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Mavericks guard Jason Terry is scheduled for surgery tomorrow to address facial injuries sustained in last night’s game vs. Minnesota. A timetable will be released after the surgery is performed.
Terry (6-2, 180) has averaged 17.0 points, 3.8 assists, 2.0 rebounds and 1.23 steals, while shooting 44.7% from the field and 36.4% from 3-point range. The reigning 6th Man of the Year is the only Maverick that has played in all 62 games this season.
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Minnesota Timberwolves center Mark Blount has no particularly special basketball skills. He’s tall, though.
As great as that sounds, the Timberwolves today announced the team has waived Blount.
The Timberwolves acquired Blount from Miami on August 13, 2009 in exchange for Quentin Richardson. Blount did not appear in a game for the Wolves this season.
A 7-0 center, Blount has appeared in 605 career games over his nine-year NBA career, including stops in Boston, Denver, Minnesota and Miami. Originally selected by Seattle with the 54th overall pick of the 1997 NBA Draft, Blount owns career averages of 8.2 points and 4.6 rebounds. He played for the Wolves in 2005-06 and 2006-07, averaging 11.6 points and 5.7 rebounds in 124 games.
It’s possible Blount does get signed by another team in the near future, but it would likely be an unguaranteed deal for the league minimum.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports:
Timberwolves basketball player Al Jefferson was arrested and booked into jail early this morning for allegedly driving drunk, according to jail records, and the Wolves immediately responded by suspending their leading scorer for two games.
Jefferson was arrested by the State Patrol at 1:08 a.m., a little more than three hours after the Wolves’ 110-91 loss to Portland at Target Center, and was brought to the Hennepin County Jail shorty after 2 a.m., according to the State Patrol and jail records. He was released at 3:19 a.m…
That’s a penalty that will cost Jefferson, the Wolves’ highest-paid player who earns $12 million in the second season of a five-year, $65 million contract, roughly $293,000 in lost wages.
The Minnesota Timberwolves today announced the club has recalled second-year forward Nathan Jawai from the Sioux Falls Skyforce of the NBA Development League. Jawai appeared in two games for the Skyforce, averaging 6.0 points and 3.0 rebounds in 25.0 minutes per game.
Jawai has appeared in 36 games for the Wolves this season, averaging 3.3 points and 2.7 rebounds in 10.8 minutes per game.
The Wolves obtained Jawai from the Dallas Mavericks on Oct. 20, 2009 in exchange for a conditional second-round draft pick in 2012. The native of Australia played in six games for the Toronto Raptors in 2008-09.
Per NBA rules, a first- or second-year player can be assigned to the team’s D-League affiliate a maximum of three times in a season.
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New York Knickerbockers President of Basketball Operations Donnie Walsh announced today that the team has waived forward Brian Cardinal.
Just a day ago, the team traded Darko Milicic for Cardinal. It was mainly a financial-related transaction.
The 6-8, 240-pound Cardinal has an NBA career average of 5.4 points and 2.7 rebounds on 41.2% shooting in 15.7 minutes per game. His best seasons came with the Warriors in 2003-04 (9.6 ppg, 4.2 rpg) and with the Grizzlies in 2004-05 (9.0 ppg, 3.9 rpg).
InsideHoops.com editor Jeff Lenchiner says: Knicks fans will miss Brian Cardinal and his contributions, but the pain and loss they’re feeling will ease with time. The Cardinal era was a great one for the Knicks, but even legends must someday say farewell and move on. (Note to new basketball fans: I’m kidding. Cardinal just arrived a day ago and now he’s already gone.)
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New York Knickerbockers President of Basketball Operations Donnie Walsh announced today that the team has acquired forward Brian Cardinal from the Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange for center Darko Milicic and cash considerations.
Cardinal, 6-8, 240 pounds, has career averages of 5.4 points and 2.7 rebounds in 354 games over 10 NBA seasons with Detroit, Washington, Golden State, Memphis and Minnesota. Originally drafted by Detroit in the second round (44th overall) in the 2000 NBA Draft out of Purdue, Cardinal is averaging 1.7 points, 0.9 rebounds and 9.0 minutes in 27 games this season with Minnesota.
Milicic, 7-0, 275-pounds, was acquired by New York from Memphis in exchange for swingman Quentin Richardson on Jun. 25, 2009 and averaged 2.0 points, 2.3 rebounds and 8.9 minutes in eight games as a Knick. Drafted by Detroit with the second overall selection in the 2003 NBA Draft, Milicic has career averages of 5.4 points and 4.0 rebounds in 345 career games over seven NBA seasons with Detroit, Orlando, Memphis and New York.
InsideHoops.com adds:
A trade of this magnitude changes not just the face of the NBA and sports in general, but of humanity and the future of our existence on this planet.
The Phoenix Suns today traded swingman Alando Tucker, a future conditional second-round pick and cash considerations to the Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange for guard Jason Hart, the team announced. The Suns have waived Hart.
“We want to thank Alando for his service to our organization,” said Suns President of Basketball Operations and General Manager Steve Kerr. “He is a high-character person who has been a good teammate and a hard worker since arriving in Phoenix and we appreciate all of his efforts. We wish him well in Minnesota.”
“I want to thank Jason Hart for being a consummate professional with us,” said David Kahn, Timberwolves President of Basketball Operations. “This was a very hard trade to make precisely because Jason has been so helpful to our team both on and off the court. We wish him well… “We are eager to have Alando join us this week. Everything we know about him is that he is a hard working young man who has not had the opportunity for significant playing time.”
The 6-6, 205-pound Tucker was originally selected by the Suns with the 29th overall pick (first round) in the 2007 NBA Draft. In two-plus seasons in Phoenix, the Wisconsin product has appeared in 47 games with the Suns, including 11 appearances in 2009-10 in which he averaged 3.9 points in 6.5 minutes. The Lockport, Ill.-native owns career NBA averages of 4.3 points and 1.0 rebounds in 8.5 minutes.
Coming off a 15-point win over the NBA-leading LA Lakers, the Suns (20-12) return to action Wednesday night, hosting the Eastern Conference-best Boston Celtics (23-7) at US Airways Center at 7 p.m. Phoenix time. The game can be seen locally on FOX Sports Arizona and heard on Sports 620 KTAR.
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Kobe Bryant broke a small bone in his finger on Friday. It remains to be seen what the outcome of the injury will be.
The AP reports:
Kobe Bryant scored 20 points while playing with a small break in his finger, and the Los Angeles Lakers wrapped up the generous portion of their schedule with their 11th straight victory, 104-92 over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday night.
Pau Gasol had 17 points and a career-high 20 rebounds for the defending champions, who improved the NBA’s best record to 18-3 while finishing a season-opening stretch with 17 of their first 21 games at home. Ron Artest scored 16 points and Lamar Odom added 13 for Los Angeles, which hasn’t lost since Nov. 15.
Yet the Lakers also got a scare when Bryant hurt the index finger on his right hand while reaching for a pass late in the first quarter. Bryant has an avulsion fracture, in which a small piece of bone tears away near a ligament or tendon.
”It’s pretty painful,” Bryant said. ”I just tried to play through it.”
The Los Angeles Times reports:
Bryant sustained an avulsion fracture in the index finger of his right hand but kept playing. The Lakers sustained a case of not taking the Timberwolves seriously but also kept playing on Friday, eventually winning their 11th consecutive game, 104-92.
An avulsion fracture occurs when a small fragment of bone is pulled off by a tendon, which apparently happened when Bryant took a slightly off-target entry pass from Jordan Farmar late in the first quarter.
He left briefly and returned for the start of the second quarter . . . sort of. He took one shot, passed the ball only with his left hand, and left near the quarter’s midpoint for X-rays down the hall from the locker room.
This is potentially a real problem. Bryant has already been playing hurt for a long time now, but this may be too much to tolerate. If Bryant has to miss time he should probably do it as immediately as possible and get it over with.
Phil Miller of the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports:
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Ryan Gomes has been a different player since moving to power forward in the Timberwolves’ starting lineup. Or maybe it’s because he’s being guarded by different players.
Entering Wednesday’s game against New Orleans, Gomes averaged 20.2 points per game and made 58.6 percent of his shots in five games since moving to power forward to make room for Damien Wilkins. Considering he was shooting just 37.9 percent and scoring only 8.9 points in the previous 18 games — mostly spent at small forward — the change has provided a real jolt to the Wolves offense.
“I’m comfortable either way, but it’s harder for some of the bigger guys to guard me” at power forward, Gomes said.
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The Minnesota Timberwolves are expected to welcome forward/center Kevin Love back tonight as they visit the New Orleans Hornets.
With a 2-16 record, the Wolves are desperate for any help they can get. Love is key and, in the eyes of InsideHoops.com, the second best player on the team, behind Al Jefferson.
Love was hurt in preseason. This will be his first game of the 2009-10 regular season.
The Wolves this season haven’t looked anything remotely close to competitive. They’re scoring 91.6 points per game while giving up 104.4 ppg.
Love brings rebounding as well as scoring. He’ll help make the team look worthy of being in the NBA.
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