Southeast Notes: Jordan, Bamba, Hawks, Draft
While Michael Jordan was no longer the dominant MVP that he was in Chicago days, his stint with the Wizards showcased that he still had game, as I detailed on Heavy.com. Jordan became the oldest player (38) to score over 50 points in a game during year one in Washington and became the only player 40 or older to score over 40 in a game during his final season in the league.
Jordan made the All-Star Game during each of his two seasons in Washington but his individual success didn’t translate to the win column, as the club missed the playoffs on both occasions.
Here’s more from the Southeast Division:
- Mohamed Bamba has been in the league for two years and the jury remains out on him. One scout tells Josh Robbins of The Athletic that the Magic center’s effort remains a concern. “But the question with Mo, and I think there’s no secret, is there are games when he plays with very low energy,” the scout said. “He just doesn’t seem to be able to turn it up to the level that he needs to consistently and play with a certain amount of energy for a sustained amount of time.”
- Chris Kirschner of The Athletic examines the best draft strategy for the Hawks. The club has been aggressive over the past two drafts, moving around in the top 10 during each event. If Atlanta lands in the top five, as the team is currently projected to do, it may be best served staying put.
- In a separate piece, Kirschner examines Atlanta’s salary cap situation. The Hawks are expected to have the most salary cap room in the NBA when the offseason arrives.
Pacific Notes: Warriors, Chriss, Cook, Kings, Clippers
The Warriors are in position to secure a top-five pick in the 2020 NBA draft, and a big man looks like an obvious need for a team projected to start Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson in the backcourt and Andrew Wiggins and Draymond Green in the frontcourt.
However, Connor Letourneau of The San Francisco Chronicle suggests the Warriors aren’t as high on the likes of James Wiseman and Onyeka Okongwu as you might think. As Letourneau details, Golden State’s system doesn’t require a dynamic scorer or play-maker at the five — the team just wants someone who can reliably play his role.
Marquese Chriss is someone who may fit that bill, given the strides he made in 2019/20 as a rim-runner, passer, and defender. In fact, multiple sources tell Letourneau that the Warriors would be comfortable entering the ’20/21 campaign with Chriss as their starting center. For his part, the former lottery pick says he’s prepared to play whatever role the team asks.
“I’m just thankful to have an organization that believes in me,” Chriss said. “At the end of the day, if (the Warriors) do draft (Wiseman), I know they’re making the best decision that they can for this team and that they feel will be beneficial for us to win a championship. As a team player, I want to win and I want to be a part of the team. Whatever role I have to have to make that happen, I’ll take on.”
Here’s more from around the Pacific:
- Lakers guard Quinn Cook has new representation, having signed with Mark Bartelstein and Priority Sports, tweets Liz Mullen of SportsBusiness Journal. Cook was previously repped by Tandem.
- James Ham of NBC Sports California makes a case for why big man Serge Ibaka would be an ideal target for the Kings during the 2020 free agent period.
- Jovan Buha of The Athletic identifies some frontcourt free agents the Clippers could target during the offseason if they lose some combination of Montrezl Harrell, Marcus Morris, and JaMychal Green.
- In an interview this week with TNT’s Ernie Johnson, Clippers head coach Doc Rivers shared his side of a story J.J. Redick has told before, describing how the club’s deal with Redick in 2013 was nearly scuttled due to then-owner Donald Sterling‘s apparent aversion to white players. Kurt Helin of NBC Sports has the story, with Rivers’ comments.
Kevon Looney Undergoes Season-Ending Surgery
Warriors big man Kevon Looney underwent surgery on Tuesday to repair a core muscle injury, the team announced in a press release. According to the club, he’ll begin rehab work immediately but isn’t expected to be ready to return until the start of the 2020/21 season.
It has been a disappointing 2019/20 campaign for Looney, who was hampered by health issues all season long, including an abdominal strain, hip issues, and a neuropathic condition.
In total, the 24-year-old appeared in just 20 games for Golden State, averaging 3.4 PPG and 3.3 RPG in 13.1 minutes per contest.
Looney is in the first season of a three-year deal that includes a guaranteed $4.8MM salary for 2020/21 and a $5.2MM player option for ’21/22. As such, it’s in the Warriors’ best interest to make sure he gets as healthy as possible for the start of next season. Golden State is 15-50 in ’19/20, so even if the team resumes play this summer, getting Looney back wouldn’t have been a priority at that time.
NBA Teams Expect Guidelines For Ramp-Up Period Around June 1
NBA teams expect the league to issue formal guidelines around June 1 detailing the first steps of a ramp-up to the resumption of the 2019/20 season, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Zach Lowe.
As ESPN’s duo explains, the first step of that ramp-up process would involve teams recalling players who left their respective markets during the hiatus. Clubs also believe they’ll be able to expand workouts for players already in their market around June 1, sources tell Wojnarowski and Lowe.
According to ESPN’s report, the NBA envisions a ramp-up process that would include an initial two-week period of recalling and possibly quarantining players. That would be followed by a week or two of individual workouts at team facilities, then a two- or three-week formal training camp. From there, teams would likely eventually travel to one or two centralized locations where the season would resume.
[RELATED: Orlando ‘Clear Frontrunner’ To Host NBA Return]
Earlier today, The Athletic reported that the most popular scenario discussed by the NBA would see players fully training by mid-June, with games resuming by mid-July. It sounds as if Wojnarowski and Lowe are hearing a similar timeline suggested — sources tell ESPN that many team owners, executives, and NBPA higher-ups believe commissioner Adam Silver will green-light a return to play in June, with games resuming before the end of July.
The NBA and NBPA still have to work out many details on a potential return, including whether or not regular season games will be played, whether all 30 teams will resume play, and what the playoffs will look like, sources tell ESPN.
Additionally, for some teams, recalling players to their market may not be as simple as having them travel across a state or two. Luka Doncic, for instance, returned to Europe during the hiatus. And the Raptors will have to deal with a U.S./Canada border that is closed to non-essential travel for at least another month. However, the league expects to receive assistance from the U.S. government for any teams and players requiring international travel, per Woj and Lowe.
Draft Notes: Early Entrants, Golden, West, Nnaji
MaCio Teague (Baylor), Keith Williams (Cincinnati), Denzel Mahoney (Creighton), and Zach Cooks (NJIT) are among the early entrants who have signed with Trinity Best for representation as they navigate the pre-draft process, per Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports (Twitter link).
However, signing with an agent doesn’t mean those players are going pro — because Best is an NCAA-certified rep, Teague, Williams, Mahoney, and Cooks can continue to test the draft waters without forgoing their remaining college eligibility. Because the NCAA has indefinitely postponed its June 3 withdrawal date, those players won’t necessarily have to finalize decisions anytime soon either.
Here’s more on the 2020 NBA draft:
- Richmond forward Grant Golden has decided to withdraw from the draft and return to school for his senior year, he tells Rothstein (Twitter link). Golden has averaged 15.5 PPG and 6.9 RPG for Richmond in 94 games over his last three seasons.
- Marshall guard Jarrod West, who elected to test the draft waters this spring, is expected to return to school for his senior season, according to head coach Dan D’Antoni (Twitter link via Rothstein). West, who has been a starter for the Thundering Herd since his freshman year, had a breakout season in 2019/20, averaging 14.2 PPG, 4.1 APG, and 4.0 RPG.
- Arizona forward Zeke Nnaji, who previously met with New Orleans, Washington, Charlotte, and Utah, has virtual interviews this week with the Knicks, Bucks, and Pistons, tweets Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News.
NBA Discussing Possibility Of July Return
The most popular – and possible – scenario proposed in NBA discussions about the potential completion of the 2019/20 season would see players “fully training” by mid-June and games resuming by mid-July, multiple sources tell Shams Charania and Sam Amick of The Athletic.
That doesn’t necessarily mean anything yet, since there are many hurdles to overcome before such a plan could be solidified. Commissioner Adam Silver also told NBA team owners just last Tuesday during a Board of Governors call that he’d take about two-to-four weeks to keep gathering information before making any decisions.
Still, given all the NBA has done on the coronavirus pandemic, the fact that the league believes such a scenario is plausible is a positive sign. This update comes on the heels of Charania and Amick reporting that Walt Disney World in Florida is the “clear frontrunner” to become the centralized location where NBA games are played this summer.
In their full story on Disney’s increasing momentum, Charania and Amick write that the league continues to explore the possibility of playing games in multiple cities, but that it appears likely that Orlando would be a “sole host.” Some details still need to be worked out regarding coronavirus testing and hotel use in Florida before anything can be finalized, according to The Athletic’s duo.
Here’s more on the issues the NBA will have to resolve in order to safely resume its season:
- The NBA will have to finalize a detailed set of safety protocols like Major League Baseball has attempted to do, and will need to establish consistent COVID-19 testing guidelines for all its teams, tweets Marc Stein of The New York Times. Stein also notes that it remains unclear whether all 30 clubs would be involved in the resumption of the season.
- Due to the possibility of false negative coronavirus test results and the fact that individuals won’t be entirely quarantined, players and staffers in the NBA’s “bubble” location will need to be tested frequently, writes Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer.
- However, as O’Connor explains, “group testing” could potentially be one way to limit the total number of tests used so that the league isn’t going through thousands every week. For instance, up to 20 samples or so could potentially be mixed into the same test, and if it comes back positive, those 20 people could be tested individually. In this scenario, repeated testing would still be crucial due to the possibility of false negatives, but group testing could mean going through hundreds of tests at a time instead of thousands.
Suns Reopening Practice Facility
The Suns have joined the list of teams inviting players back to their practice facility for voluntary individual workouts, according to Marc Stein of The New York Times (Twitter link).
Making their facility available was a little more complicated for the Suns than for most teams, since the club’s Talking Stick Resort Arena is undergoing renovations and its new practice facility is under construction. As previously noted, and as Stein confirms today, Phoenix will use its old arena, the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum, for workouts.
As is the case for every other NBA team reopening a practice facility, the Suns will be subject to the NBA’s strict regulations, which call for no more than four players in the building at a time.
The Suns are the 19th team known to have reopened its facility. Earlier today, when we passed along word of the Timberwolves reopening their building, we listed the 12 clubs that had yet to do so — we can now remove Phoenix from that list.
Stein reported earlier this week that teams may end up conducting de facto training camps at their own facilities this summer before traveling to a centralized location to resume the 2019/20 season, so it’s a step in the right direction that nearly two-thirds of the NBA’s teams have reopened so far.
Orlando ‘Clear Frontrunner’ To Host NBA Return
Orlando and Walt Disney World have emerged as the “clear frontrunner” to host a potential NBA return this summer, according to Shams Charania and Sam Amick of The Athletic (Twitter links). “All the momentum” is going Orlando’s way, Amick notes.
The Athletic’s report is the latest in a serious of signals that Orlando is gaining traction as a likely “bubble” location for the resumption of the 2019/20 season. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski said as much on a TV appearance earlier this week and Stefan Bondy of The New York Daily News (Twitter link) issued a similar report on Tuesday afternoon.
While the NBA is aiming to complete its season, it almost certainly won’t do so with teams playing in their home arenas, since the league doesn’t want players and teams traveling all over the country. As such, the likeliest scenario is a summer return in one or two centralized locations. Las Vegas, Houston, and Toronto are among the other sites that have been mentioned as possibilities.
[RELATED: Houston Among Resumption Sites Being Considered By NBA]
However, as Keith Smith of Yahoo Sports first outlined in April, Walt Disney World stands out as an appealing option for several reasons. It has more than enough hotel rooms to accommodate up to 30 NBA teams, and the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex is capable of housing several, broadcast-ready basketball courts.
Furthermore, as Smith noted, the NBA has an existing broadcast with Disney, which owns ABC and ESPN; Walt Disney World is private property, which would be useful in creating the necessary “bubble”; Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was also one of the first government officials to announce his state would reopen for professional sports (without fans in attendance).
Even if the NBA moves forward with playing games in Walt Disney World, it’s possible a second neutral site will be used as well, tweets Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer.
All NBA Teams Expected To Participate In COVID-19 Antibodies Study
The Timberwolves and the Mayo Clinic are spearheading a study on COVID-19 antibodies that is expected to include all 30 teams, according to Malika Andrews of ESPN, who says the study will likely be completed in June.
As Andrews explains, the study aims to determine what percentage of NBA players, coaches, executives, and other staffers have developed antibodies to the coronavirus. The results should provide doctors and researchers with more information on what the presence of antibodies means. The study should also help NBA teams better map the spread of COVID-19 throughout the league and potentially identify which people have a lower risk of contracting the virus.
According to Andrews and Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer, the Mayo Clinic is using a finger-prick method for detecting antibodies and are hoping to establish that it’s just as effective and less invasive than the usual method of drawing blood from a vein.
“It would be hugely helpful because the fingerstick blood draw could be done at home and the sample could be mailed in for testing at a lab,” Dr. Priya Sampathkumar, a Mayo Clinic consultant, told O’Connor. “Vast numbers of people could be tested without any need to go to the hospital or a clinic to receive a blood draw.”
According to O’Connor, about 400 people from approximately half the NBA’s teams have participated in the study so far, with the rest of the clubs expected to join that list soon as practice facilities around the league continue to open — the blood draws have been taking place at those facilities. NBPA executive director Michele Roberts tells The Ringer that players are “fully on board” with providing samples for the study.
“Our players have embraced the opportunity to contribute to this important public health study that will help researchers better understand the prevalence of COVID-19, potentially improve care for patients, and promote long-term efforts to develop a vaccine and treatment for the virus,” she said.
Houston Among Resumption Sites Being Considered By NBA
We can add Houston to the list of potential “bubble” locations being considered by the NBA as it explores resuming the 2019/20 season, according to Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer. Assuming the season can be completed, it’s expected to happen at one or two neutral sites rather than at each team’s home arena.
Multiple sources tell The Ringer that Houston is under consideration, with O’Connor noting that the Rockets‘ Toyota Center is adjacent to the George R. Brown Convention Center. Combined, they’d have the necessary facilities to host NBA teams and games, O’Connor says.
Additionally, Texas Governor Greg Abbott stated earlier this week that his state is targeting May 31 for professional sports without spectators, so the NBA presumably wouldn’t face any legislative roadblocks if it looked to play games in Houston.
Still, while Houston may be an option for the NBA, I’d be surprised if the league goes that route. Orlando and Las Vegas have long been considered the frontrunners to host games and look like the more logical candidates, given their facilities; ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski suggested during a TV appearance this week that Orlando seems to be gaining traction.
Toronto was previously cited as another city that has received NBA consideration as a “bubble” location.