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Los Angeles Clippers star Kawhi Leonard appears to be making progress in his bid to return to action, and Friday's news was the best indication that he's closer although there is still no official timetable for when he'll see game action next, the team said. Leonard return ed to the floor last month after missing the entire 2021-22 season due to a torn ACL, but he's appeared in just two of Clippers' first three games, coming off of the bench in both contests, before again missing time due to a knee injury . Leonard has not played since Oct. 23, and while the Clippers have offered no definitive timeline yet for his return , coach Ty Lue acknowledged that he is getting closer on Friday. "He played five-on-five this morning with some of our guys, some of the players and some of our coaches," Lue said. "It was the first time he was able to get on the floor and play five-on-five. He ...

We need to start this week's edition of Wemby Watch in Indianapolis, where it appears as though the wrong team is making a bid for Victor Wembanyama. We came into the year expecting the Pacers to lose their way into the running, but through 10 games, they've managed a .500 record that will keep them out of this week's race to the bottom. Myles Turner, who scored 37 points in an upset win over the Pelicans Monday, is openly pitching himself to the Lakers on podcasts... yet the Pacers just keep humming along, lowering their Wemby odds with each passing win. So we're compelled to ask... are the Colts trying to pick up their slack in the losing department? On Monday, they fired former third-place Coach of the Year finisher Frank Reich and replaced him with Jeff Saturday, a former Pro Bowler with no coaching experience beyond the high school level. If Wembanyama makes a surprise heel turn and announces...

Welcome back to  NBA  Star Power Index: A weekly gauge of the players getting the most buzz around the league. Inclusion on this list isn't necessarily a good thing -- it simply means you're capturing the NBA world's attention. This is also not a ranking. The players listed are in no particular order. This column will run every week throughout the regular season.  ...

Is it too soon to start talking NBA MVP? I don't think so. We're basically a quarter of the way into the season. It's still early , but it's not that early . We know, for instance, that the Cleveland Cavaliers made a dynamite decision in pushing all in for Donovan Mitchell. We've seen enough to confidently say that. If you believe Mitchell has been the early season MVP, I won't argue with you. I agreed with you a week ago.  Reasonable minds could also argue for Luka Doncic, the league's leading scorer, or Giannis Antetokounmpo, the only player who is averaging at least 25-10-5, or Stephen Curry, who has probably been the best player so far this season. But the Warriors are under .500. A month from now, as Golden State narrows its rotation and at least stops bleeding bench points at a catastrophic rate, Curry would be my pick to be in the MVP lead.  Ja Morant deserves some noise.  But...

Darvin Ham used Sunday's post-game press conference to settle a debate that has been raging between him and the media throughout the season. "Irregardless is a word," Ham joked after the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Brooklyn Nets 116-103. "I Googled it. You say it's not. It's in Google and it actually has an example of how it's used. See the fun things we get to talk about when we win?" It was a far cry from the dour mood that followed Friday's loss to the Sacramento Kings. As Anthony Davis described it, "The energy around our locker room feels like 2-10." Of course, that much was evident on Thursday, when Bleacher Report's Chris Haynes suggested that the front office's inaction "could prompt key players to sour on the direction of the franchise."  Davis is one of those key players. His 37-point explosion against Brooklyn led to Sunday's wi...

The Memphis Grizzlies are getting some frontcourt reinforcements soon, as big man Jaren Jackson Jr. is expected to make his season debut on Tuesday against the New Orleans Pelicans, per Bleacher Report's Chris Haynes. Jackson had surgery in June to repair a stress fracture in his foot and has been recovering since then. Adding him to a Memphis team that is already off to a 9-5 start will only improve this team, but given that Jackson hasn't had any real game action since last season 's playoffs, it wouldn't be surprising to see him take some time to get re-acclimated. The last time we saw Jackson, he was averaging 16.3 points, 5.8 rebounds and a league-leading 2.3 blocks per game. He's one of the best defensive big men in the league, and finished last season as a Defensive Player of the Year finalist, as well as being named to the All-Defensive First Team. The Grizzlies are just better on de...

The Golden State Warriors honored their Run TMC era on Monday night during their 132-95 victory over the San Antonio Spurs. Unfortunately, the special broadcast featuring franchise legends Tim Hardaway, Chris Mullin and Mitch Richmond did not go as well as the game.  Early in the third quarter, the Warriors were playing physical defense and Draymond Green eventually forced a steal. After Steph Curry was fouled on the other end, Hardaway went back to the turnover. "So y'all thought that was great D?" Hardaway said. "I thought that was just raping him. I think they should call the police on that."  Neither Mullin nor Richmond addressed the comment at the time. Later in the fourth quarter, however, Hardaway made an apology: "I used a poor choice of words earlier in the broadcast. I want to apologize for that. Let's get back to the game and let's finish the game off with a 30-point...

Whenever Shai Gilgeous-Alexander fails to get around a screen, his best friend is on his case. And he doesn't want to hear it anymore. Gilgeous-Alexander cannot, however, credibly tell his buddy to keep his mouth shut. Luguentz Dort, his Oklahoma City Thunder teammate, is one of the NBA 's premier perimeter defenders.  "He's over there doing it," Gilgeous-Alexander said. "I can't have him yell at me for not doing it, so I gotta do it."  Gilgeous-Alexander said this at Madison Square Garden on Saturday, after humiliating the Knicks to the tune of 37 points on 13-for-22 shooting. The main reason his name is at the tip of seemingly everybody's tongue -- and the top of every list of early Most Improved Player candidates -- is that his offense has been outrageous. The most mind-boggling thing about his first four weeks, though, is that his defense has taken off, too.  ...

Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving is nearing the completion of the process laid out by team owner Joe Tsai to return to the floor, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. That return could come as soon as Sunday's game against the Memphis Grizzlies, which is Brooklyn's first home game after a lengthy road trip through the Western Conference. Irving has already missed seven games, and will miss his eighth Thursday against the Portland Trail Blazers. "Kyrie is continuing his journey of dialogue and education," NBPA executive director Tamika Tremaglio told ESPN on Wednesday night. "He has been grappling with the full weight of the impact of his voice and actions, particularly in the Jewish community. Kyrie rejects antisemitism in any form, and he's dedicated to bettering himself and increasing his level of understanding. He plans to continue this journey well into the future to ensure ...

Jae Crowder might play basketball again soon. The Phoenix Suns were close to finalizing a three-team trade involving the 32-year-old forward on Wednesday, according to Yahoo Sports ' Jake Fischer. That report followed Marc Stein's tweet about "credible rumbles" that the Suns had gotten closer to getting this strange saga over with. It also followed Crowder posting a mantelpiece clock emoji on his Instagram story.  Crowder's 11th season in the NBA hasn't really started yet. Just before training camp, he tweeted (and subsequently deleted) that he wouldn't be there, and the next day the Suns announced that Crowder and the team had "mutually agreed" that he would not be with the team. ESPN's Brian Windhorst report ed that Crowder had asked for a trade in the summer when informed he may lose his starting job to Cameron Johnson, and that, when he didn't get his wish, he...

Klay Thompson wasn't happy when Charles Barkley said he's "not the same guy" he was before sustaining devastating injuries in consecutive years, first a torn ACL and then a ruptured Achilles. Thing is, it's true. Thompson acknowledged it himself, rhetorically asking reporters amid his Barkley rant: "Who goes through something like that and comes back [the same]?" Thompson is one of the league's fiercest and proudest competitors. It's understandable that he's frustrated with how he's playing and the idea that people, not just Barkley, are starting to question his game, or, perhaps more accurately, reevaluate how much of what he once brought to the table can be reasonably expected to return.  Still, these are questions begging to be asked within the context of how Thompson's season, and the Warriors' season as a whole, has started. Entering play on Thursday, Th...