Cade Cunningham To Make Debut Saturday?
The Pistons have had a rough start to the season, losing their first four games. However, number one overall draft pick Cade Cunningham might be ready to make his regular season debut.
As Keith Langlois of Pistons.com (Twitter link) notes, Cunningham isn’t listed on the team’s injury report for Saturday, which is an indication he’ll be available against the Magic.
Cunningham suffered a sprained ankle during training camp, causing him to miss all of the team’s preseason and regular season games thus far. Langlois wrote a story earlier today indicating Cunningham had been ramping up his practice time this week.
Pistons head coach Dwane Casey wouldn’t outright say that Cunningham was playing Saturday, but he thinks he’s ready.
“We’ll see where he is tomorrow,” Casey said. “We’re not putting a timetable on it. I’m just waiting to see when he’s available. I think he’s ready. He understands what we need to be doing.”
Guard Frank Jackson is excited to see what Cunningham can bring to the team, as Langlois relays.
“He’s going to bring some juice right away,” Jackson said. “He’s been working hard. It’ll be fun to get him out here and get rolling. It could take time, but I think he’s willing and ready to do what it takes to help our team excel. I’m excited for him to get out there.”
Langlois notes that Cunningham has been out four-plus weeks, so he might be on a minutes restriction to start out.
The Pistons face the Magic Saturday at 6:00 PM CT.
Bulls Rule Out Patrick Williams For 4-6 Months Due To Wrist Injury
2:57pm: Williams will undergo surgery to repair torn ligaments in his left wrist and is expected to miss approximately four-to-six months, the Bulls announced in a press release.
If Williams can get back within four or five months, that’d put him on track to play again before the regular season ends. However, a six-month recovery would run into late April.
1:10pm: Bulls forward Patrick Williams is expected to be sidelined for the rest of the 2021/22 regular season after dislocating his left wrist, a source tells Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter links).
According to Wojnarowski, Williams sustained a perilunate dislocation and will soon undergo surgery. There’s hope that he’ll be able to return for the playoffs, but that’s not a sure thing, Woj adds.
The Bulls have yet to officially confirm Wojnarowski’s report, but head coach Billy Donovan admitted this afternoon that Williams’ injury is “pretty significant,” as K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago tweets. The injury occurred during Thursday’s game against the Knicks, when Williams was fouled by Mitchell Robinson on a drive to the basket and came down on his wrist (video link). Robinson was assessed with a Flagrant 1 on the play.
It’s a brutal turn of events for Williams, the No. 4 pick in the 2020 draft who was expected to be a key part of a revamped Bulls roster this season. Many of the team’s top scoring options – Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, and Nikola Vucevic – aren’t great defenders, so Williams’ ability to slow down opposing scorers was considered especially valuable.
With Williams unavailable, Chicago’s defense and depth will be tested. As Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report tweets, Javonte Green, who has averaged just under 16 minutes off the bench in the first five games of the season, looks like the best bet to replace Williams in the starting five.
Hornets’ Bridges Increasing Value After Not Signing Extension
After earning Eastern Conference Player of the Week honors based on his performance through the Hornets‘ three games, Miles Bridges hasn’t fallen off at all during his last two contests. The fourth-year forward is averaging 26.2 PPG, 8.0 RPG, and 1.8 SPG with a shooting line of .527/.395/.909 through five games (35.2 MPG).
While it’s very early and Bridges almost certainly won’t maintain that pace, he was nearly a 50/40/90 shooter last season and seems capable of handling an increase in usage without his efficiency taking a major hit. As Zach Lowe of ESPN writes, Bridges is poised to become a “better offensive player – and sooner – than even the Hornets anticipated.” If Charlotte had expected this from the 23-year-old, Lowe adds, the team would’ve made a stronger push to lock him up to a rookie scale extension earlier this month.
Discussing Bridges’ impressive play on his Hoop Collective podcast, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said that the Hornets’ initial extension offer to Bridges was in the range of $15MM per year.
“When he was in negotiations for his extension, I’m told that the Hornets’ baseline offer was four years, $60MM,” Windhorst said. “… That was Charlotte’s baseline offer. They may have come up, but they were never really close.”
As Windhorst points out, once three-and-D forward Mikal Bridges signed a four-year, $90MM rookie scale extension with the Suns, there was no chance the Hornets were going to be able to lock up their own Bridges for anything in the neighborhood of $60MM. In fact, if the former Michigan State standout can maintain anything close to his current pace, he could match or exceed Mikal’s $90MM on his next deal.
It’s too late for the Hornets to sign Bridges to a rookie scale extension, but the club will be in the driver’s seat when he reaches restricted free agency next summer. There won’t be many teams with the cap room available to make Bridges an aggressive offer, and the Hornets – who have a relatively clean cap sheet going forward – would be able to match any offer sheet he signs. We’ll be keeping a close eye on the young forward this season to see just how high he can boost his value ahead of his looming free agency.
Zach LaVine Plans To Play Through Ligament Tear In Thumb
Bulls guard Zach LaVine has been diagnosed with a small ligament tear in the thumb of his non-shooting hand, sources Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
However, according to Charania, LaVine isn’t expected to miss any time due to the injury. His plan is to play through it, since it’s a matter of pain tolerance and he wants to help keep the Bulls’ positive momentum going following their 4-0 start.
LaVine is fortunate that the injury affects his left hand rather than his right, since it would be more difficult to play through a ligament tear in his shooting thumb. Lakers guard Talen Horton-Tucker underwent surgery to address a similar injury to his right thumb earlier this month and was ruled out for at least four weeks.
Through four games (33.8 MPG), LaVine is off to a strong start in his bid for a second consecutive All-Star nod, averaging 25.5 PPG, 5.3 RPG, and 4.8 APG with a scorching-hot .500/.444/.952 shooting line.
While Chicago’s undefeated start to the season is impressive, the team’s four victories came against Detroit, New Orleans, and Toronto, with Cade Cunningham, Zion Williamson, and Pascal Siakam on the shelf. The Bulls will face more significant tests starting this week — they face New York on Thursday and Utah on Saturday, with contests vs. Boston, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Golden State, and both L.A. teams to follow.
Dwayne Bacon Signs With AS Monaco
Veteran shooting guard Dwayne Bacon will continue his playing career outside of the NBA, having signed with AS Monaco Basket, the team announced today in a press release.
Bacon, 26, was selected with the 40th overall pick in the 2017 draft and spent his first three seasons in Charlotte before joining the Magic for the 2020/21 season. He appeared in all 72 of Orlando’s games last season, establishing new career highs in PPG (10.9), RPG (3.1), and MPG (25.7), though he still struggled to score efficiently, making just 40.2% of his field goal attempts, including 28.5% from beyond the arc.
In four total NBA seasons, Bacon has averaged 7.3 PPG and 2.6 RPG in 207 games (19.4 MPG). He joined the Knicks for training camp this offseason, but was beaten out by Wayne Selden for the 15th spot on the team’s regular season roster and was waived at the end of the preseason.
Bacon will join former NBAers Mike James, Donatas Motiejunas, and Donta Hall on AS Monaco’s roster. The team, which competes in France’s top basketball league, won the EuroCup title in 2020/21 and is playing in the EuroLeague for the first time in ’21/22.
Magic Sign Mychal Mulder To Two-Way Deal
Former Warriors guard Mychal Mulder has signed a two-way contract with the Magic, the team announced (via Twitter).
The 27-year-old played 60 games for Golden State last season, averaging 5.6 points and 1.0 rebounds with a .397 3PT% in 12.8 minutes per night. He remained with the Warriors through the preseason, but was waived in the team’s final round of cuts.
Mulder spent three seasons in the G League after going undrafted out of Kentucky in 2017. He signed a 10-day contract with Golden State in February of 2020 and played well enough to earn a multiyear deal.
The signing gives the Magic a full roster, with 15 standard contracts and both two-way slots filled. They had been the only team in the league with a two-way opening, so all 60 spots are now occupied.
Quinn Cook Signs With Lokomotiv Kuban
Veteran free agent guard Quinn Cook has signed a rest-of-season contract with Lokomotiv Kuban, the Russian team announced today in a press release.
Cook, 28, has appeared in 188 total NBA games since making his debut in 2017, spending time with the Mavericks, Pelicans, Warriors, Lakers, and Cavaliers. He won titles with Golden State and L.A., recording career averages of 6.4 PPG, 1.7 RPG, and 1.6 APG with a .461/.408/.795 shooting line in 14.1 minutes per contest.
The Trail Blazers signed Cook to a non-guaranteed contract prior to training camp and he competed for a regular season roster spot, but lost that battle to Dennis Smith Jr. Because Portland doesn’t have its own G League team, heading to the NBAGL as an affiliate player wasn’t an option for Cook. The 6’1″ guard could’ve still signed a G League contract and entered the player pool, but he opted to go overseas instead.
Cook will join a Lokomotiv Kuban roster that features a few other players with NBA experience, including big men Alan Williams and Johnathan Motley. The team is off to a 2-2 start in the VTB United League this season and is 1-0 in EuroCup play.
Sixers Have Stopped Fining Ben Simmons
Ben Simmons is no longer being fined by the Sixers for missed practices and games, according to reports from ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne (video link) and Marc Stein of Substack (Twitter link).
While it’s unclear exactly when the team stopped assessing those fines, it’s probably safe to assume the decision was made last Friday, after Simmons met with the club and told them he wasn’t mentally ready to play.
As Shelburne notes, there’s a provision in the Collective Bargaining Agreement that protects a player’s salary in the event that he misses time for mental health reasons, which is one reason why the Sixers have stopped those fines from accumulating. The Sixers are taking Simmons’ claim in good faith and have offered him any resources he needs to work through the situation.
A holdout early in training camp and the preseason, Simmons racked up nearly $2MM in fines in missed games, practices, and meetings, including the salary lost due to being suspended for Philadelphia’s regular season opener. It remains unclear if he’ll be able to recoup any of that money via arbitration or an agreement with the Sixers.
Although there has been no indication that Simmons has wavered in his desire to be traded, his standoff with the franchise doesn’t appear as acrimonious at the moment as it has been at times. “Right now, everybody’s in a good place,” Shelburne said during her ESPN appearance.
Stephen Curry, Miles Bridges Named Players Of The Week
Warriors star Stephen Curry and Hornets forward Miles Bridges have been named the NBA’s Western Conference and Eastern Conference Players of the Week, respectively, for the first five days of the 2021/22 season, the league announced today (Twitter link).
Both Curry and Bridges helped lead their teams to three-game win streaks to open the year — Golden State and Charlotte are two of the NBA’s seven undefeated teams and are among the three that are off to 3-0 starts.
Curry, who led the NBA in scoring last season, picked up right where he left off by averaging 31.0 PPG and knocking down 14 three-pointers in his first three games. He also filled up the box score with 9.0 RPG, 7.0 APG, and 2.3 SPG, recording a triple-double and two double-doubles. Curry beat out fellow Western Conference finalists Nikola Jokic, CJ McCollum, Ja Morant, and Karl-Anthony Towns.
Bridges is coming off a pair of 30-points outings and has averaged 25.0 PPG and 8.0 RPG overall, with a scorching-hot .542/.444/.938 shooting line. He took home this week’s hardware over Eastern finalists Seth Curry, Spencer Dinwiddie, Kevin Durant, Tyler Herro, Zach LaVine, Julius Randle, and rookie Evan Mobley.
Raptors’ Ownership Group Fought Over Masai Ujiri Extension
Various factions of the Raptors‘ ownership group held divergent opinions on how to handle the contract negotiations with team president Masai Ujiri earlier this year, according to a fascinating report from Christine Dobby and Doug Smith of The Toronto Star. Ujiri finalized a new long-term extension with the franchise in August.
Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, the company that owns the Raptors, is controlled in part by Rogers Communications (37.5%), BCE (Bell) Inc. (37.5%), and team governor Larry Tanenbaum‘s Kilmer Group (25%).
Edward Rogers – the former chair of Rogers Communications who has recently been embroiled in a public battle for control of the company with his mother and siblings – opposed the terms of the deal that Tanenbaum and Bell wanted to offer Ujiri, expressing that the compensation was too high and that general manager Bobby Webster was capable of taking over control of the team’s front office if necessary, sources tell The Toronto Star.
According to Dobby and Smith, Rogers explicitly told Ujiri he didn’t think he was worth the salary the rest of the Raptors’ ownership group wanted to offer him, prompting MLSE executives to go into “damage-control mode” and to tell Ujiri to ignore those comments.
Rogers insisted he would only agree to the deal if a dozen terms were met, including 11 relating to Ujiri’s compensation and one that would see Rogers Communications take its 37.5% stake in MLSE and combine it with the Toronto Blue Jays to create a separate company. However, because Tanenbaum holds the title of Raptors governor, he had the authority to make the final call on personnel issues without Rogers’ sign-off, which is the path he chose to complete Ujiri’s deal, according to The Star.
Rogers, who was “furious,” reached out to commissioner Adam Silver, but was told by two league officials that Tanenbaum had the right to make that decision, per Dobby and Smith.
Asked on Sunday about the negotiations, Rogers said he has the “utmost respect” for Ujiri and is happy he remains in his current role.
“Masai understands better than anyone that negotiations test both sides,” Rogers said. “The best deals involve compromise and leave all parties feeling like winners.”
According to Dobby and Smith, Ujiri’s contract with the Raptors includes a $15MM annual salary, with the ability to earn more in incentive pay if the value of the franchise continues to increase. Ujiri also received the new title of vice chairman to go along with his president title.
A league source tells The Toronto Star that another NBA team offered Ujiri a 3% ownership stake, with a salary higher than the $15MM per year he received from the Raptors. Soccer teams in the English Premier League also expressed interest in Ujiri, per Dobby and Smith.