Lakers Re-Sign Quinn Cook
The Lakers have re-signed guard Quinn Cook after waiving him last month, Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets.
Cook received a $1MM partial guarantee on his original $3MM contract before he was waived, a move which created more cap room for the Lakers to sign free agents. He didn’t get claimed and ultimately decided to return to the defending champions.
Cook will receive the veteran’s minimum with an additional cap hit of $1.6MM, Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report tweets. He’ll get a salary of $1,737,145, which added to the previous guarantee is nearly as much as he would have received without going on waivers.
Cook, who signed with Los Angeles as a free agent during the 2019 offseason after two years in Golden State, didn’t have a major role for the Lakers last season. He averaged 5.1 PPG, 1.2 RPG, and 1.1 APG in 44 regular season games (11.5 MPG) and then logged only 24 total minutes during the team’s postseason run.
Kings Pick Up Bagley’s Fourth-Year Option
The Kings have picked up the fourth-year option on Marvin Bagley III‘s contract, Jason Jones of The Athletic tweets.
Bagley, who has an $8.96MM salary during the upcoming season, will make approximately $11.3MM in the 2021/22 season. He’ll be a restricted free agent in the summer of ’22 if the team extends a $14,762,309 qualifying offer.
Bagley, the second overall pick of the 2018 draft. is coming off an injury-plagued season in which he appeared in just 13 games. Bagley averaged 14.2 PPG and 7.5 RPG in 25.7 MPG. Bagley missed the restart due to a right foot injury and also missed time during last season due to left foot and thumb ailments.
He saw action in 62 games as a rookie, averaging 14.9 PPG and 7.6 RPG in 25.3 MPG. However, Bagley has yet to solidify a starting role, which pales in comparison to the blazing starts that two of the three players taken right after him, Luka Doncic and Trae Young, have enjoyed in their young careers.
B.J. Johnson Signs With Heat
Swingman B.J. Johnson has signed a contract with the Heat, according to a team press release.
It’s believed to be an Exhibit 10 contract. Johnson will compete with several other players for Miami’s remaining two-way contract, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald tweets. Point guard Gabe Vincent has already signed a two-way deal. The Heat now have a full 20-man camp roster.
Miami’s latest transaction comes as a surprise. Johnson was reported to be signing with the Suns, so either there was never an agreement in place with Phoenix or that deal fell through.
Johnson, 24, was on a two-way contract with Magic last season but entered unrestricted free agency after he did not receive a qualifying offer last month. He appeared in just 10 games for Orlando, averaging 8.3 MPG.
He also appeared in 28 games (all starts) with the Magic’s G League team, Lakeland, and averaged 22.9 PPG, 6.4 RPG, 2.1 APG, 2.1 SPG and 35.9 MPG while shooting 42.3% from 3-point range. The 6’7″ wing went undrafted out of La Salle in 2018.
In his rookie year, Johnson spent time with the Hawks, Kings and Magic.
Wizards Notes: Wall, Westbrook, Beal, Practice
Addressing the Wizards‘ John Wall/Russell Westbrook trade for the first time on Friday, general manager Tommy Sheppard said it wasn’t easy emotionally to move the former No. 1 overall pick. Although he’s relatively new to the GM role, Sheppard has worked in Washington’s front office since 2003 and watched Wall develop over the last decade.
“Just watching John become the man that he is today, it’s difficult to say goodbye,” Sheppard said, per Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington. “On an emotional level, that was a very difficult trade for me, by far in my 27 years in this business.”
While it was hard to trade Wall, Sheppard believes it was the right move, and one that “definitely changes the future of the franchise,” as Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today relays.
“Russell’s resume speaks for itself,” Sheppard said of Washington’s new point guard. “It’s an opportunity to make the Washington Wizards a better franchise. … This is the right thing to do. We made that trade, and we move forward.”
Here’s more on the Wizards, with a focus on the Westbrook/Wall deal:
- A pair of Eastern Conference executives who spoke to Ava Wallace and Ben Golliver of The Washington Post like the Wizards’ acquisition of Westbrook, despite the inherent risk. “Washington improved because they have someone that can functionally play in the games and the head coach has deep familiarity with the player acquired. Totally worth the risk,” one exec said. “The bigger risk was returning someone from a dramatic injury that so heavily relied on speed to be effective.”
- Bradley Beal had his first media session of the season on Friday and acknowledged that the trade of Wall had made it an “emotional week.” Beal, who said he’d had several positive conversations with Wall this week, insisted that the “rumors and noise” about their relationship over the years were wrong. He also said that he’s on board with the team’s belief that Westbrook will make them better and is looking forward to playing alongside him (all Twitter links via David Aldridge of The Athletic).
- The Wizards believe that Westbrook’s and Beal’s “hyper-competitive personalities will harmonize,” Fred Katz of The Athletic writes within a story about why the Wizards and Rockets swapped point guards.
- The Wizards were among the teams that were able to hold their first group practice on Friday, having begun their coronavirus testing early, tweets Marc Stein of The New York Times. Westbrook didn’t participate in today’s practice, but he arrived in Washington and is expected to be available for Saturday’s practice, Stein adds (via Twitter).
- Wall published a message on Twitter on Thursday to say goodbye to Wizards fans and to D.C.
Kings Notes: Bogdanovic, Hield, GRIII, Kaminsky, Whiteside
After reporting earlier today that the Kings passed on a Hawks sign-and-trade offer for Bogdan Bogdanovic that would have allowed Sacramento to acquire either a lottery-protected 2022 first-round pick or two future second-rounders in exchange for the restricted free agent, Sam Amick of The Athletic has updated his story with some new intel.
As Amick explains, that Hawks offer came with caveats. Atlanta wanted Sacramento to accept Tony Snell‘s expiring $12MM+ salary and asked for an answer within an hour. Additionally, the Kings didn’t know at that point what sort of contract the Hawks were offering Bogdanovic, so they were reluctant to agree to a sign-and-trade if Atlanta’s offer was one they were comfortable matching.
The Kings asked for some of the Hawks’ young talent in a deal, but didn’t have any luck, and Atlanta ultimately took its chances by signing Bogdanovic to an offer sheet. Sacramento didn’t match it.
While The Athletic’s new information lets the Kings off the hook to some extent, Amick says there’s “strong reason” to believe that Atlanta would have done a sign-and-trade for Bogdanovic that included a draft pick even if the Kings hadn’t been willing to take on Snell’s contract. However, sources tell Amick that scenario wasn’t discussed.
Here’s more out of Sacramento:
- In talks with teams about a possible Buddy Hield trade this offseason, the Kings were asking for draft compensation, according to Ian Begley of SNY.tv. There’s nothing imminent on the Hield front though, Begley adds. At this point, it would be a surprise if Sacramento doesn’t open the season with Hield on its roster.
- Glenn Robinson III and Frank Kaminsky each received modest guarantees on their new one-year contracts with the Kings. Keith Smith of Yahoo Sports tweets that Robinson got a $100K partial guarantee, while James Ham of NBC Sports California tweets that Kaminsky’s partial guarantee is worth $50K.
- Hassan Whiteside‘s first stint with the Kings a decade ago saw him play just 19 games in two seasons for the team before he spent two years out of the NBA. He’s counting on having more success this time around, as Ham writes for NBC Sports California. “My first (time) around, I had a couple of injuries that kept me from being the player that I wanted to be,” Whiteside said. “But I think this is a great opportunity to come back and revamp that.”
- The Kings confirmed today that they won’t have any fans in attendance at Golden 1 Center to start the 2020/21 season (Twitter link via Ham). Given the COVID-19 restrictions in place in California, that was a given.
Paul George: I Want To Retire A Clipper
Clippers forward Paul George is eligible to reach unrestricted free agency a year from now, but it doesn’t sound like he has any plans to jump ship. George told reporters today that he’s happy being home in Los Angeles and is “committed” to his current team.
“I want to retire a Clipper,” George said, per Ben Golliver of The Washington Post (Twitter link). “I’ll say that every year. This is where my heart is.”
The Clippers are George’s third NBA team, and he eventually asked his first two teams – the Pacers and Thunder – to trade him. So it’s fair to take his comments today with a grain of salt.
Still, George is a Southern California native and had long wanted to play in L.A. Unless the 2020/21 season ends in even worse fashion for the Clippers than ’19/20 did, there’s no reason at this point to expect the six-time All-Star to seek a new home in free agency — few other teams could realistically offer him a better shot at winning a title in the coming years.
George averaged 21.5 PPG and 5.7 RPG in 48 regular season games in his first season as a Clipper in 2019/20. Those numbers were his lowest in five years, but he was also coming off shoulder surgery and was limited to 29.6 minutes per contest, his lowest-full season average since his rookie year. He’s believed to be 100% entering this year’s training camp.
2020/21 NBA First-Half Schedules By Team
The NBA has officially unveiled its schedule of games and national broadcasts for the first half of the 2020/21 season. As previously reported, the season will tip off with a Nets vs. Warriors and Clippers vs. Lakers doubleheader on Tuesday, December 22.
The first half of the regular season will run through March 4. The schedule for the second half of the season (March 11 to May 16) will be released during the latter part of the first half, according to the league. The goal is to maintain scheduling flexibility to account for possible coronavirus-related postponements and/or cancellations.
In the first half, each team will play either 37 or 38 games, including between 17 and 20 home games. In a number of instances, teams will play the same opponent in the same arena in back-to-back games in order to reduce travel.
Listed below are links to the first-half 2020/21 schedules for each NBA team, organized by conference and division:
EASTERN CONFERENCE
Atlantic Division
Central Division
Southeast Division
WESTERN CONFERENCE
Northwest Division
Pacific Division
Southwest Division
Malik Monk Tested Positive For COVID-19
Hornets guard Malik Monk is among the NBA players who recently tested positive for COVID-19, head coach James Borrego said today (Twitter link via Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer).
Monk isn’t currently experiencing coronavirus symptoms, but will miss at least several more days of practice, Bonnell notes.
The 11th overall pick in the 2017 draft, Monk hasn’t been the scorer and shooter the Hornets hoped for through his first three NBA seasons, averaging just 8.6 PPG with a .322 3PT% in 191 total games. His 2019/20 season came to an early end when he was suspended indefinitely for violating the league’s anti-drug policy. He was reinstated from that ban in June.
Although Monk hasn’t been a consistently productive player in Charlotte, he was playing well leading up to his suspension, scoring 17.0 PPG on .457/.350/.851 shooting in his last 13 games (27.9 MPG) of the ’19/20 campaign. He and the Hornets had been hoping to carry over that success to ’20/21, but his coronavirus diagnosis will set him back a little.
The NBA announced on Wednesday that 48 players tested positive for the coronavirus between November 24-30, so there are several other dozen players besides Monk waiting to be medically cleared.
Central Notes: Carter, Giannis, Pistons, Pacers
On the morning of the 2020 draft, a report indicated that the Bulls had offered Wendell Carter Jr. to Golden State in a trade to move up from No. 4 to No. 2. After Chicago stayed put on draft night, head of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas denied trying to trade up.
Asked this week about those trade rumors, Carter didn’t sound too stressed about the subject of some draft-day speculation, suggesting he “had a lot of faith” that he would stick with the Bulls, as Rob Schaefer of NBC Sports Chicago writes.
“When I first saw it, I kind of knew it was BS,” Carter said. “I didn’t pay much attention to it. Then my family members started hitting me up about it, like, ‘Man, what’s going on?’ You going to Oakland?’ I’m, like, ‘Man, I feel like I’m good.’ … I knew the coaching staff and the front office believed in me from the talks that we’ve had. … It’s always a little anxiety when you see your name floating around as possibly being traded. But deep down in my heart, I knew I was going to be a Bull.”
Here’s more from around the Central:
- The Bucks are anxiously waiting to find out whether Giannis Antetokounmpo will sign a five-year super-max extension with the team, but fellow All-Star Khris Middleton and head coach Mike Budenholzer said on Thursday that they’re focusing on supporting the reigning MVP rather than pushing him to sign. “He knows that I deeply want him to return and sign this extension, but at the same time, I know he’s got a big decision that he’s got to work through himself and with his family at home because those are the most important people,” Middleton said, according to ESPN’s Eric Woodyard. “Whatever he does, he knows that I’ll support him to the fullest.”
- While the Pistons are no longer carrying as many centers on their roster as it appeared they might early in free agency, general manager Troy Weaver told reporters on Thursday that he didn’t mind the perception that he was stockpiling big men. “Let the record show. I know there was a lot about we were collecting a lot of centers — absolutely!” Weaver said, per Rod Beard of The Detroit News. “I love bigs. … I believe that’s the way you win, by controlling the backboards. It’s held true. I’ve never seen a team win a championship without controlling the backboard.”
- The Pacers have officially announced a handful of new additions to Nate Bjorkgren‘s coaching staff, including confirming the previously-reported hiring of assistant coach/player development Calbert Cheaney. Bjorkgren is also bringing Tyler Marsh with him from the Raptors as a player development assistant.
NBA Officially Suspends Random Marijuana Testing For 2020/21
The NBA has officially suspended random marijuana testing for the 2020/21 season, tweets Marc Stein of The New York Times.
Ben Dowsett first reported on Thursday that the league would continue to forgo those tests after scrapping them for the summer restart in Orlando. The NBA will only conduct “with cause” tests this season, sources tell Dowsett.
“Due to the unusual circumstances in conjunction with the pandemic, we have agreed with the NBPA to suspend random testing for marijuana for the 2020/21 season and focus our random testing program on performance-enhancing products and drugs of abuse,” league spokesperson Mike Bass said in a statement (Twitter link via Stein).
Although the coronavirus pandemic is being cited as the motivating factor for eliminating random marijuana tests in 2020/21, there’s no guarantee that the program will ever return in its previous form. As Dowsett writes in a feature for GQ.com, with the non-medical use of cannabis being decriminalized and legalized in more and more states, NBPA executive director Michele Roberts would like to see the testing program eventually removed from the league’s Collective Bargaining Agreement.
“I am absolutely confident (that) by next season – at the absolute latest by the time the next CBA is negotiated – this is going to be old news,” Roberts said of the NBA’s random marijuana testing.