Northwest Notes: Sandfort, Harkless, Nuggets, Wallace, Avdija
Payton Sandfort, signed on Monday by the Thunder on a two-way contract, will “fit in well,” coach Mark Daigneault told Justin Martinez of The Oklahoman (Twitter link) and other media members.
“He’s a great professional and he’s a really good guy,” Daigneault said. “He hasn’t played a lot this year. He’s been injured, but he’s a guy our scouts really liked coming out of college. He can really shoot the ball with some size, and he’s a great kid. Just a really, really good dude.”
Sandfort, who has been playing for the G League’s Oklahoma City Blue, signed a two-year contract, Spotrac contributor Keith Smith tweets.
Here’s more from the Northwest Division:
- Another two-way player, the Jazz‘s Elijah Harkless, played rugged defense on Denver star Nikola Jokic on Monday. Jokic only scored two points with Harkless guarding him. Afterward, coach Will Hardy paid Harkless a strong compliment. “I think Elijah is our best defender,” Hardy said, per Kevin Reynolds of the Salt Lake City Tribune. “It’s about trying to build a sense of fatigue as the game goes on, because every catch is hard to get. That’s Elijah’s identity. That’s who he is. That’s who we need him to be. And I think when Elijah plays like that, it raises the level of the group.”
- Prior to defeating the Jazz, the Nuggets were defeated by Oklahoma City and Minnesota. The time that Jokic was off the floor was key, as the Nuggets were outscored in both games when the big man rested. Coach David Adelman hinted at rotation changes, Bennett Durando of the Denver Post reports. “It’s just something that we have to learn from,” Adelman said. “I have to find a unit that will actually do it, compete at a higher level. Because to me, that was the game. Then I had to extend minutes, and I’m playing guys into the ground. I can’t do that. Especially with the way the schedule has been very dense.”
- Taking advantage of extended playing time due to injuries, Thunder guard Cason Wallace averaged 14.6 points, 4.8 assists, 3.8 rebounds and 2.1 steals in 30.9 minutes per game last month. Wallace is extension-eligible this summer and his recent play enhanced his résumé. “You never know when a guy’s gonna pop,” Daigneault told Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman, “but he’s had a week and a half now of offense that’s been really, really good and intriguing.”
- Trail Blazers forward Deni Avdija, who hasn’t played since departing in the opening minute on Feb. 22 due to a lower back injury, has been upgraded to questionable for the team’s game against Memphis on Wednesday, Sean Highkin of The Rose Garden Report tweets.
Kon Knueppel, Dylan Harper Named Rookies Of The Month
Hornets wing Kon Knueppel has won a fourth consecutive Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month award, the NBA announced today (via Twitter). No other Eastern rookie has earned the honor in 2025/26, as Knueppel has now claimed the award in October/November, December, January, and February.
Knueppel continued to solidify his case for Rookie of the Year recognition by leading Charlotte to an 8-3 record in 11 games in February. He averaged 21.5 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 2.7 assists in 31.5 minutes per game while knocking down more than half of his field goal attempts (50.3%).
Perhaps most impressively, Knueppel made 49-of-101 three-pointers, averaging 4.5 makes per game at a 48.5% clip.
Knueppel had shared Rookie of the Month honors with his former Duke teammate Cooper Flagg three times in a row, but with Flagg sidelined for much of February due to a foot injury, Spurs guard Dylan Harper became the first non-Blue Devil to break through this season, earning the Rookie of the Month award in the West.
Harper’s Spurs didn’t lose a single game in February, going 10-0 when he was active. The No. 2 overall pick registered 12.5 PPG, 4.9 APG, and 3.9 RPG in 25.1 MPG while shooting 55.4% from the floor. San Antonio had a +21.0 net rating during Harper’s 252 minutes on the court in February.
Sixers guard VJ Edgecombe, Wizards forward Will Riley, and Nets guard Nolan Traore were also nominated for Rookie of the Month in the Eastern Conference, while Jazz forward Ace Bailey, Grizzlies guard Javon Small, Kings big man Maxime Raynaud, and Mavericks forward Flagg were the other nominees in the West, per the league (Twitter link).
Northwest Notes: Jokic, Dort, SGA, Avdija, K. George
Thunder wing Luguentz Dort was ejected in the fourth quarter of Oklahoma City’s overtime victory over Denver on Friday for sticking out his right leg and tripping Nikola Jokic (Twitter video link via ESPN). The Nuggets‘ superstar big man angrily confronted and chest-bumped Dort, who backed away as his teammate Jaylin Williams intervened.
“Unnecessary move and a necessary reaction,” Jokic said, per Bennett Durando of The Denver Post. “There is no such thing — I think there’s not supposed to be those things on a basketball floor. So it was just an unnecessary move (by Dort) and a necessary reaction by me.”
As Durando writes, Dort was initially called for a common foul, but it was upgraded to a flagrant foul 2 upon review. Jokic and Williams both received offsetting unsportsmanlike technicals for their part in the altercation.
“Lu Dort was assessed a flagrant foul penalty (level) two because we deemed his contact on Jokic to be unnecessary and excessive with a high potential for injury,” crew chief James Williams said in a pool report. “And also because the contact led to an altercation that did not dissolve.”
Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault noted it was a physical game between the Northwest Division rivals, who faced off in the Western Conference semifinals last year. Oklahoma City won that series in seven games en route to the championship.
“If you were watching the game, I think you could see very clearly, very early that it was a chippy game,” Daigneault said, according to Durando. “These are two teams that played each other in a seven-game series. We’re in the same division. We’ve played each other 100 times. They know our playbook. We know their playbook. It just is what it is. … I know Lu. I know Jokic. I know J-Will. I don’t think anybody was trying to hurt anybody. They’re just great competitors. It just boiled over. I think it was nothing more than that.
“I will say this. If a player (for us), if J-Will is running up the floor and gets tripped, we expect a flagrant two from this point forward. That’s all. If that’s the precedent, if that becomes a malicious play and flagrant two is the line in the sand on that, we would expect that if it’s J-Will. We would expect that if it’s anybody.”
When asked if he was suggesting that Dort was only ejected because Jokic — a three-time MVP — was the player fouled, Daigneault demurred.
“I’m not going to answer the question like that. I said what I needed to say about it,” Daigneault replied.
On Sunday, Nuggets head coach David Adelman addressed the incident, as Durando relays (via Twitter).
“For Dort to take that shot — and then I guess it wasn’t that big of a deal from their standpoint, how they looked at it — is ridiculous,” Adelman said as part of a larger quote. “That was malicious. It was a cheap shot. Lu Dort’s a great player, and that’s not what I’ve seen him do before. But at some point, you have to stand up for yourself, and the team does as well.”
We have more from around the Northwest:
- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander returned to action on Friday after missing nine games with an abdominal strain, recording 36 points, nine assists, three rebounds, two steals and two blocks in 34 minutes. However, the Thunder superstar couldn’t play in overtime due to a minutes restriction, writes Justin Martinez of The Oklahoman (subscriber link). Daigneault let the Canadian guard know it advance that it was possible he might be forced to miss a potential extra period. “They kind of had no choice because if they tried that on the fly, I wasn’t gonna go,” Gilgeous-Alexander said with a laugh. “They had to get ahead of it, for sure. But with that being said, it is the right decision to make. If I re-injure this injury, all of it and everything that we’ve done up to this point doesn’t matter. So that’s first and foremost.”
- Trail Blazers forward Deni Avdija will miss his fourth straight game on Sunday in Atlanta because of low back injury management (Twitter link). The first-time All-Star first experienced the back issue in early January and aggravated the injury just 59 seconds into a February 22 game at Phoenix.
- Third-year guard Keyonte George was back in the Jazz‘s starting lineup for Saturday’s loss to New Orleans, writes Kevin Reynolds of The Salt Lake Tribune. George, who had missed the last six games because of a right ankle sprain, said he felt good in his return but will be on a restriction of approximately 20-to-24 minutes for the time being. “Feet are the most precious thing for any athlete. So I want to make sure I feel good, not feeling off balance or nothing like that,” said George, who also dealt with a left ankle sprain last month. “Just want to be cautious with the ankle injuries and stuff like that.”
Lauri Markkanen Out At Least Two Weeks Due To Hip Injury
Jazz forward Lauri Markkanen has been diagnosed with a right hip impingement following an MRI and will be reevaluated in two weeks, sources tell Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link). Markkanen suffered the injury in Wednesday’s practice.
Markkanen also underwent imaging on his right ankle, which he tweaked in Wednesday’s practice, but those scans came back clean, Charania reports.
The Finnish star has performed at a high level this season when healthy, averaging 26.7 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 2.1 assists in 34.4 minutes per game across 42 outings (all starts). However, after appearing in Utah’s first 22 games, he has played in just 20 of the past 36 contests, missing time here and there due to minor ailments, including a seven-game absence in January as a result of an illness.
The Jazz, who have already ruled out both Jaren Jackson Jr. and Jusuf Nurkic for the season for health reasons, have little incentive to win down the stretch, since they want to make sure they retain their top-eight protected 2026 first-round pick. They were fined $500K by the NBA a couple weeks ago for how they managed Markkanen and Jackson in a pair of games.
Tony Jones of The Athletic reported on Wednesday evening that the NBA was sending an independent doctor to Utah to confirm the results of Markkanen’s MRI, but he deleted that tweet by Thursday morning without providing clarification.
Multiple reporters, including Marc Stein of The Stein Line and Jones himself (Twitter links), later confirmed that initial report wasn’t accurate and that the league would simply have access to the MRI results, which is always the case based on the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Utah is currently 18-40, which is the sixth-worst record in the NBA.
Jazz Sign Mo Bamba To 10-Day Contract
11:50 am: Bamba’s 10-day deal is official, the Jazz confirmed in a press release. It will run through next Saturday (March 7), covering Utah’s next six games.
10:59 am: The Jazz and center Mo Bamba have reached an agreement on a 10-day contract, reports Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link), citing agents Mark Bartelstein and Greer Love.
The sixth overall pick of the 2018 NBA draft, Bamba appeared in a total of 364 regular season games over seven seasons with the Magic, Lakers, Sixers, Clippers, and Pelicans from 2018-25. However, he was unable to secure a guaranteed NBA contract ahead of the 2025/26 season and spent training camp with the Jazz before being waived and reporting to the team’s G League affiliate, the Salt Lake City Stars.
The 27-year-old big man has had a big year with the Stars, averaging 17.0 points, 11.7 rebounds, and 2.5 blocks in 27.7 minutes per game across 22 appearances, with an excellent shooting line of .553/.380/.807.
However, Bamba’s strong G League performance had only earned him a brief stint in the NBA up until this point — he signed a non-guaranteed contract with the Raptors on December 29 to provide frontcourt depth with Jakob Poeltl battling a back issue, but was waived about a week later before his full salary became guaranteed.
Bamba could have a chance to play a more significant role in Utah, where the Jazz’s front line has been hit hard by injuries. Starting center Walker Kessler underwent season-ending shoulder surgery in November and his replacement, Jusuf Nurkic, had a season-ending procedure on his nose earlier this week. Additionally, Jaren Jackson Jr. is done for the season after having a growth in his knee surgically removed, while Lauri Markkanen reportedly suffered an injury in Wednesday’s practice and is still being evaluated.
Bamba will earn $177,064 over the course of his 10-day contract, with Utah taking on a cap hit of $131,970.
Northwest Notes: Bailey, Jazz, Nuggets, Cissoko
Ace Bailey knows that not everyone is a fan of his game or his approach to the 2025 draft. However, coaches and players who know him sing a different tune, Kevin Reynolds writes for the Salt Lake City Tribune.
“If anybody calls about Ace Bailey, I f—ing call back right away,” said Steve Pikiell, Bailey’s coach at Rutgers. “I’ve been coaching 42 years, and he’s as good of a kid I’ve had.”
Pikiell adds that he believed that certain teams that had been heavily scouting Bailey and then fell in the lottery might have helped contribute to some of the negative narratives surrounding him on draft night. According to Reynolds, Bailey has rewarded Utah’s faith in him on an interpersonal level.
“He’s such a great kid, man. Off the court, he’s such a joy. On the court, he’s putting it together,” former teammate Kyle Anderson said. “I didn’t pay attention to the noise during the draft process, but I’m glad to see that really hasn’t surfaced.”
While Bailey has learned to fit into Utah’s locker room, the coaching staff has worked to make sure he plays a role that will benefit him the most long-term.
“We want to help him get through this season and be a way better player than when he started,” coach Will Hardy said. “I’m not pro Ace just bombing away to get stats and clicks.”
The strategy seems to be working, as Bailey has played some of his best basketball of late, averaging 15.0 points and 5.4 rebounds per game since mid-January.
We have more from around the Northwest Division:
- The Jazz were furious about being fined $500K by the NBA, Tony Jones reports for The Athletic, as they believe they were singled out for a widespread practice among tanking teams of resting players in key situations. Jones writes that while Utah has tanked in recent seasons, they had plans to make at least one substantial win-now trade roughly three years ago, but it fell through when the player’s agent informed them that he would rather play elsewhere.
- The Nuggets currently have a disconcerting trend going: they are falling apart in clutch situations, and it only seems to have gotten worse with Nikola Jokic back, Bennett Durando writes for the Denver Post. Denver is 26th in clutch net rating at -9.9, and the number falls to -19.3 when Jokic is playing. Coach David Adelman acknowledged the issue and said he’s looking to add wrinkles to get Jokic and Jamal Murray easier looks while Aaron Gordon is out and not occupying his usual area in the dunker spot. “We’re trying to maintain who we are, playing the two-man game without the things that matter behind it,” Adelman said. “Like, if we play a two-man game with Aaron Gordon, it’s a very different rotation (in help defense) for teams. So you don’t want to scrap something that you know you’re gonna do (in the playoffs), and you’re presupposing that those guys are gonna be out there. … We have to figure out a way to finish games when teams are full-rotating to (Jokic and Murray). Sometimes three guys, sometimes four.” Durando notes that the sample of clutch games with Jokic playing is small, but it can still impact the playoff race.
- The two-year standard contract that Sidy Cissoko recently signed with the Trail Blazers is a minimum-salary deal that’s non-guaranteed in 2026/27, Michael Scotto of HoopsHype notes (via Twitter). In order to promote Cissoko, the Blazers had to waive Rayan Rupert, his best friend on the team, making the move bittersweet, writes Sean Highkin of the Rose Garden Report (subscriber link). “For me, it’s tough because he’s the guy that helped me with everything when I got here. I’ve got a lot of experience with him,” Cissoko said. “We’ve played together since we were 16 or 17.” Cissoko added that the promotion to the standard roster represents a step toward his goal of playing in the NBA for over a decade. “I’ve done great by being myself,” he said. “I’m not going to change because of my contract. It’s the same Sidy. I’m going to play the same way.”
Lauri Markkanen Injured In Practice, Will Undergo MRI
Lauri Markkanen suffered an injury in practice on Wednesday, according to Kevin Reynolds of The Salt Lake Tribune, who hears that the Jazz forward will have his right ankle and right hip evaluated.
Markkanen will undergo an MRI to determine the severity of his injury and to ascertain whether he’ll have to miss time, Reynolds adds. It’s unclear whether the forward is undergoing imaging on his ankle, his hip, or both.
Markkanen, 28, has performed at a near-All-Star level this season when healthy, averaging 26.7 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 2.1 assists in 34.4 minutes per game across 42 outings (all starts). However, after appearing in Utah’s first 22 games, he has played in just 20 of the past 36 contests, missing time here and there due to minor ailments, including a seven-game absence in January as a result of an illness.
The Jazz, who have already ruled out both Jaren Jackson Jr. and Jusuf Nurkic for the season for health reasons, have little incentive to win down the stretch, since they want to make sure they retain their top-eight protected 2026 first-round pick. With that in mind, it would be a surprise if Markkanen doesn’t miss at least a little time due to these ankle and hip issues even if they’re not significant.
Still, the NBA – having already hit the franchise with a $500K fine for how it was managing Markkanen and other players – will likely be keeping a close eye on the Jazz’s handling of their star forward during the final month-and-a-half of the season, so the club would presumably face some scrutiny if it rules him out for the rest of the second half for an injury that turns out to be minor.
Utah’s next two games are at home vs. New Orleans on Thursday and Saturday. After that, the Jazz will host the Nuggets on Monday before heading out on a three-game road trip to Philadelphia, Washington, and Milwaukee.
Jazz’s Vince Williams Jr. Diagnosed With Torn ACL
1:59 pm: After undergoing additional tests, Williams has been diagnosed with an ACL tear in his left knee, reports Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).
In addition to ending Williams’ 2025/26 season, it’s also likely to keep him sidelined for a significant chunk of ’26/27, given the typical recovery timeline for the injury.
12:22 am: Vince Williams Jr. had to be carried to the locker room during Monday’s loss at Houston and multiple sources who spoke to Sarah Todd of The Deseret News (Bluesky links) believe the Jazz guard sustained a “significant ACL injury” in his left knee.
According to Todd, Williams left the arena on crutches and will undergo an MRI in Salt Lake City on Tuesday.
“It doesn’t look good, we’ll get an MRI,” head coach Will Hardy said.
Williams injured his knee while running back on defense when the Rockets had a fast break. He was bumped by Tari Eason and lost his balance, and his left knee hyperextended inward in a gruesome manner. The video is not for the squeamish (Bluesky link via Todd).
Hardy was upset about the play, which wasn’t called a foul, Todd adds.
“That’s not basketball,” Hardy said.
Eason checked on Williams after the game, Todd reports (via Bluesky), and let Williams know he wasn’t trying to injure him.
The 47th overall pick in the 2022 draft, Williams was acquired by Utah from Memphis earlier this month along with Jaren Jackson Jr. and two other players. Jackson is also out for the season, while Jock Landale was flipped to Atlanta ahead of the trade deadline, so John Konchar is the only player from that trade left standing for the Jazz.
Entering Monday’s game, Williams was averaging 5.4 points, 3.2 rebounds and 3.0 assists in five appearances with Utah (15.2 MPG). The former Toledo guard played in 34 games with the Grizzlies prior to being traded, averaging 8.0 PPG, 4.4 APG and 4.0 RPG in 21.6 MPG.
Williams is in his fourth NBA season and is making $2.3MM this season. The Jazz hold a $2.5MM team option on his contract for 2026/27.
Jazz’s Jusuf Nurkic To Undergo Surgery, Miss Rest Of Season
Jazz center Jusuf Nurkic will undergo a surgical procedure on his nose on Tuesday and will miss the remainder of the season, NBA on Prime insider Chris Haynes reports (via Twitter).
According to Haynes (Twitter link), Nurkic has had issues breathing and sleeping since he broke his nose a few years ago.
Nurkic has appeared in 41 games this season, including 36 starts. The 31-year-old big man averaged 10.9 points, 10.4 rebounds and 4.8 assists in 26.4 minutes per game.
Nurkic hasn’t played since the All-Star break. Earlier in the season, he missed time due to a toe injury and also had several DNP-CDs. He was a prime candidate to be dealt before the Feb. 5 trade deadline due his expiring $19.3MM contract.
The Jazz never found a suitable deal for him, so instead that money will come off their cap and Nurkic will be seeking a new opportunity as an unrestricted free agent. Utah is expected to have significant cap space this offseason to chase free agents and facilitate trades, though the team may also have interest in bringing back Nurkic.
The Jazz raised eyebrows over the summer when they attached a second-round pick to Collin Sexton in a trade with Charlotte for Nurkic, who was coming off a down year. However, the big man played a larger role than anticipated due to Walker Kessler‘s season-ending shoulder injury.
With Nurkic, Kessler, and Jaren Jackson Jr. all out for the rest of the season, Kyle Filipowski, Kevin Love and Oscar Tshiebwe are Utah’s options in the middle.
And-Ones: MVP Race, No. 1 Pick, Peterson, P. Gasol
Reigning Most Valuable Player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander remains the favorite to claim the award again in 2025/26, according to ESPN’s Tim Bontemps, who recently conducted his second MVP straw poll. The Thunder guard was the only player to appear on all 100 ballots and accumulated 930 points.
Injuries to top players have significantly impacted the MVP race this season, Bontemps writes, as multiple contenders for the award may not qualify due to the 65-game rule. Despite being sidelined with an abdominal strain, Gilgeous-Alexander isn’t in imminent danger of not meeting that threshold — he’ll likely have 10 total missed games when he’s reevaluated later this week.
Nuggets center Nikola Jokic remains in second place (700 points), but the gap between the two players has grown since Bontemps’ initial poll in December. That’s largely because the three-time MVP missed 15 games because of a knee injury and can’t have more than two additional absences without becoming ineligible for major postseason awards.
Pistons guard Cade Cunningham (382 points) and Spurs big man Victor Wembanyama (242 points) were the only other players to receive first-place votes. Lakers guard Luka Doncic (177 points) rounds out the top five of Bontemps’ poll.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- How much would the No. 1 overall pick in the loaded 2026 NBA draft be worth if it were available in an auction? Brian Windhorst of ESPN briefly discussed that topic on the Hoop Collective podcast (hat tip to RealGM). “I was talking to a league executive today and he said to me, this is after Darryn Peterson had 23 points in 18 minutes and after we’ve seen some other top guys have big time games over the last four or five days,” Windhorst said. “… I had an executive tell me that the No. 1 pick this year is worth $100 million. If you gave the opportunity to buy that pick, teams would pay $100 million for it. Keep that in mind when the Jazz were fined $500,000.”
- Although Peterson’s sporadic for Kansas this season has undoubtedly been frustrating for him, the school, and its fans, his health issues are unlikely to have much of an effect on the 19-year-old guard’s standing as a top prospect in the 2026 draft class, per Brendan Marks and Justin Williams of The Athletic. “He’s elite, elite, elite,” one NBA scout told The Athletic. “When he’s fully healthy, the shot-making is on another level. … When it comes down to it, man, if you’ve seen this guy play in high school, and you saw those matchups, like, Darryn is the guy. For sure.”
- Hall of Famer Pau Gasol has been selected by Olympic athletes to represent them on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) board through the 2028 summer games in Los Angeles, according to The Associated Press.