Wizards Rumors

Knicks Notes: Hart, Brunson, Shamet, Diawara, Towns, More

Knicks wing Josh Hart had the best year of his career in 2024/25 playing under Tom Thibodeau, starting 77 games while leading the NBA in minutes per game (37.6) and posting career highs in rebounds (9.6), assists (5.9) and steals (1.5) as well as his second-best averages in points (13.6) and field goal percentage (52.5).

While his per-36 averages are very similar to last season’s, Hart is coming off the bench and playing far fewer minutes (25.8 MPG) in ’25/26 under new head coach Mike Brown, writes Kristian Winfield of The New York Daily News. Hart’s reduced role is partly due to being hampered by back spasms during the preseason, and his workload has increased lately with OG Anunoby out with a hamstring strain.

I hope [I play more],” Hart said before Wednesday’s win in Dallas. “Before [Anunoby] went down, I think I was playing the least minutes of my career.”

According to Winfield, the 30-year-old concedes he keeps tabs on his minutes — but only when he’s angry.

When I’m mad, yeah,” Hart said. “But I’m ready to have to always do what needs to be done to help the team get wins.”

For his part, Brown has nothing but good things to say about Hart.

They’re not the same player, but he’s such a glue piece like Andre Iguodala was in Golden State,” Brown said. “He just ties everything and anybody together. He does so many things out there that are just really simple that makes the game easier for everybody… And he can definitely do that for us and probably play more minutes, but at the end of the day, we have a good team, and I’m gonna try to spread [the minutes] around as best I can.”

We have much more on the Knicks:

  • Hart recently told Stefan Bondy of The New York Post (subscriber link) that he tried to find a way to to land with the Wizards during his 2021 restricted free agency because of his respect for Russell Westbrook, who was a member of the team at the time. “His competitiveness, his passion — he’s one of the guys I definitely admire,” Hart said. Bondy’s story is centered on Hart being the top rebounder in the league for his size.
  • After missing two games with a Grade 1 right ankle sprain, star point guard Jalen Brunson returned to action on Wednesday and helped lead the Knicks to a victory against his former team, per Steve Popper of Newsday (subscription required). The two-time All-NBA member recorded 28 points, five assists and three rebounds in 35 minutes during the two-point win.
  • Brown didn’t personally know Landry Shamet prior to landing the Knicks job, but he had long admired the veteran sharpshooter’s game and “pushed” to keep him on the roster before the ’25/26 campaign began, Bondy reports (subscriber link). Brown’s decision is looking shrewd in the early going, Bondy writes, as Shamet — who is on a non-guaranteed contract — has thrived under his new coach. “I was a big fan of him, watching [him] play last year and even prior, and so it was, for me, having him a part of this team, completed the group,” Brown said. “Now we have a lot of diverse guys. He’s just doing, in my opinion, what he’s capable of doing.”
  • Brown’s management of the bench has been paying dividends so far in ’25/26, according to James L. Edwards III of The Athletic. “It’s so early in the season, the reality of it is that I don’t want to gas my guys this early in the season,” Brown said. “If the minutes can be respectable across the board, especially at this time of the year, then we can increase the minutes come playoff time or late in the season. Getting these guys reps in case (*knocks on wood*) someone gets hurt or in case we have to throw someone in the game. There is a comfort level that they have, and not only that they have, but I have, the staff has and everybody else has with someone new on the floor.”
  • Brown says he’d like to find more playing time for French forward Mohamed Diawara, having praised the rookie for his contributions over the past couple games (story via Bondy). “I would’ve loved to play Mo out there a little longer,” Brown said after Diawara played two minutes in Wednesday’s win. “Mo has done a great job in short minutes he played and to try to get him some minutes during this time of year, especially while OG is out, to keep us long and athletic would be ideal. And I’m going to keep searching to try to do it.”
  • While Karl-Anthony Towns is off to a slow start in Brown’s offensive system, he says he’s “having fun with it” and is confident his subpar percentages will normalize over time, as Winfield relays. “I want to find different ways to impact this team winning, and just continue to figure everything out. We all are,” Towns said. “So definitely on my part, I could do a better job hitting some shots. But I’ll get to that. Numbers will always number out. So I’m just staying confident.”
  • In a mailbag article, Ian Begley of SNY.tv predicts the Knicks will prioritize finding a backup point guard prior to the trade deadline. He also expects the front office to have conversations with the Mavericks in the coming weeks to discover their asking price for Anthony Davis.

Southeast Notes: Diabate, Johnson, Powell, Herro, Sarr, Bagley

While the Hornets are off to a disappointing start this season, having won just four of their first 15 games, their depth in the middle hasn’t been as big a problem as it looked like it might be entering training camp. After trading Mark Williams and Jusuf Nurkic over the summer, Charlotte has gotten impressive production from rookie Ryan Kalkbrenner, who has started 14 games and is leading the NBA with an 81.1% field goal percentage.

Former second-round pick Moussa Diabate, meanwhile, has been one of the league’s most effective backups, with 10.1 points, 8.2 rebounds, and 1.4 blocks in 22.9 minutes per game. Despite his modest role, Diabate ranks third in the NBA with 62 offensive rebounds, behind only Donovan Clingan and Steven Adams. But the big man’s impact goes beyond those offensive boards, according to head coach Charles Lee.

“Offensively, he’s grown (from) being more than just an offensive rebounder,” Lee said, per Roderick Boone of The Charlotte Observer. “I think that his screening has gotten a lot better, understanding coverage solutions versus switching, versus center field. I also think that his adjustment off penetration — like working the dunker area — has gotten really good. He’s got good hands down there, so guys feel comfortable with some dump-offs.”

As Boone writes, Lee wore a shirt during a media session earlier this month that featured Diabate and the caption “Moose on the Loose.” The 23-year-old center responded with a smile when asked about that piece of apparel.

“It’s great,” Diabate said. “I’ve come far now. So, it’s just funny how quickly things can turn around, in the span of, what, a year and a half? I go from a two-way, not even thinking that I was going to play, thinking I’m being a G League the whole year. Literally just damn near got cut by the Clippers to now having a shirt (worn) by one of the NBA head coaches. So, it’s a great feeling. It’s a blessing, and I’m just happy to be able to keep it going.”

We have more from around the Southeast:

  • Hawks forward Jalen Johnson spoke to Marc J. Spears of Andscape about how getting a “reality check” in the G League during his first NBA season helped change his mindset and his trajectory as a pro. Johnson, who played just 120 total minutes in 22 games as a rookie in 2021/22, is now a rising star in year five, with averages of 22.3 points, 9.6 rebounds, 6.6 assists, and 1.8 steals per game so far this season, plus a shooting line of .580/.400/.812.
  • Heat swingman Norman Powell, who missed three games earlier in the season due to a right groin strain, exited Friday’s contest early with a left groin strain. However, he was able to return to action and finish the game, then downplayed the issue after a Miami victory. “I saw the doctors and they’re not worried about it,” Powell said (Twitter link via Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald). “They don’t think it can get any worse. So it’s all about pain tolerance. I have a high pain tolerance, so I’m not too worried about it.”
  • With the Heat on a roll (six wins in eight games) and Tyler Herro about to make his season debut, should there be any concerns about the guard’s fit in the lineup? Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel (subscription required) doesn’t think so, arguing that the return of an All-Star player should only make a good team better, even if it creates some tough lineup decisions.
  • The Wizards were shorthanded in the frontcourt on Friday, as second-year center Alex Sarr missed a second consecutive game due to left big toe soreness (Twitter link). Marvin Bagley III, who started in Sarr’s place on Wednesday and played nearly 31 minutes, was also unavailable on Friday due to a right hip contusion. With two of their top big men out, the Wizards were out-rebounded 48-29 in a 30-point blowout loss to Toronto.

And-Ones: NBA Schedule, Breakout Players, Cap Room, More

Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, who has advocated in the past for shorter regular seasons, is beating that drum again this fall with soft tissue injuries on the rise around the NBA, writes Nick Friedell of ESPN. Kerr said he’s “very concerned” about the increase in injuries, pointing to an increased pace of play and a relentless schedule as two factors he believes are contributing to the trend.

“The pace difference is dramatic,” Kerr said after Tuesday’s game vs. Orlando. “This team tonight has really upped their pace compared to last year. I think across the league everybody understands now it’s just easier to score now if you can beat (the other team) down the floor, get out in transition. But when everybody’s doing that, the game’s are much faster paced, and everyone has to cover out to 25 feet because everyone can shoot threes.

“… We have all the data,” Kerr continued. “Players are running faster and further than ever before, so we’re trying to do the best we can to protect them, but basically have a game every other night and it’s not an easy thing to do … (The medical staff) believe that the wear and tear, the speed, the pace, the mileage, it’s all factoring into these injuries.”

Kerr said the NBA has done a commendable job of trying to reduce back-to-backs and instances of four games in five days, but points out that it has resulted in teams rarely getting more than one day off between games, which results in little recovery time and almost no opportunities for practices.

“We literally have not had a single practice on this road trip. Not one,” Kerr said after the fifth game of a six-game trip. “We’ve gone a week, or longer, eight days, not one practice. It’s just game, game, game. So not only is there no recovery time, there’s no practice time. What was different back in the day — you did have four in five nights, which was not great, but then you’d have four days before your next game. So you’d take a day off, and you’d actually have a couple good practices and scrimmage. So there’s no easy answer here.”

Kerr isn’t alone in believing that playing fewer regular season games would benefit the players — Knicks forward Josh Hart agreed with that sentiment on Thursday, as Stefan Bondy of The New York Post relays. However, both Kerr and Hart acknowledged that it would be very difficult to actually implement that change due to the loss of revenue that would occur..

“Do I think there’s too many games? Yeah,” Hart said. “Conversely, will (team owners) and the league and players take a pay cut to not do that? I don’t know. It’s easy to sit there and say that we play too many games — which we do — but conversely, we’re also blessed to be able to benefit greatly from it.”

Here are a few more odds and ends from around the NBA:

  • In a pair of stories for The Athletic, Fred Katz takes a look at some of the NBA’s most improved players so far this season, while John Hollinger zeros in on several of the league’s breakout players. Heat forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Pistons center Jalen Duren show up on both lists, with Hollinger suggesting Duren appears to be on track for max or near-max money when he reaches restricted free agency next summer.
  • Previewing the salary cap landscape for the 2026 offseason, Keith Smith of Spotrac projects that six teams will operate with cap room, led by the Wizards with over $80MM in space. We conducted a similar exercise earlier this month, noting that the Wizards, Jazz, Nets, and Bulls are best positioned to go under the cap, while several other teams – like the Lakers and Clippers – are in the “maybe” category depending on what happens with certain free agents and player options.
  • A panel of ESPN’s NBA insiders takes an early look at potential trade-deadline needs for eight NBA teams hoping to contend this season, including the Pistons, Lakers, Warriors, Timberwolves, and Knicks. In the view of Bobby Marks, the Pistons are better positioned than any other Eastern Conference playoff team to make an in-season move, given their cap flexibility, movable contracts, and extra draft picks.

Southeast Notes: Wizards, Black, Heat, Butler, Jakucionis

As they go through a full-fledged rebuild, the Wizards are spending big on their support staff and infrastructure, according to Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Substack link), who says the team has been encouraged by the fact that top prospects in recent years – including Alex Sarr and Ace Bailey – have been enthusiastic about coming to D.C.

Still, with Washington off to a miserable 1-12 start this fall and ranking dead last in the NBA in net rating (-16.1), Josh Robbins of The Athletic wonders whether the club can continue losing at this rate without stunting the growth of its most promising young players. Corey Kispert – a relative veteran at age 26 – offered a thoughtful response when presented with that question, pointing out that there are pros and cons to the situation the Wizards’ young players are in.

“The guys that are in the building now that are first- and second-year players have a much greater opportunity to play a ton more minutes than I ever did my first couple of years,” Kispert said. “That’s for better or for worse, but they can come in and they can play and they can try things and they grow on the floor. And that’s a really big blessing for them, and they should absolutely take advantage of that.

“But what that does impair, I think, is that winning is a skill and learning how to win is a skill. And it’s not something that you can just flip on and off from year to year. That’s something that you have to be taught and you have to practice. Those games where we are in crunch-time situations — like Detroit, for example, a few games ago (on Nov. 10) — that’s a learning opportunity for our young guys to learn how to win and what it takes to close out games.

“I’m really looking forward to these guys getting more opportunities to learn how to win, and I hope that us as vets can teach them that within our practices and within our games, whether it’s a word on the sideline or the way that we play or the way we try to play.”

We have more from around the Southeast:

  • Anthony Black has had an up-and-down start to the season, but after scoring single-digit points in five of his previous seven games, the Magic guard contributed 18 points in Sunday’s loss to Houston, then had a season-high 21 in Tuesday’s win over Golden State. Those performances – particularly Tuesday’s – provided a reminder of the former No. 6 overall pick’s ability to raise Orlando’s ceiling, as Robbins writes for The Athletic. “I think A.B. is someone who can impact the game on both sides,” Magic forward Franz Wagner said. “When someone like that has the right energy, it’s really contagious for everybody else. … I think he’s a super-important player for our team. Obviously, with some guys out and him seeing more minutes, we need him to play like that consistently.”
  • Wednesday’s game against Golden State will be the Heat‘s first meeting with Jimmy Butler this season after the two sides had an ugly divorce last winter, but Miami’s players and coaches are downplaying that narrative, according to Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald. “We already have done the game, so how many games do we have to play for it not to be the big storyline?” head coach Erik Spoelstra said, pointing out that Butler visited Miami as a member of the Warriors in March. Bam Adebayo, who is “optimistic” about returning after missing six games with a left big toe sprain, echoed his coach’s sentiment: “You move forward in life. We got a great team playing great basketball, and you want to continue that rather than try to chase a headline.”
  • Without a spot in the rotation for first-round pick Kasparas Jakucionis, the Heat recently assigned the rookie guard to the G League, where he has already appeared in two games for the Sioux Falls Skyforce, Chiang writes for The Miami Herald. Jakucionis is viewing it not as a demotion but as an opportunity to get crucial in-game reps. “I just need live basketball, to be honest,” the 19-year-old said. “… I think it’s good to just be able to come here, play, and the development part is very good. So I think that’s a good thing.”

Southeast Notes: Adebayo, Banchero, Mann, Wizards, Alexander-Walker

Heat center Bam Adebayo hasn’t played since November 5 due to a toe injury, but he could be back in action Wednesday. He’s listed as questionable to play against Golden State, Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel tweets.

Miami has posted a 4-2 record in his absence.

Here’s more from the Southeast Division:

  • Paolo Banchero will miss his third consecutive game on Tuesday due to a groin strain. However, Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said his star player is making progress, Jason Beede of the Orlando Sentinel tweets. “Paolo’s doing well,” Mosley said. “He’s been going through some non-contact, hard weight room workouts with our training staff. His spirits are great.”
  • Hornets guard Tre Mann departed Monday’s game against Toronto with left ankle soreness, the team’s PR department tweets. He played 12 minutes before exiting. Mann is averaging 10.1 points, 3.1 rebounds and 3.1 assists in 22 minutes per game.
  • The Wizards have gotten a little too good at tanking, Varun Shankar of the Washington Post writes.  They suffered a 23-point blowout at the hands of another rebuilding team, the Nets, on Sunday. It was the Wizards’ 11th straight defeat and their NBA-worst sixth loss by at least 20 points. According to forward Kyshawn George, coach Brian Keefe gave this message to the team after the game, before the players held their own meeting: “Look at yourself in the mirror and answer the deeper questions. It’s more than basketball. What do you really want in life? What do you want to build? What do we want to do here as an organization? Just make sure you answer the question correctly and come up with the correct mindset the next day.”
  • Nickeil Alexander-Walker was acquired by the Hawks in a sign-and-trade deal this summer. He delivered in the clutch against Phoenix on Sunday, scoring 16 points in the fourth quarter to help Atlanta erase a 22-point deficit in the two-point victory. That capped a 4-0 road swing. “I just think we have a resilient group. I think we put our head down when we came together this entire trip,” Alexander-Walker said, per Lauren Williams of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Southeast Notes: Whitmore, Coulibaly, F. Wagner, Howard, Sexton

The Rockets were thrilled when Cam Whitmore was still on the board at No. 20 in the 2023 draft, but his two seasons in Houston were marked by inconsistent playing time with occasional flashes of brilliance. With the Wizards visiting Toyota Center tonight, coach Ime Udoka told reporters there was a “number crunch” working against Whitmore, writes Danielle Lerner of The Houston Chronicle.

“We’ve kind of always had depth since I’ve been here, and he kind of got caught in that shuffle,” Udoka said. “And then just some of the things we stressed offensively, defensively for improvement we wanted to see (from) him and he’d be a little up and down with that. But happy for the opportunity he’s getting now and hopefully takes advantage of that.” 

It likely would have been even harder for Whitmore to earn regular minutes in the wake of the Kevin Durant trade, so the Rockets opted to deal him to Washington in July in exchange for a pair of second-round picks. Whitmore got off to a slow start with his new team, but he has scored 19 and 20 points in his last two outings.

“Going to a new situation with a young team, it’s going to take a little bit of time, and just him being young in his career as well, but (he has) all the talent and potential in the world,” Udoka said. “And so just to kind of see what he did the last two games, and that’s what Cam has done when he gets regular opportunity.”

There’s more from the Southeast Division:

  • Wizards coach Brian Keefe said forward Bilal Coulibaly is making progress toward returning from a bruised left calf, per Varun Shankar of The Washington Post (Twitter link). Shankar adds that Coulibaly was doing “limited work” at the end of this morning’s shootaround. He’s missing his fourth straight game tonight, and Keefe didn’t offer a timetable for when he might be ready to play.
  • Magic forward Franz Wagner plans to wear a mask “for a couple games, probably” after suffering a broken nose on Monday, according to Jason Beede of The Orlando Sentinel. Wagner wasn’t listed on the injury report for tonight’s game in New York, and his teammates aren’t surprised that he decided to keep playing. “He looks savage with the mask,” Paolo Banchero said. “Unfortunate that he has the nose injury, but Franz is a warrior. He’s not going to sit out for nothing. I didn’t even know he broke the nose.”
  • Jett Howard has barely been used for most of the season, but he played 19 minutes in Monday’s win over Portland, Beede adds in the same piece. The forward’s NBA future is uncertain after the Magic declined his fourth-year option, but he’s determined to find ways to help the team. “I’m just trying to stay mentally level as much as possible and just control what I can control,” Howard said.
  • Collin Sexton has been a valuable addition for the Hornets, but hasn’t been seeing many minutes during crunch time. Roderick Boone of The Charlotte Observer explores the reason for that.

Thursday's Score Corrected; Coulibaly Still Dealing With Calf Contusion

  • There was a scoring error during Thursday’s game between the Cavaliers and Wizards, the NBA announced in a press release (Twitter link). With 8:15 remaining in the second quarter, Wizards guard Tre Johnson made both of his free throws, but the first was recorded as a miss. The final score and statistics have been corrected, according to the league. The error didn’t materially impact the game, which Cleveland won in lopsided fashion (148-115 after the correction).
  • Wizards forward Bilal Coulibaly missed his second straight game on Saturday with a left calf contusion, tweets Josh Robbins of The Athletic. The French wing, who was selected seventh overall in the 2023 draft, was out for the first four games of the season while recovering from thumb surgery.

Wizards Notes: Whitmore, T. Johnson, Sarr, Front Office

Starting wings Bilal Coulibaly (lower left leg tightness) and Kyshawn George (illness) missed Friday’s game against Cleveland, creating an opportunity for other young players, but Cam Whitmore only played about five minutes in the Wizards‘ blowout loss to Cleveland, with all of his playing time coming in the first quarter, observes Varun Shankar of The Washington Post (Twitter links).

It’s the fourth straight game in which Whitmore’s minutes have declined, Shankar notes.

Head coach Brian Keefe claimed prior to Friday’s contest that the drop in Whitmore’s playing time wasn’t due to his performance, saying, Cam’s going to continue to play, he’s doing good.” Yet fellow reserve wings Jamir Watkins (20 minutes), Corey Kispert (20 minutes), Justin Champagnie (19 minutes) and Will Riley (10 minutes) all saw more action against the Cavs than Whitmore.

Keefe said after the game he wanted to see how other players — particularly Watkins — would perform with rotation minutes, according to Shankar (Twitter link).

The Wizards traded a pair of second-round picks to Houston over the summer in order to acquire Whitmore, who was selected 20th overall in the 2023 draft. The 21-year-old small forward will be eligible for a rookie scale extension next offseason.

Here’s more on the Wizards:

  • Rookie guard Tre Johnson received his first career start on Friday with Coulibaly and George sidelined, tweets Josh Robbins of The Athletic. The sixth overall pick in this year’s draft finished with 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting in 29 minutes.
  • While the team’s 1-8 start has been disappointing, the early play of second-year big man Alex Sarr has been highly encouraging, Shankar writes for The Washington Post (subscriber link). Through eight games, the French center held averages of 19.0 points, 8.4 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 2.3 blocks, with a shooting line of .540/.455/.800 — all of those figures represent significant jumps from his rookie campaign.
  • Longtime former Thunder executives Michael Winger (now the Wizards’ president) and Will Dawkins (general manager) have made numerous positive changes behind the scenes even if the Wizards’ on-court product still leaves something to be desired, per Justin Martinez of The Oklahoman (subscription required). Kispert, one of only two holdovers from the previous front office regime, appreciates the new amenities, such as a traveling chef and more travel accommodations for players’ family members. “Everything changed when (Winger and Dawkins) showed up,” Kispert told The Oklahoman. “It adds up to a lot. Ultimately, the little things are what make the player experience special. … A lot of organizations do the same things across the board, but it’s that little stuff in the margins that make the difference.”

Kyshawn George Making Bid For Most Improved Honors

  • Wizards swingman Kyshawn George has become an early candidate for Most Improved Player honors in his second NBA season, notes Eric Samulski of NBC Sports. George’s increased ball-handling responsibilities have given him a larger role in Washington’s offense. “Growing up, I’ve always been a point guard,” he said. “It’s only been the last couple of years that I kind of transitioned to being able to play the wing. I always kept the point guard skills. I’ve always been able to read the game really well and just make the right decision from there. So they’ve given me the opportunity to run the pick and roll more, and I’m just taking advantage of it.”

Injury Notes: Mavs Bigs, Curry, Reaves, Coulibaly, Nets

The Mavericks have been shorthanded in the frontcourt as of late, and that will likely continue for at least another game. According to Christian Clark of The Athletic (Twitter link), Anthony Davis is listed by the team as doubtful for Friday’s matchup against the Grizzlies, while Dereck Lively II will remain out for a sixth straight game.

Davis has missed the Mavs’ past three games after exiting the October 29 matchup against the Pacers in the first quarter. Prior to that, he was averaging 25.0 points, 11.8 rebounds, and 1.8 steals per night, though Dallas was off to a slow start, with a 1-3 record in the full games he played.

Lively has only played three games this season and averaged 5.3 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 3.0 assists. He’s averaging a career-low 17.0 minutes per contest in the early going, despite starting all three games.

The Mavs are currently tied for the worst record in the Western Conference at 2-6.

We have more news on injuries around the league:

  • Stephen Curry will miss the Warriors‘ NBA Cup opener on Friday against the Nuggets due to an illness sustained on the team’s recent road trip, reports Anthony Slater for ESPN. Slater writes that Curry began feeling symptomatic heading into the team’s matchup with the Suns on Tuesday, and admitted post-game that he felt drained in the second half. Curry will not travel with the team, but instead will stay in the Bay Area and prepare for Sunday’s game against the Pacers. Draymond Green, who has a rib contusion, is listed as probable, while Jimmy Butler is questionable due to a lower back strain. Kerr said that both players are hopeful to suit up against Denver after sitting out Wednesday in Sacramento.
  • Lakers‘ coach JJ Redick says that Austin Reaves is “TBD” for the team’s next game on Saturday against the Hawks, reports Dave McMenamin (via Twitter). The club is being cautious as Reaves looks to return from a groin injury. McMenamin notes that Reaves tested the injury prior to Wednesday’s contest with the Spurs, but the medical staff ultimately decided to keep him sidelined.
  • Wizards‘ third-year wing Bilal Coulibaly is listed as out for Friday’s game against the Cavs, notes Josh Robbins of The Athletic. Coulibaly, who missed the team’s first four games while recovering from thumb surgery, exited the contest on Wednesday with lower left leg tightness. Robbins adds that Khris Middleton is available to play after missing the previous two games.
  • The Nets will be missing Cam Thomas against the Pistons on Friday after he suffered a left hamstring injury, writes Brian Lewis of the New York Post (Twitter link). Rookies Nolan Traore, Ben Saraf, and Danny Wolf are also out while on assignment with the team’s G League affiliate, though Drake Powell has been upgraded to questionable from his ankle injury. Terance Mann, who is dealing with left shoulder soreness, is probable to play.