Kevin Durant On Track For Suns Debut On Wednesday
Superstar forward Kevin Durant is expected to play his first game for the Suns on Wednesday in Charlotte against the Hornets, the team announced today (via Twitter).
The announcement had been anticipated, as a report last week indicated that Durant and the Suns were targeting March 1 for his return from a right MCL sprain that has sidelined him since January 8.
Of course, back when Durant suffered that injury, he was still a member of the Nets. His injury absence resulted in a prolonged slump in Brooklyn and was one domino that led to Kyrie Irving‘s trade request. After the Nets sent Irving to Dallas, Durant quietly requested a trade of his own and was sent to Phoenix at this month’s deadline in exchange for a package headlined by Mikal Bridges, Cameron Johnson, and four unprotected first-round picks.
Durant’s new teammates, including Devin Booker, Deandre Ayton, and Chris Paul, have repeatedly expressed excitement to play alongside the former MVP, and head coach Monty Williams said on Sunday that KD was “itching to get out there,” per Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic.
With Durant in their lineup, the Suns will take aim at securing one of the top seeds in the West. The 33-29 squad currently holds the No. 4 spot in the conference, but seven teams are within three games of the Suns in the standings and chasing Phoenix for home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
Knicks Sign Duane Washington To Two-Way Deal
12:21pm: The Knicks have officially signed Washington to a two-way contract, the team announced today (press release via Twitter). As Bobby Marks of ESPN tweets, Washington will be eligible to be active for up to 12 regular season games.
9:14am: The Knicks intend to fill one of the open slots on their 17-man roster by signing guard Duane Washington Jr. to a two-way contract, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link).
Washington, who played for the Pacers as a rookie after going undrafted out of Ohio State in 2021, signed a two-way contract with the Suns last August and spent the first half of the 2022/23 season with Phoenix before being waived at the start of February.
Washington had several strong outings for the Suns in his second NBA season, including four games of 21 points or more. In total, he averaged 7.9 PPG and 2.0 APG in 31 appearances (12.7 MPG) while making 36.0% of his three-point attempts. The team cut him in order to sign Saben Lee to a two-way deal.
The Knicks have been on a roll lately and don’t have any open spots in their rotation, so it’s unclear whether Washington will any real action at the NBA level once he signs with New York. He could end up spending much of his time with the Westchester Knicks as the G League season enters its home stretch.
Having promoted Trevor Keels from his two-way contract to a 10-day deal last week, the Knicks have an open two-way slot alongside DaQuan Jeffries. New York also still has the flexibility to continue making changes to its standard 15-man roster — after Keels’ 10-day contract expires this weekend, the team will be carrying just 13 players on standard deals.
LeBron James Expected To Be Out Multiple Weeks
FEBRUARY 28, 11:04am: James is expected to be reevaluated in two weeks to see how his injured right foot has progressed, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link). However, James could be out for longer than that.
The Lakers’ place in the standings in a couple weeks may be a factor in the decision on when it makes sense for LeBron to return, Woj adds.
FEBRUARY 27, 6:41pm: LeBron James could miss an extended period of time due to a right foot injury, Shams Charania of The Athletic reports. He’ll get multiple medical opinions regarding the injury, but the Lakers are bracing for his absence to span multiple weeks, Charania adds (Twitter links).
James suffered the injury during Sunday’s game against Dallas, in which the Lakers rallied from a 27-point deficit to pull out a 111-108 win. James played through the injury on Sunday but the team has already listed him as out for its game against Memphis on Tuesday, Jovan Buha of The Athletic notes (Twitter link).
James’ absence could be a crushing blow to the Lakers’ playoff hopes. They’re currently 29-32 and 12th in the Western Conference standings.
James admitted after Sunday’s game that he was hurting, Dave McMenamin of ESPN relays.
“It’s been better,” James said. “That’s for sure. But I definitely wasn’t going to go to the locker room and not finish the game out tonight. Just understood the importance of the game, and then with the momentum that we had, I felt like we could still win after being down. We’ll monitor it the next couple days, see how it feels and go from there.”
James, who has already missed 14 games this season, is averaging 29.5 points, 8.4 rebounds and 6.9 assists per night. He said during the All-Star break he was determined to play every game the rest of the season, eager to get back to the postseason after the Lakers failed to qualify last season.
Without James, the Lakers will have to rely more on newcomer Jarred Vanderbilt and Rui Hachimura, as well as Troy Brown Jr. and Lonnie Walker.
LaMelo Ball Fractures Right Ankle, Out For Season
FEBRUARY 28: Ball will miss the rest of the season after fracturing his right ankle, confirms Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
FEBRUARY 27: Hornets star guard LaMelo Ball suffered a fractured right ankle against Detroit on Monday night, the team’s PR department tweets.
Though no recovery timeline has been formally announced, it’s safe to say it’s a season-ending injury. The non-contact injury occurred when Ball fell awkwardly after a behind-the-back dribble during the third quarter.
Ball has been snakebit by ankle injuries this season. He sprained his left ankle multiple times.
His first ankle injury occurred during a preseason game on October 10 and he was diagnosed with a Grade 2 sprain the following day.
Ball missed the first 13 games of the regular season with the injury, then re-injured his ankle in his third game back on November 16. He missed an additional 11 games while recovering from the second sprain before returning to action in December. Ball sprained the ankle once more in mid-January.
Ball has appeared in just 36 games this season. He was averaging 23.4 points, 8.5 assists and 6.4 rebounds per contest entering Monday’s game. Charlotte is on a five-game winning streak after defeating the Pistons but will have to finish out most or all of the schedule without its top player.
Ball is still on his rookie contract through next season. He’ll be eligible for a rookie scale extension of up to five years this offseason.
Willie Cauley-Stein Signs 10-Day Deal With Rockets
5:50pm: Cauley-Stein’s 10-day contract with Houston is now official, the team announced in a press release. It will run through March 8, covering the Rockets’ next five games.
9:33am: The Rockets will sign veteran center Willie Cauley-Stein to a 10-day contract, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic.
Cauley-Stein signed with Houston in October, but was waived before the start of the regular season. He has been playing for the team’s G League affiliate in Rio Grande Valley, averaging 9.4 points and 6.2 rebounds in 10 regular season games and 6.0 points and 6.4 rebounds in 16 Showcase Cup contests.
The 29-year-old appeared in 20 combined games with the Mavericks and Sixers last season. He was waived by Dallas in mid-January and signed a 10-day contract with Philadelphia in late February, but has been out of the league since then.
Cauley-Stein was selected by the Kings with the sixth pick in the 2015 draft and has played 422 games in seven seasons.
The Rockets have been carrying just 13 players with standard contracts since waiving Justin Holiday on February 13. They were required by league rules to fill at least one of their roster openings by today.
Lindy Waters III Signs Two-Year Deal With Thunder
2:23pm: Waters’ promotion to a standard deal is now official, the Thunder announced in a press release.
11:17am: Two-way guard Lindy Waters III will receive a standard contract with the Thunder, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic. The two-year deal will be worth $3.8MM and will include a team option for 2023/24.
Waters, 25, has been playing on a two-way contract since last February. The former Oklahoma State standout has appeared in 25 games this season, averaging 4.4 points and 1.7 rebounds in 11.2 minutes per night.
Waters is coming off one of his best games, scoring 12 points in 17 minutes on Sunday against the Kings. That came after he played in a G League contest with the Oklahoma City Blue earlier in the day, notes Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman.
Based on the contract terms reported by Charania, it sounds like the Thunder will use a portion of their mid-level exception to give Waters a salary worth more than the minimum for the rest of this season.
The Thunder opened a roster spot late last night by waiving Eugene Omoruyi.
NBA, Union Making Progress Toward New CBA
The NBA and its players union have made “significant progress” toward reaching a new collective bargaining agreement in recent weeks and are finding common ground on several important issues, writes Shams Charania of The Athletic.
Both sides are motivated to get a CBA in place before the March 31 deadline, which has been extended twice already after originally being set for December 15. That’s the deadline for either side to opt out of the current arrangement, which is set to expire after the 2023/24 season.
Sources tell Charania that the NBPA has notified the league office that it hopes to finalize a new CBA sometime in March.
“We want to finish this deal soon and certainly want this wrapped up before the (March 31) deadline,” said a high-ranking source involved in negotiations. “It’s close — we need to dot the I’s and cross the T’s.”
According to Charania, the league and the union are negotiating a new luxury tax system that would increase the lower tier and lessen the penalties for teams that are barely above the threshold. With salaries rapidly increasing, Charania states that a new bracket tier will allow teams to keep pace without incurring a heavy tax bill.
Charania notes that the current system imposes a tax rate of $1.50 for every dollar over the cap for teams that exceed the tax threshold by less than $5MM. That rises to $1.75 per each dollar for teams that are over by $5MM but less than $10MM. The NBA and the union want to redefine those brackets without getting rid of the punitive penalties for teams at the upper tax levels.
There’s more from Charania on the state of negotiations:
- The NBA wants language in the new CBA regarding load management and the frequent resting of star players. Charania states that the league is also concerned about whether Diamond Sports’ Regional Sports Network is able to continue broadcasting games for 16 of the 30 teams.
- Charania cites “momentum” for lowering the draft age to 18 and eliminating the current “one-and-done” system in college basketball, but he adds that the NBPA wants to include conditions that would protect veteran players.
- Contract extension limits, which are currently 120% in the first year of a new extension, may be raised to 140% or 150%. That allows players with contracts that have become below market value to lock down significant raises moving forward. Charania notes that players who could benefit immediately include Toronto’s OG Anunoby, Sacramento’s Domantas Sabonis and Utah’s Lauri Markkanen.
- The league also wants to smooth out upcoming increases in the salary cap and hopes to avoid a repeat of the sudden spike that happened in 2016.
Marc Lasry To Sell Stake In Bucks To Haslam Sports Group
Marc Lasry has reached an agreement to sell his stake in the Bucks to Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam and his Haslam Sports Group, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic. The sale agreement will value the Bucks at $3.5 billion.
Milwaukee’s $3.5 billion valuation is second only to the $4 billion purchase price that Mat Ishbia paid for the Suns, according to Tim Bontemps of ESPN (Twitter link). He notes that it’s also the third-highest ever for a U.S. sports franchise, also trailing the price paid for the Denver Broncos last year.
Lasry owns about 25% of the Bucks and shares controlling owner responsibilities with Wes Edens. Since buying the franchise in 2014, they have served alternating five-year terms as the primary owner. Lasry has been in that role since 2019. His interest in selling was first reported in December, and he talked to Ishbia about buying the team before he purchased the Suns.
Haslam, 68, had considered buying a stake in hte Bucks for several months and had several meetings with the parties involved before a deal was reached, according to Charania. Sources tell Charania that Haslam will continue to seek sports-related business opportunities and may consider buying a professional team in another league.
The Bucks became one of the NBA’s best teams under Lasry and Edens, capturing the second championship in franchise history in 2021. The owners also opened the Fiserv Forum in 2018, which led to a thriving business area around it known as the Deer District.
Haslam and his wife Dee are the controlling owners of the Browns and the Columbus Crew of the MLS. He is the chairman of the Pilot Flying J truck stop chain.
Quin Snyder Named Hawks’ Head Coach
6:48pm: The Hawks have officially named Snyder as their head coach, according to a team press release.
“From our first conversation, it was clear that Quin had all the characteristics we were looking for in our next head coach. He has both an incredible basketball and emotional IQ, and we share the same core values and basketball philosophies of having honest communication and collaboration with players, tremendous attention to detail and placing a great emphasis on player development,” Fields said in a statement.
Snyder is a former Hawks assistant coach.
“I am thrilled to go back to Atlanta as the next head coach of the Hawks,” he said. “Landry has a tremendous reputation as an incredibly bright, high character, high quality individual and it was quickly evident that we share a passion and commitment to building a winning team with a strong foundation and high standards. I am excited to collaborate with Landry to create a successful program that devoted Hawks fans are proud of and cheer for and am grateful to Tony, Jami and the Ressler family for this opportunity. My family and I are looking forward to immersing ourselves in the community and calling Atlanta home.”
6:07pm: Former Jazz coach Quin Snyder has agreed to become the Hawks’ head coach, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports.
Atlanta will give Snyder a five-year contract and he could be coaching as soon as Tuesday, when the Hawks face Washington.
Snyder replaces Nate McMillan, who was dismissed by the franchise on Tuesday. At the time, the Hawks were expected to conduct a wide-ranging search but they quickly focused on Snyder.
Snyder was Utah’s head coach from 2014-22 and compiled a 372-264 (.585) record during the regular season. However, the Jazz were unable to get over the hump in the postseason. They were 21-30 in the playoffs over the last six seasons, never getting past the Western Conference semifinals.
Assistant Joe Prunty served as the interim coach since McMillan was let go, including in a 129-127 win over Brooklyn on Sunday.
The Hawks chose to hire a permanent coach before the end of the season because they hope to make a deep run in the Eastern Conference playoffs. They also wanted to give Snyder a chance to start implementing his program while evaluating the roster in order to facilitate their offseason approach.
Snyder will have a significant say in player personnel matters, according to Woj. Snyder has been in talks with general manager Landry Fields, assistant GM Kyle Korver and owner Tony Ressler on a number of philosophical, team building and staff budgetary issues, Woj adds.
McMillan was named the club’s interim coach in March 2021 in place of Lloyd Pierce. Atlanta made a surprise run to the Eastern Conference Finals, prompting the Hawks to remove the interim tag and give him a four-year contract in July 2021.
The Hawks finished the regular season at 43-39 and lost in the first round of the playoffs last spring and were 29-30 when they fired him. Atlanta won both of its games under Prunty.
Hornets Sign Bryce McGowens To Four-Year Contract
3:09pm: McCowens’ new contract is official, the Hornets announced in a press release.
1:29pm: Bryce McGowens is receiving a promotion from the Hornets, as they plan to convert his two-way contract to a four-year, $7.4MM standard deal, his agents, Mark Bartelstein and Kyle McAlarney of Priority Sports, tell ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).
The fourth year of the deal, which would be for the 2025/26 season, is a team option, Wojnarowski adds.
McGowens was the 40th overall pick of last June’s draft after spending one college season at Nebraska. In 26 games (14.7 MPG) as a two-way rookie for Charlotte, he has averaged 4.1 PPG, 1.7 RPG and 1.0 APG on .379/.364/.786 shooting.
The Hornets still have their full mid-level exception available, and they’ll be using a portion of it to give the 20-year-old a four-year deal for more than the minimum in year one.
Charlotte has two openings on its 15-man roster at the moment, so the team won’t need to waive anyone to promote McGowens. Today was the deadline for the Hornets to fill the 14th spot on their standard roster, as we previously explained.
Once the signing is official, the Hornets will have one standard roster spot open as well as a two-way slot.