Warriors Forward Jonathan Kuminga Expected To Play On Thursday
The streaking Warriors will get a key piece back in their rotation this week. Forward Jonathan Kuminga is expected to be active on Thursday night when Golden State hosts the Kings, The Athletic’s Anthony Slater reports.
Kuminga has missed the last 31 games because of a significant lateral right ankle sprain he suffered on Jan. 4. Kuminga will have a few more hurdles to clear, including a team practice on Wednesday, before the organization’s medical staff gives the go-ahead for his return to action. He’ll be eased back on a minutes restriction, Slater adds.
Kuminga had been on a scoring binge prior to the injury. He piled up 26, 34, 34 and 20 points in the stretch of games prior to the outing against the Grizzlies, when he came down on Memphis guard Desmond Bane’s foot and rolled his ankle badly.
For the season, Kuminga has averaged 16.8 points and 5.0 rebounds per game.
Golden State’s fortunes have turned around since the blockbuster Jimmy Butler trade. The Warriors were under .500 through their first 51 games of the season.
They’re now 37-28 and will carry a five-game winning streak into the matchup against Sacramento. They have moved into sixth place in the conference standings, a half-game ahead of equally hot Timberwolves as they try avoid the play-in tournament.
There are also financial implications to his return. Kuminga and the club failed to agree on a rookie scale extension before the October deadline, so he’ll be a restricted free agent after the season.
Pacific Notes: Durant, Booker, Kings, Lakers, D. Green
If the Suns trade Kevin Durant this offseason, the “most ideal” return would be three first-round picks and a young player, as well as enough salary relief to move below the second tax apron, sources tell Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic.
Rankin’s wording leaves some room for interpretation. It’s not clear if his sources believe that’s the sort of return the Suns would be seeking or what they could realistically expect to acquire — or if it’s simply their view of what a best-case scenario for the franchise would look like.
Although Durant continues to play at an extremely high level, his age (37 in the fall) and contract situation (he’ll be entering a contract year) will be factors working against the Suns as they try to extract the best possible package.
Within the same story, Rankin cites sources who suggest the Suns could probably acquire four first-round picks and a “rising star in his third or fourth year” in exchange for Devin Booker, who is eight years younger than Durant and is under team control through 2028. However, John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 (Twitter link) issues a reminder that Phoenix’s stance on Booker hasn’t changed — the team still has no intention of making him available.
Here’s more from around the Pacific:
- Kings guard Malik Monk returned on Monday from a three-game absence due to a toe sprain and scored 21 points, writes Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. It wasn’t nearly enough for the Kings, who suffered a 29-point home loss to the Knicks on the second end of a back-to-back and are now two games back of the No. 8 seed in the West. As Anderson details in a separate Sacramento Bee story, center Jonas Valanciunas referred to the loss as “embarrassing,” while interim head coach Doug Christie offered a similar assessment. “There are absolutely no excuses in this league,” Christie said. “The league does not care about back-to-backs, injuries, nothing. That was brutal from the physicality standpoint. They didn’t feel us at all, and our guys know that is totally unacceptable, whoever is out on the floor.”
- Over on the other coast, Lakers head coach J.J. Redick wasn’t happy with the effort he saw from his team in a three-point loss to the Nets in Brooklyn. Redick referred to it as a “very low-level communication game” and told reporters that injuries to key players – including LeBron James – should be no excuse, per ESPN’s Dave McMenamin. “I think it was just an overall mentality just to take shortcuts tonight,” Redick said. “Want to be a good team? You want to win in the NBA? You got to do the hard stuff. We couldn’t even pass to each other. We couldn’t enter our offense, running ball screens literally at half court. Yeah, that’s going to end up in a turnover. I don’t know what we’re doing.”
- Trayce Jackson-Davis, Quinten Post, and Kevon Looney have combined to make 53 starts this season, but Draymond Green continues to play at the five during most end-game situations and has been the Warriors‘ starting center for eight of 11 games since the All-Star break. He’s OK with that. “I knew it would come down to this,” Green said, according to Marcus Thompson II of The Athletic. “But I just didn’t have much interest in doing it for 82 games. Because it’s a lot. To anchor a defense. To play the five, you’re in every action. People downhill at you. It’s a different responsibility on the body. … But if you can’t do it for 29 games, it’s over, champ.”
Mavs’ Two-Way Players Approaching Active-Game Limits
Injuries have decimated the Mavericks‘ roster and have compromised their ability to compete in the second half of this season. The team had just nine healthy players active on Sunday and saw that number drop to eight in the second game of a back-to-back on Monday.
While at least a couple of Dallas’ inactive players – Kyrie Irving and Olivier-Maxence Prosper – have sustained season-ending injuries, there’s still hope that some of the others on the injured list will be able to return in the coming weeks. In the meantime, the club will have to get by with what it has.
The Mavs’ limitations are exacerbated by the fact that they imposed a hard cap on themselves at the first tax apron by completing certain roster moves (including using the non-taxpayer mid-level exception and acquiring a player via sign-and-trade) early in the 2024/25 league year, then spent nearly all the way up to that hard cap in player salaries.
Dallas is currently operating with a team salary of $178,080,852, which is a mere $51,148 below the first apron. Because a veteran-minimum free agent addition would count toward the cap at a rate of $11,997 per day, the Mavs can’t sign a 15th man until April 10, when there are just four days left in the season.
There’s another set of limitations the Mavericks will have to be aware of as they set their active roster for games this month. Players on two-way contracts can’t be active for more than 50 regular season games if they signed before the start of the regular season. That limit becomes a prorated portion of 50 games if a player signed at some point after the season began.
Here’s what that means for Dallas’ trio of two-way players:
- Kessler Edwards: Five active games remaining.
- Brandon Williams: Eight active games remaining.
- Kai Jones: 11 active games remaining.
Edwards’ restriction is the most concerning. The former Pepperdine standout has become Dallas’ de facto starting center due to the team’s litany of frontcourt injuries and has emerged as a crucial contributor. In Monday’s win over San Antonio, he registered his first double-double of the season, with 22 points and 11 rebounds in 35 minutes.
But if the Mavericks keep Edwards active going forward, he’ll reach his 50-game limit on March 21, with 11 games still left in the season. And he can’t be promoted to the 15-man roster at that point due to the Mavs’ aforementioned hard cap — if the team wants to promote him, it would have to wait until April 10 to do so.
The restrictions facing Williams and Jones aren’t quite as critical, especially since both players are currently among Dallas’ walking wounded. Williams missed Monday’s game with left hamstring tightness, while Jones has been out for three games due to a left quad strain.
Of course, while that means Williams and Jones may not eat up their remaining active games in the short term, having them among the many Mavericks on the injury list is a problem in its own right. Jones’ absence is especially unfortunate, given that he was just signed on March 3 so that the team could add some size and take advantage of the 12 games he’d be eligible to play in.
Jones had 21 points and eight rebounds in his Mavs debut, but hasn’t been able to suit up since then. And the club doesn’t have the ability to replace him (or Edwards or Williams) with a new two-way player, since the deadline for signing two-way deals passed on March 4.
When a team is hit particularly hard by injuries, the NBA has the ability to grant hardship exceptions, which allow the team to temporarily exceed its usual 15-man standard roster. But hardship deals still count against the cap and can’t be used to circumvent hard-cap rules, so they’re of little use to the Mavericks, who would have otherwise qualified for more than one of them in recent weeks.
The only way Dallas would have a chance to free up more flexibility below its hard cap would be to reach a buyout agreement with a player that reduces his salary or to cut a player and hope he gets claimed on waivers. The former option probably isn’t realistic; the latter might hurt more than it would help, since it would cost the Mavs a player good enough to warrant a waiver claim.
While it’ll be interesting to see if Dallas can hang onto the 10th spot in the Western Conference and qualify for the play-in, at this point it would be a victory for the team if it can just get through the season’s last few weeks without suffering any more injuries or wearing out any of its remaining healthy players.
Wizards Notes: Smart, Middleton, Sarr, Vukcevic, Brogdon, Coulibaly
Trade-deadline acquisitions Marcus Smart and Khris Middleton have had a positive impact on the Wizards so far. As Varun Shankar of The Washington Post writes, the two veterans have been active for the same seven games since debuting on February 21 and the team has gone 4-3 in those contests. Washington was 9-45 before the duo suited up and has lost the two games Smart and Middleton have missed since then.
Monday’s game vs. Toronto represented the second time in recent weeks that Smart and Middleton have been held out of one end of a back-to-back set for “injury management.” The Wizards have dropped those two matchups, to the Magic and Raptors, by 20 and 15 points, respectively.
While head coach Brian Keefe didn’t say on Monday whether he’d continue to sit Smart and Middleton in back-to-backs for the rest of the season, the Wizards likely won’t go out of their way to make those veterans more available, given the impact they’ve had on winning and the importance of lottery positioning. Washington has had the NBA’s worst record for nearly the entire season, but is now just a game behind Utah and 2.5 games behind Charlotte in the standings.
Here’s more on the Wizards:
- Keefe experimented on Monday with playing centers Alex Sarr and Tristan Vukcevic at the same time and liked what he saw during those seven minutes, as Shankar relays. “They complement each other offensively, and I thought they could complement each other defensively,” Keefe said of the young bigs. “So I wanted to see what that looked like. I thought they did a good job during that little stint.” Vukcevic said he was “a bit surprised” to be playing power forward, but appreciated the opportunity to try something new. “That’s something that (the Cavaliers are) doing, and it’s working out for them. So it would be great if it could work out for us,” he said.
- Veteran guard Malcolm Brogdon, who has been on the shelf since February 12 with a left ankle sprain, has been doing on-court work in recent days, including after the team’s shootaround on Monday, per Shankar. However, Keefe declined to give a timetable for Brogdon’s potential return.
- In an in-depth story for RG.org, Spencer Davies takes a closer look at Bilal Coulibaly‘s second year in the NBA, noting that the forward’s efficiency numbers (.421 FG%, .281 3PT%) have dropped in large part due to a more challenging shot profile and suggesting that the Wizards remain bullish on the 20-year-old’s potential. “I know they believe in me,” Coulibaly told Davies. “They are telling me that every single day, so it feels really good. For me and just my confidence, having guys that believe in me makes me believe in myself too.”
- Coulibaly took a hard fall in the first quarter of Monday’s loss vs. Toronto after being fouled on a dunk attempt by Raptors forward Jamison Battle (video link). The Wizards have listed him as out for Tuesday’s matchup with Detroit due to a right hip contusion, according to Josh Robbins of The Athletic (Twitter link), who says it’s fortunate the second-year forward didn’t injure his head, neck, or back, given how scary it looked in real time.
Raptors’ Walter At Risk Of Missing Rest Of Season?
Raptors guard Ja’Kobe Walter has missed the past two games due to what the team first listed as a right quad strain before updating the diagnosis to a right hip flexor injury.
As Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca relays (via Twitter), the latest formal update from the Raptors indicates that Walter is currently limited to stand-still shooting and will be reevaluated in a couple days. However, Grange has heard that the rookie has a Grade 2 strain in his quad/hip area, which could sideline him for the next month.
Given that the regular season wraps up on April 13, it’s possible Walter won’t return in 2024/25 if that timeline turns out to be accurate, Grange adds.
The 19th overall pick in the 2024 draft, Walter missed most of his first month due to AC joint (shoulder) issues, but has been relatively healthy since returning on November 27. In 44 total appearances (11 starts), the former Baylor standout has averaged 7.8 points, 2.9 rebounds, and 1.3 assists in 20.0 minutes per night, with a shooting line of .405/.312/.746.
The 20-year-old has a guaranteed $3.64MM salary for next season and the Raptors will have to decide by October 31, 2025 whether or not to exercise his $3.81MM team option for 2026/27.
While Walter hasn’t had an especially memorable rookie year, he has flashed some promise for the rebuilding Raptors in recent weeks, including scoring 17 and 14 points in his two most recent healthy games last Tuesday and Friday, so it looks like a safe bet that his ’26/27 option will be picked up.
Revised Bids From Prospective Celtics Owners Due Friday
This Friday, March 14, represents the next key deadline in the Celtics‘ sale process, according to Scott Soshnick and Eben Novy-Williams of Sportico, who report that prospective owners have until the end of the day on Friday to submit their revised bids for the franchise.
The deadline for potential buyers to submit their initial offers was January 23. Reports at the time indicated that at least four or five groups were expected to put forth bids. Sportico’s latest update suggests that as many as four groups may still be involved in the process.
The Celtics’ majority ownership group first announced last July 1 that it would be putting control of the franchise up for sale. The plan laid out at that time was to sell a majority share (ie. 51%) of the team in late 2024 or early 2025, with Celtics governor Wyc Grousbeck remaining in his current role until the balance of the sale is completed in 2028.
While we don’t know for sure which groups remain involved in the bidding, it has been reported consistently throughout the process that current Celtics minority stakeholder Steve Pagliuca is interested in assuming control of the team. According to Soshnick and Novy-Williams, Pagliuca’s group is a “near certainty” to be among those submitting a revised bid by the end of this week and is considered by some industry sources to be the frontrunner.
Jeffrey Lurie, the owner of the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles, was rumored to be one of the parties involved in the bidding process prior to the Jan. 23 deadline, but Lurie denied during his Super Bowl media session that he has interest in taking control of the Celtics or any other NBA team.
Another current minority stakeholder, Robert Hale, expressed interest in becoming majority owner or joining a group in October, and said in the lead-up to the January 23 deadline that he was “still hanging around the hoop.” Mark Bezos, the founding partner of HighPost Capital private equity group and the half-brother of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, was also rumored to be among the possible bidders.
During the site’s latest round of NBA franchise valuations, Sportico estimated that the Celtics are worth $5.66 billion. According to Soshnick and Novy-Williams, people in the industry are especially curious to see what the final sale price for the Celtics will be since the team doesn’t own its arena (TD Garden) and only has a limited stake (20%) in its regional sports partner, NBC Sports Boston.
Hoops Rumors Front Office Subscriber Chat Transcript: 3/11/2025
Hoops Rumors’ Arthur Hill held a live chat today exclusively for Trade Rumors Front Office subscribers. Topics included the dangers to the Lakers of a prolonged LeBron James absence, the state of the MVP race, the Mavericks' options to tank or fight for a play-in spot, impactful trade deadline deals and more! Use the link below to read the transcript.
Southwest Notes: Tate, Spencer, Morant, Mavs, Zion
Jae’Sean Tate only played the final 2:27 of the Rockets‘ win over Orlando on Monday, but it was a big night for the veteran forward. As Bobby Marks of ESPN tweets, Tate earned a $500K bonus as a result of Houston’s victory.
Tate’s contract includes language that assures him of that bonus if the Rockets win at least 40 regular season games, and Monday’s win was their 40th of the season. Since Houston finished last season with a 41-41 record, the bonus had been considered “likely” and was already incorporated into Tate’s cap hit, so the fact that he earned it again won’t affect Houston’s cap situation.
Here’s more from around the Southwest:
- Grizzlies rookie Cam Spencer had the best game of his young career on Monday, scoring a season-high 16 points in 20 minutes to help Memphis eke out a win over Phoenix and talking trash to Suns star Kevin Durant along the way, as Damichael Cole of The Memphis Commercial Appeal details.“He’s psycho,” teammate Ja Morant told Grind City Media in his post-game interview. “But I love it though.” Morant added that he planned cover the $2,000 fine that will accompany the technical foul Spencer received following his interaction with Durant.
- With just eight healthy players available on Monday, including one (Caleb Martin) on a minutes restriction and none over 6’8″, the Mavericks were still able to pull out a win over San Antonio, pushing their lead over Phoenix for the No. 10 seed in the West back to 2.5 games. “High school, that’s what it feels like sometimes, because we’re so small,” Klay Thompson said, per Eddie Sefko of Mavs.com. “But we got a lot of heart. So, heart over height, you know?”
- Rod Walker of NOLA.com argues that the Pelicans are doing their fans a disservice by sitting star forward Zion Williamson in New Orleans in instances where they have back-to-back sets consisting of one road game and one home game. While Walker’s argument is understandable, it’s worth noting that the NBA’s player participation policy, which applies this season to Williamson, discourages teams from resting players on the road.
Injury Notes: J. Williams, Haliburton, Porzingis, Beal
A Monday loss to Denver won’t hurt the Thunder in the standings at all, given that they still hold an 11-game lead on their Northwest rivals. But a loss that occurred in the second quarter of the game may be of greater concern for the Thunder — forward Jalen Williams sustained a right hip injury and was ruled out for the second half due to a hip strain, per Tim MacMahon of ESPN.
According to MacMahon, Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault didn’t have any additional details on Williams’ injury after the game, simply telling reporters that the 23-year-old would be evaluated on Tuesday. Once that evaluation is completed, the team should have a better idea of how much time – if any – Williams will have to miss.
The 12th overall pick in the 2022 draft, Williams quickly emerged as a full-time starter and crucial contributor for the West’s top team. In 61 games this season, he’s averaging career highs of 21.3 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 5.3 assists per contest.
Here are a few more health-related updates from around the NBA:
- Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton missed a third consecutive game on Monday due to a left hip flexor strain, as Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star writes. “Tyrese is not ready,” head coach Rick Carlisle said during his pregame media session. “He’s out. He’s getting closer, he’s just not there yet. Not sure where this is going to be (Tuesday for the home game against the Bucks) but today is not the day.” Indiana is now 0-4 without Haliburton available this season, so the team will be hoping his absence doesn’t last much longer.
- Celtics big man Kristaps Porzingis has now been out for six consecutive games and nearly two full weeks due to illness. He took to Twitter on Monday to explain his lengthy layoff. “I have been dealing with some viral illness that we haven’t been able to fully identify yet,” Porzingis wrote. “I am recovering and getting better. But still working my way back to full strength to help this team. Thanks for support and I’m hoping for a healthy return soon.”
- Suns guard Bradley Beal was held out of the second end of a back-to-back set on Monday as the team continues to manage his calf, says Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic. Beal missed five games in November with a left calf strain and two more in late February with left calf tightness. The club will continue to keep an eye on that issue going forward, Rankin adds, so it’s possible the veteran will continue to miss the occasional game down the stretch.
Bulls’ Josh Giddey Sprains Right Ankle
Bulls point guard Josh Giddey exited Monday’s win over Indiana with over seven minutes left in the fourth quarter after rolling his right ankle. The Bulls subsequently ruled him out for the rest of the contest due to an ankle sprain.
The injury occurred after a shot attempt near the basket when Giddey’s right foot landed on the foot of Pacers wing Ben Sheppard (Twitter video link). The Bulls guard immediately limped off the court and headed to the locker room.
The ankle is the same one that Giddey injured while playing for the Australian national team at the Olympics last summer. He was in a walking boot after the game, tweets K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Sports Network.
“He had a game a couple games ago where he kind of rolled it a little bit, but not too bad,” head coach Billy Donovan said on Monday night, per The Associated Press. “This one you could just tell, it was pretty painful the way he came up. So, obviously I’m concerned, but I just don’t know to what degree it is.”
Donovan said it may take “a day or two” before the Bulls have a clearer picture of the severity of the sprain.
It’s unfortunate timing for Giddey, who has been playing some of the best basketball of his career in recent weeks and scored a season-high 29 points on Monday. In nine games since the All-Star break, the 22-year-old has averaged 23.1 points, 10.9 rebounds, and 8.4 assists per game, with a .522/.525/.865 shooting line.
“He’s been really good at playing to his strengths,” Donovan said of his point guard, according to Annie Constabile of The Chicago Sun-Times. “He’s really balanced his ability to pass the ball, and then his ability to score. The shots he’s getting and generating, the shots he’s looking to take, are higher-quality shots for him.”
Giddey will be eligible for restricted free agency this summer. Although he got off to a shaky start in his first year as a Bull, scoring just 11.2 PPG on .432/.319/.744 shooting in his first 39 games, his uptick in production over the past month or two has increased his value heading into the offseason and has likely helped cement his place as a building block in Chicago going forward.
“I’ll let (the front office) handle that,” Donovan said of Giddey’s contract situation. “(I) certainly have had conversations with Josh about it. But I think the idea of trading for him and having him come here was going to be for him to be here on an extended period of time. … Everybody here feels good about Josh as a player — what he’s been able to do and hopefully what he can continue to do.”