NCAA Sets New Early Entrant Withdrawal Deadline
After indefinitely postponing its June 3 withdrawal deadline for early entrants, the NCAA announced today that it has established a new deadline. Early entrants will have until either August 3 or 10 days after the NBA draft combine (whichever comes first) to withdraw their names while maintaining their college eligibility.
“This provides the utmost flexibility to student-athletes testing the waters to make the most informed decision about their future during this uncertain time,” NCAA senior VP for basketball Dan Gavitt said in a statement. “And by deciding before classes start for the fall semester, it also encourages student-athletes who choose to return to school to be fully engaged in their academic pursuits and the tremendous experience and opportunity to play college basketball.”
[RELATED: 2020 NBA Draft Early Entrants List]
The NBA announced today that it has rescheduled its 2020 draft lottery for August 25. Typically, the combine takes place shortly after the lottery, but it’s not clear if or when it will happen this year. The coronavirus pandemic has made it virtually impossible for the league to hold a traditional combine, which would feature workouts, scrimmages, interviews, and medical tests.
Since it’s extremely unlikely that a combine will be held next month, it seems safe to assume that August 3 will end up being the NCAA’s withdrawal deadline. Most players are unlikely to wait that long to make their decisions, however, as college programs work toward setting their rosters for the 2020/21 season.
As Jonathan Givony of ESPN observes (via Twitter), the NCAA’s decision isn’t great news for players that want the opportunity to potentially participate in an August or September combine. Many players could end up keeping their names in the draft despite being unlikely to be selected, Givony notes.
While the NCAA’s withdrawal deadline for early entrants will be August 3 at the latest, I’d expect the NBA’s to land on October 5. Traditionally, it falls 10 days before the draft, and the 2020 draft has been rescheduled to October 15.
The NBA’s withdrawal deadline typically applies to international players who don’t have to worry about losing NCAA eligibility. However, again, I wouldn’t expect many of those international players to wait until the fall to make their decisions, since most European leagues remain on track to start their 2020/21 seasons at that time.
Buffalo guard Jayvon Graves and Croatian forward Darko Bajo are among the latest early entrants to pull out of this year’s draft, according to tweets from Jeff Goodman of Stadium and agent Misko Raznatovic, respectively.
Restart Notes: Blazers, Camps, 2020/21 Schedule
The Trail Blazers prevented Adam Silver‘s proposal to the NBA’s Board of Governors today from receiving unanimous approval, registering the lone dissenting vote on the 22-team plan.
[RELATED: NBA’s Board of Governors approves 22-team return-to-play plan by 29-1 margin]
As Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN explains (via Twitter), the Trail Blazers are “eager” to resume the season, but voted against the plan because they felt their were more “competitive and innovative” ideas on the table. The team’s “no” vote also reflected some feedback ownership received from players, Woj adds (via Twitter).
As Woj notes, it sounds like one of the Blazers’ concerns was related to the league’s decision on how lottery odds will be calculated. Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports tweets that the franchise also preferred a 20-team format instead of the 22-team one the league chose.
While Portland still has a chance to make the postseason in the approved format, it will be challenging. Even if the Blazers move ahead of the Kings and Pelicans – and stay ahead of the Spurs and Suns – they’ll need to keep pace with the Grizzlies and then likely beat Memphis twice in a row to earn the West’s No. 8 seed.
Here are a few more odds and ends related to the NBA’s restart plans:
- Within his report on the NBA’s return, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski cites sources who say that teams are expected to begin training in Orlando between July 9-11. Shams Charania of The Athletic reported earlier today that teams are expected to travel to Orlando on July 7, so if both dates are accurate, it sounds like there will be no quarantine period upon arriving. The league reportedly plans to have teams start regular coronavirus testing on June 22.
- Even as the NBA moves forward with its plans for resuming the season, Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today (Twitter link) hears that the league is prepared for the possibility that its plans could be impacted by changes in the COVID-19 situation.
- Along those lines, one coach who was on a recent call with the NBA tells Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca (Twitter link) that Adam Silver has said he’s not afraid to pull the plug on the league’s return altogether if it’s deemed unsafe.
- According to Frank Isola of SiriusXM NBA Radio (Twitter link), the NBA is believed to be targeting a mid-July Finals for 2021. That timeline would potentially compress next season’s NBA calendar to some extent but would free players up to participate in the Olympics, which were postponed to July 23 – August 8, 2021.
NBA Confirms 22-Team Plan, Announces Lottery Details
The NBA has officially announced that its Board of Governors voted in favor of commissioner Adam Silver‘s recommendation to resume the season this summer with 22 teams in attendance, issuing a press release to confirm the news and offering several more details.
“The Board’s approval of the restart format is a necessary step toward resuming the NBA season,” said Silver said in a statement. “While the COVID-19 pandemic presents formidable challenges, we are hopeful of finishing the season in a safe and responsible manner based on strict protocols now being finalized with public health officials and medical experts. We also recognize that as we prepare to resume play, our society is reeling from recent tragedies of racial violence and injustice, and we will continue to work closely with our teams and players to use our collective resources and influence to address these issues in very real and concrete ways.”
Here are some of the details announced or confirmed by the league in today’s release:
- All of the dates we’ve heard within the last week, including a tentative start date of July 31, a draft date of October 15, and a 2020/21 start date of December 1, are accurate.
- As expected, once the playoffs begin, they’ll follow a traditional format — each series will be a best-of-seven, and the Eastern and Western Conference will be kept separate until the Finals.
- The draft lottery – rescheduled for August 25 – will be made up of the eight teams not involved in the league’s restart and the six teams that don’t make the postseason. Those teams’ lottery seeds and odds will be based on their records through March 11. So even if the Trail Blazers go 2-6 when play resumes and the Suns go 6-2, passing them in the standings, Phoenix will still have better lottery odds if neither team makes the playoffs.
- Note: Here’s what the odds will look like if the Grizzlies, Magic, and Nets hang onto their playoff spots.
- The rest of the draft order will be based on the 16 playoff teams’ combined records across regular season games and “seeding games,” which is what the league is calling the eight games being played this summer. For instance, the Heat (41-24) are currently projected to draft 23rd, but if they go 1-7 when play resumes, they’ll likely move up in the draft.
Additionally, while the NBA didn’t formally confirm these dates, Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter links) says the league informed the Board of Governors of the following dates on today’s call:
- June 15: Players located internationally return to their team’s market.
- June 21: All players report to their team’s market.
- June 22: Coronavirus testing begins.
- June 30: Training camps begin.
- July 7: Players travel to Orlando.
It’s still not exactly clear what the schedule will look like between July 7-31. There may be some sort of quarantine period for players. Camps figured to be resumed, and Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press reports (via Twitter) that some exhibition games are expected to take place.
NBPA Schedules Friday Call To Approve Return-To-Play Plan
1:49pm: Now that the Board of Governors has voted in favor of the league’s return-to-play plan, the players’ union is next up. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports (via Twitter) that the NBPA’s team player representatives have a call set for Friday to approve the league’s plan for resuming the season.
11:03am: While the NBA’s Board of Governors is reportedly on the verge of approving Adam Silver‘s recommended plan for resuming the 2019/20 season, that’s just one important hurdle for the league to clear as it solidifies that plan.
The National Basketball Players Association will also need to formally approve any return-to-play plan, and Marc Stein of The New York Times tweets that the union has scheduled a Friday virtual meeting for its members to discuss the proposal.
Silver and the NBA have been working closely with NBPA president Chris Paul and the players’ union throughout the planning process, and the commissioner is believed to have already taken into account many of the players’ concerns. As such, I wouldn’t expect things to get contentious between the NBA and NBPA — it sounds like there’s a good chance the union will approve Silver’s proposal without significant pushback.
Still, players will want to receive assurances that the NBA is doing as much as it can to keep players healthy and safe amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. A source tell Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press (Twitter link) that the league and the union are still working on a “lengthy” medical protocols document. It will be shared with teams once those discussions are completed, Reynolds adds.
As Bobby Marks of ESPN (Insider link) details, there will also be a number of other issues that the NBA and NBPA will need to collective bargain in order to formally move forward.
Besides navigating major financial issues like player salary reductions and the salary cap going forward, the two sides will have to move player option decision deadlines, salary guarantee dates, expiration dates for trade exceptions, and several other deadlines tied to free agency and the offseason, Marks writes. Additionally, decisions will have to be made on the possible expansion of rosters, lifting the current transaction moratorium, and the draft.
NBA Plans On October 18 Free Agency, Shortened Offseason
In addition to rescheduling the 2020 draft to October 15, the NBA also informed the Board of Governors today that it’s targeting October 18 for the start of free agency, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (via Twitter).
Assuming that date – and others that have been reported this week – are accurate, the 2020 free agent period – which will headlined by the likes of Anthony Davis and Brandon Ingram, among others – could begin just six days after the NBA Finals end. That would represent the start of an extremely abridged 2020 offseason.
As Charania details, the NBA is tentatively targeting November 10 for the opening of 2020/21 training camps and December 1 for next season’s opening night.
Typically, there’s more than a three-month gap between the end of the NBA Finals and the start of training camps, and approximately a four-month gap between the end of the Finals and the start of next season. Based on Charania’s report, that timeline would shrink drastically this year, with teams in the Finals potentially getting less than a month off before reporting to camp for the new season.
It’s worth noting that while the NBA’s plan received Board of Governors approval today, the National Basketball Players Association hasn’t signed off on every aspect of it, so that shortened offseason may receive some push-back from players.
There had been speculation that the NBA might target Christmas Day for the start of the ’20/21 campaign, perhaps even pushing opening night into the new year. I wouldn’t assume that outcome is entirely off the table — getting fans back into arenas will be a major priority next season as the NBA looks to recoup lost revenue, so the league’s plans will likely hinge in part on whether or not local governments have loosened or lifted restrictions on mass gatherings.
NBA’s Board Of Governors Approves 22-Team Return-To-Play Plan
The NBA’s Board of Governors has formally approved the league’s 22-team plan to resume the 2019/20 season, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Team owners voted 29-to-1 in favor of commissioner Adam Silver‘s proposal, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link). The Trail Blazers were the lone dissenting vote, tweets Charania.
The plan will reportedly see 22 teams return to action beginning on July 31 with an eight-game regular season schedule to finish the season. From there, the No. 8 seed in each conference may be decided via play-in tournaments and the postseason would follow, ending no later than October 12. All games are expected to be played at Walt Disney World in Florida near Orlando, at the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex.
The Hornets, Bulls, Knicks, Pistons, Hawks, Cavaliers, Timberwolves, and Warriors won’t be part of the NBA’s restart — their seasons are over.
We covered the NBA’s plan – based on what we know so far – in greater detail right here, so be sure to check out that breakdown for much more info.
While approval from the NBA’s Board of Governors is a major step, there are still details to sort out between the league and the National Basketball Players Association. The NBPA has a virtual meeting scheduled for Friday to discuss the plan, as we relayed earlier today.
Based on reports in recent weeks, it sounds as if Silver and the NBA have been in constant contact with NBPA president Chris Paul and the players’ union and have kept their concerns in mind as they developed their plan. As such, there’s an expectation that negotiations between the two sides on specific details related to player salaries, coronavirus testing, and other important issues shouldn’t get too contentious.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
NBA Sets New 2020 Lottery, Draft Dates
The NBA has rescheduled its 2020 draft lottery for August 25 and the draft for October 15, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (via Twitter). The two events had initially been scheduled to take place on May 19 and June 25, respectively.
The NBA announced just over a month ago that the lottery would be postponed indefinitely, but hadn’t yet put out any official statements on the draft. With the league planning to resume play in July, there was little doubt that the draft would have to be rescheduled as well. It’s now set to take place shortly after the resumed season is scheduled to end — based on reported information, the draft could happen just three days after Game 7 of the NBA Finals.
Although we now have set dates for two of the biggest events on the NBA’s draft calendar, we’re still awaiting info on other events and deadlines. For instance, the draft combine had been scheduled to take place last month after the lottery. It remains to be seen whether the league will still try to hold a combine in August or September, perhaps in a revamped form.
Additionally, the NCAA has indefinitely postponed the deadline for early entrants to withdraw their names and maintain their college eligibility. That deadline was originally June 3 — it now seems likely it’ll be moved to sometime in the late summer as well. That will complicate the decision-making process for players still testing the waters and for colleges waiting on those players’ decisions, since the new academic year will be starting around that time.
We’re also waiting on official word on how the NBA’s draft lottery odds will work. As Hoops Rumors reported on Wednesday, the eight teams not included in the NBA’s restart this summer are expected to be locked into the top eight lottery slots. However, it remains unclear exactly how the 9-14 spots will be handled and how the league will deal with teams playing an uneven amount of games.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
NBA Restart Notes: BoG Vote, Player Salaries, More
The NBA’s Board of Governors are expected to approve Adam Silver‘s return-to-play plan today, despite the fact that some of the teams left out of the 22-team return disagree with the league’s solution, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Those teams still intend to vote in favor of the plan, Wojnarowski notes.
While it’s not clear whether team owners will unanimously approve the 22-team proposal, only three-quarters support is required (ie. 23 out of 30 votes), and it’s “expected to clear that hurdle with ease,” Wojnarowski writes.
Here’s more on the NBA’s restart:
- John Hollinger of The Athletic poses a few questions related to the NBA’s 22-team plan, noting that we still haven’t heard many specifics on how the league plans to test for and handle COVID-19. As Hollinger points out, the issue of whether every team – including the bottom eight – will be permitted to make roster moves before the offseason is also an important one, since some clubs may want to sign players to multiyear deals.
- With only 22 of 30 teams set to resume play, there will be a significant gap in how many regular season games teams like the Timberwolves (64) and Mavericks (75) end up playing. Dan Feldman of NBC Sports wonders how the NBA and NBPA will determine what portion of their 2019/20 salaries players on those teams have to forfeit — on one hand, players from the bottom eight teams didn’t ask not to play this summer, but they won’t be assuming any of the risk the players going to Orlando will.
- To further complicate matters, Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today tweets that he has heard the eight pre-playoff games this summer will be referred to as “seeding games” rather than regular season games.
Knicks Plan To Interview Mike Woodson For Head Coach Job
Former New York head coach Mike Woodson is among the candidates the Knicks plan to interview when the team officially launches its head coaching search, according to Ian Begley of SNY.tv (Twitter link).
Woodson, who also previously served as the head coach of the Hawks, was the lead man on the Knicks’ bench for two-plus seasons from 2012-14. During his time as New York’s head coach, Woodson led the club to a 109-79 (.580) regular season record, making the playoffs twice and winning a series in 2013 — that was the last time the Knicks appeared in the postseason.
A Creative Artists Agency client, Woodson has a connection with new Knicks president of basketball operations Leon Rose, who previously worked at CAA, notes Marc Berman of The New York Post. Woodson also interviewed for the Knicks’ head coaching job in 2018, but lost out to David Fizdale.
Multiple reports within the last couple weeks have indicated that Tom Thibodeau is believed to be the frontrunner for the Knicks’ head coaching vacancy. However, Kenny Atkinson and current interim head coach Mike Miller are also expected to be interviewed.
Before reporting the Knicks’ intentions to meet with Woodson, Begley wrote earlier today that the club’s plan is to meet with more candidates than just Thibodeau, Atkinson, and Miller.
New York’s head coaching search hasn’t formally begun, but that could happen soon — if the NBA’s 22-team resumption format is approved, as expected, it will effectively end the Knicks’ season, clearing a path for the franchise to begin handling offseason business.
Warriors Notes: Adams, Wiggins, Haliburton, More
Warriors assistant coach Ron Adams transitioned into a new role this year, traveling with the team less and stepping away from coaching on the bench as he assumed more player development responsibilities. As he tells Tim Kawakami of The Athletic, Adams found that transition challenging at times.
“I think when you’re used to being in the fight and you’re not in the fight, that adjustment is a hard one,” Adams said. “But having said that, I enjoyed the year. … Change is difficult, especially when you’ve done the same thing for a number of years, as I have. But it was probably necessary. We have a lot of good young coaches; they need to develop. And hopefully, I can be a part of that process. But yes, not being in the fight was difficult.”
Adams, who signed a one-year contract with the Warriors last summer, expressed interest in returning to the team for the 2020/21 season, despite the fact that he’ll turn 73 years old later this year.
“I would like to come back, yeah,” he told Kawakami. “I have no reason not to. I want to be involved.”
Here’s more on the Warriors:
- During his conversation with Kawakami, Adams offered some interesting insights on a number of Warriors players, including newly-acquired forward Andrew Wiggins, whom Adams referred to as “a really, really outstanding all-around player,” specifically praising his defense. “I was elated to get him into our program,” Adams said of Wiggins. “I think he’s a star player. I think he’s gonna flourish with more shooting on the floor. But I was personally really happy with the all-around nature of his game and what he showed in that regard more so that his scoring, even.”
- Connor Letourneau of The San Francisco Chronicle has heard that the Warriors have Tyrese Haliburton ranked as the top point guard on their 2020 draft board, ahead of LaMelo Ball, Killian Hayes, Cole Anthony, and others. Letourneau says he expects Golden State to “seriously consider” Haliburton if the team is drafting between No. 2 and 5.
- Elsewhere in his mailbag, Letourneau discusses whether the Warriors would consider trading Draymond Green, why the team reopened its practice facility even though its season likely over, and whether Marc Gasol is a realistic target in free agency.