woj Page 5 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Evan Mobley has been great all season, but he’s been outplayed by Scottie Barnes for Rookie of the Year
The NBA Rookie of the Year vote has gotten even more complicated. Yesterday, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Evan Mobley sprained his left ankle and is out for the next three games. This comes at an especially difficult time for the Cleveland Cavaliers, who have lost four of their last five ...

Coach K’s all-Duke ‘Duke’ Team
After Saturday’s regular-season finale against North Carolina, the last time Mike Krzyzewski will take the floor at Cameron Indoor Stadium, the Duke Blue Devils are only guaranteed two more games this season between the ACC and NCAA Tournaments....

Coach K’s succession mistake was bigger than choosing Scheyer over Amaker
Hours before Coach K’s dizzy spell sent him to the locker room in Duke’s win over Wake Forest, excerpts from Ian O’Connor’s upcoming book, Coach K: The Rise and Reign of Mike Krzyzewski” detailed a brief power struggle within Duke last year over Coach K’s plans to name his replacement. O’Connor’s in...

Goran Dragić could fall right into the laps of a contender following his buyout from San Antonio
Every year in the NBA, there’s at least one highly sought-after role player traded away at the deadline that has no intention of suiting up for their new team. And many times, that feeling is mutual. This year that guy is Goran Dragić. He was traded from the Toronto Raptors to the San Antonio Spurs,...

In the other big NBA trade, four-team deadline deal could put Milwaukee over the top again
Many of you probably missed the four-team trade involving seven players and draft picks with all the commotion and reaction over the James Harden-Ben Simmons blockbuster. According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Kings, Bucks, Clippers, and Pistons have agreed to the following trade: ...

NBA steals the spotlight from Super Bowl week with blockbuster James Harden for Ben Simmons trade
Wow. So, the trade that felt like it would never happen finally went down. The Brooklyn Nets have agreed to send James Harden to the Philadelphia 76ers for Ben Simmons, Seth Curry, Andre Drummond, and two first-round picks, sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski....

If Lillard and McCollum didn’t work, then why was it so much fun?
I just saw CJ McCollum in Chicago like a week ago. He seemed fine — he had 29 on 13-of-23 from the floor and played well — but the team wasn’t itself anymore. It was a Sunday morning, and I was in bed when my girlfriend asked, “Hey Portland’s playing today. Want to go?”...

Kings doing what they do
Over time, certain franchises take on personality archetypes. The perennially moribund Sacramento Kings are a chaotic compulsive gambler swinging wildly between winning big at the slots and squandering their winnings on shell games outside the casino. Sacramento dumping the 6-foot-5 Tyrese Haliburto...

Brooklyn is facing a tough decision with James Harden, but they do have options
So, the cat seems to have entirely escaped the bag at this point. James Harden allegedly wants out of Brooklyn barely one calendar year into his stint with the team. It sounds like it’s more than just the part-time status of teammate Kyrie Irving that’s bugging Harden. Although the Nets, losers of e...

Curry’s first buzzer beater, Irving’s ‘breakthrough’ game, and more from a busy NBA Friday
Friday night was a “drink and you missed it” kind of night in the NBA, so if you didn’t catch (or forgot) the many highlights because you went out to dinner, the bar, a buddy’s place, or somewhere else other than in front of your TV watching games, allow me to fill you in while you scroll through yo...

Three years later and nothing has changed, the Lakers are still a mess
Looking back at the Russell Westbrook trade, it makes sense what they were trying to do. The Los Angeles Lakers’ 2020-21 season was cut at the kneecaps by injury. It was the second time that had happened in three seasons. They needed a third star so that if they lost LeBron James or Anthony Davis or...

Leave Bruce Brown alone — it was a foul, not a flop, that injured Kevin Durant’s knee
It has been an up-and-down, one-step-forward one-step-back kind of a season for the Brooklyn Nets. Their next 4-6 weeks might go down, back, and off to the side as resident MVP candidate Kevin Durant will be sidelined for that span. The Nets today announced the results of an MRI, which showed that D...

There IS a way for Kyrie Irving to play home games, and the Nets would be wise to take advantage of it
What the Brooklyn Nets are doing is ridiculous. ...

Malik Monk’s cryptic tweet is absolutely about him still being in health-and-safety protocol, right?
Los Angeles Lakers guard Malik Monk is still in health-and-safety protocol and appears to be a bit bored. Monk has not has not played in a game since Dec. 12. He had reportedly tested out of health-and-safety protocol last Thursday, and would’ve only missed one game, but then there was a change in p...

After three years and two seasons of BIG3 dominance, Iso Joe is back in the NBA
It’s been kind of a drag watching the NBA for the past two weeks. In the last nine days, seven games have been cancelled. For the teams that have been able to play some have been forced to get through games with less than optimal lineups. The Brooklyn Nets haven’t played since Saturday and in that g...
![[UPDATE] This is fine: Kyrie Irving already in COVID protocols](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/0124ba961e791e1e056e5b9b9ac99d38.jpg)
[UPDATE] This is fine: Kyrie Irving already in COVID protocols
Less than two hours after this piece was published, the Nets announced that Kyrie Irving has entered the NBA’s health and safety protocols, because of course he did....

Of course the Blazers say Damian Lillard is untouchable
There are a couple of ways to parse the report from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Zach Lowe that the Trail Blazers are not willing to discuss trading Damian Lillard, “one of the Sixers’ top targets” in a potential Ben Simmons deal....

CJ and Dame have been fun, but if the Blazers want to salvage this season it’s time to say bye to McCollum
It’s far from all CJ McCollum’s fault the Portland Trail Blazers are struggling, and currently the 10th seed in the Western Conference with an 11-14 record. His field goal and free throw percentages are down, but he’s still averaging 20.6 points per game and shooting nearly 40 percent from the 3-poi...

Wait, I thought the NBA was lowering the age for draft eligibility?
The G League celebrated its 20th season of competition this season but is only on its second of genuine interest to NBA fans. Instead of the occasional player who makes the leap from AAA to a rotation player or a raw draft pick trying to hone their skills, there wasn’t too much to get amped about un...

Tampering so egregious the NBA couldn’t ignore it
It appears that the going rate for tampering punishments in the NBA is a second round draft pick. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski is reporting that the NBA has concluded its tampering investigations into the Chicago Bulls and Miami Heat for sign and trades during the 2021 offseason. Both teams were punish...