breakingbar

Last month, apparently, it looked like Festus Ezeli was tracking toward his Portland Trail Blazers debut. But then his left knee injury started acting up, and everything unraveled. From CSNNW.com’s Jason Quick: Ezeli suffered swelling in his left knee after he took part in two Blazers practices on Oct. 17 and Oct. 18, after which [...]

Josh Smith was once one of the more exciting players in the league, while thriving in Atlanta. But he hasn’t found any luck since leaving the Hawks. He has bounced around quite a bit, all while shooting ill-advised 3s, and now he’s without a team. When we last saw Smith last season, he was coming [...]

John Wall is not happy this year and last night we got to witness his frustration. Wall picked up his second technical foul with just 33 seconds left. Down 111-106 with less than a minute left in the game, he bumped into official Marc Davis on his way back to the bench. [tweet https://twitter.com/BleacherReport/status/795832945944576000] It [...]

Cameron Payne underwent surgery to repair a Jones fracture in his foot this past July and has thus spent the first part of 2016-17 on the sidelines. As for how much longer he’ll be there, the Oklahoma City Thunder don’t seem to know. From Brett Dawson of The Oklahoman: [tweet https://twitter.com/BDawsonWrites/status/795769034113515521] Owners of the second-highest [...]

Al Horford suffered a concussion while practicing with the Boston Celtics on October 30, and he hasn’t played since. For now, the Celtics don’t know when he’ll play again, per Mass Live’s Jay King: [tweet https://twitter.com/ByJayKing/status/795715429671071744] Horford’s safety and long-term health is the primary concern here, but the Celtics, quite clearly, need him back as [...]

Even in injury, it doesn’t appear Nerlens Noel wants for trade suitors. With the Philadelphia 76ers’ frontcourt logjam alive as ever, we can expect Jahlil Okafor’s and Noel’s names to be bandied about the rumor mill until one or both of them is moved. Though the Sixers have already moved Jerami Grant, they’ve never once [...]

Now, about the Utah Jazz winning 50 games this season…that’s probably not going to happen. It’s not that the Jazz don’t have the talent to reach that mark. No, no, no. They’re just a magnet for injury bugs. Boris Diaw is the latest to fall victim. He will miss at least the next two weeks [...]

The Brooklyn Nets pulled off a gutsy 109-100 win over the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday night—half of which came without starting point guard Jeremy Lin. Lin did not return to play the second half after suffering a left hamstring injury: [tweet https://twitter.com/BrooklynNets/status/793977960537563136] Head coach Kenny Atkinson didn’t have any immediate updates on Lin’s hamstring following [...]

We have our first trade of the 2016-17 NBA season. And, surprise surprise, it involves the Philadelphia 76ers. As first reported by The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Philly is sending Jerami Grant to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Ersan Ilyasova and a future pick: [tweet https://twitter.com/WojVerticalNBA/status/793532530477690881] [tweet https://twitter.com/WojVerticalNBA/status/793532897089163265] The pick in question, per ESPN.com’s Zach Lowe [...]

The Utah Jazz just can’t seem to reach full strength. Derrick Favors only recently returned from a left knee injury, and Gordon Hayward won’t play until late November at the earliest after breaking his finger. Now the Jazz have lost Alec Burks for an undisclosed period of time, per a team announcement: Following multiple medical [...]