Mavericks Remain Interested In Trading For Clint Capela

Lonzo Ball confirmed that he’ll miss the entire 2023-24 season as he recovers from a third knee surgery since he played his last game.

“When I first got hurt, we didn’t really know what it was. I was seeing all type of different doctors and stuff. I was just kind of going up and down. That was really hard for me because I just didn’t know what the next day was going to be like.

“At least now, I got the surgery. We got a plan moving forward. We’ve been on plan. I’m on track,” said Ball on Trae Young’s From the Point by Trae Young podcast.

Ball last appeared in the NBA on January 14, 2022.

Ball added that he felt he was finally on “the perfect team” with the Bulls before his injury.

“It’s going to be a big what-if. I feel bad, just for the [Bulls’] GMs because I feel like they made the perfect team around me. I felt like that was the most I’ve ever been involved in an organization. And I finally got the perfect team that I felt like could fit my game and play my way and really just do what I wanted to do.”

The LA Clippers have moved on from trying to trade for James Harden, per Brian Windhorst on The Hoop Collective podcast from ESPN. Windhorst said it was the Clippers who walked away from the Harden trade talks, and not the Philadelphia 76ers.

“The Clippers tried to trade for James Harden, and that deal didn’t happen,” Windhorst said. “And from what I understand, it was the Clippers who said, ‘Okay, there’s no deal here. We’re gonna move on.’ And while I assume that they could certainly make a deal midseason, I assume that this is what they’re gonna go with.”

The Clippers have been reported as Harden’s preferred landing spot since he asked for a trade earlier this summer. The Sixers have set a complicated asking price for Harden, which includes win-now players, draft picks that can be traded for win-now players, while also preserving cap flexibility for the summer of 2024.