Anthony Davis Likely Out At Least Two Weeks With Ankle Injury
FEBRUARY 17: Davis will likely miss at least two weeks due to his right ankle sprain, according to McMenamin.
Due to the All-Star break, the Lakers will only play three games between today and March 2, but there’s certainly no guarantee Davis will be ready to return on March 3. He’ll undergo an MRI today on his injured ankle, head coach Frank Vogel confirmed after Wednesday’s game.
FEBRUARY 16: X-rays taken after Lakers star Anthony Davis injured his right ankle in tonight’s game were negative, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic. Davis will receive treatment during the All-Star break, and his condition will be re-evaluated once the break ends.
There’s no sign of a fracture, according to Kyle Goon of The Orange County Register (Twitter link). The team considers it a sprain and isn’t speculating on a possible recovery timeline, adds Dave McMenamin of ESPN (Twitter link).
Davis took a scary fall in the second quarter of the game against Utah after landing on Rudy Gobert‘s heel and had to be helped to the locker room. The Lakers quickly announced that he wouldn’t return, tweets Bill Oram of The Athletic.
Davis, who has already missed 21 games this season, was sidelined for more than a month in December and January with a sprained MCL in his left knee. He also missed 36 of the 72 games last season.
Another long-term loss of Davis could be devastating for the Lakers, who have dropped three straight games coming into tonight and have fallen into ninth place in the West. They hold a three-and-a-half game lead over the No. 11 Pelicans for a spot in the play-in tournament.
Chris Paul To Undergo MRI On Injured Right Hand
Suns guard Chris Paul will have an MRI Thursday morning after hurting his right hand in tonight’s game against the Rockets, tweets Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports.
Paul was ejected from the game in the third quarter after complaining to the officials about the injury, according to Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic. Shortly after JT Orr whistled him for a technical foul, Paul had a pass deflected by Dennis Schröder and grabbed at his hand in pain after the play. He then bumped into Orr from behind, which drew a second technical and an automatic ejection and may result in further penalties from the league.
Paul was voted into Sunday’s All-Star Game as a reserve, so a replacement will have to be named if he can’t participate.
After leading the Suns to the NBA Finals last season, Paul has remained in the MVP conversation this year at age 36 by averaging 15.0 points and a league-high 10.8 assists through 57 games. A serious injury could affect the balance of power in the West, where Phoenix holds the top seed at 48-10.
Adam Silver Says In-Season Tournament Is Getting Closer
NBA commissioner Adam Silver, who has been a long-time proponent of an in-season tournament, believes the idea is moving closer to reality, writes Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports. He said the tournament won’t be implemented right away, but last year’s shortened season showed that fans are willing to accept fewer than 82 games.
“I think we were moving closer to it,” Silver said. “But I feel we’ve had productive conversations with the Players Association, whose approval, of course, would be required to change the format. And my sense is there’s a fair amount of interest.”
Silver didn’t offer many details about the proposed tournament, but Goodwill states that the league is looking for ways to energize players during the long grind of a regular season. Silver has shown a willingness to break with tradition, Goodwill notes, such as adopting the Elam Ending for the All-Star Game.
Silver envisions a plan that is based on tournaments from European soccer and college basketball. He doesn’t want to create an event that will take away from the uniqueness of an NBA championship, but something that will be a separate goal that players can shoot for. There has been talk of offering a $1MM prize per player for the tournament champions, but that hasn’t been confirmed.
Silver wants to keep the NBA calendar relatively stable, starting in mid-October and ending with the Finals in mid- to late June. The tournament would be worked in somewhere, but not exactly at mid-season.
“There’s tournaments [in other sports] along the way where players, I’m sure feel an extra boost of competitiveness around winning a particular trophy,” Silver said. “And that’s what we’re looking at. It’s complicated.”
Dennis Smith Jr. Out At Least 3-4 Weeks With Elbow Injury
Trail Blazers guard Dennis Smith Jr. is expected to be sidelined until at least mid-March due to a right elbow injury, the team announced today in a press release.
According to the Blazers, Smith has been diagnosed with a high-grade partial tear of the ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) in his elbow. He’ll be reevaluated in three or four weeks, the club added.
Smith, 24, signed a non-guaranteed contract with Portland in the 2021 offseason and won a roster spot in training camp. He has since appeared in 37 games for the team, averaging 5.6 PPG, 3.6 APG, 2.4 RPG, and 1.2 SPG in 17.2 minutes per contest. The former lottery pick became a more regular part of the rotation in the new year due to Damian Lillard‘s absence.
Portland doesn’t have a ton of depth at the point guard spot with Lillard, Smith, and Eric Bledsoe all sidelined, but has been relying on Anfernee Simons and Justise Winslow for play-making.
If the Blazers feel compelled to add another backcourt option, they could open up a spot on their roster by waiving an expendable player such as injured forward Joe Ingles.
DeAndre’ Bembry Signs With Bucks
FEBRUARY 16: The Bucks have officially signed Bembry, the team announced today in a press release. Bembry will earn just shy of $602K on his rest-of-season contract, while Milwaukee takes on a cap hit of about $518K. Since the Bucks are over the luxury tax line, their projected tax bill will also increase as a result of the move.
FEBRUARY 15: The Bucks are close to completing a deal with free agent swingman DeAndre’ Bembry, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Bembry, who was waived by the Nets last Thursday to open a roster spot in the James Harden deal, will sign with Milwaukee for the rest of the season, according to Wojnarowski.
The deal will give Milwaukee some extra depth on the wing following last week’s trades of Donte DiVincenzo and Rodney Hood, as well as Pat Connaughton‘s subsequent hand injury.
Bembry, 27, was in his first season with Brooklyn after agreeing to a partially guaranteed contract heading into training camp. He eventually earned a fully guaranteed deal and appeared in 48 games with the Nets, starting 20. He averaged 5.8 points and 3.2 rebounds in 19.8 minutes per night.
Once the signing becomes official, the Bucks will be up to 13 players on their roster, plus a pair of two-way deals. They will need to add at least one more player to reach the league minimum and have been rumored as a possible location for Goran Dragic, who reached a buyout with the Spurs earlier today.
Adam Silver Discusses NYC’s Vaccine Mandate
Appearing on Wednesday on ESPN’s Get Up, NBA commissioner Adam Silver questioned the application of New York City’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, as Andrew Lopez of ESPN writes. The city’s regulations have kept Nets guard Kyrie Irving from playing at the Barclays Center or Madison Square Garden this season because he is still unvaccinated.
While Silver made it clear he believes everyone should get vaccinated and boosted, he suggested that New York City should reevaluate an ordinance that is applied unevenly to home players and visiting players.
“This law in New York, the oddity of it to me is that it only applies to home players,” Silver said. “I think if ultimately that rule is about protecting people who are in the arena, it just doesn’t quite make sense to me that an away player who is unvaccinated can play in Barclays, but the home player can’t. To me, that’s a reason they should take a look at that ordinance.”
With local officials beginning to roll back more and more COVID-related restrictions in New York City and elsewhere, Silver said he wouldn’t be surprised if the city reconsiders its restrictions on unvaccinated individuals before the end of the NBA’s season.
“I can imagine a scenario where Brooklyn, as part of New York City, with a new mayor now who wasn’t in place, Eric Adams, when that original ordinance was put into place, I could see him deciding to change along the way and say it’s no longer necessary to have a mandatory vaccination requirement, as I said particularly one that only affects home players,” Silver said.
After telling Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports that he didn’t love how the Ben Simmons and James Harden trade drama played out so publicly over many weeks and months, Silver followed up on that topic during his Get Up appearance today. Noting that the NBA’s move toward shorter-term contracts has resulted in more superstar movement than ever, Silver said that can be a good thing for the league as long as it’s done the right way.
“The data shows that superstars moving isn’t necessarily a bad thing because it allows bad situations to, in an orderly way, to change,” Silver said, per Lopez. “It gives teams that may not be in a competitive position hope that they can sign one of those players. But shorter contracts to me is something very different – and free agents moving at the end of contracts is different – than what we just saw, where you have players actively seeking to move while they’re under contract. The data is clear on that. That’s not good for the league.”
Patrick Beverley Signs One-Year Extension With Timberwolves
FEBRUARY 16: Beverley officially signed his extension with the Timberwolves on Tuesday, according to NBA.com’s transactions log.
FEBRUARY 14: Veteran guard Patrick Beverley has agreed to a one-year, $13MM contract extension with the Timberwolves, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski tweets.
Minnesota already had a projected $107MM in salary commitments next season, not including the cap hold for its first-round pick, Bobby Marks of ESPN tweets. The Timberwolves could still use their mid-level exception and remain below the projected $147MM luxury tax line.
Beverley is in the final season of a three-year $40MM contract he signed with the Clippers in 2019. The 33-year-old has made his mark in the league as a pesky defender but he has also posted some solid stats for Minnesota.
He is averaging 9.0 PPG, 4.9 APG and 4.4 RPG in 26.1 MPG in 38 games, including 34 starts. He’s shooting 34% from deep, which is below his 37.9% career average.
This leaves Taurean Prince ($13MM this season) as the only prominent member of Minnesota’s rotation heading into free agency this summer.
Beverley will be the 27th player to sign a contract extension during the 2021/22 NBA league year, including the 16th to finalize a veteran extension. Our extension tracker features the details on this season’s other 26 deals.
James Harden Plans To Opt In For 2022/23
A report last Thursday stated that James Harden would pick up his 2022/23 player option as part of last Thursday’s trade to the Sixers, but that didn’t end up happening, as we relayed last Friday.
However, Harden confirmed to reporters on Tuesday that the lack of opt-in had nothing to do with his level of commitment to Philadelphia and was more about an inability to file the necessary paperwork before the trade was completed. Harden can’t pick up his $47.4MM player option for ’22/23 at this point, but can do it once the Sixers’ season is over, and he made it clear today that he intends to do so, as Derek Bodner of The Daily Six tweets.
Exercising that option will put Harden on a path to maximize his earnings over the next five years. By opting out and signing a new five-year free agent contract, he could earn up to a projected $269.8MM. Opting in for 2022/23 and then signing a four-year extension would make him eligible for up to $270.2MM over the same period.
Speaking to reporters today about the trade that sent him to Philadelphia, Harden also claimed that the Sixers were his preferred destination when he was originally traded out of Houston over a year ago.
“Philly was my first choice, it just didn’t happen,” Harden said, per Kyle Neubeck of PhillyVoice.com. “Best big man in the league in Joel (Embiid), and obviously the coaching. Just from top to bottom, it made sense. I’m just happy and blessed that I’m here.
While the Sixers and Nets were widely known to be the finalists in last year’s Harden sweepstakes, the former MVP’s claim that he wanted to go to Philadelphia at that time doesn’t necessarily line up with subsequent reporting on the situation. Just last month, Shams Charania and Sam Amick of The Athletic wrote that the Rockets asked Harden his preference and he chose Brooklyn.
In any case, a year later, Harden certainly wanted to be a Sixer more than he wanted to be a Net, and the two teams made it happen last Thursday. Harden, who won’t play until after the All-Star break due to a left hamstring injury, told reporters that was a “collaborative decision” in order to make sure he’s back to 100%, adding that his hamstring “feels really good,” per Adam Zagoria of Forbes.
Here’s more from Harden’s introductory presser as a 76er, via Neubeck and Forbes:
On whether Kyrie Irving‘s vaccination status and part-time availability were factors in Harden’s desire to be traded:
“Very minimal, and obviously me and Ky are really good friends. Whatever he was going through or is still going through, that’s his personal preference. But it definitely did impact the team because originally me, Kyrie and KD (Kevin Durant) on the court and winning covers up a lot of that stuff, but it was unfortunate that we played 16 games (together) out of whatever it was.”
On playing with Embiid:
“We’re both at a high level to where we’ll figure it out. Joel does everything on the floor. So we got guys on our team that are very smart, we communicate and we have coaching that is going to put us in positions to be successful. They have something great already going on, I’m just here to contribute. And I know that I can do that very well. On the court, when you got high-level skilled guys that know the game and all they want to do is win, they’ll figure it out.”
On whether the Sixers can contend for a title this year:
“Hell yeah. There’s a lot that goes into it, it doesn’t happen overnight. Just being here around guys, they have the right mindset, obviously coming from the coaching staff. But after the break, man, it’s go time. As much as I can incorporate and figure things out fast, which probably won’t be long, the better things will be. It shouldn’t take long at all, I pretty much can fit anywhere.”
Ben Simmons: No One To Blame For Situation With Sixers
At his introductory press conference with the Nets today, Ben Simmons said he doesn’t blame anyone in Philadelphia for the way his relationship with the Sixers ended. Addressing the media for the first time in more than 250 days, Simmons said he’s looking forward to playing again after the trade that sent him to Brooklyn last week.
Although there were reports that Simmons was upset over comments made by coach Doc Rivers and Joel Embiid following the seventh game of last season’s second-round loss to the Hawks, Simmons emphasized that the mental health issues that caused him to pull away from the team started long before that.
“For me, it was just making sure mentally I was right to get out there and play again,” he said (video link). “That’s something I’ve been dealing with, and it wasn’t about the fans or coaches or comments made by anybody. It was just a personal thing for me. That was earlier than that series or even that season that I was dealing with, and that organization knew that. So it’s something that I continue to deal with, and you know, I’m getting there and getting to the right place to get back on the floor.”
Simmons’ answer was much shorter when asked about Embiid — he responded, “No, I did not,” when asked if he talked to his former teammate after the trade was announced (video link). Embiid expressed frustration over Simmons’ situation more than once this season, notes Adam Hermann of NBC Sports Philadelphia, so it’s not surprising that they didn’t have anything to say to each another when Simmons left.
The Nets don’t have a date set for Simmons’ expected debut, but he said he’s “starting to ramp it up” to get ready to return to the court, according to an ESPN story. He told reporters that he hopes to be in uniform March 10 when Brooklyn travels to Philadelphia.
Simmons, the No. 1 pick in the 2016 draft, offered thanks to the Sixers and their fans for supporting him during the six season he played in Philadelphia, the ESPN article adds. He said he spoke with Rivers, general manager Elton Brand and teammate Tobias Harris after the trade went through.
He also expressed excitement about teaming up with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, saying the combination “is going to be scary.”
Simmons went through his first shootaround with his new team Monday night and joined his teammates on the bench afterward, per Nick Friedell of ESPN. Coach Steve Nash said it will be a “joint decision” between Simmons and the Nets’ staff on when he resumes playing.
“We have to put him in a position to have the necessary conditioning underneath him and to feel safe with it,” Nash said. “And then he also has to feel confident and comfortable that the time has come. So whenever that is, hopefully there’s a great partnership on those decisions.”
Heat Promote Caleb Martin To 15-Man Roster
1:08pm: Martin’s new deal is official, the Heat confirmed in a press release.
11:23am: The Heat are signing forward Caleb Martin to a standard contract, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). Martin had spent the 2021/22 season up until this point on a two-way deal, but wouldn’t be playoff-eligible without a promotion to the 15-man roster.
Charania says the Heat are signing the 26-year-old for “the remainder of the season,” suggesting there will be no additional years tacked onto his new contract, and Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald confirms (via Twitter) it’s a rest-of-season, minimum-salary deal. That means Martin will be eligible for restricted free agency at season’s end.
Martin, who spent his first two NBA seasons in Charlotte, signed a two-way deal with the Heat in September and has emerged as a reliable rotation player for the club. In 44 games (22.9 MPG), he has averaged 9.5 PPG, 4.0 RPG, and 1.0 SPG on .506/.379/.739 shooting.
It has been a foregone conclusion for much of the season that Martin would eventually be promoted to the standard roster, but Miami’s proximity to the luxury tax line has delayed the move. After trading KZ Okpala to Oklahoma City last week, the Heat have more breathing room below the tax threshold, creating a path for Martin’s promotion.
Once Martin’s new deal is official, the Heat will have a full 15-man roster, at least for the time being. The team entered the week with two 15-man roster openings, but signed Haywood Highsmith to a 10-day contract. Martin’s promotion will open up a two-way contract slot for Miami.