Here's our team-by-team analysis of the major and minor injuries and other moves from the past week.
All events listed alphabetically by team.
Brooklyn Nets
Announced point guard D'Angelo Russell underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left knee
Initially diagnosed with a knee contusion after coming down awkwardly on Nov. 11 in Utah, Russell apparently suffered a more serious injury that required arthroscopic knee surgery. While Brooklyn general manager Sean Marks told reporters that the plan is for Russell to return this season, it sounds as if he'll be sidelined an extended period.
Suddenly the Nets find themselves without either of the two point guards who began the season in the backcourt, having already lost Jeremy Lin to a ruptured patellar tendon in the season opener. Fortunately for Brooklyn, third point guard Spencer Dinwiddie has been terrific this season, averaging 17.3 points and 8.5 assists per 36 minutes. Per NBA.com/Stats, the Nets have outscored opponents by 4.1 points per 100 possessions with Dinwiddie on the court this season.
Brooklyn's issue in the short term, then, will be finding a backup to Dinwiddie. Second-year point guard Isaiah Whitehead rated 3.6 wins worse than replacement level as a rookie, the league's second-worst mark. Adding a player from the outside might be an option. Marks also told reporters the Nets would probably apply for a disabled player exception for Lin, which would give them $6 million to acquire a player in the final year of his contract or sign somebody to a one-year deal -- more purchasing power than the $3.4 million in cap space they could create by renouncing free agent Randy Foye.
Because Brooklyn has a full roster, adding a player would require waiving someone, probably either guard Sean Kilpatrick (who also is a backup point guard candidate but has fallen out of favor this season) or center Tyler Zeller.
Cleveland Cavaliers
Announced point guard Derrick Rose will miss at least two more weeks with a left ankle sprain and guard Iman Shumpert will miss the next five to seven days because of a left knee effusion
Having missed four games in October with an ankle sprain, Rose reinjured his left ankle on Nov. 7. He is now expected to be out through the end of the month. With Isaiah Thomas still sidelined by his hip injury -- though progressing in his rehab -- that leaves the Cavaliers with Jose Calderon as their only point guard. The loss of Shumpert, who has been playing the point for Cleveland, exacerbates that issue for the next few days.
Nonetheless, there's a case to be made that losing Rose and Shumpert will actually lead coach Tyronn Lue to use more effective lineups. Taking Rose and Shumpert off the court and moving LeBron James to the point means more minutes for the Cavaliers' superior wing options, and lo and behold, Cleveland has been at its best with James at point guard this season.
Though Rose has played decently (his .542 true shooting percentage so far would be the second best of his career, behind only his 2010-11 MVP season), his inability to space the floor has made the going more difficult for other players, and the Cleveland defense has been at its worst with Rose on the court. Shumpert helps defensively but not on offense; only with James at the point have the Cavaliers succeeded offensively thus far.
Calderon will start at point guard, at least for now, but Cleveland will have James at the point for the most important minutes, and that should be a good thing.
Denver Nuggets
Power forward Paul Millsap underwent surgery to repair a torn ligament in his left wrist
Millsap's departure in the second quarter of Sunday's loss to the Lakers was overshadowed by the ejection of teammate Nikola Jokic and coach Michael Malone, who was suspended for a game after bumping official Rodney Mott. Millsap's wrist injury will have much longer-reaching ramifications: After undergoing surgery Tuesday, he could miss three months, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.
Despite some growing pains as the Nuggets figured out how to utilize Millsap and Jokic, both of whom are skilled facilitators for big men, the combination had been highly effective this season. Denver had outscored opponents by 9.7 points per 100 possessions when Jokic played with Millsap, per NBA.com/Stats. The combination of elite offense and solid defense the Nuggets were getting from the duo was exactly what they envisioned when they signed Millsap to a three-year, $91.5 million contract this summer in free agency.
The good news is Malone will have plenty of options for replacing Millsap because Denver loaded up on power forwards last summer, adding Trey Lyles and rookie Tyler Lydon as well as Millsap, while retaining incumbents Darrell Arthur, Kenneth Faried and Juancho Hernangomez. The Nuggets also like to use backup center Mason Plumlee alongside Millsap.
In Monday's win over Sacramento, with Wes Unseld Jr. filling in for Malone on the sidelines, Faried got the start with Lyles serving as backup power forward. Plumlee and Jokic played together only briefly, and Hernangomez played exclusively at small forward. (Arthur and Lydon, who made his NBA debut in garbage time, are both out of Malone's rotation.)
Giving Faried the first crack at replacing Millsap makes sense. While Malone has been reluctant to use Faried with Jokic, that combination was effective last season, posting a plus-10.9 net rating, slightly better than the Jokic-Millsap pairing has managed this season. Faried doesn't provide the same kind of spacing, but when he's engaged defensively he's a good partner for the less active Jokic.
This is a crucial opportunity for Lyles, who once looked like the Utah Jazz's power forward of the future but fell out of favor before being dealt to Denver so the Jazz could move up to draft Donovan Mitchell. Because of the Nuggets' crowded frontcourt depth chart, Lyles has played sparingly this season. This is his chance to establish himself as a credible backup to Millsap if the Nuggets are able to trade Faried, whose $13.8 million 2018-19 salary could be a problem for Denver.
The Nuggets have the depth to survive without Millsap, and it's helpful that the race for playoff spots in the Western Conference hasn't proven as heated as expected. At 10-7, Denver is 2 1/2 games up on the two teams (the Memphis Grizzlies and Oklahoma City Thunder) currently tied for the eighth spot in the West. While the Thunder will surely play better, if the Nuggets can merely go .500 without Millsap, they should be in position to solidify their playoff spot and worry about seeding once he returns in the late winter.
Memphis Grizzlies
Announced point guard Mike Conley will be sidelined indefinitely with left Achilles soreness
Uh-oh. The Grizzlies' 7-4 start despite injuries to JaMychal Green, Ben McLemore and Wayne Selden made them one of the season's early surprises. Just as those players were returning to action, however, Conley was sidelined by Achilles soreness that has been an issue dating back to the end of the 2015-16 season.
A year ago, we fretted when Conley suffered fractured vertebrae, only to see Memphis to go 7-2 in his absence, piling up a series of close wins. This time around doesn't seem to be working out so well for the Grizzlies, who have lost their past two games without Conley, plus the other game he missed earlier this month. Although two of those three losses came by three points or fewer.
Without Conley alongside Marc Gasol, Memphis lacks the shot creation necessary to cover for the nonscorers in the starting five. Coach David Fizdale attempted to deal with that on Saturday by moving Chandler Parsons back into the starting lineup in place of James Ennis. Parsons (17 points on 7 of 9 shooting) played well, but the new second unit (minus Parsons and Mario Chalmers) flopped, and the Grizzlies shot 36.0 percent in a 22-point home loss to the Houston Rockets.
Now a game below .500 after the fast start, Memphis could lose ground in the playoff race during Conley's absence. From an individual standpoint, the time Conley misses will hurt his case to make his first All-Star Game. At 30, Conley is running out of chances to achieve that overdue honor.
Miami Heat
Announced forward Okaro White underwent surgery to repair a fractured fifth metatarsal
White fractured the fifth metatarsal in his left foot during practice last week, and after surgery, he's likely out at least the next couple of months. White joins Rodney McGruder (tibia) as Heat forwards who are out an extended period. For now, the Heat have enough depth to cover the injuries; White had played just 80 minutes, despite starting four games. Another injury at forward could become a problem, however.
New York Knicks
Waived forward Mindaugas Kuzminskas
Because Joakim Noah began the season suspended, the Knicks were able to keep 16 players, but his return forced them to trim their roster down to 15. With Jarrett Jack -- the only player on the roster whose salary is not guaranteed -- now starting at point guard, he wasn't an option for this cut. That left New York choosing between Ramon Sessions, who started the first three games at point guard but has played just nine minutes since, and Kuzminskas.
Apparently, the Knicks valued depth at point guard, where Jack and rookie Frank Ntilikina have battled injuries in the past, because they chose to waive Kuzminskas, despite his larger $3 million salary. Kuzminskas is in the last year of his deal and had been playing sparingly, so there's little long-term cost. But ignoring position, he's probably a better NBA contributor at this point than Sessions.
The move really casts doubt on the contract New York handed out last summer to Ron Baker, who was expected to be part of the Knicks' point guard rotation but has played just 48 minutes all season. Remember that Baker got New York's valuable room midlevel exception, paying him $4.3 million this season with a player option for 2018-19. (I suspect he'll pick it up.) For the Knicks to get no production from that salary is painful.
Philadelphia 76ers
Renegotiated and extended the contract of forward Robert Covington, adding a reported four years and $62 million
Covington's new contract is one of the most interesting in recent NBA memory. Before renegotiating and extending his deal, remarkably, Covington wasn't even guaranteed his full minimum salary this season, the last on a four-year deal signed by former Sixers GM Sam Hinkie. Over that span, Covington developed into one of the league's better 3-and-D players and bargains.
By saving about $15 million in cap space over the summer, Philadelphia had the ability to bump up Covington's salary this season, then drop it by up to 60 percent in 2018-19 as part of a new four-year deal. The 76ers got almost to that maximum, minimizing Covington's cap hit next summer, when they could be players in free agency. (As Bobby Marks noted, Philadelphia could also wait for the summer of 2019, when Covington's salary will be slightly higher.)
The resulting deal was a win-win for player and team. The Sixers basically accelerated about a quarter of the total value of Covington's extension on this year's cap, increasing their cap flexibility in the summer of 2019 and potentially saving them money with regard to the luxury tax in 2020-21 and 2021-22, when Ben Simmons could join Joel Embiid on a max extension.
Getting so much money up front is a huge win for Covington, who has made peanuts, comparatively, during his career because of the team-friendly deal he signed before establishing himself as an NBA player. Covington also gets the security of locking in now without having to worry about how many teams would have had the cap space necessary to make him a similar offer in free agency.
If Covington keeps shooting as he has over the first month of the season (49.1 percent from 3-point range), he possibly could have landed a much bigger offer next summer. But most likely, he'll regress to the mean, and he would have been looking at deals in the neighborhood of this one.
Toronto Raptors
Announced point guard Delon Wright has a dislocated right shoulder
Wright's shoulder dislocation is particularly worrisome because he has a history of right shoulder injuries. Wright dislocated the same shoulder during a game at the 2016 Las Vegas Summer League, which caused a torn shoulder labrum that required surgery and kept him out for the first 2½ months of the 2016-17 season.
Entrenched as the Raptors' third guard after Cory Joseph was traded over the summer, Wright had played well in that role, both as a point guard and off the ball alongside either Kyle Lowry or Fred VanVleet. VanVleet now steps into the role of backup point guard full time, one he can handle. The trick is filling the minutes VanVleet was playing.
When Norman Powell comes back from the hip pointer that has sidelined him the past three games, coach Dwane Casey might elect to bring him off the bench as a backup shooting guard and keep rookie OG Anunoby in the starting lineup at small forward. With Powell out, Casey used point guard Lorenzo Brown (one of Toronto's two-way players) alongside VanVleet on Sunday.
Utah Jazz
Announced center Rudy Gobert will be re-evaluated in four weeks after suffering a right tibia contusion
Like the Grizzlies, the Jazz find themselves in danger of falling out of the Western Conference playoff race early. At 7-10, Utah has started even slower; the Jazz are tied in the standings with the Los Angeles Lakers and only a half-game ahead of the Phoenix Suns, two teams that don't figure to be part of the playoff race.
The silver lining of the Gobert injury is that it should benefit a Utah offense that ranks 26th in the league in half-court points per possession, according to CleaningTheGlass.com. That represents a huge improvement from where the Jazz were; per NBA.com/Stats, their best four games this season in terms of offensive rating have all come in the five games they've played without Gobert.
Of course, there's a price to be paid for losing the NBA Defensive Player of the Year runner-up at the other end of the court, and not coincidentally, three of Utah's five worst defensive performances on a per-possession basis also are sans Gobert. So far, the Jazz haven't been substantially worse without Gobert. But either way, the math isn't quite adding up for Utah to outscore opponents consistently.