte Murray has torn his right Achilles tendon, ending his 2024/25 season, according to NBA insider Chris Haynes (Twitter link).
Murray suffered the injury in the first quarter of Friday’s loss to Boston. After driving to the basket and attempting a floater, Murray landed awkwardly and fell to the floor without being hit, grabbing the back of his right leg (Twitter video link). At the next stoppage in play, he limped off the court and into the locker room.
The Pelicans have yet to officially confirm the diagnosis. Head coach Willie Green told reporters after the game that Murray would undergo imaging and the team would provide an update after seeing the results (Twitter link via Marc J. Spears of Andscape). However, Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link) has also heard that it’s an Achilles tear for the New Orleans guard.
It has been a nightmarish first year as a Pelican for Murray, who was acquired by the club in an offseason trade with Atlanta. As William Guillory of The Athletic notes (via Twitter), the 28-year-old left the team right before the start of the season when his mother suffered a stroke, then broke his left hand in the first game of the regular season.
Murray returned after an 18-game absence following his hand fracture, but his shooting percentage of 39.3% from the field through 30 games entering Friday was easily a career low, and the Pelicans – plagued all season by injuries affecting several starters and rotation players – are off to a 12-37 start.
While this season is a lost cause in New Orleans, there’s also no guarantee Murray will be ready for the start of the 2025/26 campaign, given the typical recovery timeline for an Achilles tear. He has two more guaranteed seasons left on his contract after this season, with a player option for 2027/28.
With Murray unavailable for the rest of the season, the Pelicans figure to lean more heavily on CJ McCollum for ball-handling duties, with reserve guard Jose Alvarado also playing a more substantial role. Alvarado took Murray’s place in the lineup to open the second half on Friday.
New Orleans won’t be eligible to apply for a disabled player exception to replace Murray, since the deadline to apply for a DPE passed on January 15.
Sixers Haven’t Considered Making Coaching Change
The Sixers were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs last spring and have been one of the NBA’s most disappointing teams so far in 2024/25, but they haven’t given any consideration to making a head coaching change, sources tell Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Substack link).
According to Fischer, 76ers head coach Nick Nurse and president of basketball operations Daryl Morey “remain aligned” on how to navigate the team’s injury-plagued season.
Former MVP Joel Embiid has been limited to 13 appearances in 2024/25, while offseason free agent addition Paul George has missed 17 games and standout rookie Jared McCain suffered a season-ending knee injury in December. Tyrese Maxey, Caleb Martin, Andre Drummond, Kyle Lowry, and KJ Martin are among the other Sixers players who have missed time due to various ailments, forcing Nurse to use 28 different starting lineups through 47 games.
Fischer adds that key figures in the organization were encouraged by the way the team competed during its recent four-game winning streak, which came to an end on Friday with a tight 137-134 loss to Denver. Embiid didn’t play in any of those four victories, while George was inactive for two of them.
Doc Rivers‘ hiring as Philadelphia’s head coach during the 2020 offseason predated Morey’s arrival in the front office by about a month, so Nurse was the first coach Morey hired during his tenure in the club’s front office.
The former Raptors head coach took over for Rivers in the spring of 2023, leading the Sixers to a 47-35 record last season and a 66-63 (.516) overall regular season mark through his first year and a half with the organization.
And-Ones: All-Star Snubs, WNBA, Clark, Europe, Canales
There weren’t enough backcourt spots to go around on this year’s All-Star teams, in the view of Marc J. Spears of Andscape, whose annual eight-man “All-Snub” team is made up of seven guards and one center.
Outside of big man Domantas Sabonis, the most glaring omissions from this year’s All-Star rosters were all guards, Spears writes, identifying Trae Young, LaMelo Ball, Zach LaVine, and Tyrese Maxey as four worthy All-Star candidates who didn’t make the cut in the Eastern Conference despite the fact that both Eastern wild card spots went to backcourt players.
Over in the West, Kyrie Irving, Devin Booker, and Norman Powell joined Sabonis as the players most deserving of All-Star recognition who weren’t among the 12 Western players chosen to participate in the game, according to Spears.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Several NBA team owners submitted bids for expansion WNBA franchises ahead of this week’s deadline. Vince Goodwill of Yahoo Sports says Pistons owner Tom Gores was among the owners to put in a bid, while Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today (Twitter links) reports that the Sixers‘, Cavaliers‘, and Rockets‘ ownership groups also put forth formal bids. The new teams approved by the WNBA as a result of this round of bidding would begin play in 2028.
- In other WNBA-related news, Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark has decided not to take part in a special three-point shooting challenge at the NBA’s All-Star weekend in February, per an ESPN report. There had been speculation that Clark could take part in a contest similar to last year’s Stephen Curry vs. Sabrina Ionescu shootout, but she wants to compete in her first three-point contest at the WNBA’s All-Star weekend in Indianapolis later this year, according to her representatives at Excel Sports.
- If the NBA moves forward with its plan to launch a new professional league in Europe, what will it look like? ESPN’s Brian Windhorst has published an informative primer, while Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews has shared his latest reporting on the subject. Interestingly, Windhorst notes that commissioner Adam Silver and his top lieutenants are “deeply involved” in the European endeavor and wonders if the league’s focus on “NBA Europe” might further delay the timeline for expansion stateside.
- Veteran NBA assistant and current Texas Legends associate head coach Kaleb Canales will be named head coach of the Calgary Surge in the Canadian Elite Basketball League, reports NBA insider Chris Haynes (Twitter link). The CEBL season takes place during the NBA offseason, so Canales could rejoin an NBA staff for the 2025/26 season, Haynes notes.
Bontemps/Windhorst’s Latest: Smart, Thunder, Rockets, Fox
Marcus Smart is a player to watch in advance of next Thursday’s trade deadline, according to Tim Bontemps of ESPN (Insider link), who hears from league sources that there has been “plenty of discussion” as of late about the Grizzlies guard.
Memphis paid a significant price to acquire Smart from Boston during the 2023 offseason, but the former Defensive Player of the Year has been plagued by injuries since that deal, appearing in just 38 games since arriving in Memphis. During that time, young players like Jaylen Wells, Vince Williams, and GG Jackson have emerged for the Grizzlies, perhaps lessening the need for Smart.
Bontemps also points out that moving Smart’s $21.6MM salary off the Grizzlies’ 2025/26 books would put the team in a better position to make moves over the summer, including potentially re-signing restricted free agent Santi Aldama.
Within a look at the top three teams in the Western Conference standings, Windhorst says that Memphis has been “significantly more active” in trade talks than either Oklahoma City or Houston leading up to the February 6 deadline.
Here’s more on those other two West leaders, along with an additional trade-related tidbit from Bontemps and Windhorst:
- The Thunder have made it clear they don’t plan to be aggressive on the trade market during the season, according to Windhorst, who notes that the West’s leaders still haven’t had both Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein available at the same time and also swung and missed on an in-season deal (for Gordon Hayward) at last year’s deadline. “With all their draft picks, they can do anything, but they benefit if they can convince everyone they plan to do nothing,” a general manager told Windhorst. “Every team that wants to deal with them will want them to overpay. Plus, teams who want to make a trade will want to engage them because it would raise the price for everyone else.”
- One reason the Rockets have repeatedly conveyed that they’re not looking to make a major in-season deal is that they want to see how their current group fares in the postseason, Bontemps writes. According to Windhorst, while Houston is well positioned to consolidate assets in a trade for a star, the team remains optimistic about Amen Thompson‘s potential to develop into that sort of player. As a full-time starter across 12 outings in January, the second-year wing has averaged 18.7 points, 10.6 rebounds, 4.3 assists, 2.2 steals, and 1.4 blocks per game with a 55.7% field goal percentage.
- Examining how the De’Aaron Fox situation in Sacramento got to a place where the Kings are exploring moving their star point guard, Windhorst cites sources who say Fox has been “less engaged than usual” this season after declining a preseason extension and that it didn’t help matters when he received “undeserved blame” for the firing of head coach Mike Brown. One league executive who spoke to ESPN thinks Sacramento is right to make the 27-year-old available while he has still has a year and a half left on his contract. “Bottom line here is the Kings seem to know Fox isn’t going to re-sign with them,” that exec said. “That’s clarifying, and now they can be a first mover and do it at a time when they can get the best deal. This is how Utah played things with Donovan Mitchell a few years ago. They got out ahead of it and generated a bidding war.”
Suns Notes: Booker, Butler, Trade Options, Durant
Devin Booker was named an All-Star in 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2024, but unless he’s a last-minute injury replacement, the Suns guard won’t be headed to San Francisco for this year’s event.
Addressing his omission after Friday morning’s shootaround, Booker told reporters that he would’ve loved to be selected, but added that there were many deserving players and that he’s “definitely not going to complain about taking a week to regroup with the family,” writes Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic.
While Booker’s shooting numbers (.444/.341/.893) are down this year, his averages of 25.5 points and 6.7 assists per game are above his career rates. Suns head coach Mike Budenholzer said on Wednesday that Booker is “clearly in our minds an All-Star” and teammate Kevin Durant agreed.
Durant also suggested that All-Star rosters should be expanded from 12 to 15 players to reflect the size of actual NBA rosters and to better reward deserving players: “So many great players going out there impacting their team in a positive way that are being snubbed. They’ll always be snubs every year, but I think we should add three more.”
Asked about the idea, Booker wasn’t opposed to it and pointed to a handful of players he felt were snubbed this season.
“I think there are enough talented guys out here, like I said, that are deserving,” Booker said. “You look at Kyrie (Irving), Norman Powell, those guys are having unbelievable, efficient years, and winning games. On the East, I’m sure there are guys too like Trae (Young) and LaMelo (Ball) that are putting up just unheard numbers. The more talent in there, the better.”
We have more on the Suns:
- While the mutual interest between the Suns and Heat forward Jimmy Butler has been reported ad nauseam in recent weeks, Phoenix isn’t taking a “Butler or bust” approach to the trade deadline, says John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 (Twitter links). According to Gambadoro, the front office is looking at more than 20 potential trade targets and the odds are in favor of the Suns making one or more deadline deals, even if they don’t end up landing Butler.
- Although the Suns have no shortage of potential directions at the trade deadline, it remains safe to assume stars Durant and Booker aren’t going anywhere. Within an in-depth story on the situation in Phoenix, Ramona Shelburne and Bobby Marks of ESPN (Insider link) say that teams who have called to ask about Durant have been rebuffed. That’s also been the case for the clubs “bold enough to inquire” on Booker, who has never given indication he’d leave Phoenix to chase a title elsewhere, sources tell Shelburne and Marks.
- With Durant nearing the 30,000-point threshold and on the verge of surpassing Julius Erving for eighth place on the NBA’s all-time scoring list, Tim MacMahon of ESPN spoke to many of the forward’s current and former teammates about what makes the former MVP such an elite offensive player.