International Notes: EuroLeague, China, Spain, Australia
Ergin Ataman, coach of Anadolu Efes Istanbul in the EuroLeague, is confident the league will resume play in July, according to Ennio Terrasi Borghesan of Sportando. Ataman believes all the teams will be brought to one city because of the risks of traveling, and games will take place behind closed doors.
“EuroLeague’s foresight is to gather all the teams in the most risk-free city and play the six regular season rounds remaining there, and then organize a Final Eight: this is the most likely scenario for me,” Ataman said in a teleconference with fans. “The city’s announcement will be made in May. But I think it will not be in Istanbul. My guess is that it can be played in a city in Germany. There were already some preparations for the Final Four. In summary, I think the Final Eight will be held in the city where the Final Four was scheduled (Colonia). I think it would be a big problem if the remaining games of this season are not played.”
There’s more international news to pass along:
- The Chinese Basketball Association may try to finish its season without foreign players, Borghesan relays in a separate story. That’s the recommendation of Liaoning’s general manager, whose roster includes Lance Stephenson, Brandon Bass and O.J. Mayo. The original report came from Chinese journalist Zhang Duo. Borghesan notes that several U.S. players left China after the CBA delayed the resumption of its season last month.
- Liga ACB, the top professional league in Spain, will consider a 12-team tournament played in a single location, Borghesan adds in another piece. The proposed tournament, which will be discussed in a teleconference Monday, would start June 15. Teams would be divided into two groups of six and the winners of each group would meet in a best-of-five final.
- The National Basketball League in Australia has reached an agreement with its players union calling for salary reductions for 2020/21, Borghesian writes. The deal involves tiered cuts ranging from 27.5% for players making between $80K and $99K and 50% for those receiving more than $200K. Players will be given a two-week window to opt out of their current deals, which could affect the status of former NBA guard Bryce Cotton, who has become one of Australia’s top players.
Andre Roberson Talks About Returning
Thunder swingman Andre Roberson believes he’s close to returning to action after missing more than two years with a knee injury, writes Moke Hamilton of USA Today. Roberson discussed his status during an appearance on the Catching Up With The Family podcast with Nate Tomlinson, his former college teammate.
“I’m kinda past the rehab stage,” Roberson said. “I’m almost to the point where — I should be playing, honestly. But I’m still taking it a day at a time until I get back into our medical staff’s hands and get reevaluated. Just staying patient through it all and knowing that the light is right there at the end of the tunnel. … It’s definitely been a long journey and it’s coming to an end.”
Roberson was a defensive specialist for Oklahoma City for four and a half seasons before tearing his left patella tendon in January of 2018. Some setbacks along the way have extended his rehab process. Roberson indicates in the interview that he would like to take the court if the NBA is able to resume its current season at some point.
Roberson’s desire to return may be related to his contract situation. He’s earning $10.74MM in the final year of his current deal and is headed for free agency whenever the offseason arrives.
Nuggets To Promote Calvin Booth To General Manager
Calvin Booth will be the next general manager in Denver, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic.
Currently serving as assistant GM, Booth will be promoted to replace Arturas Karnisovas, who was hired this week as executive VP of basketball operations with the Bulls.
A league source confirmed the Nuggets‘ intentions to Mike Singer of the Athletic (Twitter link), but said the timing of an official announcement is uncertain because of the league’s hiatus.
Booth has served as assistant GM with Denver since 2017. After a 10-year playing career, he became a scout for New Orleans during the 2012/13 season, then joined Minnesota a year later, eventually becoming director of player personnel.
Lou Williams Wants To Finish Career With Clippers
After bouncing around the NBA for much of his 15-year career, Lou Williams is determined to finish up with the Clippers. The three-time winner of the Sixth Man of the Year award made his intentions clear in an interview with Ros Gold-Onwude of ESPN (hat tip to Garrett Chorpenning of Sports Illustrated).
“This is it,” Williams said. “Listen, all teams out there, I’m not playing for anybody else after this. … That’s my leverage. I identify with this group of guys, I identify with this organization. I don’t see me finding that somewhere else.”
After spending his first seven seasons in Philadelphia, Williams played for the Hawks, Raptors, Lakers and Rockets in a span of five years before being shipped to the Clippers in the Chris Paul trade in 2017. He admits he didn’t feel comfortable at first with his new team, but eventually coach Doc Rivers helped him revive his career.
“Never give up,” Williams said. “That’s my Clippers story, never give up. I was at a place in my career where I thought that I was done, and Doc and the rest of the guys rejuvenated me again and gave me that confidence that I needed to move forward in my career. And I’ve had the best years of my career with the Clippers.”
Williams has remained productive at age 33, averaging 18.7 PPG through 60 games before the hiatus and putting himself in contention for another Sixth Man award. He’s making $8MM this season and the same amount next year before becoming a free agent in 2021. Williams told Gold-Onwude he believes he can play four more years of “high-level” basketball.
Spencer Dinwiddie To Play For Nigeria In Olympics
Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie plans to acquire a Nigerian passport and represent the country in the Olympics, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic. Dinwiddie’s decision comes after he was left off the list of 44 finalists for Team USA that was released in February.
Dinwiddie will join several other NBA players on the Nigerian team, which is coached by Warriors assistant Mike Brown. Dinwiddie’s teammates will include Al-Farouq Aminu, Josh Okogie, Chimezie Metu and Ekpe Udoh. Nigeria has already qualified for the Tokyo Olympics as the highest-ranked African team at the 2019 FIBA World Cup.
The addition of Dinwiddie will bring some extra firepower to an already-strong team. He was averaging career highs with 20.6 points and 6.8 assists through 64 games before the NBA season was put on hold.
Brown, who was named as Nigeria’s head coach in February, talked recently to Marc J. Spears of The Athletic about the advantages of having the games postponed until 2021.
“It helps from the standpoint of there are a lot of teams that have been together … the players, especially. A lot of countries have players who have grown up playing together on national teams or All-Star teams,” Brown said. “There are a lot of coaches out there that are in charge of programs that they have been a part of for many years. To have another year to grasp, not only the talent level of the team, but the direction the team needs to go and making sure we are able to put the best Nigerian team out there, it’s a welcomed advantage to have a little bit more time for a new guy like myself.”
Draft Decisions: Jarreau, Elleby, Blazevic, Krejci
Houston guard DeJon Jarreau will enter the NBA draft without hiring an agent, tweets Mark Berman of Fox 26 in Houston. He averaged 9.0 points, 4.3 rebounds and 3.7 assists during his junior season with the Cougars.
“I’m gonna test the waters, go through the process and get a draft grade. I want to get evaluated. If I don’t like what I hear I plan on coming back,” Jarreau said (Twitter link). “Basketball is my world. I’ve played all my life to get to this point. Coach (Kelvin) Sampson has helped me a lot, from being a basketball coach to a major role model (Twitter link). I’m very nervous because you never know what can happen. This is a big step. It’s always been my dream. So of course nervous, but confident.” (Twitter link)
There are more draft decisions to pass along:
- CJ Elleby, a sophomore forward from Washington State, has entered the draft but plans to preserve his eligibility, a sources tells Jonathan Givony of ESPN (Twitter link). Elleby averaged 18.4 PPG and 7.8 RPG this season and was a first-team All-Pac 12 selection.
- Lithuanian center Marek Blazevic has also declared for the draft, agent Tadas Bulotas tells Givony (Twitter link). The 18-year-old stands 6’11” and played professionally with Rytas this year.
- Czech guard Vit Krejci, who saw regular minutes with Zaragoza this season, has announced he will enter the draft, Givony tweets. Bulotas also confirmed the decision for Krejci, who is 6’7″ and 19 years old.
Community Shootaround: Resuming The Season
Most NBA fans were eagerly awaiting this day. Prior to the hiatus caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the playoffs were supposed to begin on Saturday.
Play was halted a little over five weeks ago but it seems so much longer for basketball fans, who were looking forward to a postseason that promised to hold plenty of intrigue. The Western Conference had plenty of storylines — the Los Angeles rivalry, the Rockets’ superstar guards and small-ball approach, the up-and-comers like the Nuggets, Jazz, and Mavericks, hoping to make a statement of their own. The Eastern Conference had a clear favorite – the Bucks – but the Celtics, the defending champion Raptors, and the enigmatic Sixers had the potential to make things interesting and dash Milwaukee’s aspirations.
All of the possible plot changes have been put on hold. Unfortunately, the league is no closer to setting a date for resuming play than on the scary night when everything came to a stop. Commissioner Adam Silver told the media on Friday that there’s still no way to tell if and when the season can restart. A lot of hurdles must be cleared for teams to even begin training again.
It’s generally assumed that if games are played again this season, spectators will be prohibited. There’s also been widespread speculation that games would be conducted at a neutral site such as Las Vegas but Silver indicated that the league isn’t actively pursuing a “bubble city” plan.
Meanwhile, financial losses are piling up. “Revenues, in essence, have dropped to zero,” Silver said.
That brings us to our question of the day: Do you believe the 2019/20 NBA season can salvaged? If so, how will the league be able to pull it off and still ensure the safety of all involved?
Please take to the comments section to weigh in on this topic. We look forward to your input.
Coronavirus Updates: EuroLeague, NBL, Bubble City, Salaries
The deadline on whether to resume the EuroLeague and EuroCup seasons is the end of May, according to league president Jordi Bertomeu, Emiliano Carchia of Sportando tweets. The final decision will be made during the last two weeks of the month, Carchia adds. If play is resumed, it wouldn’t begin any later than July, Carchia adds in another tweet.
We have more coronavirus-related updates:
- Players in Australia’s NBL have agreed to a tiered system of pay reductions, with players earning $200K or more receiving a 50% pay cut, Olgun Uluc of ESPN Australia reports. The minimum player salary of $60K will remain and those players making $80K or less won’t see a reduction. All players will have an opportunity during the two weeks leading up to free agency to opt out of their current contracts. However, each player’s NBL rights will be retained by their respective club, Uluc adds.
- There’s hope that immediate family members would be able to accompany their NBA-playing relatives to Las Vegas if they NBA opts for “bubble” concept to resume the season, according to David Aldridge of The Athletic. By allowing close family members to join them, the desire to leave the city during the resumption of play would be eliminated, an unnamed player agent told Aldridge.
- Players such as Ben Simmons and Pascal Siakam who signed rookie scale extensions last fall will have their pay reduced based on this season’s salary, not the first year of their extensions, Bobby Marks of ESPN notes. Players agreed to have 25% of their paychecks withheld beginning on May 15. Restricted free agents such as Brandon Ingram will also have their pay reductions come out of just their 2019/20 salary, not future earnings, Marks adds.
Atlantic Notes: Knox, Durant, Robinson, Hayward
The league’s hiatus has made it much more difficult for new Knicks president Leon Rose to evaluate Kevin Knox, Marc Berman of the New York Post writes. Rose was unable to get a closer look at the second-year forward and doesn’t know if the 20-year-old is part of the team’s future, Berman adds. Rose must decide prior to the start of next season whether to pick up Knox’s $5.84MM fourth-year option.
We have more from the Atlantic Division:
- Kevin Durant‘s agent and business partner, Rich Kleiman, said it’s unrealistic to think his client can return to action from his Achilles injury this summer, he told Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix. This reiterates what Kleiman said in an ESPN interview last month about the Nets forward. “I promise you, Kevin and I have not talked about that. And I know it sounds crazy, but my assumption has been that wasn’t very realistic,” Kleiman said to Mannix.
- Mitchell Robinson‘s development may be the biggest argument to remove the interim tag from Knicks coach Mike Miller, Berman writes in a separate story. Robinson has emerged as a foundation piece, according to Berman, and his high school coach, Butch Stockton, believes Miller is primarily responsible for that. “The Knicks have done a real good job developing him and getting toward to his full potential,” Stockton said.
- Celtics forward Gordon Hayward said the hiatus has allowed him to heal up from lingering knee and foot injuries, Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe reports. “That’s one positive from this whole thing is everybody’s been able to recover,” Hayward said. “We haven’t been able to do much, so hopefully everyone is healthy whenever and if ever we get back this year. … This has been good for everybody’s body.”
Mavs Exec Michael Finley Interviews For Bulls’ GM Job
Mavericks vice president of basketball operations Michael Finley has interviewed for the Bulls’ general manager job, Tim MacMahon of ESPN tweets.
Finley is a Chicago native who has spent the last seven seasons in the Dallas front office after a long playing career. Mavs owner Mark Cuban indicated in a radio interview this week he’d allow Finley to talk to the Bulls.
Chicago’s newly-hired head of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas has promised an “extensive and diverse search” for a GM. Chicago had already been granted permission to speak to Sixers senior VP of player personnel Marc Eversley, Clippers assistant GM Mark Hughes, and Magic assistant GM Matt Lloyd.
Thunder executives Troy Weaver and Nazr Mohammed have also had their names bandied about as potential GM targets for Chicago. However, based on a subsequent report, it would be a surprise if Weaver has interest in the job. Karnisovas has already added J.J. Polk and Pat Connelly in the first steps toward assembling a new front office.