A pair of star players were injured during separate games on Monday, with Nuggets point guard Jamal Murray exiting an eventual loss to Dallas with a right ankle sprain, while Suns shooting guard Devin Booker sustained a right groin injury in the road contest at the Lakers (Twitter links via the Nuggets and Dave McMenamin of ESPN).
Murray, who is a candidate to make his first All-Star appearance this season, was deemed questionable to return Monday but didn’t play at all in the fourth quarter. The Nuggets were up two points entering the final frame and wound up losing by 10 without their second-leading scorer.
It’s unclear if Murray will miss additional time with his ankle injury. Bruce Brown and Tim Hardaway Jr. will likely receive more minutes if the Canadian guard is ruled out of future games.
Denver is fairly banged up right now, with starters Aaron Gordon and Christian Braun out multiple weeks due to their own injuries and third-year wing Julian Strawther continuing to miss time with a back issue.
As for Booker, he was ruled out at halftime of the game in Los Angeles. According to John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 (Twitter link), all the Suns know so far is the four-time All-Star experienced soreness in his groin.
Phoenix’s all-time leading scorer has yet to miss a game in 2025/26 after making 75 appearances last season. Through 21 games, the 29-year-old is averaging team highs of 25.7 points and 6.9 assists while also contributing 4.4 rebounds and 1.0 steal per night.
Collin Gillespie, Jordan Goodwin, and Jamaree Bouyea are among the Suns who could take on additional play-making duties with Booker out at least the remainder of Monday’s game.
The Suns are also shorthanded, as Jalen Green continues to be sidelined with a hamstring strain he has aggravated multiple times. Second-year forward Ryan Dunn did return to action on Monday after missing the past five games with a sprained right wrist, though Grayson Allen was ruled out with an illness.
Third-year guard Marcus Sasser, who has yet to play in 2025/26 after sustaining a right hip impingement during the preseason, has been assigned to the G League to practice with the Motor City Cruise, the Pistons announced today (Twitter link via Hunter Patterson of The Athletic).
Just over three weeks ago, Detroit said Sasser would be reevaluated in about four weeks, so that exam should come in the near future. Given that he’s getting some practice reps in with the Cruise, Sasser’s season debut may not be far off either.
After a strong rookie year, the 25-year-old point guard was in and out of the rotation out last season. He wound up appearing in 57 games and averaging 6.6 points, 1.2 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 14.2 minutes per night, with a shooting line of .463/.382/.843.
Here are a few more injury updates from around the NBA:
Star guard James Harden remains confident the struggling Clippers can turn things around after a disappointing 5-13 start to the season, writes Janis Carr of The Orange County Register. Los Angeles has a pair of seemingly winnable matchups on tap, facing Memphis (7-12) on Friday and then Dallas (5-14) on Saturday.
“What else are we going to do? Confidence (comes) every day when we wake up, right?” the 12-time All-Star said after the Clippers’ 135-118 loss to the Lakers on Tuesday. “We got a lot of games left where we can hit a stride, but we’ve dealt with literally everything you can do from injuries to different lineup changes. …We’re figuring it out. But tonight was a good step, start for us.”
According to Law Murray of The Athletic (Twitter link), Harden is dealing foot soreness but he is not listed on Friday’s injury report. Veteran wing Bogdan Bogdanovic has been ruled out for a fourth consecutive game due to a left hip contusion, Murray adds.
Here’s more from the Pacific Division:
Suns guard Grayson Allen is missing his sixth straight game tonight with a right quad contusion, but the team is hoping he can return this weekend, according to Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic (Twitter link). Phoenix plays at Oklahoma City Friday night, then returns home to face Denver on Saturday, so it’s possible Allen could be cleared for at least one of those games.
“Thought it was day-to-day,” coach Jordan Ott said in Wednesday’s pregame press conference. “It’s dragged on a little bit. It was just not your average quad contusion. He got a good one, but he’s still making progress. The goal is to continue to assess, see the progress that he makes day-to-day and get him out there this weekend.”
Allen played an important role in the Suns’ strong start, averaging 18.5 points per game while shooting 46.8% from the field and 44.7% from three-point range. He got hurt in a November 13 game, and team doctors eventually realized the injury was more severe than it first appeared.
“The last couple of days where it’s like, OK, he’s making progress, but he’s not out there with us,” Ott said. “He had swelling. We don’t know exactly how long it was going to take. He’s still in a good place. Just now we’re not practicing, there are so many of these games you don’t seem him out there to go up and down, 5-on-5, but he did his stuff post shootaround today. The goal is to get him out there as fast as possible.”
There’s more from the Pacific Division:
Jalen Green won’t be ready to make his Suns debut when the team’s regular season schedule opens next Wednesday, according to head coach Jordan Ott. Prior to Tuesday’s preseason finale against the Lakers, Ott told reporters – including Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic – that Green aggravated the hamstring injury he sustained early in training camp.
“We all know the soft tissue injuries are really hard to see exactly the progress,” Ott said. “Obviously it’s frustrating, but this is all part of it. Thankfully we caught it early, it’s not that serious, but he wants to be out there. New teammates, new system. There’s just other ways. We’re going to have to speed him up. That’s the reality of it. He did a great job in the China trip hanging in there with us.”
Ott initially described Green’s injury in early October as a “low grade” hamstring strain. The reaggravation occurred during the team’s trip to China for a pair of exhibition games against Brooklyn, preventing the newly acquired guard from suiting up in any of Phoenix’s four preseason contests.
Green will be reevaluated in 10 days, Ott said on Tuesday. That means he’ll miss the team’s regular season opener against Sacramento next Wednesday, but might have a chance to play in one game of a back-to-back set next Friday and Saturday against the Clippers and Nuggets.
Green spent the first four years of his NBA career in Houston before being sent to Phoenix along with Dillon Brooks in the blockbuster Kevin Durant trade over the summer. Injuries were rarely an issue for the former No. 2 overall pick during his time as a Rocket — he has appeared in all 82 regular season games in each of the past two seasons and hasn’t missed a game since February 2023.
Suns center Mark Williams also didn’t play in any of the club’s four preseason contests, but that was part of a plan designed to ramp him up for the start of the regular season. He has been playing live 5-on-5, Ott said on Tuesday, per Rankin.
While they rested some of their regulars on Tuesday, the Suns have been rolling with a starting lineup of Devin Booker, Brooks, Grayson Allen, Ryan Dunn, and Oso Ighodaro for most of the preseason. Williams would presumably replace Ighodaro if he’s ready to go for the start of the season, while Green would likely step in for either Allen or Dunn once he’s cleared to return.
The rotation the Thunder use this fall will look awfully similar to the one that won a championship earlier in the year, but there could be one notable new addition. Nikola Topic, the 2024 lottery pick who missed his entire rookie season due to a torn ACL, has impressed his teammates in training camp as he makes a bid for regular playing time, writes Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman (subscription required).
“It really stands out the way he sees the game,” Chet Holmgren said of the Serbian point guard. “Even without the ball in his hands, the way he cuts and finds open space. Sees plays up ahead of him and gets the ball out of his hands early. It’s impressive for a young guy, but that’s what got him noticed in the first place is his ability to see and read the game.”
Teammate Jaylin Williams also expressed admiration for Topic’s court vision and awareness: “You can see he really reads the game. Great passer, great facilitator out there.”
All 12 players who averaged at least 16 minutes per game for the Thunder last season are still on the roster, and all 12 except for Kenrich Williams (knee surgery) are healthy, so it remains to be seen whether Topic will be able to crack the regular season rotation.
However, he should get plenty of opportunities to show what he can do during Oklahoma City’s preseason schedule, which tips off on Sunday, Mussatto notes. According to head coach Mark Daigneault (Twitter video link via Rod Boone of The Charlotte Observer), several of the Thunder’s top players didn’t travel to South Carolina for Sunday’s preseason opener, the first game in a back-to-back set.
We have more from around the Western Conference:
The Suns have exercised their 2026/27 rookie scale team option for forward Ryan Dunn, Spotrac contributor Keith Smith tweets.
Phoenix had until the end of the month to decide whether to pick up Dunn’s $2,784,240 salary for next season.
Dunn, the 28th pick of the 2024 draft, had a solid rookie season. He appeared in 74 games, including 44 starts, and averaged 6.9 points and 3.6 rebounds while shooting 43.0% from the field. His long-range and free throw shooting need to improve, but he has established himself as a hard-nosed defender.
He’ll likely battle veteran Royce O’Neale for a starting spot in this year’s lineup.
All of the 2026/27 rookie scale option decisions, which must be finalized by October 31, can be found right here.
First-time head coach Jordan Ott will be faced with some difficult decisions this fall as the Suns prepare for training camp, writes Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic (subscriber link).
In addition to managing Devin Booker‘s workload and discovering if Khaman Maluach, Rasheer Fleming and Koby Brea can contribute as rookies, Ott and his staff will also have to determine Phoenix’s starting lineup. According to Rankin, Booker, Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks and Mark Williams will likely be four of the five starters, but the fifth is less certain.
Rankin views second-year wing Ryan Dunn as the most logical candidate to be the fifth starter, assuming he was able to improve his three-point shot over the summer. If Dunn’s offensive efficiency is still lacking, Royce O’Neale would be a more proven option as a small-ball four.
Second-year forward/center Oso Ighodaro is another player who could receive starting consideration if Ott experiments with two-big lineups, Rankin adds.
Here’s more on the Suns:
Tragedy has struck Timberwolves big man Naz Reid and his family. His sister, Toraya Reid, was shot and killed Saturday in New Jersey, Eva Herscowitz of the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. A New Jersey prosecutor charged Shaquille Green, whom the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office said was in a relationship with Toraya Reid, with her murder.
Reid’s former teammate, Knicks star Karl-Anthony Towns, was devastated by the news.
“Heartbroken. No words can ever take away the pain for my brother,” Towns tweeted. “Holding everyone close in prayer today.”
There’s little question who the most important Suns player is. Beyond recently extended All-Star guard Devin Booker, however, identifying the top talent on the current roster is more of an open question.
Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic (subscriber link) tackles that question, ranking the five most important Phoenix players aside from the 6’5″ Kentucky alum. Second-year wing Ryan Dunn, new post-Durant trade additions Jalen Green and Dillon Brooks, and new centers Mark Williams and Khaman Maluach make the cut.
There’s more out of the Pacific Division: