Dunk of the Night: Deandre Ayton

The Denver Nuggets streak hit three straight losses on Sunday. Given the Nuggets still have a five-game lead atop the Western Conference, a more pressing concern is the health of Jamal Murray.

Denver’s starting point guard exited Sunday’s loss to the Brooklyn Nets early in the second half. Murray was dealing with some left knee soreness, but is reportedly “fine”.

Murray missed all of last season, while recovering from a torn ACL suffered near the end of the 2020-21 season. Murray has missed time sporadically this season due to knee soreness, including a six-game stretch leading up to last month’s All-Star break.

The Washington Wizards and Atlanta Hawks were the only teams willing to consider acquiring Bradley Beal from the Phoenix Suns, sources tell Ramona Shelburne and Brian Windhorst of ESPN. The Suns attempted to trade Beal over the course of several weeks in hopes of acquiring Jimmy Butler and canvassed the entire league.

The Suns had hoped they could improve their trade package to incentivize other teams to help them trade for Butler and thought a deal could materialize as other trades the Wizards and Hawks were working on fell through.

Whatever deal the Suns put together was subject to Beal waiving his no-trade clause to approve it. Beal was said to prefer a warm weather destination.

Windhorst said on his podcast following the trade deadline that the messaging the Suns received on a trade of Beal was that the draft compensation they could offer couldn’t offset the cost for a team to take him on.