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Domantas Sabonis Out At Least 3-4 Weeks With Torn Meniscus

Kings center Domantas Sabonis has been diagnosed with a partially torn meniscus in his left knee and will be sidelined for at least three-to-four weeks, which is when he’ll be reexamined, ESPN’s Shams Charania reports (story via ESPN’s Anthony Slater).

The Kings formally confirmed the news in a press release. According to the team, Sabonis experienced knee soreness after Sunday’s game in San Antonio and subsequently underwent an MRI, which revealed the meniscus tear.

It’s brutal timing for the Kings, who will get starting forward Keegan Murray back on Thursday after he missed the first 15 games of the season following thumb surgery.

As Slater observes, Sabonis has dealt with multiple injuries this fall, having previously missed three games due to hamstring and rib issues. The three-time All-Star was sidelined for Wednesday’s loss in Oklahoma City as well.

The 3-12 Kings are in a tailspin, having lost seven straight games for the first time since 2021/22, writes Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. All seven losses have come by double digits, Slater notes.

Despite another loss on Wednesday, head coach Doug Christie came away encouraged by the Kings’ effort level, according to Anderson.

The level of compete the guys brought I thought was really, really high level,” Christie said. “That’s what we need to get ourselves out of where we’re at, and if we do that on a night-to-night basis, most nights in the NBA you give yourselves a chance to win. This was the world champs and there were eight, nine minutes left, and they found themselves right there.”

With Sabonis out for at least 10 games, Precious Achiuwa, Drew Eubanks and Maxime Raynaud are among the frontcourt members who could have expanded roles for Sacramento.

Hornets’ LaMelo Ball Reportedly Open To Trade

5:10 pm: For what it’s worth, Ball responded to Iko’s report (via Twitter) with a clown face emoji.


4:39 pm: After losing to Indiana on Wednesday, a defeat in which he was benched for the final 4:32 of the fourth quarter, LaMelo Ball has become “increasingly frustrated” with the Hornets and is open to being traded to a new team, multiple league sources tell Kelly Iko of Yahoo Sports.

The Pacers entered Wednesday’s game with a 1-13 record and picked up their second victory of the season over the Hornets, who have dropped four straight and are now 4-11. Ball finished the game with 18 points, nine assists, seven rebounds and two steals in 27 minutes, but shot just 5-of-21 from the floor and committed six turnovers.

The third overall pick in the 2020 draft, Ball won the Rookie of the Year award in 2021 and was named to his first and only All-Star team in 2022. The 6’7″ point guard’s career has been derailed by a series of ankle injuries over the past few years. He played just 105 out of a possible 246 regular season games in the three seasons leading up to 2025/26.

Ball has gotten off to a rocky start this season, having missed six games due to a right ankle impingement and struggling with offensive efficiency. Still, Iko points out that Charlotte has been much better when Ball is playing and has struggled mightily when he’s not on the court.

According to Iko, one point of contention for Ball is his desire to play in a more uptempo offense — the Hornets currently rank 20th in the NBA in pace.

It sounds like the frustration goes both ways. Charlotte’s front office has grown “disillusioned” with Ball, no longer views him as a long-term cornerstone and is open to a trade as well, Iko reports.

[UPDATE: Fischer: Hornets ‘Not Actively Looking To Move’ LaMelo Ball]

As Iko writes, while Ball is still young and undeniably talented, it’s unclear how much interest he would generate if he’s made available, given his lengthy injury history, lucrative long-term contract, and “whispers” about the way he behaves on the court. Ball is on a maximum-salary deal which will pay him approximately $168.7MM over the next four years.

Lakers Removing Joey, Jesse Buss From Front Office Roles

Two members of the Buss family are having their front office roles with the Lakers terminated as the organization restructures its basketball operations department, according to Shams Charania of ESPN, who reports that the team is removing Joey Buss and Jesse Buss from their respective positions.

Joey Buss had held the titles of alternate governor and VP of research and development, while Jesse Buss was an assistant general manager.

“We are extremely honored to have been part of this organization for the last 20 seasons,” the brothers said in a statement to Charania. “Thank you to Laker Nation for embracing our family every step of the way. We wish things could be different with the way our time ended with the team. At times like this we wish we could ask our Dad what he would think about it all.”

The late Jerry Buss, father to Joey and Jesse, owned the Lakers until his passing in 2013. At that time, his stake in the team passed to his six children, with Jeanie Buss taking his place as Lakers governor. Since then, the children haven’t always seen eye to eye on how the organization should be run.

Two other siblings, Jim Buss and Johnny Buss, reportedly attempted to oust Jeanie from the Lakers’ board of directors in 2017 after she removed Jim from his position in the Lakers’ front office. A legal battle at the time resulted in an agreement that Jeanie would be the controlling owner and head of the team’s board of directors for as long as the family owned the Lakers.

The Buss family agreed to sell its controlling interest in the franchise to minority owner Mark Walter earlier this year for a record-setting valuation of $10 billion, with reporting at the time indicating that the vote among the Buss siblings on that decision wasn’t unanimous. Joey and Jesse voted against the sale, Charania said during a Thursday appearance on NBA Today (Twitter video link).

The sale to Walter was formally approved by the NBA’s Board of Governors last month.

The Buss family continues to hold a reported 15% stake in the Lakers, with Jeanie retaining the title of team governor for the time being. According to Charania, Joey and Jesse will still have their minority shares in the franchise despite no longer having roles in the basketball operations department.

As Charania notes, Joey and Jesse have been involved in the scouting department for the past decade while also contributing to personnel decisions. Charania reported in September that the two brothers – perhaps recognizing that they wouldn’t remain in their roles in the Lakers’ front office under new ownership – were launching an investment firm called Buss Sports Capital.

Much of the rest of the Lakers’ scouting staff has also been let go as part of the organizational changes, tweets Dave McMenamin of ESPN.

Latest On Plans For NBA Europe

Appearing at the Sports Business Journal Dealmakers conference, NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum spoke in more details about plans for the NBA’s European league, according to Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic and Tom Friend of Sports Business Journal.

Confirming previous comments from NBA Europe managing director George Aivazoglou, Tatum said the league expects to have permanent franchises based in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Turkey and Greece. He also named some specific existing clubs that the NBA views as candidates to join the league, including Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, and LDLC ASVEL.

“There’s nothing definitive yet,” Tatum told Vorkunov. “We’re having conversations with lots of potential investors in the ecosystem. Those were examples of potential teams. As I said, I think the mix will be an example of existing teams in the current top-tier league, some soccer teams that don’t have a basketball club and some teams from whole cloth.”

Tatum described the NBA’s vision as “almost like the Champions League of basketball in Europe,” per Friend.

“So brands like Real and Barca and Man City and PSG and AC Milan playing basketball,” Tatum said. “That’s pretty compelling. Not only premium live sports content that’s relevant in Europe, but it’s relevant globally. It’s relevant in Asia, it’s relevant in the United States and North America because some of the brands that we’re talking to have tremendous global followings.”

Tatum believes that many top European teams will have their licenses with the EuroLeague expire after the 2025/26 season, opening the door for those clubs to join the NBA’s league.

“My understanding is that those licenses are up at the end of next year,” he said, per Vorkunov. “As you know, I think, because it’s been reported, several teams have not signed that license (extension). So the ones that have, again, I’m not going to speak to their ability to get out of that license, but I know that there are several teams that have not signed that license. And so, I think as I understand it, when those licenses are up, they’re free to go play in whatever league they want to play in.”

NBA owners still haven’t formally approved plans for the European league, but it sounds like that’s viewed as a formality at this point — Tatum suggested that bidding for NBA Europe teams is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2026, as long as the league can get “everything signed off on by our owners and by FIBA.”

Here’s more from Tatum on the NBA Europe plans:

  • While there’s momentum toward launching the league in the fall of 2027, that first season would likely feature fewer teams and would function as a “play-in” year, according to Vorkunov, with the first year of the full league occurring in 2028/29. “If you’re in Lithuania, if you’re in Serbia, if you’re in Croatia, other clubs in those markets, we want every team to have an opportunity to play into that top tier league,” Tatum said of the play-in process, per Friend.
  • The NBA is hopeful that the new league will help slow down the trend of top European prospects coming to the U.S. to play college basketball, Tatum said, since it will give them the opportunity to develop their games and make good money closer to home.
  • Tatum added that the clear goal for NBA Europe is to be the second-best league in the world. “It will be the best basketball in Europe,” he said, per Friend. “… If the NBA is players one through 450, [NBA] Europe is 451 through 900.”
  • The league envisions NBA teams and NBA Europe clubs playing one another in preseason exhibitions, with the opportunity for the top European clubs to get involved in the in-season NBA Cup down the road. “In the immediate short term, you could see a competition, think about it as a preseason cup, where NBA teams go over and play against European league teams,” Tatum said. “And you’d create a little tournament around that, where the Knicks and the Lakers and the Bulls go over and play PSG, Real, and Man City. So that we could do year one, and I think that would be an exciting proposition. You award a cup at the end of that. Medium term – and I mean, you know, five to 10 years down the road – you could see a situation where the winners of the top two finishers in the European league, for example, get entered into the NBA Cup tournament. So now all of a sudden, you are having AC Milan and Barcelona playing in the NBA Cup tournament.”
  • In the longer term, the NBA’s European league could open the door for European expansion teams in the NBA itself, Tatum suggested: “You saw the article about the supersonic travel. At some point – and again, I’m talking long term down the road – you could see a scenario where the quality of the basketball continues to rise. Where you now have world-class infrastructure in these major world-class cities, and where supersonic travel becomes a reality, you could see a situation down the road where there’s a division of the NBA.”

Tyler Herro Targeting Monday For Season Debut

Tyler Herro is nearing his return from the ankle surgery that has kept him sidelined since September, and is targeting the Heat‘s matchup against the Mavericks on Monday for his season debut, reports Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press (via Twitter).

Herro returned to practice last Sunday for the first time since the season began. Both he and head coach Erik Spoelstra spoke previously about their confidence that the star shooting guard will be able to fit in smoothly with the team’s new offensive approach, which has dramatically de-emphasized pick-and-rolls in favor of quick drive-and-kick attacks.

Herro is coming off his first All-Star season with the Heat, as he averaged 23.9 points, 5.5 assists, and 5.2 rebounds per game while shooting 37.5% from three in 2024/25. He took on a large portion of the team’s ball-handling responsibility last season, and it will be interesting to see how he can adjust to the team’s new pace, as well as the acquisition of fellow shooting guard Norman Powell from the Clippers this Summer.

Powell, so far this season, has improved on last season’s career-best performance. In 11 games this season heading into Wednesday night, he has averaged 25.5 points while shooting a blistering 46.1% on three-point tries. While those numbers will likely drop as the season goes on, Powell has been an elite shooter throughout his NBA tenure, shooting 40.0% on 2,735 career three-point attempts over 11 seasons.

It’s unclear whether the overlap in Powell and Herro’s skill sets will result in one of them coming off the bench (Herro was the Sixth Man of the Year in the 2021/22 season), or if Davion Mitchell will be the one who ends up being moved to the second unit.

Mitchell has done a good job organizing the Heat’s offense this season, averaging 7.4 assists per game in 14 outings, all starts, while adding 10.8 points per night and playing tenacious on-ball defense, which isn’t a strength for Herro or Powell.

Kelly Oubre To Miss At Least Two Weeks With LCL Sprain

Kelly Oubre Jr. has been diagnosed with an LCL sprain in his left knee and will miss at least the next two weeks before being reevaluated by the Sixers, reports Tony Jones of The Athletic (via Twitter).

The fact that Oubre had sustained a lateral collateral ligament injury had been previously reported, but the severity of the ailment wasn’t known until now. According to Jones (Twitter link), there was concern that the injury would be more significant, so the relatively short timeline comes as something of a relief for the team.

Oubre missed the Sixers’ game on Monday, a win against the Clippers, after leaving Friday’s contest against the Pistons after just 15 minutes.

Oubre is in the midst of his highest scoring season since 2022/23, averaging 16.8 points in a career-high 34.8 minutes per game.

The Sixers have dealt with a series of injuries already this season, but recently welcomed Paul George back into the rotation following his recovery from offseason knee surgery. Trendon Watford has been one of the primary players stepping up in the absence of the team’s forwards, averaging a career-high 21.3 minutes per game while shooting 41.7% on three-pointers, also a career high.

Cuban: Mavs Don’t Intend To Trade Anthony Davis

3:25 pm: Cuban is contradicting what MacMahon’s sources said about Davis, telling Joe Vardon of The Athletic that the Mavericks won’t try to trade the 10-time All-Star this season.

“We won’t,” Cuban wrote in an email when asked if he and Dumont would look to move Davis. “We want to try to win.”

While Cuban is part of the Mavericks’ brain trust, he’s essentially serving as an advisor and doesn’t have the final say on basketball matters, so he won’t be the one ultimately making the decision on Davis. It’s also possible his position will change prior to February 5 if the 4-11 Mavs don’t begin turning things around in the coming weeks.


7:54 am: The Mavericks will explore the trade market for big man Anthony Davis prior to this season’s deadline, multiple team sources tell Tim MacMahon of ESPN.

There has been rampant speculation since the Mavericks parted ways with head of basketball operations Nico Harrison last week that Davis will end up on the trade block. MacMahon’s report is confirmation that the team will at least consider dealing the 32-year-old during the 2025/26 season.

As MacMahon explains, Mavericks governor Patrick Dumont and his new team of decision-makers – including co-interim general managers Michael Finley and Matt Riccardi, head coach Jason Kidd, and minority owner Mark Cuban – are “plotting to pivot” to a future built around this year’s No. 1 overall pick, 18-year-old Cooper Flagg. While Flagg represents the franchise’s long-term future, it remains unclear how significant a roster overhaul the club is mulling.

Davis has an impressive NBA résumé that includes 10 All-Star appearances, five All-NBA berths, five All-Defensive nods, a championship, and a spot on the league’s 75th anniversary team.

However, he also has an extensive injury history, which has reared its head in a major way since he was traded from Los Angeles to Dallas as part of last season’s shocking Luka Doncic blockbuster. Davis has appeared in just 14 of 48 possible regular season games for the Mavs since that deal and is currently sidelined due to a left calf strain.

Davis had hoped to return by now, but has been held out of action by the club’s medical staff. Dumont has reportedly been involved in that decision-making process, having pushed for a cautious approach in order to reduce the risk of the star forward/center aggravating the injury or making it worse. The team announced on Sunday that Davis will be reevaluated in seven-to-10 days.

Besides his injury history, Davis also represents a major risk for any team acquiring him due to his age (33 in March) and contract situation. He’s earning $54.1MM this season and $58.5MM in 2026/27, with a $62.8MM player option for ’27/28. He’ll also be extension-eligible next summer.

Although Davis is still expected to generate interest on the trade market, it’s possible the return wouldn’t be what the Mavs are hoping for. The 14th-year veteran could boost his value if he’s able to get back on the court soon and play at an All-NBA level again leading up to the February 5 trade deadline, but if Dallas isn’t satisfied with what an in-season return for Davis looks like, the team could end up waiting until the offseason to more seriously explore a deal.

Details On Power Struggle Between Mavs’ Cuban, Harrison

After speaking to more than a dozen sources within the Mavericks‘ organization, Tim MacMahon of ESPN took a deep dive today into the events that led up to Nico Harrison‘s dismissal as the team’s head of basketball operations last week, painting a detailed picture of a long-running power struggle between Harrison and minority owner Mark Cuban.

As MacMahon outlines, Cuban hired Harrison as Dallas’ president of basketball operations and general manager back in 2021, when Cuban was still the team’s majority owner and had the final say on basketball decisions. After Cuban sold control of the franchise to Miriam Adelson and Patrick Dumont in late 2023, he maintained a 27% stake in the team and hoped to continue running the basketball operations department too, but quickly found himself pushed out of the inner circle.

“Mark is a friend. I will consult him from time to time,” Dumont said during a basketball operations meeting after taking over as the Mavericks’ governor, according to MacMahon’s sources. “But make no mistake about this: I’m the governor of the team and I am making decisions.”

Sources inside the organization tell MacMahon that Dumont’s announcement was a welcome one to many people in the organization, including Harrison and head coach Jason Kidd, who were “often frustrated by what they perceived as Cuban’s frequently unproductive meddling in personnel decisions.”

However, sources familiar with Cuban’s thinking tell ESPN that he never meant for Harrison to have full autonomy on basketball decisions and that he didn’t believe the former Nike executive was qualified to be making those decisions, having hired him due to his relationships with players and agents. During Harrison’s first couple years with the team, Cuban still had to sign off on any personnel moves the Mavs made, while veteran executive Dennis Lindsey was brought in to “help mask Harrison’s perceived shortcomings as an inexperienced NBA executive,” MacMahon writes.

After Harrison became the Mavericks’ primary basketball decision-maker and Lindsey left for a job in Detroit, Cuban sought to regain some of the control he had lost. He now once again has Dumont’s ear in the wake of Harrison’s ouster.

“Mark’s been trying a palace coup for months,” a team source told ESPN.

Here are more highlights from MacMahon’s report:

  • After Dumont took over as the Mavs’ governor, Harrison began reporting directly to him instead of going through Cuban, as he sought to “ice out” the former majority owner. “Nico basically said, ‘Dude, I don’t want to deal with Mark anymore. He’s too much,” a team source told ESPN.
  • According to MacMahon, Harrison blamed Cuban for some of the Mavs’ biggest roster-related missteps in recent years, including losing Jalen Brunson and trading for Christian Wood, a player Kidd “didn’t want to coach.” Other members of the coaching staff and front office also blamed Cuban for those moves, MacMahon writes, adding that Harrison made the case to the new ownership group that the front office would function better without Cuban’s involvement.
  • Harrison strengthened that case by making savvy deals for P.J. Washington and Daniel Gafford at the 2024 trade deadline and getting the Mavs to the NBA Finals, according to MacMahon, who notes that those deals only materialized after a trade sending two first-round picks to Washington for Kyle Kuzma fell through. “Nico did a hell of a sales job,” a Mavs official told ESPN. “He took credit for everything that was done. When Patrick asked questions — asked how we got Kyrie (Irving), how the draft happened, etc. — (Harrison) said he was the guy. We got on a roll and went to the Finals. Fool’s gold.”
  • While Dumont asked Harrison to keep Cuban in the fold, Harrison didn’t always do so — he and Cuban were communicating less and less after the sale, according to MacMahon. “Nico built the moat and put up the fence and said, ‘I got this!'” one source familiar with the situation told ESPN. Sources also said that Harrison was telling Dumont what he wanted the team governor to know, rather than everything Dumont needed to know. “The one guy in basketball ops who had a pipeline to Dumont wasn’t giving him the straight scoop,” a source said.
  • Having fully gained Dumont’s trust, Harrison sold him on February’s Luka Doncic blockbuster, making the case that committing to the star guard on a super-max contract worth a projected $345MM would be a bad investment due to conditioning concerns and recurring calf injuries, per MacMahon. At the time, Harrison and Doncic’s camp weren’t seeing eye-to-eye on the recovery process for his latest calf strain, which Harrison portrayed to Dumont as evidence that the perennial MVP candidate wasn’t fully committed to the Mavs. As MacMahon writes, Harrison also convinced Dumont not to loop Cuban in on those trade talks, contending doing so would likely result in a leak.
  • Cuban, who blamed Harrison rather than Dumont for the way in which his role in the organization was minimized, spoke out against the Doncic trade after the fact, and once the Mavs won the draft lottery in May he began pushing more aggressively for Dumont to make a front office change, MacMahon reports. Cuban’s case gained credibility because his criticisms of Harrison’s roster construction proved true — for instance, Cuban warned Dumont that a lack of ball-handling and play-making would result in Dallas having a poor offense, concerns which Harrison dismissed. The Mavs currently have the second-worst offense in the NBA.
  • Cuban’s relationship with Dumont never became contentious and he’s now once again part of the small group of team officials that has the governor’s ear, along with Kidd and co-interim GMs Michael Finley and Matt Riccardi. One source who spoke to MacMahon made it clear that Cuban is more of a consultant than a decision-maker, but the former majority Mavs owner is nonetheless thrilled to be back in the inner circle. “He’s walking around on air right now,” another team source told ESPN. “Cuban’s floating in his Skechers.”

LeBron James Makes Season Debut On Tuesday

Nov. 18: James will make his season debut tonight against the Jazz, McMenamin tweets.


Nov. 16: Lakers superstar LeBron James has been recalled from his G League assignment with South Bay and will be a full participant in Monday’s practice, according to Shams Charania of ESPN, who says the NBA’s all-time leading scorer is nearing his season debut (Twitter link).

James went through at least two practices with the Lakers’ NBAGL affiliate over the past handful of days, including doing contact five-on-five work, and reportedly showed no ill effects afterward.

This will be James’ first practice with the Lakers in 2025/26, tweets Dan Woike of The Athletic.

Charania reported about a month ago that James was targeting a mid-November return from the nerve issue — sciatica on his right side — that has caused him to miss training camp, the preseason, and the first 14 games of the season. Charania’s ESPN colleague Dave McMenamin recently wrote that James could make his season debut this week, possibly on Tuesday vs. Utah.

When he suits up, James will set a record by playing in his 23rd NBA season.

The Lakers have gotten off to a strong start to the season in James’ absence, currently holding a 10-4 record.

James, who extended his own NBA record by making his 21st consecutive All-NBA team in 2024/25, could see that streak come to an end in ’25/26 due to the 65-game rule. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan hold a three-way tie for the second-most All-NBA appearances with 15 apiece.

The 40-year-old forward, who also made his record-extending 21st straight All-Star appearance in ’24/25, remained highly productive last season, averaging 24.4 points, 8.2 assists, 7.8 rebounds and 1.0 steal in 70 games (34.9 minutes per contest). His shooting slash line was .513/.376/.782.

However, James’ ’24/25 season ended in disappointing fashion as the Lakers were ousted by Minnesota in the first round of the playoffs and he suffered an MCL sprain late in the final game.

James opted into his $52.6MM player option over the summer. He holds a no-trade clause and will be an unrestricted free agent in 2026.

Giannis Antetokounmpo To Miss 1-2 Weeks With Groin Strain

November 18: Antetokounmpo’s MRI “went pretty well,” according to Rivers, who said during an appearance on Courtside with Gale Klappa podcast that the Bucks star will “probably” miss two weeks (Twitter audio link via Nehm).

ESPN’s Shams Charania tweets that it’s a “low-grade” strain for Antetokounmpo and is expected to sideline him for a week or two.


November 17: Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo sustained a left groin strain in the second quarter of Monday’s game in Cleveland and will not return for the second half, the team announced (Twitter link via Eric Nehm of The Athletic).

Antetokounmpo appeared to suffer the injury on a drive to the basket, according to Nehm, who tweets that the Greek forward hobbled back down the court on defense, committed a foul, and then checked himself out of the game and walked to the locker room. Harris Stavrou of SPORT24 has a partial video of the incident (Twitter link).

Antetokounmpo will undergo an MRI on Tuesday, according to head coach Doc Rivers (Twitter links courtesy of Nehm).

We won’t know anything until tomorrow. Didn’t look great, I can tell you that,” Rivers said. “ … He grabbed (his groin), I want to say in the first quarter and I asked him then. He said it was fine. Then I think he grabbed it again and he said it was fine. And then the third time, you know, is when it happened. But I think it happened earlier, in my opinion.”

Backup big man Jericho Sims started the second half with Antetokounmpo unavailable, Nehm adds (via Twitter).

A two-time MVP who has finished no worse than fourth in voting for the award in each of the past seven years, Antetokounmpo was off to arguably the best start of his decorated career in 2025/26 prior to the injury, averaging 32.6 points, 11.3 rebounds, 7.1 assists and 1.3 blocks through 12 games (33.4 minutes per contest).

The 30-year-old entered Monday’s game on the injury report with a probable tag due to an unrelated issue with his left knee (patellar tendinopathy) before being upgraded to available. Rivers said last week that injury isn’t considered serious.

While it’s unclear how much time Antetokounmpo will miss as a result of the groin injury, it’s probably not a great sign that it was quickly diagnosed as a strain — even relatively mild groin strains can be tricky to recover from.

Sims and Bobby Portis are the most obvious candidates for more minutes with Antetokounmpo out for a yet-to-be-determined amount of time. Myles Turner figures to take on an expanded offensive role as well.