Blazers Notes: First Half, Billups, Cissoko, Clingan
After winning just 21 games in 2023/24, the Trail Blazers have surpassed that total by the All-Star break this season. Their 23-33 record doesn’t put them in the mix for a playoff spot, but they’ve won 10 of 14 games since going 13-28 in the first half and are pleased with where they’re at heading into the break, writes Sean Highkin of the Rose Garden Report (Substack link).
“I’m very happy with where we are right now,” head coach Chauncey Billups said. “I’m happy with where we are as a group. Our young guys continue to take steps.”
“Happier than last year, for sure,” forward Toumani Camara added.
The Trail Blazers went 10-1 from January 19 to February 6 and have since lost three consecutive games as injuries sidelined multiple starters. Even in those losses, Billups likes the effort he has seen from his team.
“I’m so proud of these dudes,” Billups said after 132-121 defeat at the hands of the Nuggets on Wednesday. “This is a game that, in December or November, could be a 40-point loss. But our dudes fought their butts off. I was so happy for them.”
Here’s more on the Blazers:
- Has Portland’s strong play over the past month – and positive player development over the course of the season – put Billups in position to earn a new contract with the team? Aaron Fentress of The Oregonian considers that question, noting that Billups is in the final guaranteed year of his current deal, with a team option for 2025/26. The Blazers’ coach said he wants to see the rebuild through and believes he’s made a strong case to stick around. “Me personally, I definitely think that I’ve done enough,” Billups said. “But I’m also not about to petition for that. I’m not gonna do that. I feel like I’ve done enough. I feel like I’ve developed a ton myself, which needed to happen.”
- As Highkin writes for the Rose Garden Report (Substack link), the Blazers long had interest in Sidy Cissoko before signing him to a two-year, two-way contract last week. The team brought Cissoko in for a pre-draft workout in 2023 and assistant GM Mike Schmitz projected him the French wing a first-round pick during his previous job as a draft analyst for ESPN. “They were interested in me since I got to the league,” Cissoko said, adding that he’s excited to reunite with former G League Ignite teammate Scoot Henderson. “The Spurs drafted me, but we still had a good relationship. The day I was waived, my agent talked to them and they said they wanted me.”
- On Wednesday, having returned to the starting lineup following Deandre Ayton‘s calf injury, first-year center Donovan Clingan became the first Blazers rookie since Sam Bowie in 1985 to grab 20 rebounds in a single game, Fentress writes. Ten of those 20 rebounds came on the offensive end. “I loved these couple games (in Denver) for DC,” Billups said. “I thought it was excellent. He’s gotten himself back to where he was when he was playing at a pretty high level early before he got injured.”
Sixers Promote Jared Butler To Standard Roster
7:54 pm: The Sixers have officially signed Butler to a standard contract, the team announced in a press release.
To make room on the roster, Okeke has been released early from his 10-day contract. He’ll become a free agent immediately, without passing through waivers.
5:16 pm: The Sixers are converting Jared Butler‘s two-way contract to a standard deal and will promote him to their 15-man roster, agent Mark Bartelstein tells Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).
According to Charania, Butler is receiving a two-year contract. It will be worth the minimum, since that’s all Philadelphia can offer at this point.
Butler, a 6’3″ guard in his fourth NBA season, was traded from the Wizards by the Sixers, along with four second-round picks, at last week’s deadline in a deal that sent Reggie Jackson and a first-rounder to Washington. This will be the first instance in league history of a team trading for a player on a two-way deal and then promoting him to a standard contract.
A former Baylor standout, Butler averaged 6.9 points, 2.6 assists, and 1.3 rebounds in 11.3 minutes per game across 32 outings off the bench with the Wizards, posting a shooting line of .483/.366/.778.
The 24-year-old has been part of the rotation in his first three games as a Sixer, earning a start on Wednesday in Brooklyn. He has averaged 10.0 PPG, 4.7 APG, and 2.7 RPG in 17.1 MPG so far for his new team.
The 76ers currently have a full 15-man roster, but two of those 15 players are on 10-day contracts. Chuma Okeke‘s deal runs through Sunday, while David Roddy‘s runs through next Thursday. Since Okeke’s contract will expire before the club’s next game, it seems likely Butler will be taking his spot on the roster.
Another Sixers two-way player, Justin Edwards, was promoted to the standard roster last week on a two-year, minimum-salary contract of his own — that deal included a second-year team option, which the club could decline this summer in order to re-sign Edwards to a longer-term contract as a restricted free agent.
It’s possible Butler’s new deal will also include a team option for 2025/26, though that’s just my speculation, since we don’t know the full details yet.
No Front Office Changes Planned For Bulls
The Bulls have no plans to replace executive VP of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas as their lead front office executive, a team source tells Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times, who says general manager Marc Eversley and head coach Billy Donovan are likely just as safe as Karnisovas.
According to Cowley, there has been a “reoccurring edict” from team ownership to the front office to fix a roster that has finished in the middle of the pack for several years running. However, the Reinsdorfs (chairman Jerry Reinsdorf and president Michael Reinsdorf) still believe that Karnisovas is the right man for that job.
As for Donovan, he’s well-liked by both the front office and Bulls ownership, Cowley writes, noting that the organization’s top decision-makers have been impressed by the way the veteran coach transformed the club’s offense this season — Chicago ranks third in the NBA in pace in 2024/25 after placing 28th last season. Bulls management has also taken note of the strong relationships Donovan has developed in the locker room, Cowley adds.
Karnisovas, who was hired by the Bulls in 2020, made an in-season trade this month for the first time since an eventful 2021 deadline that saw Chicago land Nikola Vucevic. After spending more than a year on the trade block, Zach LaVine was sent from Chicago to Sacramento last week in a deal that saw Chicago reacquire control of its 2025 first-round pick.
Of course, as Cowley observes, there’s a case to be made that the LaVine trade was more about undoing previous moves, including LaVine’s maximum-salary contract and the 2022 acquisition of DeMar DeRozan in which the Bulls gave up that ’25 first-rounder. The Bulls also ended up hanging onto the rest of their trade candidates, including Vucevic, at last Thursday’s deadline.
Still, now that they’ve regained control of their 2025 first-rounder, the Bulls are well positioned to add another young player this June to a core that includes rookie forward Matas Buzelis. While Karnisovas told reporters last week that he’d like to see his team make a playoff push, Cowley says the front office wants to maximize its draft odds but can’t say so publicly.
If moving up the lottery order is the Bulls’ goal, they’ve been going in the “right” direction as of late, having lost their last four games by an average of 24.5 points per contest. Chicago’s 22-33 record is the eighth-worst mark in the league and the team is currently just 1.5 games ahead of the 20-34 Sixers and Nets.
Cavs’ Thompson Responds After Raptors Criticize ‘Disrespectful’ Late-Game Dunk
An otherwise straightforward Cavaliers blowout of the Raptors in Toronto on Wednesday in the teams’ final game before the All-Star break got a little heated in the final seconds of the fourth quarter.
With the Cavaliers up by 21 points and holding the ball with the shot clock off, veteran center Tristan Thompson drove to the basket and threw down a two-handed dunk with just 4.1 seconds left in the game to extend the lead to 23 (Twitter video link). As the Raptors inbounded the ball and ran out the clock, the home fans booed Thompson, who was confronted after the final buzzer by Toronto forward Scottie Barnes and guard Jamal Shead.
Following some brief shoving, players and coaches from both teams converged to separate Thompson and the Raptors as the two sides exchanged words. Toronto head coach Darko Rajakovic criticized the Cavs big man after the game for what he viewed as an unnecessary exclamation point on Cleveland’s victory.
“I think what Tristan did there was no class and disrespectful,” Rajakovic said (Twitter video link via The Toronto Star). “I’m not going to stand for that, for sure. I’m really glad that our guys, our players – Jamal, Scottie, and everybody else – that they stood up for themselves. I love when my team stands up for themselves. That was no class act.”
While Barnes didn’t speak to the media after the game, Shead agreed with his coach, telling reporters that the play was “a little bit disrespectful to the game of basketball, not just us,” per ESPN.
Raptors forward RJ Barrett noted that it’s “kind of an unwritten rule” not to try to run up the score in that situation, and even Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson didn’t exactly come rushing to the defense of his player.
“I’m not sure what he was thinking,” Atkinson said, according to ESPN. “Sometimes, though, you’re playing the game, and you just have a reaction. I know with Tristan, there’s no bad intention there. I think just sometimes you’re playing, and the goal of the game is to score. Unfortunate.”
For his part, Thompson – a Toronto native who has played almost exclusively in garbage time for the 44-10 Cavs this season – took to Twitter on Thursday to respond to Rajakovic’s comments and explain his actions.
“You wanna full court press with under a minute left in the game when you get cracked by 30 this will happen to you,” Thompson wrote. “Lose for draft lottery and be happy buddy boy. Hopefully you and most of your guys see the light at the end of (GM) Bobby (Webster) and (president) Masai (Ujiri‘s) long term plan. Bless up stay warm in MY CITY.”
While it’s possible the brief post-game confrontation will result in a fine or two, it didn’t rise to the level to warrant a suspension for any of the players involved.
Injury Notes: George, Hayes, Lewis, Capela, Brogdon
Paul George‘s first season in Philadelphia certainly has not gone the way either party envisioned when the nine-time All-Star signed a four-year, maximum-salary contract with the Sixers last summer.
The 34-year-old forward has missed 19 of the team’s 54 games to this point due to knee, groin, ankle and finger injuries, and he hasn’t been effective lately when active, recording just two points on 1-of-7 shooting in 37 minutes during Wednesday’s loss to Brooklyn. After dropping five straight, the 76ers are now tied with the Nets for the sixth-worst record in the NBA.
Appearing on NBA Today on Thursday (Twitter video link), ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that George, who has been playing through tendon damage in his left pinky finger, has been receiving injections just to suit up over the past week.
“He’s been doing what he can to be on the court and to try to be available,” Charania said. “I’m told that it’s to the point where he gotten injections to play and compete over the last four or five games. That’s something that players do come playoff time, not necessarily in the regular season.
“ … We can tell that he’s not 100 percent. … Clearly, there’s something that’s been amiss with him, with his body, and we’re seeing that play out. The Sixers, there’s going to be a point in time here where … they’re going to have to have some hard conversations about availability and potentially maybe even shutting a guy or two down in the second half of the season.”
Here are a few more injury notes from around the NBA:
- Already thin on frontcourt depth, the Lakers lost starting center Jaxson Hayes to a facial contusion in Wednesday’s loss to Utah, as Jovan Buha of The Athletic relays (via Twitter). It’s unclear whether he’ll have to miss time as a result of the injury or if he’ll be able to recover during the All-Star break.
- Six weeks after fracturing his left tibia in his Nets debut, second-year wing Maxwell Lewis was able to return to action on Wednesday vs. Philadelphia, writes Brian Lewis of The New York Post. The 2023 second-round pick only played 27 seconds to wrap up the victory, but he was grateful to be back on an NBA court so soon after a scary-looking injury. “I’m just blessed and glad it’s over,” Lewis said. “Now, I get to at least start what I was starting when it first happened on Jan. 1, just getting back to playing and my routine. It’s great. I’m blessed to be back.”
- The Hawks lost a couple of rotation players to multi-week injuries on Wednesday, but they’re expected to have Clint Capela back after the All-Star break, according to Brad Rowland of Locked On Hawks (Twitter link). The veteran center has missed Atlanta’s last nine games due to a back injury.
- Wizards guard Malcolm Brogdon had to be helped off the court in the fourth quarter of Wednesday’s overtime loss to Indiana due to a left leg injury, per ESPN.com. The former Sixth Man of the Year winner was unable to put weight on his injured leg, which is never a great sign.
Patrick Beverley Parts Ways With Hapoel Tel Aviv
Veteran guard Patrick Beverley has officially parted ways with Hapoel Tel Aviv, with the Israeli team describing the move as a mutual decision, according to BasketNews.com.
A former second-round pick, Beverley started his career in Europe, playing three seasons overseas before a 12-year run in the NBA. He was unable to find a new team in 2024 free agency after playing for the 76ers and Bucks last season, eventually joining Hapoel Tel Aviv, which competes domestically in the Israeli premier league and internationally in the EuroCup.
As BasketNews notes, Beverley recently had a public spat with Dimitris Itoudis, drawing a suspension for mocking the club’s head coach on social media. He didn’t play another game for Hapoel Tel Aviv after the incident.
In 14 EuroCup games in 2024/25, the 36-year-old averaged 10.7 points, 4.1 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 1.4 steals on .410/.353/.968 shooting. Beverley averaged 9.4 points, 3.3 rebounds and 3.1 assists on .492/.405/.750 shooting in nine games in the Israeli Premier League.
It’s possible that Beverley could receive some NBA interest now that he’s a free agent again.
Hoops Rumors Chat Transcript: 2/13/2025
Hoops Rumors hosted a live chat today at 2:00 pm Central time (3:00 pm Eastern).
And-Ones: Anthony, Curry, Ionescu, Thornwell, Cook
NBC Sports is hiring former NBA star Carmelo Anthony to be one of the network’s top studio analysts when it starts broadcasting games again next season, reports Andrew Marchand of The Athletic.
According to Marchand, NBC recently had discussions with Charles Barkley, but those talks have ended. Barkley, a Hall-of-Famer and longtime analyst for TNT, will continue his role on “Inside the NBA” as part of an agreement with ABC/ESPN, even though TNT lost its broadcast rights for 2025/26.
Marchand also hears that current ESPN analyst Richard Jefferson has drawn interest from Amazon for next season. ’25/26 will be the first season in which Amazon has the broadcast rights for NBA games.
Here’s more from around the basketball world:
- Warriors guard Stephen Curry and New York Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu were expected to have a rematch after last year’s well-received three-point shootout at All-Star weekend. However, that won’t take place this weekend in San Francisco after all, according to Joe Vardon and Anthony Slater of The Athletic. “We weren’t able to land on a plan we thought would raise the bar off of last year’s special moment,” NBA spokesman Mike Bass said in a statement. “We all agreed not to proceed and will instead keep the focus on All-Star Sunday’s new format.” Vardon and Slater hear that Curry and Ionescu were only interested in holding the event if it was expanded to feature more NBA and WNBA players; those plans essentially fell through when Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark announced that she wanted to focus on the WNBA’s three-point contest in Indianapolis later this year.
- Former NBA guard/forward Sindarius Thornwell has left Zastal Zielona Góra to join the Xinjiang Flying Tigers of the Chinese Basketball Association, the Polish team announced (via Twitter). According to Zastal, Thornwell was technically bought out of his contract after a lucrative offer from the Flying Tigers (hat tip to Sportando). A former second-round pick, the 30-year-old wing spent four seasons in the NBA, last suiting up for Orlando during the ’20/21 campaign.
- Thornwell isn’t the only former NBA player heading to China, as veteran guard Quinn Cook has agreed to a rest-of-season deal with the Fujian Sturgeons, agent Zac Benalloul tells Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link). Cook, 31, won a pair of championships with the Warriors and Lakers over the course of his five years in the league (from 2016-21). The former Duke Blue Devil played in Puerto Rico and Taiwan last season. This will be his second stint in the CBA.
Nuggets Notes: Murray, Jokic, Westbrook, Pickett, Strawther
Nuggets guard Jamal Murray made up for being ejected from Monday’s game against Portland by scoring a career-high 55 points in Wednesday’s rematch with the Blazers. Murray exchanged trash talk with Portland on Monday, earning technical fouls in the third and fourth quarters of the game.
“They shouldn’t have done that,” big man Zeke Nnaji said of the Blazers’ trash talk, per ESPN.com. “When he’s mad, there’s no one in the world that can stop him.”
In part due to Murray’s strong play, the Nuggets have now won eight straight games and trail Memphis by just a half-game for the No. 2 seed in the West. Murray shot 20-of-36 from the field, including 7-of-15 from three-point range, in 42 minutes on Wednesday. Denver outscored Portland by 26 points when he was on the court in the 11-point victory.
“It’s just all competitive spirit,” Murray said. “I came ready to play. Especially just being used to the playoffs and playing the same team over and over, and they know your plays and things get chippy and you have to see them again. So, I think just that kind of factor made me ready to go. I was truly prepared today.”
As ESPN’s story notes, Murray’s scoring outburst — the third-highest mark in franchise history — overshadowed Nikola Jokic‘s 25th triple-double of the season. Only Oscar Robertson (28 in 1961/62) and Russell Westbrook (27 in ’16/17) have recorded more triple-doubles before the All-Star break than Jokic has in ’24/25, per ESPN Research.
“Please, let’s never take Nikola’s greatness for granted,” head coach Michael Malone said. “We are witnessing history every single night. I don’t take it for granted. He’s incredible, and I really feel fortunate and blessed to have coached him for 10 years now.”
Here’s more on the Nuggets:
- Malone told reporters on Wednesday, including Bennett Durando of The Denver Post (subscriber link), that Westbrook should return to action after the All-Star break. The former league MVP, who is on a two-year, veteran’s minimum deal with Denver, has missed the past seven games with a left hamstring strain. “Everything’s pointing forward to him being able to use this break, use this stretch of games when he’s been out rehabbing, to come out of the break and be active and be available,” Malone said.
- After a storied five-year college career, second-year guard Jalen Pickett found himself outside of the Nuggets’ rotation as a rookie in ’23/24 and to open ’24/25. However, he has been been a steady hand of late for the second unit with Westbrook out, according to Durando (subscription required). “I’ve had a rough last year. And you’ve gotta just love that, being able to go through some challenges, find things that you’re good at,” Pickett said. “After such a successful college career, coming here and just basically starting over, it was tough at first. And then I just kind of fell in love with the grind, and just getting back in the gym and seeing where I could take my game.”
- Will second-year wing Julian Strawther be part of Denver’s playoff rotation? Durando explores that topic in another subscriber-only story for The Denver Post. “He’s still a young player, and so you see the inconsistencies,” Malone said. “Two games ago, his first start, he’s down on himself, doesn’t play as well as we know he’s capable of playing. Doesn’t make shots. Then he rebounds in his second start. … I think for all young players, you go back to all guys, early stages are up and down. You have to live with those. Obviously, if and when we get to the playoffs, we’ll figure all that out. But he’s an important piece. He’s a guy that we, whether he’s starting or coming off the bench, we need him to be aggressive.”
Hornets Waive Two-Way Player Isaiah Wong
The Hornets have waived two-way player Isaiah Wong, according to a team press release.
Wong appeared in 20 games with the Hornets this season, averaging 6.0 points, 1.6 rebounds and 1.4 assists in 13.3 minutes per game. Wong, who also appeared in six G League games this season, signed a two-way contract with the Hornets on Dec. 2. At that time, he agreed to a two-year deal that covered the 2025/26 season as well as the rest of ’24/25.
Charlotte has been tinkering with its roster in recent days. It promoted Moussa Diabate from a two-way deal to a standard contract over the weekend. The Hornets then signed Damion Baugh to a two-way contract on Wednesday.
Due to numerous injuries to rotation players, Wong had appeared in 10 games since Jan. 22. He played 16 minutes on Wednesday against Orlando and scored seven points.
Wong was drafted in the second round in 2023 by Indiana out of Miami (Fla.). He was playing for Utah’s G League team, the Salt Lake City Stars, when the Hornets offered him a contract. With the All-Star break coming up, there’s no immediate need for the Hornets to fill the two-way spot.