Category: NBA Teams

NBA teams blog

New York Knicks waive Kurt Thomas

kurt thomas

New York Knicks Executive Vice President, Basketball Operations and General Manager Glen Grunwald announced today that the team has waived forward/center Kurt Thomas.

According to multiple reports, the team is expected to sign center Solomon Jones.

“Kurt’s contributions to the Knicks have been immeasurable,” Grunwald said. “From the first day of training camp, to his last game against the Utah Jazz, Kurt has been a key contributor to our team. The team’s success this season has been driven by veteran leadership on and off the court – it is something that cannot be quantified or read in a box score.

“Once it became clear that he would not be able to return this season, and due to a rash of injuries to our big men, we felt that it was important for us to free-up a spot on our roster. We thank Kurt for all that he has done. I have the utmost respect for Kurt as a player and as a man.”

The 6-9, 245-pound 18-year NBA veteran averaged 2.5 points, 2.3 rebounds and 10.1 minutes in 39 games, including a six-point, three-rebound performance at Utah on Mar. 18 that sparked the beginning of a 13-game winning streak, despite being hampered by a foot injury. On Mar. 19, an MRI on Thomas’ right foot revealed an acute stress reaction surrounding a chronic stress fracture in his navicular bone. He spent the next 12 games on the Inactive List.

Thomas currently ranks ninth on the franchise’s all-time rebounding list with 4,272 caroms and 15th in games played with 569 appearances.

Nets sign Kris Joseph for rest of season

Kris Joseph has made a positive impression on the Brooklyn Nets, and the team has signed the forward for the remainder of the 2012-13 season, Nets General Manager Billy King announced today.

Joseph (6-7/215), who signed a 10-day contract with Brooklyn on April 2, has appeared in three games for the Nets, averaging 3.3 minutes per game.  Joseph was Brooklyn’s second NBA D-League Call-Up of the season, joining the Nets from the Springfield Armor.

Acquired from Maine on February 11, 2013, Joseph started 15 games for the Armor, averaging 19.0 points, 4.0 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.7 steals in 34.1 minutes per game. In 27 combined games for Springfield and Maine this season, Joseph averaged 18.6 points, 4.6 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.7 steals in 34.0 minutes per game.

The Syracuse University product was selected in the second round (51st overall) of the 2012 NBA Draft by the Boston Celtics. In six games for the Celtics this season, Joseph averaged 1.2 points and 0.8 rebounds in 3.8 minutes per game.

The Nets have a 46-32 record, good for 4th in the Eastern conference

The NBA regular season ends Wednesday, April 17.

Mavs miss playoffs for first time in a long time

Dirk Nowitzki

This is unfamiliar, uncomfortable territory for Mark Cuban.

It’s the first full season of his ownership tenure in which the Dallas Mavericks are finished before the playoffs. He hopes it will be the last such season.

“I’ve always said there is one winner and 29 other teams tied for last,” Cuban said via email Thursday morning, hours after the Mavs were officially eliminated, ending a 12-year playoff streak. “Our goal is to win championships, so it’s disappointing to not win. But we will come back and get better next year.”

This will be a big summer for the Mavs, as Dirk Nowitzki has said dozens of times as Dallas’ dozen-year playoff streak neared its end.

So was last summer, but the Mavericks had to settle for essentially constructing a temporary supporting cast of players on expiring contracts or willing to sign one-year deals. That definitely wasn’t the plan when Cuban made the difficult post-lockout decision to let Tyson Chandler and other key championship pieces depart Dallas via free agency.

The ideal situation would be adding a superstar who could take the burden off soon-to-be-35-year-old Nowitzki. When the Mavs opted to create significant salary-cap space for the first time in the Cuban era, they did so with the belief that Chris Paul, Dwight Howard and Deron Williams would all be on the market last summer.

— Reported by Tim MacMahon of ESPN Dallas

Warriors center Andrew Bogut sprains left ankle

Andrew Bogut

Golden State Warriors center Andrew Bogut sprained his surgically repaired left ankle against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday night.

Warriors coach Mark Jackson said Bogut was not expected to make the trip to Los Angeles for Friday night’s game against the Lakers.

Bogut exited Golden State’s 116-97 loss with 2:55 remaining in the first quarter. He went to the locker room for observation and did not return to the bench.

— Reported by the Associated Press

Kevin Durant dominates, Thunder beat Warriors 116-97

kevin Durant

Russell Westbrook blocked Stephen Curry’s layup, Kevin Durant corralled the ball and dribbled down court. He threw down a soaring dunk at full extension, then pretended to slice his throat and crossed his hands in prayer.

”Kill ’em and pray for ’em after the game,” Durant said of his new celebration.

Durant finished with 31 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists to help the Oklahoma City Thunder regain the Western Conference’s best record with a 116-97 victory over the Golden State Warriors on Thursday night.

”It’s nothing against the team I’m playing against,” Durant said of his animated moves, adding that somebody encouraged him to do it following a highlight dunk. ”Come out with a mindset and be friends after the game.”

With Durant leading the way, that’s just what the Thunder did.

Kevin Martin scored 23 points off the bench and Russell Westbrook added 18 points and nine assists for the Thunder, who moved a half-game ahead of idle San Antonio for the top seed. The Spurs split the season series with Oklahoma City, but the Thunder (58-21) own the tiebreaker because of its better conference record…

Curry scored 22 points and reserve Jarrett Jack had 19 points on a night the Warriors lost center Andrew Bogut to another injury. The 7-footer left in the first quarter with a sprained left ankle…

Ibaka finished with 17 points, seven rebounds and three blocks. Durant was 10 for 16 from the floor, helping the Thunder outshoot the Warriors 50.6 to 44 percent.

— Reported by Antonio Gonzalez of the Associated Press

Kobe unleashes epic 47-point game on Blazers

Kobe unleashes epic 47-point game on Blazers

It didn’t matter that it was the Rose Garden. The ”M-V-P!” chant for Kobe Bryant was loud and clear.

Bryant scored a season-high 47 points [plus eight rebounds, five assists, three steals and four blocks] and carried the Los Angeles Lakers closer to a playoff berth with a 113-106 victory over the short-handed but tenacious Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday night.

The Lakers moved a full game up on the Utah Jazz for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

”We’ve got no breathing room at all,” Bryant said. ”I’m still on edge. We’ve got to win three more games and we’re in.”

Portland, missing the playoffs for the second straight season, has lost nine straight, the most since an 11-game skid in the 2005-06 season. Rookie Damian Lillard led the Blazers with a career-high 38 points.

Pau Gasol had 23 points, seven rebounds and nine assists, while Dwight Howard added 20 points and 10 rebounds for the Lakers. Bryant was 18 of 18 from the free throw line and played the entire game, determined to pull out a win after trailing early.

”What he (Bryant) is doing is phenomenal. He’s determined to get us in the playoffs,” Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni said. ”That’s what happens when you open your mouth and guarantee that we’ll get in the playoffs.”

Bryant vowed in late February that his team would make it to the postseason. The Lakers wrap up the regular season at home with games against playoff-bound Golden State, San Antonio and Houston.

— Reported by Anne M. Peterson of the Associated Press

Lakers guard Steve Nash frustrated with season

steve nash

Steve Nash was back at the Rose Garden on Wednesday, the site of the collision that broke his left leg in the Los Angeles Lakers’ second game of the season, sidelining him for nearly two months.

Only this time around, he was dealing with a right hip and hamstring injury that kept him out of the game against the Portland Trail Blazers and caused him to miss all or part of the Lakers’ past six games before it.

Seeing Nash make his way to the training room for treatment before the game rather than head to the court for a crucial matchup as the Lakers fight for a playoff spot begged the question: Has this been the most frustrating season of his career?

“Right up there, if not the most frustrating,” said Nash, a 17-year veteran. “I’ve played a long time, so I can’t remember all those years, but it’s frustrating. Maybe it’s because of the freshness, but it feels the most frustrating for sure.”

Nash, who hurt his hip March 25 at Golden State and has suffered discomfort in his hamstring stemming from the injury ever since, said he is improving but added, “There’s still a question for Friday.”

— Reported by Dave McMenamin of ESPN Los Angeles

Sixers may hope coach Doug Collins moves on this summer

Doug Collins

According to multiple league sources, the 76ers organization privately hopes that coach Doug Collins decides not to return for the 2013-14 season and, regardless of his decision, it does not intend to extend his contract – which has one year remaining.

It will be an interesting game of cat-and-mouse when this season ends. Collins is unlikely to quit and leave $4.5 million on the table, but he is just as unlikely to agree to coach the lame-duck year of his contract.

“I’m entirely focused on trying to win the games we have left,” Collins said Wednesday night before the Sixers played Atlanta at the Wells Fargo Center. “I’m not thinking at all about next season. I haven’t gone there.”

Previously, Collins has said he simply doesn’t know yet what he will do. This has been an excruciatingly difficult season for the entire organization, and particularly for Collins, who pours so much passion and energy into coaching that he is always exhausted at the end of a season. This time around, dealing with the crushing disappointment of not having the Andrew Bynum deal work out, and then dealing with a team that is incapable of winning without him, the toll has been even greater.

“I think he’s gone at the end of the year. He’ll be moving on,” said one NBA source with intimate knowledge of the situation. “He’ll decide to leave, and they won’t be upset about it. They would like to see it work out that he decides to move on.”

— Reported by Bob Ford of the Philadelphia Inquirer