While the NBA and its players’ union have provided weekly updates on the number of positive COVID-19 tests among players, we haven’t heard much about how the league’s referees – who travel commercially – have been affected by the coronavirus this season. Baxter Holmes of ESPN fills in some blanks, reporting that 10 of the NBA’s referees are currently sidelined, primarily due to COVID-related issues, and adding that 24 refs have missed at least one game this season due to the league’s health and safety protocols.
A league spokesperson tells Holmes that most of the current absences are related to contact tracing and that the NBA expects all 10 affected referees to be available for the start of the postseason next month.
In the interim, however, the league has had to “call up” six referees from the G League. According to Holmes, a number of teams and executives around the NBA have complained about the performance of those refs, prompting NBA VP of referee development and training Monty McCutchen to defend their performances.
“These were our top six G League officials who would have been getting some NBA games anyway this year. They had to be pressed into some more service, but they are knocking on the door to being staff members,” McCutchen told ESPN. “It’s not like, ‘Oh, let’s just call any random G League (official) because they live in Portland and we’ll pull them up that night.’ They had already reached levels of excellence that meant they were ready for this.”
Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- NBA executives believe that flattening the lottery odds and introducing the play-in tournament has helped reduce league-wide tanking among non-playoff teams, according to Howard Beck of SI.com, who says that league sources think the play-in tournament will be adopted on a permanent basis beyond this season.
- The Iverson Classic All-American Game, which will take place on May 8 in Memphis, has received NBA approval as a certified event, meaning team scouts can attend and evaluate prospects, reports Jonathan Givony of ESPN (Twitter link). Top 2022 prospects such as Paolo Banchero and Chet Holmgren headline the list of participants.
- A little over five months after the 2020 draft took place, Sam Vecenie, John Hollinger, of James L. Edwards III of The Athletic completed a re-draft of the ’20 class. Among the big risers in The Athletic’s re-draft are LaMelo Ball (No. 3 to No. 1), Tyrese Haliburton (No. 12 to No. 5), Isaiah Stewart (No. 16 to No. 7), Aleksej Pokusevski (No. 17 to No. 7), and Jaden McDaniels (No. 28 to No. 10).
Breacher report redraft
1 Ball
2 Wiseman
3 Edwards
4 Halliburton
5 Williams
Those re-drafts are the most ridiculous things ever. They just assume that a player will be exactly the same transported from one team to another. There are way too many variables involved for it to show anything other than who has been the most successful so far. You can’t just copy and paste a player’s stats and expect them to be the same elsewhere. Put LaMelo Ball on Minnesota and he might not have had the same success as in Charlotte. Or he could have had even more success. The point is that it is a completely different situation.
It’s also 5 months after, Patrick Williams/Isaac okoro weren’t drafted 4-5 because of what they were goin to be 5 months after the draft, they were drafted with long term thoughts in mind
Thank you! Nowadays this is all what sports “fan” can talk about anyway, it’s about potential and what ifs, no one watching the games anymore, just pointless speculation.
HR left out Paul Reed made #14! I was more surprised KilianH, Okongwu, and Pat Williams #4 did not drop some. Haliburton is still #5.
The fact that things will change is part of the calculation. Long term thoughts are very much in mind. Reed has not even played much! 5 months after, a redraft is still a skill; 10 years after, you’re just rehashing titles, details and personalities like Weaver slip from memory, and the situation and way a player was grooved is even more important.
Reading the comments, posters are rooting for draftees on favorite teams. The blooms will come off the rose in time.
A complete 2020 redraft seems like a huge waste of time.
“Did you know Haliburton should have gone earlier?” Don’t need 500 words to tell me that.
A 2010 redraft?
Even bigger waste of time!