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Michael Scotto: The Utah Jazz are waiving Vince Williams, league sources told @hoopshype. WIlliams previously suffered a torn ACL and is out for the rest of the season. He’s averaged 7.7 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 3.0 assists in 21.3 minutes per game in four seasons with the Grizzlies and Jazz.
Sarah Todd: Multiple sources believe that Vince Williams Jr. suffered a significant ACL injury. He’ll have an MRI in Salt Lake tomorrow. Left the arena on crutches. Will Hardy on Vince Williams Jr. “It doesn’t look good, we’ll get an MRI.” On the play: “that’s not basketball”
Once Williams was off the court, a number of Jazz players rewatched the play with some of the Jazz coaching staff and screwed their faces into grimaces when seeing the injury and what caused it. “Obviously devastated for Vince,” Keyonte George said. “Everybody’s gonna have their own opinion (about the play), but can’t really look into it too much. These plays, just running down the floor ... just a freak accident, honestly.”
Sarah Todd: Tari Eason went to the Jazz locker room right after the game to check on Vince. Said there was no malicious intent and wanted to make sure that Vince knew he was never trying to hurt anyone. More on the story coming soon
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“I‘ve known Vince for a little bit and he’s just a really good dude, hard working dude,” Eason told the Deseret News. “It was just respect. I’ve got a lot of respect for him, and I know it’s his contract year ... I didn’t intend on doing anything. My intentions are always just to play hard. So I went to go holler and just check on him. Obviously nothing helps, but just tell him that I apologize. You know, nobody’s trying to hurt anybody.”
But before practice started, reality set in. Coach Tuomas Iisalo gathered the team together and revealed that Jaren Jackson Jr., Jock Landale, John Konchar and Vince Williams Jr. were being traded to the Utah Jazz. "For me, it was just initial shock," forward GG Jackson told the Commercial Appeal on Feb. 4. "I didn't really know how to react. On the way to the plane, it kind of hit me a little bit."
But before practice started, reality set in. Coach Tuomas Iisalo gathered the team and revealed that Jaren Jackson Jr., Jock Landale, John Konchar and Vince Williams Jr. were being traded to the Utah Jazz. "For me, it was just initial shock," GG Jackson told the Commercial Appeal on Feb. 4. "I didn't really know how to react. On the way to the plane, it kind of hit me a little bit."
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The Memphis Grizzlies have been in the trade rumor mill in full swing over the last week after it was reported by ESPN NBA insider Shams Charania that the team was open to trading point guard Ja Morant. The reports come amid what has been the worst year of Morant’s career thus far, with his efficiency numbers and overall production dipping severely. The Grizzlies are currently in Berlin for a game on Thursday against the Orlando Magic, and earlier in the week, cameras caught Morant having a heated confrontation with teammate Vince Williams Jr. at a team shootaround.
The Grizzlies have upgraded Ja Morant (right calf contusion) to questionable for Wednesday’s game against Phoenix. Santiago Aldama (right ankle soreness) and Vince Williams Jr (left patellar tendinitis) are also questionable, and Jaren Jackson Jr (illness) is probable.
“Well, we know that obviously the organization part is going to be hard for us,” Iisalo said. “Vince is a good player, Vince Williams, but we have four point guards ahead of him injured right now. And, against a team that’s well-organized and very aggressive in the full court, that makes it very tough. But we got bullied on the boards. I think we gave up almost 40 second-chance points against a team that’s not particularly big or bigger than us. Transition game, that’s one thing, but in the halfcourt we were late for several actions, unable to communicate or arrive with the ball. Basic things. It started out early, obviously, with two early timeouts. And we then had stretches, but nothing consistent.”
