Chet Holmgren convinced Thunder to play through fatigue instead of rest

Chet Holmgren convinced Thunder to play through fatigue instead of rest.

After missing last season recovering from multiple foot surgeries, Chet Holmgren has played every game for the Oklahoma City Thunder this season.

This marks a remarkable turnaround for the 21-year-old, who faced questions about his durability after suffering a Lisfranc injury last summer. In 65 games, Holmgren has averaged 16.8 points on 53.5% shooting, 7.8 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 2.5 blocks.

When asked about not missing a game this season on ESPN’s “The Woj Pod,”  Holmgren revealed an interesting anecdote from earlier this season about persuading the Thunder to let him play instead of sitting out a contest.

“There was an instance where it was suggested to me (to rest) and credit to our management, our coaching staff and our medical team. They really see this as a partnership and a collaboration,” Holmgren said. “They came to me, they gave me their point of view and they listened to my point of view.

“At the end of the conversation we were able to come to a conclusion, both sides were able to kinda live with that conclusion and I ended up going out there and playing.”

This latest example is just another glance at how the Thunder operate and are willing to listen to their players when it comes to major decisions. Holmgren has played a key role in OKC’s rise to contention this season as part of their young trio with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams.

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Karl-Anthony Towns’ knee injury made Shams and Woj disagree about how much time he’ll miss

Reporters dramatically disagree about how long KAT will miss with his injury.

Minnesota Timberwolves star Karl-Anthony Towns has reportedly suffered a left meniscus injury, which is awful news for the big man.

Towns was named a Western Conference All-Star this season after he missed a large chunk of the last season due to injury. He has played an integral role on the Timberwolves, currently tied for the best record in the West and the second-best record in the NBA.

According to The Athletic’s Shams Charania, Towns was diagnosed with a torn meniscus in his left knee. Charania reported that the Minnesota star is out indefinitely.

Charania then reported that Towns “has been gathering second opinions on the injury” over the past 24 hours.

According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, meanwhile, it “remains unclear” how much time Towns will miss due to the meniscus injury. In fact, per Woj, we don’t yet know if the Timberwolves star will miss any time at all.

Here is more from Woj (via ESPN):

“Karl-Anthony Towns has suffered a left meniscus injury, and doctors are evaluating whether that will require the Minnesota Timberwolves All-Star to miss a significant period of time, sources told ESPN on Thursday morning.

Towns is undergoing further evaluation to determine whether an immediate procedure is required, or whether there are rehab options that could return him to Minnesota’s lineup in the more immediate future, sources said.

A decision is expected soon, sources said.”

So to summarize, Charania’s reporting is that Towns is out indefinitely while Wojnarowski’s reporting is that the big could return in the “more immediate future” for the Timberwolves.

That is a bit confusing, of course, because Wojnarowski and Charania are considered the two most trusted basketball news-breakers in the industry.

The two reporters were also formerly coworkers at Yahoo Sports, where Woj was a mentor for Shams before the two became rivals. So it is especially interesting to see these two end up with such wildly different reports about how much time Towns will miss.

In reality, doctors have likely not yet determined the right treatment plan for the former No. 1 overall pick. But until then, this is a wildly important update for Minnesota’s title hopes.

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Report: OKC Thunder to bring back Mike Muscala

Report: OKC Thunder to bring back Mike Muscala.

The Oklahoma City Thunder will bring back an old friend to fill their vacant roster spot. Once he clears waivers, veteran center Mike Muscala will sign with the Thunder, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

Muscala spent nearly four seasons with the Thunder from 2019 to 2023 before he was traded to the Boston Celtics during the 2023 NBA trade deadline.

He played for the Washington Wizards and Detroit Pistons this season before the latter bought him out.

The 32-year-old has averaged 3.8 points and 2.8 rebounds this season. He’s shot 31.8% from 3 on 2.3 attempts.

The sharpshooting journeyman enjoyed his best seasons in OKC. He shot 39.2% from 3 on 3.8 attempts during his tenure with the Thunder.

After waiving Aleksej Pokusevski, the Thunder had a vacant roster spot, which they are using for Muscala. The veteran center provides OKC with spacing and a good locker room presence.

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Report: OKC Thunder sign Adam Flagler to two-way deal

Report: OKC Thunder signs Adam Flagler to two-way deal.

The Oklahoma City Thunder signed Adam Flagler to a two-way deal, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

The 24-year-old went undrafted in 2023 out of Baylor and has spent the season with the G League’s OKC Blue. In 14 games, he’s averaged 12.6 points on 44.5% shooting, 3.4 rebounds and 3.1 assists. He’s shot 42% from 3 on 5.8 attempts.

In four college seasons from 2018 to 2023, Flagler averaged 13.8 points on 43.7% shooting, 2.6 assists and 2.6 rebounds.

The Thunder recently had a vacant two-way spot after Lindy Waters III was signed to a standard NBA deal on Friday. Flagler joins Keyontae Johnson and Olivier Sarr as OKC’s three two-way players.

The Thunder’s 18-player roster — 15 standard and three two-way — is now full. OKC also signed Bismack Biyombo for the rest of the season.

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Report: Thunder acquire Gordon Hayward from Hornets

Report: Thunder acquire Gordon Hayward from Hornets.

The Oklahoma City Thunder have acquired veteran forward Gordon Hayward from the Charlotte Hornets in exchange for Tre Mann, Vasilije Micic, Davis Bertans and two second-round picks, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

The two second-round picks are in 2024 via the Houston Rockets and 2025 via the Philadelphia 76ers. The Thunder also sent out cash considerations to the Hornets.

This is a nice deal for OKC. It doesn’t give up anything serious: Mann and Bertans seldom played this season. Meanwhile, Hayward has an expiring $31.5 million salary, so there’s no long-term commitment.

In 25 games, Hayward has averaged 14.5 points on 48.6% shooting, 4.7 rebounds and 4.6 assists. He’s shot 36.1% from 3 on 2.4 attempts. Nearly all of his 3-pointers resulted in assists (95.5%), so he’ll be a nice catch-and-shoot option for OKC.

Health is an issue. He hasn’t played since Dec. 26, but Hayward is inching closer to a return. He was recently began to be designated as questionable for the Hornets.

The Thunder can afford to be cautious with the 33-year-old. They’ll likely ask him to be a backup wing off the bench who can score. His immense playoff experience is a valuable commodity for the young Thunder.

Meanwhile, Mann gets a fresh start and has the next 1 1/2 seasons to earn a second NBA deal. In three seasons, he’s averaging 8.5 points on 39.7% shooting, 2.5 rebounds and 1.7 assists.

Editor’s note: This article was updated following the announcement of Micic and draft compensation to the deal. It was originally reported as just Mann and Bertans.

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NBA fans were baffled when CNN Sports (of all outlets) reported that the Bucks hired Doc Rivers

This whole saga is incredibly bizarre!

After the Milwaukee Bucks suddenly fired head coach Adrian Griffin, NBA champion Doc Rivers emerged as a leading candidate to replace him.

Despite the winning record in Milwaukee, Griffin’s departure wasn’t exactly shocking. Rivers, who was the head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers until last season, makes plenty of sense as his successor. Rivers was already serving as an “informal consultant” for the team, per The Athletic.

What baffled everyone, however, is that the first outlet credited with breaking the news was CNN Sports. Even though CNN is a trusted news outlet, it isn’t a desk known for its sports department.

So what exactly happened here? How did basketball insiders like Adrian Wojnarowski (currently Rivers’ colleague at ESPN) and Shams Charania get scooped by an outlet that doesn’t have much of a sports presence?

During a broadcast of NBA on TNT, host Adam Lefkoe relayed that CNN Sports was reporting that Doc Rivers was accepting the head coaching gig with Milwaukee.

Jamal Crawford, the longtime NBA player who is now an analyst on the show, immediately asked Lefkoe to confirm that the outlet was indeed CNN. How is this possible? Others had the same question. Here is more from Awful Announcing:

“This Doc Rivers report is the first time CNN Sports has been mentioned as a thing in literally decades. CNN Sports Tonight, the highlight show alternative to SportsCenter from Turner, hasn’t aired since 2001. CNN was linked with the Sports Illustrated brand before the platform was taken over by Bleacher Report sports content in 2013. In fact, all of Warner Bros. Discovery’s sports branding had transitioned to Bleacher Report in the last several years before it literally just rebranded to TNT Sports earlier this month.”

A.J. Perez of Front Office Sports later reported, however, that the news was fully vetted by CNN before it was passed along to TNT.

It is important to note that CNN and TNT are both owned by the same parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery. But at the time of the broadcast, there was nothing on the CNN Sports website that mentioned Rivers.

Perez was told this was likely due to CNN’s coverage of the GOP primary in New Hampshire.

As noted on Twitter/X by New York Times reporter Kevin Draper, a CNN Sports correspondent named Coy Wire appeared on NBA TV (also owned by Warner Bros. Discovery) to confirm that Rivers was hired by Milwaukee.

Draper added that he was also told by a CNN spokesperson that all of the reporting went through their “editorial process” at the network.

Later in the night, CNN Sports eventually published a story that credited “a source with knowledge of the conversations” but the reporting had no byline.

But this was far from the end of the story and the confusion continued.

Chris Haynes, who is widely considered the network’s top basketball insider and news breaker at NBA on TNT and Bleacher Report (which is also owned by Warner Bros. Discovery) refuted the report.

He claimed there is “no agreement” yet in place for Rivers to take over as the head coach of the Bucks. Bill Reiter of CBS Sports also reported that there is no agreement in place.

So what exactly happened here? Was this a giant miscommunication or was CNN Sports the first publication to break this news? Basketball fans had a lot of questions.

Woj: OKC Thunder to play season out with current group ahead of trade deadline

Woj: OKC Thunder to play season out with current group ahead of trade deadline.

As the Oklahoma City Thunder continues to take the league by storm, pundits are beginning to get anxious about potential moves they can make to improve their roster this season.

Swimming in draft capital and young prospects, the Thunder are spoiled with potential trade assets to make any move a realistic possibility for them.

If the Thunder wanted to make a massive trade right now, they theoretically could. But according to ESPN’s NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski, they’d rather see what this young core can do first in the playoffs before making any drastic moves.

“I think they’re gonna keep letting this team grow and they are in a far different place than they were before this season. They knew they had a group that they believed in.

What you’ve seen now is each 10-game increment, they’ve gotten better. They are top five in offensive and defensive efficiency. Only Boston and Philadelphia are there.

They’re on a run where they beat the Celtics, Timberwolves, and Nuggets twice. They’re gonna keep letting this team grow. They have the players here. They have a group here that they can let get into the playoffs. Let them get through it.

They’re one of the three youngest teams in the league — San Antonio and Detroit are the other two; how are they doing? We’ve not seen a team and a group like this in a very long time. With a superstar like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and perhaps multiple All-Stars in the group around them. There’s nothing for this team to do at the trade deadline.

Now they want to go out and get maybe a big off their bench — they’re 29th in rebounding, something like that. But even their role players — Cason Wallace, Isaiah Joe — these guys may grow into great role players on a championship team.

So you look at a team that’s (23-10) and the rest of the league all over the place — underachieving; behind schedule. They’re the ones who have to scramble and make trades.

Oklahoma City’s gonna just keep letting this team (play). They may have the group here, they may not have to go outside this group to really get where they want to go.”

This pretty much aligns with what the Thunder have preached throughout the entire season. OKC isn’t known for making all-in moves unless they have to. Considering the stage their core is at right now, they don’t.

The smart long-term move is to see what Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams can do in the playoffs together before tweaking the roster for future playoff runs.

The fact the biggest NBA insider in the league is repeating this point further proves that fans shouldn’t expect an earth-shattering deal before this year’s trade deadline by OKC.

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Kevin Durant wrote (and deleted) a scathing response to Adrian Wojnarowski’s report on his frustration with the Suns

Kevin Durant kind of has a point here

Kevin Durant can’t catch a break on the internet, man. It just isn’t possible.

The Suns’ superstar is catching a bit of flack for a recent report from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski about how some folks in the Suns’ organization are feeling “frustrations” from Durant so far this season.

It’s still early, obviously, but things don’t look great for the Suns. But Phoenix has lost three straight games and fallen below .500 in a tough Western Conference. Not only that, but you’ve got Devin Booker frustratingly calling out teammates in the middle of games, too. For a team with championship aspirations, none of that is good.

So, of course, you could understand why someone would be frustrated by it. That’s not how fans are taking it, though. Instead, it’s become an opportunity to criticize Durant for complaining about a situation he put himself in by demanding a trade from the Nets.

Fans have tried to say Durant is mentally checked out as a result of the report.

 

Durant, himself, has had enough of the speculation, though. He hopped on Instagram and commented on a post about the rumors surrounding him. He eventually deleted the comment, but screenshots last forever. Durant called out Woj and fans for all the speculation.

Warning: There is some NSFW language in this tweet

Woj says somebody else “feels” that I’m frustrated and it turned into me being mentally checked out. This [expletive] crazy, these people can flat out lie on my name and make [expletive] up and you people will believe it but when my teammates and coaches speak on how i am as a teammate, you ignore it.” 

Durant has a point there. There’s been nothing that says he’s mentally checked out on the Suns or that he wants out. He’s played in 25 of the team’s 29 (the second-most on the team) games so far this season and played incredibly well. But, somehow, it’s turned into him being mentally checked out.

None of this will matter if the Suns can get healthy and get a few wins under their belts. We’ll see how it goes. Until then, Durant will just have to deal with the rumor mill continuing to churn.

Interview: Fred VanVleet on how the culture is changing in Houston

In a new interview with ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, veteran Rockets guard Fred VanVleet opens up about how the culture has already changed in Houston.

Even in the aftermath three road losses last week, the Rockets remain one of the NBA’s feel-good stories of the 2023-24 season to date. Coming off three straight years at the bottom of the Western Conference standings, Houston (8-9) continues to play consistently competitive basketball under new head coach Ime Udoka.

Beyond Udoka, one of the biggest reasons for Houston’s improvement was the offseason acquisition of Fred VanVleet as a free agent. The veteran guard is averaging 16.5 points (37.7% on 3-pointers), 9.1 assists, and 4.2 rebounds per game while providing strong defense and leadership, and assists total ranks fourth in the NBA.

On Monday, VanVleet joined ESPN’s renowned league insider, Adrian Wojnarowski, on a fresh episode of The Woj Pod. Topics of discussion included VanVleet’s massive impact with the team; his Toronto departure; the changing face of team building in the NBA, the new in-season tournament; and much more.

Read on for select quotes and insights from VanVleet’s conversation with Wojnarowski, and listen to the complete episode below.

Adrian Wojnarowski missed a flight on purpose so he could break James Harden trade news

There’s a reason why Woj is one of the best at what he does.

The life of a sports insider never ceases to amaze us.

Adrian Wojnarowski (AKA Woj) is one of the best in the business. The NBA insider is known for his fantastic ability to break news that rarely anyone else can get. Amazingly, fans often commiserate over “Where were you when Woj broke the news?” moments.

Woj’s job requires him to be available at all kinds of strange hours, no matter what he does. He could be with family, and news would drop. He could be doing a live segment, and the information will fall. He could be trying to catch a flight, and word will drop that stops him in his tracks.

That happened when Woj learned that James Harden was headed to the Clippers.

During a recent episode of The Woj Pod, the insider revealed that while at Newark airport waiting on a flight, it was suggested to him by a source not to get on a plane because breaking news was about to drop.

“It’s always my worst fear with this job that you’re on a plane, and the wireless is spotty, and you can’t get to what you need to do,” Woj said.

“So I sat at Newark airport, watched the place close down, and then almost start to reopen again.”

Based on the timeline given by Woj, we now know that he released the initial Harden news around 2:00 a.m. ET, and he didn’t leave the airport until after 3:30 a.m. ET, despite being there since before 5:00 p.m. ET.

That’s commitment.