NBA Rumors Round-Up
NBA Rumors: Brandon Jennings Out for the Season?
Jeff Hawkins is an award-winning sportswriter with more than four decades in the industry (print and digital media). A freelance writer/stay-at-home dad since 2008, Hawkins started his career with newspaper stints in Michigan, North Carolina, Florida, Upstate New York and Illinois, where he earned the 2004 APSE first-place award for column writing (under 40,000 circulation). As a beat writer, he covered NASCAR Winston Cup events at NHIS (1999-2003), the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks (2003-06) and the NFL's Carolina Panthers (2011-12). Hawkins penned four youth sports books, including a Michael Jordan biography. Hawkins' main hobbies include mountain bike riding, 5k trail runs at the Whitewater Center in Charlotte, N.C., and live music.
All posts by Jeff HawkinsUpdated16 Oct 2023
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There’s significant fear within the Detroit Pistons organization that guard Brandon Jennings sustained a torn Achilles’ tendon on Saturday night and could miss the rest of the season, league sources told Yahoo Sports.
After crumpling to the floor on a non-contact play in the third quarter of a loss to Milwaukee, Jennings is set to return to Detroit on Sunday for an MRI exam on his left Achilles. Both the Pistons and Jennings are bracing for the worst, sources told Yahoo Sports.
This is a huge blow to the Pistons, as Jennings had been playing very well lately and helping them salvage their season after a rough start.
An MRI on Sunday will confirm whether or not Jennings is out for the season, but Wojnarowski reports that people within the organization are worried that the injury is a torn Achilles’ tendon.
“It doesn’t look good,” Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy said, according to Wojnarowski. “It is a major, major loss.”
Jennings has averaged 15.4 points and 6.7 assists this season, and was a big reason for Detroit’s recent success.
After testing his injured left thumb in a splint on the court, Portland Trail Blazers star LaMarcus Aldridge informed the organization that he wanted to postpone surgery and make an immediate return to the lineup.
“I just want to try and play with it,” Aldridge told Yahoo Sports in a text message on Saturday afternoon. “We are having a good season and I want to keep it going. I’m going to try and play with it, if I can, and go from there.”
This was a shocking turn of events for the Trail Blazers, as Aldridge was initially expected to miss six-to-eight weeks as he recovered from surgery to repair his thumb.
Instead, he decided to play through it with a splint because he doesn’t want Portland to lose the momentum they’ve built up after a strong 32-13 start that puts them third in the competitive Western Conference.
Aldridge played on Saturday night against the Washington Wizards and he looked completely healthy, contributing 26 points, nine rebounds, three assists and two steals in the win. Despite the injury, Aldridge was able to play a game-high 36 minutes and his 26 points led all scorers.
Had Aldridge gone under the knife, the Blazers could’ve tumbled down the standings and that’s not something he wanted to contribute to. He said that in the past 48 hours, he was able to test his thumb and tolerate the pain, so he decided against the procedure.
The Blazers hope that Aldridge can continue to play at a high level without further injuring his thumb, and all of his teammates praised his selflessness after Saturday’s win.
The Los Angeles Clippers announced today they have signed guard Dahntay Jones to a second 10-day contract.
via Clippers press release
This is Jones’ second 10-day contract with the Clippers. Once this deal expires, the team will have to decide to sign Jones for the remainder of the season or let him go.
During his first 10-day deal, Jones appeared in four games but played limited action for the Clippers. He averaged 1.0 points and 0.3 rebounds in 5.8 minutes.
Jones, who was the 16th D-League call-up of the 2014-15 season, appeared in 19 games (15 starts) for the Fort Wayne Mad Ants of the NBA Development League and averaged 14.4 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.7 assists in 29.2 minutes.
Jones is one of several veteran players who successfully used the D-League to make an NBA comeback, joining Jamaal Tinsley, Gerald Green, Mike James, Tyrus Thomas and James Johnson among others.
The Knicks believe a marketplace exists for 37-year-old point guard Pablo Prigioni. According to a source, the Knicks have looked to trade the slow but steady point guard, seeing if they can unearth an asset such as a second-round pick.
“He’s worth something,’’ one person familiar with the situation said.
At the very least, Prigioni can be an added piece to a larger, multi-team trade as the Knicks attempt to use their two trade exceptions gained in the J.R. Smith/Iman Shumpert fire sale.
A team that needs a back-up point guard may be interested in acquiring Prigioni from the Knicks, as he’s a veteran contributor and making only $1,662,961 this season. His 2015-16 salary is $1,734,572, but only $290,000 is guaranteed so he can be waived to clear cap room if his respective team no longer wants him.
This season, the 37-year-old is averaging 4.8 points, 2.5 assists and 1.2 steals in 18.8 minutes per game.
Right now, it seems that the Knicks are in fire-sale mode and pretty much any player outside of Carmelo Anthony could be had for the right price.
The team won’t take back any contracts that extend past this season since they want to keep their cap flexibility as they chase big-name free agents this summer, but they could be willing to move veterans for draft picks, traded player exceptions and ending deals that help them with their rebuilding effort.
These kind of moves would be similar to the trade they made with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Oklahoma City Thunder, dumping the contracts of J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert for cap space and TPEs.
Prigioni isn’t the only veteran point guard who could be on the move for the Knicks, as New York would also like to move Jose Calderon since he is owed over $7 million in each of the next two seasons.
