2020 Second-Round Pick Tyrell Terry Retires
Tyrell Terry, the No. 31 overall pick of the 2020 draft, has announced his retirement from basketball in an Instagram post.
“While I have achieved amazing accomplishments, created unforgettable memories, and made lifelong friends…I’ve also experienced the darkest times of my life,” the 22-year-old wrote as part of his explanation. “To the point where instead of building me up, it began to destroy me.”
Terry, who is 22 years old, went on to cite severe anxiety and the fact that he had “fallen out of love” with the sport.
“To most, I will be forever known as a bust, a failure, or a waste of talent,” he continued. “While those may be true when it comes to basketball, it is the biggest failures in life that lead to the greatest success. There is more for me out in this vast world and I am extremely excited to be able to explore that. And for the first time, to be able to find my identity outside of being a basketball player.
“I am eternally grateful to those who have believed in me and apologize to those that I have let down. But I’m headed down a different path now, one that will hopefully lead to happiness and being able to love myself again.”
Terry played one season of college ball at Stanford prior to being drafted, averaging 14.6 PPG, 4.5 RPG, 3.2 APG and 1.4 SPG on .441/.408/.891 shooting in 31 games (32.6 MPG). Scouts viewed him as one of the best shooters in his draft class, but had reservations about his slender frame and defense.
The 6’2″ guard was then selected with the first pick of the second round by the Mavericks. He only suited up for 11 games as a rookie in 2020/21, and was out for an extended period due to personal reasons.
Dallas waived Terry before last season started despite the fact that he had a good chunk of guaranteed money ($3.3MM) left on his contract. He later caught on with Memphis on a two-way deal, but only appeared in two games for the Grizzlies. He also played in 29 NBA G League games with the Memphis Hustle from 2020-22.
Hopefully Terry is able to find some joy again, as continuing his basketball career clearly was not in his best interest. We at Hoops Rumors wish him well going forward.
Stephen Curry Will Miss Multiple Weeks With Shoulder Injury
4:50pm: Curry has been officially diagnosed with a left shoulder subluxation, the Warriors announced (via Twitter). The team hasn’t provided an official return timeline yet, but Charania said on The Rally (Twitter video link) that Curry is not expected to need surgery and will likely miss around a month with the injury.
Anthony Slater of The Athletic reports (via Twitter) that the “prevailing sense” is that Curry will miss around three-to-four weeks, noting that the Warriors play 10-to-12 games during that period of time.
4:00pm: Imaging has revealed that Curry suffered a labral left shoulder injury, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (via Twitter). Charania reveals that his status will be reassessed in two weeks.
2:51pm: Warriors All-NBA point guard Stephen Curry will be sidelined for at least a couple weeks with a left shoulder injury, sources inform Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link).
Curry injured the shoulder against the Pacers on Wednesday during the third quarter of a 125-119 loss, and was set to undergo imaging on Thursday. The Warriors are in Philadelphia tonight ahead of a Friday matchup against the Sixers. Per Dalton Johnson of NBC Sports Bay Area (via Twitter), Curry will be getting an MRI today and the team is set to announce further information on the exact nature of the ailment by tomorrow morning.
Golden State, the defending league champion, has gotten off to a relatively lackluster 14-15 start thus far in 2022/23. Without its best player, the 2022 NBA Finals MVP, for multiple weeks, the team will need further offensive output from key backcourt players like Klay Thompson and Jordan Poole to stay afloat.
As Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer notes (via Twitter), the Warriors sport a stellar 118.9 offensive rating and a +7 net rating with Curry on the court, while those numbers fall to a 99.9 offensive rating and a -11.1 net rating without him. Six of the Warriors’ next 10 games come against teams with winning records, though a majority of them will be home matchups. Golden State boasts a 12-2 record at Chase Center, but of course most of those wins have come with a healthy Curry.
Robert Williams Expected To Make Season Debut On Friday
Celtics big man Robert Williams is targeting Friday’s home game against Orlando for his 2022/23 season debut, according to reports from Shams Charania of The Athletic and Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter links).
The 25-year-old had arthroscopic surgery in late September to remove loose bodies from his left knee and to address swelling in that knee. The decision was made for Williams to undergo the procedure when he began his ramp-up process and experienced some discomfort in the knee.
Williams initially underwent surgery on the knee in March after tearing his meniscus.
He was able to return to the court less than a month later and played a part in the Celtics’ run to the NBA Finals, though he wasn’t at 100% in the postseason. The forward/center sat out five games in the second and third rounds of the playoffs and reportedly required extensive treatment as he dealt with fluid build-up.
Williams enjoyed a breakout season in ’21/22, establishing new career highs in PPG (10.0), RPG (9.6), BPG (2.2), games played and started (61), field goal percentage (73.6%), and several other categories. He also helped anchor the NBA’s top defense and was named to the All-Defensive Second Team.
Even without one of their best interior players, the Celtics haven’t missed a beat in ’22/23, sporting the league’s best record (22-7), best net rating (+7.0), and the top offensive rating (118.1). However, their defense has fallen from No. 1 to No. 8, and Williams should help improve that figure.
As Jared Weiss of The Athletic notes (via Twitter), Williams and fellow big man Al Horford are both officially listed as questionable for Friday’s contest. Horford and his wife recently had a baby, which is why he has been inactive since clearing the health and safety protocols — he has missed the past five games.
Clint Capela Out 1-2 Weeks With Calf Strain
Hawks starting center Clint Capela has suffered a strained right calf and will be unavailable for the next one-to-two weeks, the team announced today (Twitter link).
Backup big man Onyeka Okongwu, the sixth pick in the 2020 draft out of USC, will most likely start in Capela’s stead while the vet recovers from his calf injury.
Capela, 28, has enjoyed a solid individual season for what has proven to be a tense interpersonal 2022/23 start for the Hawks. The 6’10” Swiss big man is averaging 12.1 PPG, 12.0 RPG, and 1.3 BPG through 26 games this year. He is connecting on 63.3% of his field goals, mostly in and around the post.
At 14-15, the Hawks are currently the ninth seed in an Eastern Conference loaded with middle-of-the-pack clubs within a few games of one another. Atlanta is just three games behind the fourth-seeded Nets, but also a mere two games clear of the East’s No. 11 seed, the Bulls.
Essentially, even making the play-in tournament will require a decent amount of injury luck, and the Hawks have not quite had that yet, thanks to a two-week absence for starting power forward John Collins, who remains out at present with an ankle injury, and now this Capela ailment.
Nets Fined $25K For Injury Reporting
The NBA has fined the Nets $25K as a result of what it deems to be inadequate reporting of player injuries, the league announced today in a press release (Twitter link).
Brooklyn has been penalized for “failing to comply with league policies governing injury reporting,” the NBA stated.
According to Brian Lewis of The New York Post (via Twitter), Brooklyn was fined as a result of the team’s decision to sit eight players in what turned out to be a surprise 136-133 win over the Pacers on December 10.
The absences for that contest included stars Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, plus big-minutes rotation players like guard Ben Simmons, swingman Joe Harris, starting forward Royce O’Neale and starting center Nic Claxton.
This lack of timely transparency with regards to player availability is an approach that doesn’t always endear itself to the NBA, which has targeted teams’ wallets in the past for these incursions.
2023 NBA All-Star Voting To Commence Tuesday
Voting for the 2023 NBA All-Star Game in Salt Lake City will begin this coming Tuesday, December 20 at 10:00 a.m. CT, per a league press release.
Fan voting will run till Saturday, January 21 at 10:59 p.m. CT. All-Star Game starters, voted on by a combination of fans, players and media, will be unveiled during a TNT broadcast on Thursday, January 26.
All-Star reserves, as voted on by head coaches, will be subsequently revealed on Thursday, February 2.
Fans will be permitted to vote once per day, either by accessing NBA.com or the league’s new NBA App. The NBA also indicated that it will feature six days during which fan votes count for triple their normal value: December 25, January 1, January 6, January 13, January 16 and January 20.
As has been the case in recent years, fan voting will be weighed as 50% of the cumulative All-Star starter voting tally, while the other 50% will be split between players and media. Two guards and three frontcourt players will be elected starters in each conference.
The two players who receive the most votes in either conference will serve as team captains. In recent years, captains have drafted their teams during a live TNT broadcast.
All-Star Weekend will tip off in Utah on Friday, February 17, while the All-Star Game itself will take place on Sunday, February 19.
Mavericks’ Maxi Kleber Tears Right Hamstring, Out Indefinitely
Mavericks forward Maxi Kleber tore his right hamstring at a team practice Tuesday, Dallas has announced (via Twitter).
The extent of the damage to the ligament had previously not been known, and the ailment had first been diagnosed as a sprain, but clearly further analysis has indicated that the outcome is more severe.
Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link) initially reported that Kleber was expected to miss six-to-eight weeks, but Tim MacMahon of ESPN (via Twitter) suggests that treatment options, including surgery, are still being weighed, so it sounds like there’s no set timeline yet. The Mavericks have ruled the forward out indefinitely.
As Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News tweets, the Mavericks have gone just 1-5 in the six games Kleber has missed thus far this season. Reserve center Christian Wood seems to be in line for more minutes now, Townsend adds.
Across 25.6 MPG, the 6’10” Kleber had been averaging 6.2 PPG on .490/.369/.786 shooting splits in 22 games for Dallas. The 30-year-old also has chipped in 3.5 RPG, 1.0 APG and 1.0 BPG.
Losing Kleber for an extended period will be a major loss for the Mavs’ frontline. His relative mobility for his size and his ability to shoot triples at a solid clip (36.9% on 3.0 tries a night) made him a reliable bench option for the 14-14 club.
74 NBA Players Newly Eligible To Be Traded
Today is December 15, which means that – by our count – 74 NBA players who signed as free agents this offseason have officially become eligible to be traded. Approximately 88% of the players currently on NBA rosters are now trade-eligible, tweets ESPN’s Bobby Marks.
The list of newly trade-eligible players, which can be found right here, features many who almost certainly aren’t going anywhere this season, including Sixers guard James Harden and Knicks guard Jalen Brunson.
However, it also includes some players whose names have already popped up in trade speculation in the months since they were signed, such as Mavericks center JaVale McGee and injured Celtics forward Danilo Gallinari.
Twelve of the players on the list can’t be traded without their consent, since they have the ability to veto trades this season. Milwaukee is the only team carrying multiple players who fit that bill — three of the 12 players in that group are members of the Bucks.
Thirteen more newly trade-eligible players are still on non-guaranteed contracts, including multiple members of the Celtics, Nets, Timberwolves, and Kings.
Finally, it’s worth noting that there are still many recently-signed players around the NBA who remain ineligible to be dealt. Some will become trade-eligible on January 15, while others have specific dates to watch.
Of course, while December 15 is considered the unofficial start of the NBA’s trade season, we shouldn’t expect a flurry of deals in the coming days. Typically, teams wait until closer to the trade deadline (February 9) to make their moves, as we discussed over the weekend. The most recent trade to be completed on December 15 occurred in 2010, and there generally aren’t more than one or two deals made between now and the new year.
The league’s recent trade history doesn’t mean we won’t see any trades this month, but if there are more than a couple, it would be an exception to the rule. We should expect more activity in January and February, even as talks start to heat up in December.
Woj: “No Guarantees” Lonzo Ball Plays In 2022/23
Prior to the Bulls‘ matchup with New York on Wednesday, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski provided a gloomy update on point guard Lonzo Ball‘s status for the 2022/23 season.
Ball, who has yet to play this season, continues to be hampered by left knee pain despite two surgeries to address the issue in the past year. The first surgery was to repair a torn meniscus in January, and the second was an arthroscopic debridement procedure in September, which involves removing foreign objects or damaged/dead tissue from a wound.
“There are no guarantees, I’m told, that he plays at all this season.” Wojnarowski said on NBA Countdown (video link). “He’s rehabbing that knee now, he’s still feeling some pain in it. I think the hope is, that perhaps by the All-Star break in mid-February, that they have a sense of whether Lonzo Ball is ready to come back and play for Chicago.
“A lot of that may depend on where are the Bulls in the standings. Right now they’re 11th, they’re out of the playoff picture. I think if they’re lingering around that area, there will be a real decision to be made about whether he plays at all.”
Wojnarowski added that the Bulls will be faced with a lot of difficult decisions ahead of the trade deadline if the team continues to struggle, but “there’s no expectation you’ll see him (Ball), at least perhaps, until around the All-Star break.”
The last official update on Ball’s status came at the end of November, when coach Billy Donovan said that the guard’s rehab process had been going “really slow.” He added that Ball, who last played in January, was “not even close” to running, jumping or cutting.
Prior to Ball’s second surgery, ESPN reported that he visited “multiple specialists” in an attempt to figure out what was causing the discomfort in his knee and to explore possible treatments. At the time, a source told ESPN that the knee was “structurally sound,” but Ball’s pain hadn’t subsided after a summer of rest and rehab.
Ball has dealt with injuries throughout his six-year career, but this is by far his longest absence. The former No. 2 overall pick had a promising start with the Bulls last season, averaging 12.3 PPG, 5.4 RPG, 5.1 APG, 1.8 SPG and 0.9 BPG while shooting 42.3% from three-point range and playing strong defense in 35 games (34.6 MPG).
Stephen Curry Suffers Left Shoulder Injury
8:50pm: Head coach Steve Kerr told reporters, including ESPN’s Kendra Andrews (Twitter link), that Curry will undergo an MRI on Thursday. Kerr added that the veteran guard was “in good spirits” after the game.
8:16pm: Warriors star Stephen Curry suffered a left shoulder injury during Wednesday’s game in Indiana and was ruled out for the remainder of the contest, per Anthony Slater of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Curry went to the locker room late in the third quarter after trying to strip the ball away from Pacers big man Jalen Smith (Twitter video link via Warriors on NBC Sports Bay Area). Curry was carrying the team on his back prior to getting injured, recording 38 points, seven rebounds, seven assists, two steals and one block in 30 minutes.
As Slater notes (via Twitter), Golden State’s fourth quarter rally came up short. Having lost by a score of 125-119, the Warriors are now 14-15, including 2-13 on the road, and face the Sixers in Philadelphia on Friday.
The two-time MVP and reigning Finals MVP is having one of his finest seasons at 34 years old, averaging 29.6 points, a career-high 6.6 rebounds, 6.8 assists and 1.0 steal on .497/.432/.911 shooting through 25 games (34.6 minutes). If Curry misses additional time, look for players like Donte DiVincenzo and Moses Moody to receive more minutes, while Jordan Poole and Draymond Green handle added play-making responsibilities.