NBA Central

Indiana Pacers center James Wiseman has reportedly undergone surgery after suffering a torn left Achilles in the team's season-opener against the Detroit Pistons.

Shams Charania of ESPN reported the news, noting that a "full recovery timeline will be established in the coming weeks."

Wiseman suffered the injury in the first quarter of his Pacers debut after attempting a three-pointer and planting his left leg awkwardly while backpedaling to get back on defense.

The start of Wiseman's career has been derailed by several different injuries. The No. 2 pick in the 2020 NBA draft played just 39 games for the Golden State Warriors in his rookie year due to knee and wrist injuries and missed the entire 2021-22 season with a torn meniscus.

Wiseman started the 2022-23 season with Golden State before being traded to the Pistons halfway through the year. He managed to stay mostly healthy last season, playing 63 games and putting up 7.1 points and 5.3 rebounds in 17 minutes per game off the bench in Detroit.

The Pacers signed Wiseman to a two-year contract this offseason hoping to add some depth to their frontcourt, but now they'll likely be without him for the remainder of the year.

Another member of Indiana's frontcourt, Isaiah Jackson, is currently dealing with a groin injury and is day-to-day, so the Pacers don't have as much depth as they would like early on this season.

With Wiseman out for the foreseeable future and Jackson still trying to get healthy, Indiana will continue to look to starting center Myles Turner and will hope to get some solid production from backup big men like Obi Toppin and Jarace Walker.

Monday's deadline passed without guard Josh Giddey receiving a contract extension from the Chicago Bulls, and it sounds like a new deal was never on the horizon for him.

ESPN's Brian Windhorst reported on this week's episode of The Hoop Collective (2:58 mark) that "there was never really any meaningful negotiations there" regarding an extension for Giddey.

Windhorst called it "a surprise to me" that Chicago and Giddey never made progress toward a new deal because, "I thought the Bulls were gonna be under some amount of pressure to get him done because they traded Alex Caruso for him."

Caruso was valued highly around the NBA, with an executive telling Windhorst the now Oklahoma City Thunder guard was worth two first-round picks. Giving up a player of that caliber for what could be less than a year of having Giddey on their roster would be a questionable decision for the Bulls.

Giddey is expected to be in the starting lineup for the Bulls this season. He appeared in four preseason games and recorded over 10 points in three of them. The fourth-year guard started 80 games for the Thunder last season and averaged 12.3 points, 6.4 rebounds and 4.8 assists, all of which were career lows.

The Bulls could be on the verge of a rebuilding year. In addition to Giddey, star swingman Zach LaVine is also a likely trade candidate if Chicago gets off to a slow start this season.

The Bulls will open the 2024-25 campaign on the road against the New Orleans Pelicans on Wednesday night.

As he enters his 13th season in the NBA, Milwaukee Bucks star point guard Damian Lillard knows the one thing missing from his stellar career is a championship.

However, Lillard doesn't agree that he needs a title to solidify his legacy, telling The Athletic's Eric Nehm that his skills and accolades should speak for themselves.

"You would think if I won it, there would be nothing that they could say, but I think people know how f--king good I am," Lillard said. "People know — at least the people who know what they're watching — or I wouldn't have been on the 75th anniversary team. If you're talking about fans and people that are on TV just randomly saying their opinion, it's like, 'All right.'"

Lillard is in his second year in Milwaukee after being traded from the Portland Trail Blazers last offseason. While pairing him with two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo appeared to be a championship-caliber combination, the Bucks' title hopes were derailed by injuries down the stretch of the season, and they were eliminated from the playoffs by the Indiana Pacers in the first round.

Lillard remains motivated to continue chasing an elusive championship ring, but he made it clear that he's not trying to prove anything to his naysayers.

"And if we win it, all I would do is just put the people who go back and forth in a position where it's like, what the f— can you say? I think that's it, but for me, I don't think I have to prove it to nobody," he said. "This is more for myself, honestly. I just want to be like, 'Yeah, I've done all of these things that I just listed to you, but I won a championship too.'"

Cleveland Cavaliers sharpshooter Max Strus is out and will be reassessed by the team in six weeks after suffering a sprained right ankle during an individual workout on Thursday, according to Daryl Ruiter of 92.3 The Fan.

Strus missed two preseason games with a hip contusion before the ankle sprain kept him out of Cleveland's matchup with the Chicago Bulls on Friday, per Ruiter.

The 28-year-old started 70 regular-season games and 12 playoff contests for the Cavaliers last year.

He previously missed 12 games in March due to a right knee strain.

The team announced on Saturday that Strus underwent an X-ray and MRI to confirm the severity of the sprain before determining the six-week reassessment timeline.

It's a tough blow to a Cavaliers starting unit that's expected to attempt a high volume of threes under new head coach Kenny Atkinson. Point guard Darius Garland discussed the approach that Atkinson wanted the opening five to take when speaking to reporters on Oct. 7.

"Kenny's a big three-point attempt guy," Garland said (h/t SI.com's Spencer Davies). "So we try to get as many threes as we can. Try to get out in transition, walk-up threes. He's been on me and [Donovan Mitchell] about those in transition as well. Even Max [Strus] when he's open."

Strus' long-range proficiency is one of the main reasons why Cleveland handed him a four-year, $63 million contract as part of a sign-and-trade agreement during the 2023 offseason.

He shot 35.1 percent from three while attempting 6.8 shots from behind the arc per game during his first year with the organization, averaging a career-high 12.2 points each night.

Until he's able to return, Cleveland will likely rely on Dean Wade and Georges Niang to replace his production.

Even though Thanasis Antetokounmpo isn't expected to play this season due a torn Achilles, the Milwaukee Bucks are considering bringing back the 32-year-old.

Per Spotrac's Keith Smith, the Bucks are trying to open a roster spot to potentially re-sign the brother of Giannis Antetokounmpo because they value his presence in the locker room.

Thanasis Antetokounmpo is expected to miss the season to rehab from a torn Achilles' tendon, but his locker room presence is prized by the Bucks, and his brother Giannis Antetokounmpo.

— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) October 19, 2024

Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported on May 13 that Antetokounmpo had successful surgery to repair a torn Achilles.

Antetokounmpo played the final three minutes of garbage time in the Bucks' 120-98 loss in Game 6 of their first-round playoff series against the Indiana Pacers on May 2 that ended their season.

Per Shams Charania and Eric Nehm of The Athletic, Antetokounmpo suffered the injury during a workout in the days after the loss to Indiana.

NBA insider Jake Fischer reported on Saturday that the Bucks have informed teams of their interest in trading MarJon Beauchamp to potentially bring back a defensive-minded wing player.

Milwaukee's roster is currently at the maximum 15 players, not including those on Exhibit 10 and two-way contracts.

Beauchamp was the Bucks' first-round draft pick (No. 24 overall) in 2022. The 24-year-old has flashed some promise, particularly as an offensive player, in limited action over the past two seasons. He shot 40.0 percent from three-point range last season, but only had 75 attempts in 48 appearances. He will make $2.7 million this season in the final guaranteed year of his rookie contract.

The Bucks have made a point of keeping Thanasis on their roster since it makes Giannis happy. It's a strategy that has served them well since Thanasis was the one who convinced his younger brother to sign a three-year, $186 million extension with the club last offseason.

Even though Thanasis won't be able to make any impact for the Bucks on the court this season due to the injury, keeping Giannis in good spirits going into a very important season for the franchise counts for a lot.

Thanasis has spent five seasons with the Bucks after originally signing with the team in July 2019. He has appeared in 196 games with the club, averaging 2.4 points and 1.6 rebounds per contest.

Chicago Bulls guard Lonzo Ball is confident he can return to occupying a meaningful role for the team after persistent knee trouble kept him out for two-plus NBA seasons.

"I honestly feel like I just can give good minutes on the court, however that may be," he said on NBA Today. "I just want to help the team win. There's nothing that I really want to do stat-wise. It's just going out there and doing my job, and I feel like I can still compete at a high level. That's why I wanted to come back."

"I've been on this journey, but it hasn't been a solo trip." ❤️

Lonzo Ball with @malika_andrews and @ShamsCharania on playing his first NBA game after being sidelined 1,006 days due to injury 💪 pic.twitter.com/0h2XT1pg6f

— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) October 17, 2024

Ball's last appearance in the regular season was in January 2022. Since then, he has undergone three separate surgeries on his left knee, which collectively raised concerns over his future as a player.

The 26-year-old made his long-awaited return in Chicago's 125-123 preseason win over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday. He came off the bench to play 15 minutes and finished with 10 points and one rebound, assist, steal and block apiece.

During a September appearance on 670 The Score's Mully & Haugh Show, head coach Billy Donovan pointed to how a lot of variables are still at play when it comes to Ball's usage and availability even with him back healthy.

"The thing that [executive vice president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas] mentioned, which is critical, is we don't know how he's going to respond after games, after practices," Donovan said. "Because we haven't seen it. That's where we first got to start off with.

"Is it something where he plays 15 to 20 minutes and now he's got to take the next day off? Can he play 25 to 30 minutes? How does he respond? The back-to-backs, we don't know any of those things. So we're going to wait to find out."

Suiting up against Minnesota was a massive step in Ball's comeback but far from the final point in his process to become a dynamic two-way presence again.

An injury-plagued 2023-24 season for Cleveland Cavaliers guard Darius Garland impacted more than just his ability to help the team on the court.

Speaking to Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com, Garland admitted he "sort of lost my joy for basketball" due to a broken jaw that kept him out for 19 games in the middle of the season:

"I can still remember that play. I was trying to make strides, trying to take steps in the right direction and trying to get better and then, boom, I literally get hit in my face and it's back to d— near square one all over again. That's what made it so tough last year. The momentum was picking up. Was getting better every day. We were getting better as a team. I felt like I was starting to learn so much and then … another bump in the road, another year of adversity. I sort of lost my joy for basketball."

The injury occurred when Garland's face made contact with Kristaps Porziņģis on a drive to the basket during a Dec. 14 game between the Cavs and Boston Celtics. He left the game with blood dripping from his mouth but was able to return, finishing with 19 points in 36 minutes.

Garland was later diagnosed with a fractured jaw that required surgery. He lost 12 pounds afterward because his jaw was wired shut, limiting him to a liquid diet, and he had to regain his strength before playing in games.

Cleveland started slow with a 13-12 record before Garland's injury, but it racked up 15 wins in 19 games after he went down. The positive momentum continued with his return on Jan. 31, as the Cavs won eight of their first nine games with him back in the lineup.

There was speculation that Garland could look for a trade if Donovan Mitchell remained in Cleveland. Even though Mitchell did sign a three-year, $150.3 million extension in July, the Cavs rebuffed any trade requests for Garland.

A healthy Garland playing alongside Mitchell gives the Cavaliers one of the best backcourt duos in the NBA. They both averaged more than 20 points per game in their first season as teammates in 2022-23, with Garland shooting a career-high 41.0 percent from three-point range.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYNYzC6YDKk

The combination of a healthy Garland and new head coach Kenny Atkinson has given the Cavs a lot of optimism heading into this season.

If Atkinson is able to maximize the talent of Garland, Mitchell, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen in ways that former head coach J.B. Bickerstaff was unable to, the Cavaliers have the top-end talent to be a Finals contender in the Eastern Conference for the first time since LeBron James left after the 2017-18 season.

Giannis Antetokounmpo is not ignoring the pressure on the Milwaukee Bucks going into the start of the 2024-25 NBA season.

Speaking to The Athletic's Sam Amick, the eight-time All-Star acknowledged he "might get traded" if the Bucks don't win a title this season.

"Do you have it in the back of your mind, like, '(What) if this year doesn't go well?' Yeah, if we don't win a championship, I might get traded. Yeah, this is the job we live. This is the world we're living in. It's everybody," Antetokounmpo said.

The Bucks are in a difficult spot going into one of the most important seasons in franchise history. They're spending $267.9 million between payroll and luxury tax payments, third-most in the NBA behind the Phoenix Suns ($408.9 million) and Minnesota Timberwolves ($299.5 million).

They are also one four teams over the second apron, meaning they can't aggregate contracts for salary-matching in trades among other restrictions.

Thanks to their recent trades for Jrue Holiday and Damian Lillard, the Bucks don't have a first-round draft pick until 2031. All of this is to suggest that the roster as currently constructed will likely be the one they roll with for the entire 2024-25 campaign.

Holiday is no longer with the team because he was moved as part of the package last offseason for Lillard to the Portland Trail Blazers, who subsequently dealt him to the Boston Celtics.

That's not entirely bad because they are starting from a point with a potential MVP candidate (Antetokounmpo) and an All-Star guard who can score at will (Lillard). Khris Middleton, Brook Lopez, Gary Trent Jr., Taurean Prince and Bobby Portis Jr. are very good role players at this stage of their careers.

Middleton is the biggest question mark outside of the two non-superstars after having offseason surgery on both of his ankles. It's unclear if he will be ready for the start of the regular season after sitting out the entire preseason, including Thursday's game against the Dallas Mavericks.

One thing that should greatly benefit the team is continuity with the head coach. Doc Rivers is back for his first full season after being hired on Jan. 26 after Adrian Griffin was fired 43 games into his tenure.

Of course, the biggest factor in all of this is the health of Antetokounmpo. The Bucks have lost in the first round of the playoffs in each of the past two years in large part because he was either unable to play or was at less than 100 percent.

Antetokounmpo missed two games against the Miami Heat in the first round of the 2023 playoffs due to a back injury. He didn't play at all in the first-round series against the Indiana Pacers last season due to a calf injury.

Even though it sounds extreme to think that Antetokounmpo—who is still under contract for three seasons plus a player option for 2027-28—could be entering his final year with the Bucks, the front office and ownership may not want to keep spending as much as they have been for a team that isn't delivering results in the playoffs.

They would most likely look to get rid of everyone else before Antetokounmpo, but he would bring back, by far, the biggest trade return of anyone on the roster if the organization decides to enter a full rebuild.

Antetokounmpo and the Bucks will open the regular season on the road against the Philadelphia 76ers on Oct. 23.

Chicago Bulls guard Lonzo Ball says his recovery from the multiple knee surgeries that have sidelined him since January 2022 went "a lot faster than I thought."

"Getting the first surgery and then coming back, and then having the second and third, and telling me 18 more months recovery. You know that sounds crazy in the moment, but now I'm here, and it's all behind me now," Ball said on Wednesday, per Will Gottlieb of CHGO.

Ball is expected to play during Wednesday night's preseason game against the Minnesota Timberwolves. He has missed the last two NBA seasons while recovering from surgery, including a cartilage transplant in March 2023.

Ball will be restricted to 16 minutes in his return to the court, per Julia Poe of the Chicago Tribune.

He told reporters on Wednesday that he had faced a recovery setback while dealing with a COVID infection that led him to lose 10 pounds, per Poe.

Ball said he had "nothing but love and respect" for the Bulls for working with him through his recovery from his initial surgery to repair a torn meniscus in early 2022. The team initially reported was projected to sideline him for a maximum of eight weeks.

But Ball ended up sidelined for the rest of the 2021-22 season. He underwent a second surgery in September 2022, followed by the transplant the following March.

"They could have just pushed me to the side, and kept moving," Ball said, per Poe. "Instead they've been with me the whole way and given me the best treatment, the best help I can get. It wasn't just from me, it's from a collective unit, and it all paid off to have me back on the court today."

Ball also said he expects to be a different player than the point guard that averaged 13.0 points, 5.4 rebounds and 5.1 assists while playing more than 34 minutes per night for the Bulls during his shortened 2021-22 campaign.

That's in part due to his knee, which Ball told reporters feels different depending on the day.

"It's not the same body I started off with," he said, per Gottlieb. "But I think I can still be productive and effective on the court. That's why I'm still trying to play."

Ball continued: "Like I said, I know what I'm capable of. I feel comfortable out there. Other than that, I just gotta hoop."

The Bulls have just two preseason games remaining before opening the regular season next Wednesday on the road against the New Orleans Pelicans.

Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo has already accomplished so much in his NBA career, but he still has found new ways to challenge himself as he enters the 2024-25 season.

"This year, a challenge for me is to be healthy," Antetokounmpo told Sam Amick of The Athletic. "A challenge for me is to play in the playoffs, to get out of the f--king first round. Assert myself even more."

The Bucks were eliminated from the playoffs in the first round in each of the last two seasons. However, Antetokounmpo missed a combined eight out of 11 games in those series against the Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers, respectively, due to back and calf injuries.

Antetokounmpo appeared in 73 games last season, his first time playing in more than 70 games since the 2018-19 campaign. Unfortunately, the injury bug bit him in the calf late in the year and ruined Milwaukee's chances of contending for an NBA championship that would've been the second title of the 29-year-old's career.

Antetokounmpo was able to return to action in the Paris Olympics while representing Greece, and he said working with Greek national team head coach Vassilis Spanoulis helped motivate him for the upcoming NBA season.

"He would just push me and push me and push me and push me, (saying) 'You've got more to give. Come on. When I was 29, I was the best in Europe. I had back-to-back (championships). What are you doing?' All this conversation made me realize that I crave the challenge again," Antetokounmpo said. "Of course, it pisses you off, but it puts you in the mood where you're like, 'Wait, I'm going to show you.' You don't want to let (Spanoulis) down. Like (with the Bucks), I don't want to let Doc Rivers down. I don't want to let [Damian Lillard] down. I don't want to let my team down.

The two-time NBA MVP will turn 30 in December, so he added that he wants to take advantage of his prime and make sure he puts the league on notice that he's still one of the best players on the planet.

"Every year for me is important because one day, I'm going to be 35 or 36 or 38 and I'm going to be like, 'Oh, my prime just went, and I wasn't able to do something.' So dominate," Antetokounmpo said.