Last season, San Antonio Spurs forward Kawhi Leonard was one of the most valuable players in the entire NBA, posting 25.5 points, 5.8 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game as perhaps the league's best two-way fo

In his absence, the Rockets have gone 7-3, and at 8-3 overall, they’re in first place in the Western Conference. Therefore, they don’t exactly need to rush Paul back before he's at full health. Not only has James Harden continued to do his thing, but shockingly, Eric Gordon has emerged as a top 10 scorer, averaging 23.1 points per g

The 25-year-old has established himself as the face of the franchise since Gordon Hayward's departure to the Boston Celtics in the summer but has been unable to lead them consistently as his campaign continues to be marred by injur

The 27-year-old averaged a career-high 21.1 points, 6.3 assists and 4.8 rebounds per game on 43.4 percent shooting last season with Phoenix but his numbers didn't have much effect on the team as they were constantly losing ga

"Coming from a different team, you talk about what was the perception of this team when you were at another team," Paul explained . "People a lot of times don't think about that. You want to know, so you try to make sure that you can try to correct those things…We want to play up-tempo and all that different type of stuff, but it's no secret that the NBA champions (for) the past six, seven years have all been top 10 in defen

"I think the biggest thing is they really care about Gordon," Stevens said . "He's made a big impact on them. He's an easy guy to play with. He's a guy you want to play with on both ends of the floor. So certainly you miss that -- and that camaraderie. But one of the tasks that we have now is to pick up steam for him, and guys that get opportunities that [they] may not have [had before Hayward's injury] or guys that get opportunities from a more minutes standpoint need to be ready to take advantage of tho

"But this is a setback; we're expecting a full recovery," Stevens noted . "And we know there are going to be a lot of tough days ahead on that recovery but, at the same time, hopefully he'll improve day to day. But it's been tough. It's been tough for h

In case you missed it, Gordon Hayward suffered one of the most grotesque in-game injuries in NBA history on Tuesday night.Landing awkwardly on his way down from an ally-oop attempt, Hayward dislocated his ankle and fractured his tibia which immediately shocked everyone watching.As he lay in pain on the floor at the sight of his visible deformity, his teammates, opposing players, the crowd and the viewing audience looked on in anguish as one of Boston’s star players was severely injured. Hayward’s agent Mark Bartelstein told ESPN’s Jackie MacMullan that the surgery would involve "a bunch of different things," including inserting a plate and screws in order to stabilize his ankle and tibia.In the team’s home opener against the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday night, the longest-tenured Celtic Marcus Smart was slated to deliver a message to the fans over the loudspeakers. But instead, he simply directed fans to the video screens above on the jumbotron. Here’s what pla

It's difficult to play good D on a rebuilding team filled with young players still learning their assignments, so it's unfair to point to Bledsoe's deficiencies on that end of the floor in a Suns unif

"We won't know really what we look like until I get back out there," Paul said . "(But) man, I'm learning so much - so much. …I think the biggest thing that we talk about as a team is communication, so we're trying to make sure we continue to get better and better at that - especially on the defensive e

"He's seeing things where we can get better, what we need to do," D’Antoni noted . "A lot of (his feedback) is personnel driven. He knows the league really well, and what works with guys. We talk about plays. We talk about everythi

While the Rockets have been a dominant offensive team under D’Antoni, their deficiency has been on the defensive side of the ball. Paul seems to be aware of that and thinks he can help the situation as one of the best perimeter defenders at the point guard posit

But, he has missed the first 11 games of the season while slowly recovering from an ankle injury. Of course the Spurs have stayed afloat under head coach Gregg Popovic, going 7-4, but they clearly are missing Leonard's talents on both ends of the fl

Rudy Gobert's luck has been out so far this season as he's suffered freak injuries to both knees.After missing 11 games with a right knee injury following a collision with Miami Heat shooting guard Dion Waiters, the Frenchman returned to the Utah Jazz lineup earlier than expected recently but he now faces another spell on the sidelines.In their last outing against the Boston Celtics, frontcourt partner Derrick Favors landed awkwardly on Gobert's left knee and it immediately sent the big man to the ground in agony. According to Shams Charania of Yahoo sports injury Community|https://sportsinjuryfocus.com/, the center now faces a month out after being diagnosed with a sprained posterior cruciate ligament in his left knee and a bone bruise in his left ti