
Storyline: David Fizdale Hot Seat?
35 rumors in this storyline

David Fizdale got to see the Knicks at their best on Friday. Fizdale led the team in practice — seemingly the only place his team thrives — on Friday, following back-to-back shameful losses to the Bucks and Nuggets. The pressure around Fizdale’s job has reached a high point after a 129-92 loss to the Nuggets on Thursday night at Madison Square Garden.
More Rumors in this Storyline
“I don’t think about that stuff,” Fizdale said after practice. “I don’t think about it at all. I go into – every day is I come in here, I see 17 guys that I’ve got to make better and I see a team in Indiana that we’ve got to try to go out and beat. I take it day-by-day that way. Even if we were on a 16-game winning streak, I would be going about it the same damn way. Just focused on that. I think it keeps my mind clear and it allows me to keep them in a good space where they’re connected and that they’re fighting for each other.”
Fizdale has mentioned wanting to run a faster-paced offense, though that could be challenging with the forward-heavy roster constructed for him, “I’ve had to adjust and it makes it difficult, but it’s also a different way that we have to do it,” Fizdale said. “We have to be willing to advance the ball with the pass and it’s not always a guy pushing the ball up the court and really getting guys to commit to running the floor hard regardless of if you’re faster than somebody or not. But just making those commitments to getting your bodies up the floor and the guy with the ball willing to advance the ball with the pass and then we get into actions quicker and hopefully give ourselves more opportunities and possessions.”
But when you lose by 44 and chalk it up as something that happens and you follow it by trailing by 43 points in an eventual 37-point defeat, then change is usually in the air. And with a 21-83 record since taking over it’s hard for anyone to argue he shouldn’t go. “I don’t care about all that,” Fizdale said. “I don’t even think about that, really. I think about the next team we’re playing, I think about the guys in the locker room and how I can help them. At the end of the day, that’s all I care about.”
Asked if he believed he was still, as has often been stated, on the same page with the front office, he said, “Yeah. Absolutely. I’m still coaching this team. I’m still pushing them. I’m still preparing them. We had a hell of a practice before this game, it was just a disappointing output.” “You can’t let the rope go,” Taj Gibson said. “You’ve got to continue to keep fighting, continue to keep pushing, because nobody in this league is going to feel sorry for you. Fiz is doing a good job preaching and keeping guys in tune, but at the same time we have to do a better job, including myself. He can’t keep taking the bullets for us. We have to step up. We have to grow. We have to mature and mature quickly.”
The Knicks trailed by 43 points in the fourth quarter three nights after a 44-point loss to the Milwaukee Bucks, and Fizdale said the team’s effort was “sickening.”
According to a league source, if the Knicks made an in-season coaching move one of two assistants – Mike Miller or Pat Sullivan – would likely be promoted. Miller coached the Knicks G League affiliate. Coincidentally, assistant coaches Keith Smart and Kaleb Canales all have head coaching experience. Royal Ivey, who has drawn interest around the league over the summer, and Jud Buechler would not be under consideration.
David Fizdale's firing expected soon?
The lingering question after the Knicks’ 44-point loss in Milwaukee is this: how much longer will David Fizdale be on the sidelines? We don’t have a definitive answer, but one member of the organization said late last month that he expected management to fire Fizdale soon, per SNY sources. The person who expressed the thought isn’t someone who would make the decision to fire Fizdale. But the idea that a member of the Knicks believes a coaching change is coming says a lot about the level of uncertainty in New York right now.
If Fizdale is fired in-season, he’ll have two years left on his contract, according to reports. It’s unclear if those two years are fully guaranteed. Mills and Perry also have years remaining on their deals. Mills, per sources, has a double option on one of the remaining years of his deal. So Dolan would pay them money not to work if he decides to fire them.
If Mills fires Fizdale, the next question is if he and Perry will keep their jobs beyond this season. In a conversation with Mills and other front office members after the Mills/Perry press conference, Dolan gave off the impression that Mills and Perry would be safe if the team showed progress, as SNY reported. Just how Dolan defines progress is unclear. But if Fizdale is fired, it seems as if the Knicks would have to play much better under the interim coach for Mills and Perry to keep their jobs and have a chance to hire another coach in the offseason.
According to sources, the club would need to suffer a severe slide for anything to happen to Fizdale in the near future with the won-loss record not the key barometer. Progress, competitiveness and player development are paramount.
The Knicks had to really sink south for a coaching change to be made by Game 20. Indications are it was far-fetched for a change to be made this early anyway. Was owner James Dolan, who has given Fizdale private reassurances, really going to let president Mills hire a new coach from the outside on a long-term deal with Fizdale still having at least one season fully guaranteed on his pact for 2020-21? Sources indicated the major deterrent to making a change at Thanksgiving was the sketchy alternative of promoting one of the assistants – Jud Buechler, Keith Smart or Kaleb Canales.
How does David Fizdale tune out the speculation about his job status? The Knicks coach revealed Tuesday that he has the backing of the one fan who matters most: Knicks owner James Dolan. “Every game, every game. Jim Dolan comes in and gives me a vote of confidence, a pat on my back and really has just been incredibly encouraging over the last year and a half or whatever it’s been,” Fizdale said. “All we talk about is just sticking to the process of making these guys better and building for a future of sustainable winning.”
David Fizdale done in New York?
One step: Mills and general manager Scott Perry addressing the media after Sunday’s loss to the Cavaliers while Fizdale was still in the locker room. Mills and Perry stressed that the team wasn’t meeting expectations, seemingly a veiled shot at the coach. Adrian Wojnarowski on ESPN: The dismissal of David Fizdale is inevitable, and there was, I think, a bond broken between management and their head coach with how they handled things after that loss Sunday night.
Knicks players back David Fizdale
Despite their frustrations following the loss at Chicago — one in which they turned the ball over 18 times and were outscored 52-46 in the paint — Knicks players were still adamant in their support of the second-year coach. “We’ve got 9-10 new guys? We’ve got 10 guys that have not played together at all and me who hasn’t even been in the league yet,” said rookie RJ Barrett. “You’re gonna have some challenges, but you’ve got to keep pushing, keep pushing through everything. That’s all I can really say. You’ve just got to stay together. “He’s up to the challenge. We believe in him,” he continued. “We’re staying together, and like we said, we’re all-in with him and are just gonna keep fighting together.”
Fizdale didn’t seem fazed by the speculation during Tuesday’s shootaround, telling reporters, “It’s always a media firestorm in New York, so for everybody else this is a big deal, but for us, it’s a normal environment. So, our guys are focused, they’re connected.”
Despite another defeat, there was a clear attempt to calm roiling waters surrounding Fizdale. Sources indicated Mills and Perry felt their unprecedented James Dolan-inspired press conference Sunday came off as too harsh in the form of pinning the blame on the coach.
Eric Woodyard: Knicks coach David Fizdale says the last couple of days haven’t created any tension. “It’s always a media firestorm in New York, so for everybody else this is a big deal but for us it’s a normal environment,” he said. “So, our guys are focused, they’re connected.” pic.twitter.com/PWToA0wWUF
Several people familiar with the matter told SNY on Monday that Mills, Perry and Fizdale are all under greater scrutiny amid New York’s 2-8 start. “Everyone’s on notice,” one source said. So the notion that Mills, who has served as either president or GM of the Knicks (under Phil Jackson) since 2013-14, would be immune to the consequences that would come of New York continues to underperform is inaccurate.
Mark Jackson an option for Knicks?
Chris Mannix: Should the Knicks eventually move on from Fizdale, there are in-house options — Keith Smart has been a head coach, Kaleb Canales was an interim coach in Portland — but the name to be watched is Mark Jackson. He was a pre-Fiz candidate and a favorite of GM Scott Perry.
Ian Begley: David Fizdale says management has been supportive of him when asked about ESPN report that president Steve Mills has laid groundwork to fire him. Asked if he’s gotten any assurance from management, Fizdale notes that he has 2.5 years left on his contract.
Ian Begley: Steve Mills, Scott Perry and David Fizdale talking after practice today. Fizdale said he met with Mills and Perry this morning, as he does almost every morning. When asked about it, Fizdale said he feels he, Mills and Perry are together in sharing blame for Knicks’ bad start. pic.twitter.com/0yi21paf5s
Even before a startling news conference in the wake of a blowout loss to Cleveland, New York Knicks president Steve Mills had started to lay the internal groundwork for the eventual dismissal of coach David Fizdale, league sources told ESPN. Mills is selling owner James Dolan on a roster constructed to be highly competitive in the Eastern Conference, leaving Fizdale vulnerable to an ouster only weeks into the second season of a four-year contract that league sources say is worth $22 million.
Rival coaches and executives see a mismatched Knicks roster slow of foot, without legitimate NBA guard play but Mills is selling Dolan on a poorly coached team that is underachieving at 2-8 to start the season, league sources said. Around Madison Square Garden and the league, the timing and tone of the news conference was met with considerable surprise and dismay — and considered completely undermining of Fizdale. “Everyone is moving to their positions now,” a league source close to management and the coaching staff told ESPN. “This is how they’ll make (Fizdale) the fall guy.”
Knicks brass not happy
Sources told SNY that high-ranking MSG officials weren’t thrilled after last Sunday’s 113-92 home loss to the Sacramento Kings — which is understandable, given the result.
Multiple SNY sources familiar with the matter said as recently as Thursday that there was no indication that any major coaching or management change was imminent. But those sources stated that nothing had been ruled out with regard an in-season front office or coaching change.
“Given that this is our 10th game, we felt like we had an obligation to come and speak to you guys,” Mills said. “Obviously, Scott and I are not happy with where we are right now. We think the team’s not performing to the level that we anticipated or we expected to perform at and that’s something that we think we have to collectively do a better job of delivering the product on the floor that we said we would do at the start of this season.
David Fizdale, of course, was resilient and unflinching in his ownership of the mess to date. “I take the brunt of this responsibility because I’m the head coach,” he said. “I make these decisions of what’s going on on the court, what players play, who plays together, what plays we call, the defense system — that’s on me. As much as I appreciate them, I own it. That’s just who I am.”
David Fizdale's job not in danger?
Knicks fans may want to blame David Fizdale for the team’s awful start, but the coach appears to have the backing of the two people who matter most — general manager Scott Perry and president Steve Mills. “They have been incredibly supportive. We talk every day,” Fizdale said Wednesday before the Knicks played the Pistons. “The beauty of what’s happening inside our building is everyone is connected. They all see the work we are putting in.”
Fan frustration boiled over in the second half of the 113-92 loss as the crowd booed and some chanted: “Fire Fizdale.” “I don’t think about that,” Fizdale said when he was asked about the crowd behavior. “I was more concerned about our performance from my seat. I can’t get caught up with how everybody else is feeling.”
If Knicks president Steve Mills and GM Scott Perry are antsy over the team’s 1-6 start, they have not conveyed that to coach David Fizdale. The common refrain is this newly constructed roster with 10 new faces is going to take some time to mesh. The Knicks are tied with New Orleans for the NBA’s worst start.
“They’ve been incredibly supportive,” Fizdale said after Wednesday’s morning shootaround at Detroit Country Day before the Knicks faced the Pistons. “We talk every day. The beauty of what’s happening inside our building is everyone is connected. They all see the work that we’re putting in.”
David Fizdale safe for now?
Sources have indicated it’s way too early to start any Fizdale Watch — not with this new roster that needs tender loving care because of its complexities. How bad would it look for Knicks president Steve Mills and GM Scott Perry to fire Fizdale on Dec. 1 after one season and one month after they passed on Mike Budenholzer, Mark Jackson and David Blatt and didn’t interview Steve Clifford?
Fizdale was a good soldier during last season’s 17-win tank-a-thon, but how hard this team plays in the next few weeks is worth watching. One name to consider if the season really starts to careen: Mark Jackson. The ex-Warriors coach (and ex-Knick) was a favorite of GM Scott Perry during the interview process in 2018, and Jackson has made no secret about his desire to coach again. Fizdale won’t be expected to perform miracles with this group but New York can’t let the season slip away quickly.
December 12, 2019 | 9:50 am UTC Update

Love has been mentioned frequently, but is a question mark. There was a report that Portland is his favored destination, but I have not been able to substantiate that and, in fact, have been told by people close to him that the report is not necessarily true. And the other concern with Love – who is obviously a terrific player with championship pedigree – are his injuries. Over his last three seasons, he has played 60, 59, and 22 games. At an average salary of $30.1 million over the next three seasons, his availability is a concern.
As Woj noted, the Wolves made a heavy play for D’Angelo Russell in the offseason before he wound up in Golden State in a sign-and-trade. While Woj didn’t draw a straight line between the Wolves’ ongoing point guard pursuit and Russell, it remains a logical fit given Golden State’s struggles and that Russell is one of those players suddenly able to be dealt Sunday. “I think Minnesota out there, they wanted a point guard this summer, they went after D’Angelo Russell in free agency, he goes to Golden State in the sign-and-trade,” Woj said. “I think they’re in the market for a point guard or something that sets them up to get one in July.”

CJ talked about what Melo has brought to the team and how him passing up the Blazers in the past was “a blessing in disguise” for him. I told him ‘you going to [Oklahoma City and Houston] was a blessing in disguise for you.’ Because your understanding and appreciation for the game changed. He had time to be with his family, he got invaluable time with his son….He had a full year to workout and spend time with his kid and kind of like reflect on life, and I think his appreciation of the game shifted, it changed, the way he plays now you can see he’s excited about the game.
“His presence has been huge in the locker room, having another voice, another guy to speak up that people respect. When we on the floor, other teams respect him being out there. The balance that he’s giving us on the floor and off the floor has been great. It’s been a joy to have him on our team.” Lillard also noted that the Blazers are now a part of Anthony’s career story as the team to give him his comeback opportunity.
“I have a logo in there,” Leonard said when asked at the end of his news conference about the special message engraved inside his ring. “And [the ring is sized for] my middle finger, so it reminds me ‘put it on my middle finger.’ So I have like a ‘FU’ symbol in there.”
Leonard said it very matter-of-fact as reporters got a good chuckle. A Raptors source confirmed to ESPN’s Tim Bontemps that there is a logo engraved inside the ring, but wouldn’t specify what it was.

The Los Angeles Lakers were perplexed as to why Jared Dudley’s role in a fourth-quarter shoving match in the team’s 96-87 win over the Orlando Magic on Wednesday night warranted an ejection. However, they were impressed he stuck up for teammate Dwight Howard nonetheless. “I mean, that’s all it takes to get ejected? These days? Little shove?” LeBron James said after the game. “I’ve seen a lot more than that. But ‘Duds’ will do whatever. He told you guys at media day his job is to come in here if somebody goes crazy, do something crazy to me or AD [Anthony Davis] or whoever on the team, he’s going to be the muscle.”
After an official’s review, Howard and Magic guard Michael Carter-Williams were called for technical fouls, while Dudley and Magic forward Wes Iwundu — who pushed Howard — were ejected. “I thought that was kind of bogus that we both got techs for showing some emotion,” Howard said. “This is the game we love, we should be allowed to show some emotions. [It’s] not like we’re out here trying to fight or do anything crazy.”

Jim Eichenhofer: JJ Redick on #Pelicans as a group: “Energy, talk and effort are contagious, in the same way the negatives of those things are – apathy, being lethargic. There is an energy you have to bring to a group, and the group feeds on either one, whether it’s negative or positive.”
In a great interview for Spartando, the most successful European coach of all-time, Zeljko Obradovic talked about several things from his career and basketball in general but also mentioned the reason why he never joined an NBA team as a head coach. Obradovic made a pretty provocative statement saying the NBA behaves like “mafia” because it doesn’t allow European coaches to be the head coach of an NBA team. Obradovic is convinced many European coaches have enough quality and the know-how for that job.
Wayland Baptist guard J.J. Culver had a performance for the ages Tuesday night, becoming just the second player in NAIA history to score at least 100 points in a game. Culver, a 6-foot-5 senior from Lubbock, Texas, and the older brother of Minnesota Timberwolves rookie Jarrett Culver, reached the magical mark to lead his Pioneers to a 124-60 rout over Southwestern Adventist in Plainview, Texas. He was 34-for-62 from the field, including 12-for-33 from 3-point range, and 20-for-27 from the free throw line. The rest of Culver’s teammates combined to go 8-for-15 from the field and 5-for-6 from the line, while the next-highest scorer on the team was Jonathan Robinson, who finished with eight points.

Larry Tanenbaum told Postmedia he is not worried that another NBA team is once again trying to poach Masai Ujiri from the Toronto Raptors, adding that there’s no reason to believe the successful executive won’t remain in the city once his contract expires following the 2020-21 season. “We hope so,” Tanenbaum, who is MLSE part-owner and long-time chairman, said earlier this week at the Board of Governors’ meeting in Pebble Beach, Calif. “We haven’t talked (about an extension) at this point in time, but if you ask him, his intentions are pretty clear.”
Ask anyone who knows Stephen A. if he’s like that in real life—and they get that question endlessly—and they’ll tell you it’s not an act. That’s really him. He is not coached to have opinions he doesn’t believe in. He is not gesticulating like a Vegas magician on camera just because he’s a creature of television. Camera or no camera, he is on. A natural ham. “My mother,” says Stephen A., “said I came out of the womb talking.”
To stay sharp, he remains disciplined in both mental and physical fitness. He works out constantly, including sit-ups and push-ups and “a little boxing” (MMA is next on his radar). He limits himself to two drinks a week and never more than that. It’s not hard to verify his moderation with his co-workers; many of them are unaware that he drinks at all.
Co-workers praise Stephen A. as compassionate and caring (when coordinating producer Antoine Lewis experienced sudden heart failure last year, one of the first people he saw when he opened his eyes in the hospital was Stephen A.). But it will not shock you to learn that Stephen A. Smith is not an easygoing fella. His armor stays on at all times, particularly when he’s got a reporter like myself throwing a hodgepodge of intrusive questions at him. He knows how this works, so he is very forthright about what he will and will not be forthright about. And he is far too shrewd to be caught off guard. He is wickedly evasive.
You might think traffic is of little concern to Stephen A., that maybe he has a personal driver. You would be wrong. Stephen A. Smith drives. Always. Twenty-seven years ago, Stephen A.’s older brother died in a car accident. Basil Smith was 33 years old at the time. “He was a traveling salesman and fifteen people were in the passenger van with him. He was the only one that died, because he was asleep.” He continues: “Everyone else was awake. They were able to brace themselves. He got thrown from the van and he was killed. And so I prefer to drive myself. Period.”
One of those people who didn’t see the truck coming was one of his own co-workers. Back in May, ESPN writer Baxter Holmes (who respectfully passed on commenting for this story) published a deep dive on Magic Johnson’s time as then president of basketball operations for the Los Angeles Lakers. He found that Johnson was a ruthless dilettante who went out of his way to constantly remind subordinates that they were expendable. That story dropped the same day Magic was due to appear with Stephen A. on a SportsCenter NBA Finals special. Stephen A. was not at all happy about the timing of Holmes’s story, and said so publicly. He wanted a heads-up that the story was firing, and when that heads-up never came, he “was ticked off,” says Stephen A. “I’m not going to sit around and feel disrespected.” In fact, Stephen A. tells me that Magic was, by all accounts, right to be a cruel overlord, and that anyone complaining about it is too soft to handle living in an unfair world.

During the Magic affair, Stephen A. was letting his Crunch Berries hang out for all to see. Henry Abbott witnessed it. Abbott, whose TrueHoop blog was purchased by ESPN in 2007, and then more recently relaunched as an independent newsletter, told me, “I feel like Stephen has moved to this other place where he’s like, I’m friends with Magic Johnson. It’s personally inconvenient for me for Baxter’s story to come out. So let’s just pretend it doesn’t exist. I’m like, Where’s the guy who was working the back hallways trying to reach Aaron McKie in 2000? That guy worked his ass off.” He adds, “The enemy of truth is power, right? He has a lot of power.” Abbott has felt the sting of that power himself. “He was always mad at me, like when I wrote shit about Kobe.” When I ask Abbott if he felt like Stephen A. was bullying him by openly expressing displeasure with his work, he replies, “I felt he did, yeah.”
That whole statement got Stephen A. suspended by Skipper for a week, a suspension Stephen A. still feels was unjust. “Let me be very, very clear,” he says to me—a warning sign that he might not necessarily be clear. “I apologized because of how things were interpreted. I have never felt that I deserved to be suspended; that was the wrong damn decision. My words were very, very simple, and people tried to interpret it being different than what it is, because that’s the world we’re living in. I have never hit a woman in my life. I never would.”
As with many other powerful men, Stephen A. can point to his own career successes to validate his own worldview. He is baffled that others lack his work ethic and believes they shouldn’t be surprised when they find themselves in a rut because they failed to work eighteen hours a day. If he takes a day off, he tells me, “it’s almost like a catastrophe.” He has said many times that he feels as if he’s never arrived. I ask him why he feels that way. “If I’m asleep, somebody else is awake. If I’m off, somebody else is working,” he says. “And if those things are happening, they think they can take me, which means that at some point in time they’re going to confront me to test and see if I’m ready. And at that point I will annihilate them to show them that they were never ready at all.”
Vincent Ellis: Definitely not exceptional, but yes, I’m leaving the Free Press. #PistonsTwitter will never be the same. 🙂
Glen “Big Baby” Davis just pled no contest to felony battery stemming from an April 2018 incident at a West Hollywood nightclub — but he ain’t going to jail, TMZ Sports has learned. We broke the story … the former Boston Celtics player was accused of beating the hell out of a man outside Factory nightclub — causing major injuries.
December 12, 2019 | 3:04 am UTC Update

Having already made amends with one former fan base, as Dwight Howard and the Los Angeles Lakers faithful are embracing each other again, Howard looked to patch up another old relationship Tuesday in Orlando. “I think it takes everybody a while to get over things, but time should heal wounds, and if not, got to let that s— go,” Howard said before the Lakers played the Magic.
Dwight Howard: “That’s how — I’m sorry — That’s how I look at it. I’ve let a lot of things go in my heart, things that have kind of held me down. Things that I had towards the Magic and just how the situation ended. How I was treated by the fans and stuff like that. But I had to let that bitterness go. There’s no need to hold onto it. When I let it go, it just made my life a lot better. Just more free.”
“I got blessed to come back and play with the Lakers, and I’m in a really good situation,” Howard said. “I’m pretty sure there were a lot of people here who were super hurt and disappointed that I left. And I’m sorry for that. You know, I apologize if they felt that way. But I never would have been the person I am today if I would have stayed here. So I’m very thankful that everything that has transpired has transpired and it’s made me the best version of Dwight Howard.”

Jovan Buha: Doc says Derrick Walton Jr. hurt his hamstring and was unable to re-enter the game.
December 12, 2019 | 2:47 am UTC Update

Jovan Buha: Clippers defeat the Raptors 112-92 in Kawhi Leonard’s return to improve to 19-7 and 6-6 on the road. Clips are now 3-1 on their six-game road trip. One of their most impressive Ws. Kawhi: 23 pts, 5 reb, 6 ast Lou: 18 pts, 6 reb, 8 ast PG: 13 pts Up next: at Minnesota on Friday.

Kyle Goon: FINAL: Lakers 96, Magic 87. LeBron with 25p, 11r and 10a. Anthony Davis with 16 and KCP with 15. But this is the kind of win that highlights flaws rather than gloss over them. A gut-check start to one of the longest road trips of the season.

Scott Agness: There it is… the best win of the season for the Pacers, 122-117 over the Celtics. Kemba scored a SH 44pts. On his 27th birthday, Brogdon led the Pacers with 29pts, 8asts; 15/15 at the foul line. Holiday brothers were huge & finished the game. Up next: at Atlanta on Friday.

Adam Himmelsbach: Just saw Smart walking out of the locker room. “I’m getting better.” Asked him about tomorrow. “Don’t know yet.”

Chris Iseman: Knicks say Dennis Smith Jr is out tonight because of illness
December 12, 2019 | 2:28 am UTC Update

David Hardisty: FINAL: Rockets 116, Cavs 110. Facing an epic collapse against a bottom-feeder after giving up a 24-0 run late, Harden (55p-8a, 10-18 threes) straps the team to his back and carries Houston to the win.
Justin Kubatko: The @Houston Rockets James Harden has recorded the 22nd 50-point game of his career. The only players in NBA history with more such games are Wilt Chamberlain (118), Michael Jordan (31), and Kobe Bryant (25).

Kerith Burke: Steve Kerr said, “Most people want the Knicks to be good. I know I do.” He continued, New York is a marquee franchise and he wants to see things turn around for the fans and for the benefit of the league.

Kyle Goon: Jared Dudley got ejected, as did Wes Iwundu. Dwight Howard and Michael Carter-Williams got techs.

Chris Forsberg: Celtics say Gordon Hayward — blow to nose — will not return. Between “direct shot to abdomen” and “blow to nose,” Celtics have had some really unique injury reports.

Andrew Greif: Patrick Beverley will miss the rest of the game after suffering a concussion, per the Clippers.
December 12, 2019 | 1:57 am UTC Update

Kane Pitman: Bud says Giannis has “a little bit of soreness or significant soreness” in that quad. Just based on Bud’s words, it would seem that the weekend back-to-back would be in question also.
The Los Angeles Lakers have signed forward Devontae Cacok to a two-way contract, it was announced today. In a related move, the team has waived guard Zach Norvell Jr.

Roy Parry: Lakers C Dwight Howard checks in and is greeted by a chorus of boos from the Amway Center crowd with 5.5 seconds left. One fan yelled, “You broke our hearts, Dwight.”

James Ham: Spoke to De’Aaron Fox in the locker room. He’s feeling really good and thinks he’s about a week and a half away from a return. Starting 3v3. Still needs a big brace on his ankle.

Dave Mason: Luke Walton says Marvin Bagley will play tonight.

Logan Murdock: Eric Paschall (hip) will play tonight

Scott Agness: NBA Commissioner Adam Silver just arrived here @TheFieldhouse for Pacers-Celtics.
December 11, 2019 | 11:58 pm UTC Update
Steve Mills on the hot seat?

Several members of the organization said this week that they fully expect Steve Mills will be replaced as team president at the end of the season — if not sooner — unless the club somehow turns things around.