Month: May 2024

Top 2022 Recruit Emoni Bates Commits To Michigan State

June 29th, 2020 at 1:37pm CST by Luke Adams

High school wing Emoni Bates, a five-star recruit who is considered the top prospect in the 2022 class, announced today on ESPN’s SportsCenter that he has committed to Michigan State, writes Travis Branham of 247Sports.com.

Bates, a 6’8″ small forward who plays high school ball in Michigan, is still just 16 years old but is already considered one of the best NBA prospects in years — Branham suggests that Bates may be the most highly-regarded high school prospect since LeBron James.

Despite Bates’ commitment to Michigan State over Michigan, there’s no guarantee that he’ll eventually suit up for the Spartans. As Branham notes, the youngster has long been considered a good bet to go pro out of high school rather than spending a year in the NCAA.

It’s possible that by 2022, the NBA will have tweaked its rules to allow players to enter the draft right out of high school. Even if the league’s one-and-done rule is still in place in ’22, Bates could opt for the G League professional path. Top 2020 recruit Jalen Green is reportedly expected to earn over $1MM in salary, endorsements, and appearances in 2020/21 by going that route.

List Of Players Opting Out Of NBA’s Restart

June 29th, 2020 at 10:58am CST by Luke Adams

The NBA will resume its 2019/20 season in July, with the league’s top 22 teams taking part in the restart at Walt Disney World in Florida. However, not every player on those 22 clubs’ rosters will be participating in the resumption of the season.

Players will be permitted to voluntarily opt out of the restart for any reason without facing a fine or suspension from the NBA or their respective teams. A player who opts out would lose a portion of his pay for 2019/20, forfeiting 1/92.6th of his salary for each game missed (up to a maximum of 14 games). Otherwise though, he wouldn’t receive any additional penalty.

If a player voluntarily opts out anytime before August 14, his team can sign a “substitute player” to replace him. The replacement player will receive a rest-of-season, minimum-salary contract and will become an unrestricted free agent at season’s end, regardless of how many years of NBA service he has. Meanwhile, the player being replaced becomes ineligible to participate in the remainder of the ’19/20 season.

We’ll use this space to keep tabs on the players opting out and the substitute players replacing them. Here are the players who have voluntarily withdrawn from participating:

Trevor Ariza, F, Trail Blazers (story)

Ariza would have missed a one-month visitation period with his son if he had opted to play this summer, since family members aren’t permitted to join players on the NBA’s Disney campus until the end of August.

Jaylen Adams, who finished second this season in NBA G League MVP voting, will take Ariza’s spot on the roster as a substitute player.

Ariza, meanwhile, has a $12.8MM salary for 2020/21, but it’s only partially guaranteed for $1.8MM, so he’s no lock to remain on Portland’s roster beyond this season.

Avery Bradley, G, Lakers (story)

Bradley is the most intriguing player to have opted out so far, since he’s the only one who’s a member of a legitimate championship contender. Although Bradley has been among the players voicing concerns about the resumption of the season drawing attention away from the fight for social justice, family considerations – including the well-being of his three children – were said to be the primary factor in his decision.

Bradley has a $5MM player option for 2020/21, so he could return to the Lakers next season. As for his replacement, L.A. has signed J.R. Smith to a rest-of-season deal.

Davis Bertans, F, Wizards (story)

The first player to opt out of the restart, Bertans did so because he has a history of ACL injuries and doesn’t want to jeopardize his health ahead of a potentially big payday this summer. He projects to be one of 2020’s top unrestricted free agents, following a career year, and his decision won’t affect the Wizards’ desire to re-sign him — it’s still considered a top priority for the franchise.

If Washington were higher in the standings, Bertans may have made a different decision, but the team faces long odds to even make the playoffs. And even if the Wizards do defy those odds and claim the No. 8 seed, the Bucks would likely make quick work of them in round one.

Point guard Jerian Grant has replaced Bertans on the Wizards’ roster as a subsitute player.

Willie Cauley-Stein, C, Mavericks (story)

Cauley-Stein and his partner are expecting a newborn child in July, prompting him to skip the restart to spend time with his family. With a $2.29MM player option for 2020/21, he could still return to Dallas next season.

Despite missing Cauley-Stein and injured big man Dwight Powell in their frontcourt, the Mavs didn’t make it a priority to add another center. With Courtney Lee and Jalen Brunson also on the shelf due to injuries, Dallas instead focused on adding backcourt depth, reaching a deal with veteran guard Trey Burke to become the substitute player for Cauley-Stein.

Wilson Chandler, F, Nets (story)

An unrestricted free agent at season’s end, Chandler has decided to use the summer to spend more time with his family, including his grandmother (who raised him) and his three children.

Like the Mavs, Brooklyn has been hit hard by injuries, with Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and Nicolas Claxton also sidelined for the return to play. Those injured players aren’t eligible to be replaced by a substitute player, but Chandler is. That substitute player is Lance Thomas, who has now signed with the Nets.

Thabo Sefolosha, F, Rockets (story)

Sefolosha, who opted out on July 1, had previously expressed concerns about heading to Walt Disney World for an extended duration of time, away from his family with the coronavirus pandemic still on the rise, calling it a “huge commitment.” He’ll be an unrestricted free agent this fall, so it’s possible he has played his last game with Houston.

The Rockets have signed Luc Mbah a Moute as a replacement player for Sefolosha. Mbah a Moute has previous experience with Houston, so it should be a quick readjustment for the veteran forward.

Caleb Swanigan, F, Trail Blazers

Swanigan cited person reasons when he decided to opt out of the NBA’s restart back on July 1. He rarely saw any action for the Blazers, who decided not to sign a substitute player to replace him. Swanigan will be an unrestricted free agent this fall.

In addition to the players who are voluntarily opting out of the restart for a wide variety of reasons, there will also be players who opt out or are replaced as a result of a COVID-19 diagnosis. Here are the players who won’t participate in the remainder of the season due to a positive COVID-19 test:

Spencer Dinwiddie, G, Nets (story)
- Dinwiddie had hoped to participate, but he and the Nets’ team doctors ultimately decided he should sit out. Brooklyn has signed Jamal Crawford to replace him.
DeAndre Jordan, C, Nets (story)
- Jordan was immediately ruled out for the summer after testing positive for the coronavirus. He has been replaced in Orlando by big man Donta Hall.
Taurean Prince, F, Nets (story)
- Prince tested positive just before the Nets were scheduled to travel to Orlando. The team ruled him out because his chances of recovering in time to contribute were in jeopardy and signed Michael Beasley as a substitute player.
Michael Beasley, F, Nets (story)
- Beasley became the first substitute player who needed to be replaced, having tested positive for COVID-19 shortly after he signed with the Nets. Brooklyn signed Justin Anderson after voiding Beasley’s new contract.
Josh Gray, G (story)
- The Pelicans announced in early July that they’d signed Sindarius Thornwell as a substitute player, without indicating which player Thornwell was replacing. Three Pelicans had tested positive for COVID-19 at that point, and a subsequent report suggested one of those players was being replaced by Thornwell. When the NBA announced New Orleans’ official roster, Gray wasn’t on it, so it appears that he was the one replaced by Thornwell.
Gary Payton II, G (story)
- The Wizards signed Jarrod Uthoff as a substitute player without announcing which player he’d be replacing. However, Payton reportedly tested positive for COVID-19 and wasn’t on the team’s official roster when it was announced, so it looks like he was the one replaced by Uthoff.

Players who have been ruled out of the restart due to injuries won’t forfeit their salaries and aren’t eligible to be replaced by substitute players, so they’re not listed here. However, that growing list of players is not insignificant — it includes Bradley Beal, Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and John Wall, among others.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Draft Notes: Edwards, Ball, Sleepers, Gach, Oturu, Scrubb

June 29th, 2020 at 9:40am CST by Luke Adams

Rich Paul‘s Klutch Sports Group published a tweet on Sunday night welcoming former Georgia guard Anthony Edwards – a candidate to be the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s draft – to the agency.

The news came about three months after a report indicated that Edwards had signed with Octagon Sports for his representation. However, Edwards’ move to Klutch is understandable — his agent at Octagon, Omar Wilkes, was recently hired as the new head of basketball at Klutch under Paul, the company’s CEO. Edwards is the second notable Wilkes client to follow him to his new firm — Trae Young is doing so as well.

Here’s more on the 2020 NBA draft:

LaMelo Ball has moved to the top of a number of experts’ draft boards, but Ethan Strauss isn’t sold on the young guard as a No. 1 pick, explaining his thinking in a piece for The Athletic.
ESPN draft experts Jonathan Givony, Mike Schmitz, and Kevin Pelton (Insider link) identify nine potential sleepers in the 2020 draft class, including Kansas center Udoka Azubuike, Michigan State big man Xavier Tillman, and LSU guard Skylar Mays.
In a separate Insider-only story, ESPN’s Givony and Schmitz spoke to a handful of prospects about how they’re handling this year’s unusual pre-draft process. “It benefits the players who have a proven résumé,” said TCU’s Desmond Bane, who appeared in 141 college games over four seasons. “There may not be workouts or a combine so teams have to go off of film and interviews.”
Utah guard Both Gach will officially withdraw his name from the 2020 draft soon, while Minnesota big man Daniel Oturu plans to start interviewing with NBA teams this week, writes Marcus Fuller of The Star Tribune.
Jay Scrubb, who has opted to go pro this year instead of playing at Louisville, has had Zoom interviews with 22 NBA teams so far, including the Knicks and Nets, agent Corey Marcum tells Adam Zagoria of ZagsBlog.com.

Hiatus Notes: Burke, Cuban, Seeding, Disney

June 28th, 2020 at 5:47pm CST by JD Shaw

ESPN and ABC NBA analyst Doris Burke is among many who have contracted COVID-19 since the season was suspended on March 11, with the veteran TV and radio voice detailing her battle against the illness, discussing the NBA’s return and more in an interview with Steve Serby of the New York Post.

“The thing that I felt the most was fatigue and headache,” Burke said about having coronavirus. “So for a good stretch of the first two weeks of that, I was just thinking I had a bad flu, because my symptoms were not aligning with what was being told were the main symptoms — the shortness of breath, the pressure on the chest — I didn’t have those scary symptoms. So for a good stretch of time, I didn’t think I had it. But then I finally decided to get tested.

“It took eight days to get the results, and by the time I had gotten the results of the test, I was starting to come out of it. Was I scared? I had some measure of anxiety. I was sleeping 16, 17 hours a day, and the other time I was not getting out of bed, so I wasn’t doing a whole lot.”

Burke tested positive for COVID-19 at the end of March, becoming one of the first publicly-known NBA figures to contract the virus. When asked about the challenges the NBA will face as it attempts to mount a comeback next month, she didn’t mince words.

“It’s a monster of a project to try to get right and put in place,” Burke said. “As I hear players talk about pre-existing conditions or talk about their fears, I absolutely understand it. And one of the things I thought most about is that a lot of these guys have young kids. You’re not only going down to the bubble, but at some point you’re going to leave that bubble, and what do you do as a player if you’re the parent of a young child? Do you go to a hotel when you get back to your respective market, and do you quarantine for two weeks and therefore stay away from your children longer to make sure, “OK, I’m not positive”?

“The primary thought I have as it relates to fear doesn’t necessarily have to do with myself, it has to do more with anybody who’s not been infected, had COVID, recovered and doesn’t have immunity, because I do worry. … As much as I know that the NBA is going to do absolutely everything in their power to make this environment as safe as possible, the fact of the matter is the ultimate bad outcome remains a possibility. There’s inherent risk that everybody who goes down to Orlando assumes, and how you work that out in your own mind is a very personal choice. And I don’t think we should criticize, judge or in any way, shape or form have negative feelings for those who express concern, because it’s legitimate and it’s real.”

Burke also offered her thoughts on several notable figures around the league in the interview, including Gregg Popovich, Mark Jackson and Zion Williamson.

Here are some other notes related to the NBA’s hiatus:

Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is advocating for the NBA to keep a permanent schedule change, as detailed by The Dallas Morning News. The league is settling on a late July restart with much of the typical offseason festivities set to happen in October, though next season’s schedule is largely unknown at this time.
The 88 total seeding games in Orlando will count toward the regular season statistics, ESPN’s Bobby Marks tweets. However, games as of March 11 will be used for any player that has bonuses in their contract.
Mark Medina of USA Today examines how Disney employees will work inside the NBA’s bubble when the league resumes in Orlando. The first games are set to commence during the final week of July, with the NBA under pressure to ensure that protocols are followed and safety is prioritized.

Nets To Sign Justin Anderson

June 28th, 2020 at 4:14pm CST by JD Shaw

The Nets are signing free agent forward Justin Anderson to a contract, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).

Anderson will serve as a substitute player for Brooklyn, who lost combo forward Wilson Chandler for the season after he announced his intentions to remain home and care for his family on Sunday. The team is also slated to play without Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and Nicolas Claxton due to injuries.

Teams are required to submit their final rosters by Wednesday, July 1 for the NBA restart, which is slated to commence in Orlando later next month.

Anderson, who was drafted No. 21 in 2015 by Dallas, spent part of this season with Brooklyn’s G League affiliate in Long Island. He earned a 10-day contract with the Nets in January, later being released by the organization.

Anderson holds prior experience with the Mavericks, Sixers and Hawks in his young NBA career, most recently joining the Wizards for training camp last fall. He owns career-averages of 5.3 points, 2.5 rebounds and 13.1 minutes per contest.

Clippers Sign Joakim Noah

June 28th, 2020 at 3:35pm CST by Luke Adams

JUNE 28 (3:35pm): The Clippers have officially signed Noah to his contract, the team announced in a press release on Sunday.

JUNE 28 (9:00am): Noah’s new deal covers the rest of the season and is non-guaranteed for 2020/21, tweets Jovah Buha of The Athletic.

JUNE 20: The Clippers intend to sign veteran center Joakim Noah to a rest-of-season contract once the NBA opens its transaction window next week, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (via Twitter).

Noah had been just three days into a 10-day deal with the Clippers when the NBA suspended its season on March 11. However, active 10-day contracts, including Noah’s, will expire on June 23, per Charania. All other active 10-day deals belonged to players on teams that won’t be participating in the league’s resumed season this summer.

News that the Clippers plan to retain Noah doesn’t come as a major surprise. When he first signed with the club in March, the agreement was reported as an opportunity for a 10-day audition that was expected to be followed by a rest-of-season commitment. More recently, Noah spoke as if he would be part of Los Angeles’ roster when play resumed.

A former Defensive Player of the Year, Noah appeared in 42 games for the Grizzlies during the 2018/19 season, averaging 7.1 PPG, 5.7 RPG, and 2.1 APG in 16.5 minutes per contest. The big man reportedly had a workout lined up with the Clippers last September, but was forced to cancel it after suffering an injury. He sat out most of the ’19/20 campaign, eventually joining the Clips once he got healthy.

Once the Clippers officially re-sign Noah, they’ll have a full roster, with 15 players on standard contracts and two on two-way deals. In order to make any additional changes, they’ll likely have to waive someone, though they’d also be eligible to sign a substitute player if one of their current players chose not to participate in the restart.

Wilson Chandler Opts Out Of NBA Restart

June 28th, 2020 at 3:15pm CST by JD Shaw

Nets forward Wilson Chandler has informed the team that he’s opting out of the NBA’s restart for the 2019/20 season, he told ESPN’s Malika Andrews. According to Andrews, Chandler wants to spend more time with his family, including his grandmother (who raised him) and his three children.

“As difficult as it will be to not be with my teammates, the health and well-being of my family has to come first,” Chandler told ESPN. “Thank you to the Nets organization for understanding and supporting me in this decision, and I will be watching and rooting for our team in Orlando.”

The season is set to resume at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida later next month, with Brooklyn’s first game coming against the Magic on July 31. The Nets are already set to play without the likes of Kevin Durant (Achilles rehab), Kyrie Irving (shoulder) and Nicolas Claxton (shoulder) once the season restarts. The team will be able to sign a substitute player to replace Chandler, but not its injured players.

Chandler, a 6’8″ forward, averaged 5.9 points, 4.1 rebounds and 21 minutes in 35 games with the Nets this season, mostly providing depth off the bench. In addition to Brooklyn, Chandler has made past NBA stops with the Knicks, Nuggets, Sixers and Clippers. He’s set to become an unrestricted free agent at season’s end.

Teams are required to submit their final rosters on Wednesday, July 1. Blazers forward Trevor Ariza, Lakers guard Avery Bradley, Mavericks center Willie Cauley-Stein and Wizards forward Davis Bertans have also opted out of the NBA’s restart to this point.

Northwest Notes: Gobert, Jazz, Morris, J. Johnson

June 28th, 2020 at 12:03pm CST by Arthur Hill

Jazz center Rudy Gobert, who recorded the NBA’s first positive test for COVID-19, still hasn’t fully recovered from the virus. Gobert, whose test results sparked the league-wide shutdown, describes his symptoms in an interview with L’Equip (translation provided by BasketUSA).

“The taste has returned, but the smell is still not 100%,” Gobert said. “I can smell the smells, but not from afar. I spoke to specialists, who told me that it could take up to a year.”

Gobert is eager to start playing again, saying he hasn’t been part of a five-on-five game since the hiatus began. He has been boxing, swimming and running in the mountains, but had a physical reaction last month that he said felt like “ants in my toes.” Gobert also talked about shouldering the blame for the shutdown.

“The NBA was waiting for a first case to stop the championship, it fell on me!” he said. “I became the image of the coronavirus for the Americans, the domino that triggered the end of the season, but it was not I who brought the virus to the United States. ”

There’s more from the Northwest Division:

The Jazz will bring a fully healthy team to Orlando, except for Bojan Bogdanovic, who had surgery on his right wrist last month, coach Quin Snyder tells Eric Walden of The Salt Lake Tribune. Snyder also expressed support for his players who are advocating for social justice, such as Donovan Mitchell and Jordan Clarkson.
Nuggets guard Monte Morris has used the frustration of sliding in the 2017 draft as incentive to prove he belongs in the NBA, writes Steve Kosmider of the Athletic. Morris was projected as a first-rounder in some circles, but went to Denver with the 51st pick and had to work his way up from a two-way contract. “I was really mad about it,” Morris recalled. “Guys I dominated in college on multiple occasions were getting picked ahead of me. I got hurt during the draft process. I pulled my quad at the Laker workout, which was like my third workout. I still had about 15 workouts to go. I feel like if I had did them I would have moved up. I only worked out for three teams so that may have hurt me, but I still think my resume, doing what I did at Iowa State, should have had me going higher.”
James Johnson is certain to exercise his $16MM option and remain with the Timberwolves next season, according to Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic. Johnson provides a veteran presence on a young team and is a vocal leader in the locker room.

Kings Notes: Parker, Hield, Len, Schedule

June 28th, 2020 at 10:55am CST by Arthur Hill

The Kings have little to say about a TMZ report that Jabari Parker was playing tennis without a mask Saturday at a park in Chicago, writes Ali Thanawalla of NBC Sports. Parker revealed Wednesday that he had tested positive for COVID-19.

“We are aware of the report and are gathering additional information,” the team said in a prepared statement. “We have no further comment at this time.”

Parker told Ben Stinar of The Big Lead that he has completed his in-house quarantine and was social distancing during the tennis game (Twitter link). Many Kings players have returned to Sacramento to train, but Parker has stayed in his hometown of Chicago, and there’s no official word on when he will join the team, according to Thanawalla. He has appeared in just one game since being acquired from the Hawks at the trade deadline.

There’s more Kings news to pass along:

Buddy Hield expects to “be fine by Monday” after testing positive this week, but he’ll have to wait before resuming basketball activities, according to Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. Under NBA guidelines, any player with COVID-19 must stop training for two weeks from the date of the first positive test or the resolution of viral symptoms. Hield said his positive test was last week, while teammate Alex Len tested positive on Tuesday.
The Kings got a bad break in their Orlando schedule, Thanawalla observes in a separate story. Seven of the eight games were on their original slate, but a contest against the Pacers has been replaced by another showdown with the Lakers, who have the West’s best record and have already beaten Sacramento twice. However, that game is the season finale, so L.A. may have already wrapped up the No. 1 seed.
Jason Jones of the Athletic offers a game-by-game analysis of Sacramento’s schedule as the franchise tries to secure a playoff berth for the first time since 2006. The Kings are three and a half games behind Memphis for the eighth spot and will need to finish ninth – and within four games of the eighth spot – to qualify for a play-in tournament.

Players May Wear Statements On Their Jerseys

June 28th, 2020 at 9:46am CST by Arthur Hill

The NBA might allow players to replace their names with personalized statements on the back of their jerseys when the season resumes, writes Marc J. Spears of ESPN. The statements can involve social justice, social causes or charities.

“We’re just trying to continue to shed light on the different social justice issues that guys around our league continue to talk about day in and day out,” said Thunder guard Chris Paul, who serves as president of the National Basketball Players Association. “People are saying that social justice will be off of everybody’s mind in Orlando. With these jerseys, it doesn’t go away.”

Jerseys can feature messages such as “Black Lives Matter” or “I Can’t Breathe” or possibly the names of people who were killed by police, such as George Floyd or Breonna Taylor, Spears adds. The NBA and its players union announced this week that the fight against systemic racism will be part of the focus of the restart. Numerous players had expressed concern that resuming the season would take away from their social justice crusade.

Paul, who hasn’t decided what his message will be, said many players have expressed support for the idea, including some who aren’t Black. Suggestions will be provided for players who want to participate and are looking for a cause.

“The guys I talked to were definitely excited,” he said. “The reason I’m passionate and excited about it is that it gives a voice to the voiceless. It also gives guys a chance to shine a light on something they are passionate about. Otherwise, they may not have been given a chance to express themselves.”

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