NBA Postpones Draft Lottery, Combine Indefinitely
3:41pm: As expected, the NBA has indefinitely postponed the lottery and combine, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
11:21am: Now that the calendar has turned to May, the NBA will have to start making some decisions about its own calendar, according to Marc Stein of The New York Times, who points to the May 19 draft lottery and subsequent draft combine as upcoming events that will need to be addressed. Both the lottery and combine are expected to be officially postponed soon, tweets Stein.
[RELATED: Tentative 2020 NBA Draft Dates, Deadlines]
As Stein explains (via Twitter), as long as there’s still hope that the resumption of the 2019/20 season is possible, it doesn’t make sense for the NBA to move forward with its full pre-draft process. The lottery, in particular, is tied to the final regular-season standings, so if there’s still a chance that those standings could change, the lottery will have to wait.
Anthony Slater of The Athletic, who wrote earlier this week about the possibility of the lottery being delayed, heard from one executive that front offices would likely want at least three weeks or so between the lottery and the draft to give teams time to adjust to their exact placement.
[RELATED: What 2020 Lottery Odds Would Look Like If Season Doesn’t Resume]
Currently, the draft is scheduled for June 25, but it will certainly be postponed too if the season can be resumed, since the NBA will want the draft to take place in the offseason. Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer wrote this week that league sources expect it to be pushed back to August or September — the exact date will hinge in large part on if and when the season can be completed.
As for the combine, even with a two- or three-month delay, it’s hard to imagine it taking place as it normally would. While the NBA could formally postpone it for now, the event may have to eventually be canceled. Still, I’d imagine the league office is exploring virtual alternatives to the usual format, with teams likely pushing the NBA for a way to access prospects’ medical information that would typically be collected at the combine.
Bulls Notes: Eversley, Boylen, Griffin, Udoka
News that Marc Eversley would be the Bulls‘ next general manager broke very late on Sunday, at a time when the NBA news wire is typically quiet. Speaking today to reporters, including ESPN’s Eric Woodyard, executive VP of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas provided an explanation, saying he felt compelled to call Eversley on Sunday night after watching the third and fourth episodes of The Last Dance.
“I was so emotional watching it that I was thinking, ‘Why do I have to wait until Monday? Let me check if he’s up,'” Karnisovas said.
In explaining why he chose Eversley for the job, Karnisovas pointed to the veteran executive’s relationships with players and coaches, as Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times. Although Eversley has spent the last 14 years in NBA front offices, he began building those relationships during his decade at Nike before that, a fact he acknowledged during today’s call.
“Simply put, (the Nike background) was critical,” Eversley said, per Cowley. “Relationships move the needle in this business, and it really starts at the grassroots. I was fortunate enough to work at Nike at a time when LeBron James and players like that were coming up through the system. It really taught me the value of relationships. It taught me the value of a brand, really.
“It’s my hope that I can take some of the lessons that I’ve learned at Nike and implement them here with Chicago as a goal to get the Chicago Bulls back to relevancy and get that brand back to where it’s cool again and kids want to be part of it.”
Here’s more on the Bulls:
- One of the first major decisions Eversley and Karnisovas will make will involve the head coaching position, but it doesn’t sound like they’re in a rush to make a call on Jim Boylen. Eversley, who said Boylen called him to congratulate him earlier in the week, told reporters today that he and Karnisovas would assess the head coach and other staffers together, per Woodyard. “We owe it to everybody on staff to get to Chicago and meet them face-to-face,” Eversley said. “I think we owe it to our players to hopefully get to evaluate them in practice settings, in playing settings and we owe it to our staff to see them in those types of setting as well. I just think it’s far too early to make any of those types of decisions with respect to anybody on the staff until we get to Chicago.”
- Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times stressed again this week that sources close to Boylen “paint the picture of someone who fully expects to be back next season.” However, Cowley also reiterated that there has been plenty of speculation linking the Bulls to Raptors assistant Adrian Griffin, who played college ball with Karnisovas at Seton Hall. A source told The Sun-Times that Everseley, a Canadian and former Toronto executive, remains on good terms with the Raptors.
- In his own look at the coaching situation in Chicago, Darnell Mayberry of The Athletic reports that “minor changes” are underway with the current staff, though Boylen continues to operate as if he’ll be back. Griffin and Sixers assistant Ime Udoka could be candidates for the head coaching job if the Bulls do make a change, according to Mayberry.
Opposing Teams Expected To Monitor Pacers, Oladipo
Teams around the NBA are keeping an eye on the situation in Indiana, according to Ian Begley of SNY.tv, who notes that Victor Oladipo will be entering a contract year in 2020/21 if he and the Pacers don’t agree to an extension before then.
ESPN’s Zach Lowe reported in February that the Pacers and Oladipo “very briefly” discussed the possibility of a contract extension prior to the start of the 2019/20 campaign. Sources tell Begley that the idea of a four-year, $80MM extension was brought up during those talks, which didn’t progress much beyond that point.
Technically, since Oladipo had two years left on his current deal prior to this season, an extension couldn’t have exceeded three years, totaling five overall. As such, Begley’s four-year figure may have included the guard’s $21MM salary for 2020/21.
Once the ’20/21 league year begins, Oladipo will once again become extension-eligible and could then tack on up to four new years to his expiring deal. Because the starting salary on a veteran extension is limited to 120% of a player’s previous salary, Oladipo could receive up to $25.2MM in year one, maxing out at about $113MM over four years.
[RELATED: Hoops Rumors Glossary: Veteran Contract Extension]
There’s no reason to believe at this point that the Pacers won’t make a strong push to retain Oladipo. It’s worth noting that Indiana has already made long-term commitments of at least $18MM per year to three other players – Malcolm Brogdon, Domantas Sabonis, and Myles Turner – and that the club had a better record without Oladipo this season (32-20) than with him (7-6). But that sample size was small and the two-time All-Star was coming off a major quad injury that has sidelined him for a full year.
Additionally, while the Pacers don’t have a ton of cap flexibility in future years, they hold Oladipo’s Bird rights and – depending on where the cap lands going forward – could likely stay out of the tax while re-signing him, either to an extension or as an unrestricted free agent in 2021.
Still, as Begley writes, if the 2019/20 season can be resumed, teams around the league figure to be monitoring Oladipo and the Pacers to see how his chemistry with Brogdon and the rest of the team develops.
Coronavirus Notes: Facilities, “Bubble” Concept, Vegas, More
The NBA has said it will allow teams to reopen their practice facilities as early as May 8, one week from today. However, as Sam Amick and Joe Vardon of The Athletic detail, at least half of the league’s 30 teams are located in areas that have stay-at-home orders in place beyond that date, and some teams without those mandates in place are still weighing whether or not to actually reopen their facilities next Friday.
Amick and Vardon note that the NBA has said it will attempt to make “alternative arrangements” for teams in areas that won’t be open for business by next Friday. The Lakers, Clippers, Warriors, and Kings are lobbying California Governor Gavin Newsom to include them in the second phase of the state’s reopening plan in the hopes of returning to their facilities by the third week of May, sources tell The Athletic.
Within their report, The Athletic’s duo also digs into the extensive safety measures the league has put in place for teams as they reopen facilities and explores the competitive imbalance concerns that could arise if certain teams are back at their facilities while others are still locked out.
“The thing I keep hearing is the whole competitive advantage idea,” a player on a team that could resume individual workouts next week told The Athletic. “If we open up half the teams’ facilities when it’s safe, what’s a team like Brooklyn going to do? That’s a question because I certainly have no idea what that looks like.”
Here’s more on the issues the NBA is working through as it considers how and when to resume play:
- If the NBA attempts to resume the season in a “bubble” location, what would that look like? Tim Bontemps and Brian Windhorst of ESPN break it down, examining how many people would need to be in the bubble, what role COVID-19 testing would play, and how long it would take to finish the season. Interestingly, sources tell Bontemps and Windhorst that the league has rejected the idea of quarantining players without their family members.
- The ESPN duo also estimates that if the NBA is intent on playing the rest of the regular season, it would take 33 days to do so, with no more than 55 days required for a full postseason. The league could cut back on that 88-day total by reducing or eliminating the rest of the regular season and/or by tweaking its playoff format.
- While Las Vegas was initially viewed as the most likely location if the NBA were to move forward with a “bubble” plan, recent comments made by Mayor Carolyn Goodman didn’t make a good impression on the league’s power brokers, writes Chris Mannix of SI.com. Goodman suggested in a CNN interview that she was willing to offer up the city’s citizens as a control group to assess what happens when all coronavirus-related restrictions are lifted.
- ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported on Thursday that the idea of starting the 2020/21 NBA season in December and having it run through July or August is gaining some momentum. With that in mind, ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Insider link) goes into detail on what a new calendar might look like. The highlights include free agency opening on August 30, the trade deadline falling on April 8, and the Finals starting on August 1. Marks also suggests moving the draft to September 8, delaying it until after the first week of free agency.
Fertitta Confirms He Has No Interest In Selling Shares Of Rockets
Reports over the last couple months have suggested that Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta has been one of the NBA team owners hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic. Many of Fertitta’s hundreds of businesses are restaurants, casinos, and entertainment destinations that have been closed since stay-at-home orders began.
However, speaking to Sam Amick of The Athletic, Fertitta insisted that any concerns about his financial situation have been overstated.
“I have cash flow to last me a long, long time with no restaurants opening. But yet, by this weekend, I’m going to have over 200 (restaurants) open and almost all my hotels open,” Fertitta said, referring to Texas’ stay-at-home mandate being lifted. “Different people are in different situations, and what people don’t understand is I have more buckets than most.”
A report last month indicated that Fertitta has no interest in gaining additional liquidity by selling any portion of the Rockets and taking on minority stakeholders. The Rockets’ owner confirmed as much in his conversation with Amick, stressing that he’s also not entertaining the idea of selling the franchise outright.
“The Rockets would never be sold, unless the whole world came to an end and then it wouldn’t matter, OK?” Fertitta said. “If I ever sell the Rockets, it’s because we don’t exist anymore as a country with the rule of law. We’re having anarchy in the street, and at that point there’s no buyers.
“… I don’t need partners so I don’t have partners,” he added. “There’s just no interest in having partners. I think all owners would love not to have partners, but not all teams financially can do that. I have the opportunity that me and my family can own this team 100%, and there’s no reason to ever change that.”
Davide Scigliuzzo of Bloomberg reported last month that Fertitta’s companies had furloughed more than half of their employees. However, while his other businesses and their workers were impacted significantly by the coronavirus pandemic, Fertitta tells Amick that the Rockets haven’t had to lay off a single employee or force anyone to take a pay cut, even after Daryl Morey‘s tweet supporting Hong Kong protestors in the fall cost the franchise significant sponsorship money in China.
“The Rockets have no problem,” Fertitta said. “The Rockets are sitting on a huge revolver and a bunch of cash right now. And the Rockets are able to build up cash because nobody has to take it out to live on.”
Bulls Officially Announce Marc Eversley As GM
As expected, the Bulls have officially hired former Sixers senior VP of player personnel Marc Eversley as their new general manager, announcing the news in a press release. Eversley’s agreement with Chicago was reported at the start of the week.
“I set out to find a general manager who complemented my vision and values, and who could help implement them at the Bulls in a fresh way. Marc’s background and skills do exactly that,” new executive VP of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas said in a statement.
“(Eversley) has a history of building strong relationships across the board, identifying talent at organizations that have had success during his time there, and the necessary insight for building a network that will be an asset to our program,” Karnisovas continued. “He’s ready for this next step in his career, and I’m looking forward to working with him to build the Bulls back into a perennial contender.”
Eversley worked in the 76ers’ front office since 2016 and previously held positions in the Wizards’ and Raptors’ front offices, dating back to 2006. Prior to his 14 years as a team executive, he spent a decade working at Nike — first at Nike Canada and then at the company’s world headquarters in Oregon, where he was the NBA player relationship manager.
Eversley’s experience working and building relationships with NBA players is one important reason why the Bulls hired him. As we detailed on Tuesday, Eversley is expected to add instant credibility to a front office that hasn’t had a great reputation among players and agents in recent years.
With Karnisovas and Eversley installed in key roles and J.J. Polk and Pat Connelly also joining the Bulls’ new-look front office, the team may not feel a sense of urgency to continue making immediate changes. However, further tweaks to the front office are expected, with Nazr Mohammed among those who has interviewed for an unspecified role. The Bulls’ new top execs will also evaluate head coach Jim Boylen, who is reportedly confident he’ll be retained for the time being.
Chicago’s former general manager, Gar Forman, was let go by the team when Karnisovas came aboard.