In NBA news today, the Trail Blazers are shutting down Damian Lillard for the rest of the season, the 2023 Hall of Fame class is announced and more.
The NBA regular season is in the home stretch and injury news continues to dominate the headlines. Today, two big-name stars learned that their seasons were over.
NBA news: 2023 Hall of Fame class announced
In what is a class full of All-Time players, the Hall of Fame released their inductees for 2023. The headliners in this class are Gregg Popovich, Becky Hammon, Pau Gasol, Tony Parker, Dirk Nowitzki, and Dwyane Wade. The Hall of Fame class is usually filled with players who have great but not necessarily ALL-TIME GREAT resumes.
But this group is in another stratosphere — arguably the greatest coach in NBA history, one of the most decorated women’s players ever, a franchise-defining point guard with five rings, an era-defining big man and one of the greatest shooting guards ever.
NBA news: Damian Lillard gets shut down for the season
It seems like the Trail Blazers are giving up, as Portland is shutting down Lillard for the rest of the season per Chris Haynes. It’s largely out of their hands as they’re 10 games below 0.500 and probably would be out of Play-In range, even with Lillard for this final stretch. For what feels like the millionth season in a row, they’ll be remaking their roster this summer and figuring out how to try and build a winner around Lillard.
NBA news: Ben Simmons gets shut down for the season
Due to a back injury, Ben Simmons will be shut down for the rest of the season. Due to the way the season started for the Nets, it seems like Brooklyn will still make the play-in and might even keep the No. 6 seed in the East. With the season Simmons had, he may be on his way out of the league after the next season and a half.
The former all-NBA player has two more years left on his deal but it is doubtful that he will last that long. It is trending in the direction that the Nets give him one more year and a half and then buy him out for the roster spot. With his near-max money for the next two years, it seems very unlikely that Simmons will be traded this offseason.
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