Tag: Torrey Craig

Jalen Green, Kevin Porter Jr. scorching hot for Rockets in loss to Suns

Kevin Porter Jr. and Jalen Green combined for 43 points on 53.3% shooting, including 56.3% on 3-pointers. But Houston’s hot shooting couldn’t offset a big Phoenix rebounding edge (19).

Kevin Porter Jr. and Jalen Green combined for 43 points on 16-of-30 shooting (53.3%), including 9-of-16 on 3-pointers (56.3%). But the hot shooting by Houston’s young guards wasn’t enough to offset a 57-38 rebounding advantage by the Suns, leading to a 129-112 Phoenix victory (box score) on Wednesday at Toyota Center.

Devin Booker scored 36 points for Phoenixon 15-of-24 shooting (62.5%), including 5-of-12 on 3-pointers (41.7%). But the biggest gap between the teams was inside, with the Suns’ frontcourt of Deandre Ayton (23 points, 11 rebounds) and Torrey Craig (21 points, 14 rebounds) often bullying the younger Rockets with their physicality. Craig made all eight of his shots, while Ayton hit 10-of-19 (52.6%) from the field.

Starting center Christian Wood (18 points, 9 rebounds in 27 minutes) was the only Houston player with more than 4 rebounds for the game.

The Rockets fell behind 14-2 early, and that set the tone on a night where the Suns (56-14) expanded their lead for the NBA’s best record and the Rockets (17-52) continued to hold the worst. However, Houston did fight back behind impressive shooting and playmaking from several guards.

Scroll on for highlights, statistics, and postgame reaction.

The Lakers should make a trade with the Pacers

Opinion: The Los Angeles Lakers need to call the Indiana Pacers and strike a deal for this player.

The 2022 NBA trade deadline is just a few days away, and the Los Angeles Lakers desperately need to shuffle the roster.

The vision the front office had over the summer has not yet come to fruition, and time is really ticking for the Lakers (26-28) to make a postseason push as the regular season dwindles.

Names for the Lakers that could be traded include Russell Westbrook, Talen Horton-Tucker, Kendrick Nunn, Kent Bazemore and DeAndre Jordan, which makes sense because the main untouchables are LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Malik Monk if this squad wants to go deep in the playoffs.

But the Lakers don’t need to make a splashy, big trade to improve. They can make a smaller one that helps at the margins, which sometimes is all a team needs.

That brings to mind the Indiana Pacers. Indiana is currently 13th in the Eastern Conference and is already blowing up the roster after a failed season. Caris LeVert and a 2022 second-round pick went to the Cleveland Cavaliers for Ricky Rubio (out for the season with an ACL tear), a 2022 first-rounder, a 2022 second-rounder and a 2027 second-rounder.

Myles Turner is a 3-and-D center that could definitely benefit the Lakers, but acquiring him would likely remove L.A.’s chances of getting a good wing because the best trade assets would be gone.

But a name on the roster that is intriguing is Torrey Craig. The 31-year-old 3-and-D wing is making $4.8 million for this year and next year and isn’t a future piece as the Pacers rebuild.

In 19.8 minutes per game, Craig is averaging 6.5 points, 3.7 rebounds and 1.1 assists while shooting 46.4% overall (5.4 attempts) and 34.4% from deep (2.7 attempts. He shot 36.8% from deep last season.

The Lakers wouldn’t need to ship a first-round pick as they would for Kenrich Williams of the Oklahoma City Thunder. Los Angeles could send one of its two 2023 second-rounders and/or attach one or two minimum players (like Jordan or Bazemore) since they’re on expiring contracts.

If the Pacers are going to have a fire sale, getting Craig for cheap would help the lack of players who excel on both ends on L.A.’s roster.

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How one player in the Suns and Bucks NBA finals could get a ring no matter who wins the title

A weird fact.

Torrey Craig could have already claimed an NBA championship ring, even if the team he’s currently a member of — the Phoenix Suns — wins or the squad he was on — the Milwaukee Bucks — claims victory in the 2021 Finals.

That’s right: Craig played 18 games for the Bucks in the 2020-21 season, before the Deer dealt him to Phoenix in March. Since then, he’s played 32 games for the Suns including eight starts.

That would mean he could end up qualifying to get a ring no matter who wins.

It’s a pretty cool fact, but it brings up an important question: would he accept a ring from the Bucks if they beat the Suns? That would be kind of weird.

Many fans and experts are pointing out that this is similar to what happened with Anderson Verajao, the forward who was traded by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016 and then eventually landed on the Golden State Warriors that same season. He told the media if the Cavaliers won, he wouldn’t accept it.

To me, that makes all the sense in the world. It would look kind of weird to fight for a ring, lose to a team you battle in a series and then accept it. But we’ll see! It’ll be moot if the Suns win.

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Free agency stock watch: Jeff Green, Georges Niang, Torrey Craig and more

The NBA playoffs are nearing the end of the second round and players around the league are beginning to separate the good from the great. 

The NBA playoffs are nearing the end of the second round and players around the league are beginning to separate the good from the great.

Under the brightest lights, these games have massive implications for the future value of upcoming free agents. Of course, executives around the league always have tough decisions to make about who they plan to re-sign as well as who they plan to pursue or let walk during free agency. But with postseason play, some of those hard choices are becoming easier to make.

For this exercise, we have also included salary projections from ProFitX, which is a financial and performance index powered by artificial intelligence. Their program models historical and future performance data to monitor and project insights on contracts.

As part of our ongoing series at HoopsHype, we are looking at whose free agency stock has gone up – and down – over the last several games.

LeBron James throws down furious slam over Torrey Craig at Denver

Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James imposed his will in the third quarter of their game against the Denver Nuggets.

As LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers tried to end their incredible first half of the season on a high note, LeBron showed that even against some of the best defenders in the NBA, even in Year 17, that he can make fearsome defenders look minuscule.

LeBron and the Lakers were locked into a tightly contested match-up, as anticipated, with the No. 2-seeded Denver Nuggets in their final game before the All-Star break. LeBron and Anthony Davis have both played like stars, scoring 15 points apiece, but James did something even bigger with a drive during the 3rd quarter of Wednesday’s game. When he was guarded by one of Denver’s more feared defenders, Torrey Craig, he made the 6-7, 221 lbs., forward look small.

LeBron James and the Lakers currently have a three-game lead over the Nuggets for the best record in the Western Conference. Coming into tonight, both teams had won on the other’s homecourt, though the Nuggets win at L.A. came without LeBron James.

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