- Nets center Nicolas Claxton will likely miss at least a couple more games, but he appears to be nearing a return from the illness that has sidelined him since October 25, writes Brian Lewis of The New York Post. “I don’t know if it was a disease or what, but he was just ill. I can’t really say more than that,” head coach Steve Nash said. “But he started ramping back up again (on Wednesday). So I don’t know how long that process will take. I think they have to assess where he’s at, and then see how he goes and then we’ll figure out when he can play again.”
- The Nets recalled center Nicolas Claxton from the G League on Tuesday, tweets Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated. Despite being back with Brooklyn, Claxton has been ruled out for Wednesday’s game and there’s still no indication he’s closer to returning from the illness that has sidelined him since October 25.
The NBA’s new philosophy on calling fouls has been nicknamed the “Harden Rules,” and Nets guard James Harden is having a difficult time adapting to it, writes Brian Lewis of The New York Post. Harden attempted just three free throws in Monday’s loss to the Bulls and was noticeably demonstrative after several non-calls.
Harden’s production has fallen dramatically during the season’s first 11 games as he’s averaging just 18.3 points per night after more than a decade of being among the league’s scoring leaders. Part of the drop has been at the foul line, where he’s taking just 4.6 free throws per game, down from 7.3 last season.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Harden told reporters after the game. “No, I don’t want to talk about it. I never got … it didn’t take me out of my game. I felt like I played well to the fourth quarter. In the fourth quarter, none of us played well. It definitely didn’t take me out of my game.”
There’s more on the Nets:
- Michael Scotto of HoopsHype talked to several NBA executives about Kyrie Irving‘s trade value and found a widespread reluctance to deal for the enigmatic point guard. “For the most part, every front office and coaching staff is scared to death of him and doesn’t want to touch him,” an unidentified executive said. “Honestly, it might’ve been four teams before this (his refusal to get vaccinated). He’s a guy that front offices don’t trust. Coaches don’t want to deal with him. Players like him.” Another speculated that the Sixers might be willing to take him in exchange for Ben Simmons, but there’s overall pessimism that Irving will be dealt.
- LaMarcus Aldridge, who has revived his career after the medical scare that forced him to briefly retire last spring, talked to Sopan Deb of The New York Times about the difficulty of almost seeing his career end so abruptly. “The first day didn’t feel real. The first day felt like I had an off day,” Aldridge said. “And then your second day, you feel like it’s a game day, so you’re just at home. And after like a week or two, you’re like: “Man, I’m not at the gym. I’m not with the fellas. I’m not traveling, not playing.” Like two weeks in, I was like: “Man, this is what it is. I have to find my new interest, shift my focus to something else.” That’s when it hit me, like, “Man, what’s next?”
- The Nets are known for their stars, but a few players have created a Blue Collar Boys club that is dedicated to doing the dirty work, per Tom Dowd of NBA.com. Blake Griffin and Joe Harris started the club last season and have inducted other players as they prove themselves worthy.
After weeks of drama, Celtics forward Jayson Tatum has reasserted himself as the team’s leader, on and off the court, writes Jared Weiss of The Athletic.
“My teammates, my coaches and everyone we play know what I’m capable of,” Tatum said on a night he scored 32 points but the Celtics lost 107-104 to the Mavericks. “It’s a long season and we have a lot of games to play, obviously. You see everything people say and you hear everything, but that’s part of it. I should be worried if you guys stop talking about me. That would be a problem. But it’s part of the business, part of what I do, and take it with a grain of salt.”
There’s more out of the Atlantic Division:
- Nets starting center Blake Griffin enjoyed his best night of the season against his former club, the Pistons. Griffin, who scored 13 points and five rebounds, appears to be overcoming his early struggles in the season, per Brian Lewis of the New York Post. “We love that Blake brings it and gives us that physicality,” said head coach Steve Nash. “He’s also a very intelligent player, so he’s taking charges, fighting on the glass and understands our concepts defensively.”
- With the Sixers‘ 114-105 victory over the Bulls, head coach Doc Rivers earned his 1,000th win as a coach, writes Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Across his 23 combined seasons coaching the Magic, Celtics, Clippers and now Philadelphia, Rivers has posted a 1,000-706 record. The Sixers currently lead the Eastern Conference with an 8-2 record on the young season, despite several key player absences for multiple games.
- The impressive play of Knicks reserve guard Derrick Rose could result in fewer minutes for starter Kemba Walker, writes Marc Berman of the New York Post. Head coach Tom Thibodeau most recently played Rose for 31 minutes while restricting Walker to just 15 in a 113-98 comeback win over the Bucks. Walker, who has struggled with knee injuries in recent years, will be resting tonight against the Cavaliers in the first of New York’s back-to-back games this season, per Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News (Twitter link).
It’s possible that Nets guard Kyrie Irving will make his only appearance of the season at the All-Star Game, writes Brian Lewis of The New York Post. Irving appears ready to sit out the entire year rather than comply with a New York City vaccine mandate that requires him to get the shot before he can play in his home arena. However, there’s no mandate in Cleveland, which will host the February 20 game, so there’s nothing to stop Irving from playing if fans vote him onto the team.
The revised NBA All-Star ballot lists all active players, which includes Irving, who is still on the Nets’ roster even though he’s currently unlikely to play. Lewis notes that Irving has a lot of fan support with more than 4.3 million followers on Twitter and 15.5 million on Instagram. He may also get a lot of votes from people looking to make a political statement in opposition to vaccine mandates.
Fan balloting will make up 50% of the final vote this year, with the rest split between the media and the players. Lewis considers it unlikely that the league would prevent Irving from participating in the game if he does get voted in.
There’s more from the Atlantic Division:
- Celtics coach Ime Udoka clarified reports of a players-only meeting that his team had before Wednesday’s game in Orlando, per Jared Weiss of The Athletic. Udoka said the gathering, which came in the wake of complaints by Marcus Smart that Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown aren’t passing the ball enough, was less dramatic that the media made it seem. “It wasn’t really a players-only meeting,” Udoka said. “We had a team dinner scheduled way before anything happened, so that was planned for some weeks now. And we gave the players their time before the coaching staff and everybody else came down. So they had about 30 minutes on their own, but it wasn’t anything scheduled. It wasn’t anything scheduled by them.”
- Celtics swingman Josh Richardson is back in the lineup tonight after missing Thursday’s game with a left foot contusion, tweets Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe. Richardson underwent an X-ray on the foot to make sure there’s no structural damage, Weiss reports in a separate story. It’s welcome news for Boston, which could be without Brown for several games.
- The longer the Sixers‘ battle with Ben Simmons continues, the less likely it becomes that either side will get what it wants, contends Mike Sielski of The Philadelphia Inquirer. The team began fining Simmons again this week and plans to continue until he cooperates with team doctors about his mental health treatments.
Eric Adams, the new mayor-elect, will not lift New York City’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate and has placed responsibility on the NBA and the Nets‘ Kyrie Irving to find a resolution, writes Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN.
“New York City is not going to change their rule,” Adams said in an interview on CNN. “And again, it is up to the NBA and Kyrie to come to a full understanding on how to keep him on the Nets and to continue to look at all of our athletes that are coming here. Again, I think the NBA and Kyrie is going to come to a conclusion on this.”
Youngmisuk notes that Adams did not explain how the league and Irving can rectify the situation while Irving remains unvaccinated.
Irving has missed the first nine game for the Nets, who are now 6-3 after beating the Pistons tonight.
The Nets decided against Irving becoming a part-time player before the season started.
While being interviewed on CNBC on Wednesday, Adams said the city needs “to revisit how we are going to address the vaccine mandates,” which some viewed as a sign that he might be willing to alter the mandate when he takes office, according to Youngmisuk.
Adams shut the door on that this evening.
- The Nets have assigned Nicolas Claxton to the G League as he works his way back from an illness. According to Brian Lewis of The New York Post (Twitter link), Claxton still isn’t ready to play and will just be training and ramping up during his time with Long Island.
- While Claxton probably won’t play in any games for Brooklyn’s G League affiliate, a handful of the team’s rookies are expected to be regulars for the Long Island Nets this season. Chris Milholen of NetsDaily takes a closer look at the Nets‘ developmental plans for Cameron Thomas, Day’Ron Sharpe, Kessler Edwards, and David Duke.
There are currently 30 players on standard NBA contracts whose 2021/22 salaries aren’t yet fully guaranteed. In most cases, those players will receive their full guarantees if they remain under contract through January 7. Because the league-wide salary guarantee date is January 10, a player must clear waivers before that date if a team wants to avoid being on the hook for his full salary.
A handful of players have earlier trigger dates, however. Those players will receive either full guarantees or an increased partial guarantee on certain dates before January 7.
These dates are fairly malleable — if a player and team reach an agreement, they can be pushed back. The Raptors took that route with Isaac Bonga and Sam Dekker, for example. Both players were originally on track to have their full minimum-salary contracts for 2021/22 become guaranteed if they made the team’s opening-night roster. However, they agreed to push their guarantee dates back a few weeks, to November 6.
Those agreements between a player and team aren’t always reported right away, so our list of early salary guarantee dates is a tentative one, based on information from Basketball Insiders, Spotrac, and HoopsHype, as well as our own data.
Here are the salary guarantee dates to watch prior to January 7:
November 6:
- Isaac Bonga (Raptors): Partial guarantee ($250,000) increases to full guarantee ($1,729,217).
- Sam Dekker (Raptors): Partial guarantee ($350,000) increases to full guarantee ($1,789,256).
December 1:
- Chimezie Metu (Kings): Partial guarantee ($881,398) increases to full guarantee ($1,762,796).
December 11:
- PJ Dozier (Nuggets): Partial guarantee ($400,000) increases to full guarantee ($1,910,860).
December 15:
- DeAndre’ Bembry (Nets): Partial guarantee ($750,000) increases to larger partial guarantee ($1,250,000).
- Kenrich Williams (Thunder): Partial guarantee increases to full guarantee ($2,000,000).
- Note: Williams’ partial guarantee is based on a salary of about $11,494 per day. For instance, 30 days into the regular season, he’ll have earned $344,828.
- Mayor-elect Eric Adams said he’ll “revisit” New York City’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate when he takes office on January 1, according to Amanda Woods and Sam Raskin of The New York Post. That could be good news for Nets guard Kyrie Irving, who has been sidelined due to his vaccination status. However, Adams may only be referring to the mandates for municipal workers like police officers and fire fighters, and even if he revisits the city-wide mandate for indoor venues, there’s no guarantee he’ll make any changes.
Though he sat for his seventh straight game to start the season Monday night in a 113-104 loss against the Raptors, reserve Knicks center Nerlens Noel appears poised for a return, and not a moment too soon, as third-string center Taj Gibson sprained his ankle during the game’s first half, writes Greg Joyce of the New York Post. Rookie big man Jericho Sims served as Gibson’s replacement during the second half.
The Knicks re-signed Noel to the tune of a three-year, $28MM contract this summer. Noel has been struggling with a knee/hamstring injury since the preseason. During the 2020/21 season, his first with the Knicks, the former lottery pick averaged 5.1 PPG, 6.4 RPG and 2.2 BPG, while starting in 41 of his 64 total games.
There’s more out of the Atlantic Division:
- Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau is reluctant to blame New York’s defensive issues this season on its increased pace, writes Greg Joyce of the New York Post. “It’s probably too early to really tell,” Tom Thibodeau said of a link between the pace and the defense. “You see it in the league all the time, teams that play with an edge usually have an advantage. Oftentimes, it’s teams that have guys that are out, that they play with great intensity. We should understand that better than anyone.” The Knicks are currently ranked 20th in the NBA with a defensive rating of 109.
- During an interview with NBC Sports Boston (Twitter video link), Celtics team president Brad Stevens addressed starting point guard Marcus Smart‘s criticism of All-Star teammates Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown following a 128-114 come-from-ahead loss to the Bulls on Monday night. “When you see (Smart) and (Tatum) sitting down eating breakfast together today and talking about how to find our solution for our team… those guys want to win.”
- Despite the 4-3 Nets grappling with a variety of on- and off-court problems, All-Star forward Kevin Durant looks as great as ever, per Zach Braziller of the New York Post. Durant is averaging 27.7 PPG while shooting 58.3% from the floor and averaging 8.9 RPG. “He’s our guy — he’s The Guy,” new reserve power forward Paul Millsap said. “We feed off of him and what he does. He carries our team a lot. We kind of need him to do that. We need him to be him.”