NBA’s Play-In Field, Top-Six Playoff Seeds Set
The 2020/21 NBA regular season is in the books, and the teams and seeds for the league’s first full-fledged play-in tournament have been set. Here are the matchups:
Eastern Conference
Tuesday, May 18
- Game 1: Charlotte Hornets (10) at Indiana Pacers (9), 6:30pm ET
- Winner plays Thursday; loser is eliminated.
- Game 2: Washington Wizards (8) at Boston Celtics (7), 9:00pm ET
- Winner secures No. 7 seed; loser plays Thursday.
Thursday, May 20
- Winner of Game 1 at Loser of Game 2, 8:00pm ET
- Winner secures No. 8 seed; loser is eliminated.
Western Conference
Wednesday, May 19
- Game 3: San Antonio Spurs (10) at Memphis Grizzlies (9), 7:30pm ET
- Winner plays Friday; loser is eliminated.
- Game 4: Golden State Warriors (8) at Los Angeles Lakers (7), 10:00pm ET
- Winner secures No. 7 seed; loser plays Friday.
Friday, May 21
- Winner of Game 3 at Loser of Game 4, TBD
- Winner secures No. 8 seed; loser is eliminated.
This will technically be the NBA’s second play-in tournament, since the Trail Blazers had to beat the Grizzlies in a play-in game last summer to earn the No. 8 seed in the West.
However, the league revamped the format prior to the 2020/21 season to ensure that it includes both conferences and puts both the seventh and eighth seeds up for grabs. This will be the first play-in tournament using that new format.
Once the Nos. 7 and 8 seeds in each conference are set, the eight first-round matchups will be finalized. Here’s what those matchups look like so far:
Eastern Conference
- Philadelphia 76ers (1) vs. No. 8 seed (play-in)
- Brooklyn Nets (2) vs. No. 7 seed (play-in)
- Milwaukee Bucks (3) vs. Miami Heat (6)
- New York Knicks (4) vs. Atlanta Hawks (5)
Western Conference
- Utah Jazz (1) vs. No. 8 seed (play-in)
- Phoenix Suns (2) vs. No. 7 seed (play-in)
- Denver Nuggets (3) vs. Portland Trail Blazers (6)
- Los Angeles Clippers (4) vs. Dallas Mavericks (5)
Eastern Notes: Irving, Holiday, Turner, Hornets, Howard
As Bobby Marks of ESPN (Twitter link) details, Nets guard Kyrie Irving met the criteria for four of the eight bonuses in his contract this year, earning a total of $525K in incentives ($131,250 apiece). Three of those bonuses were considered unlikely entering the season but will now be considered likely for 2021/22, bumping Irving’s cap hit for next year to approximately $35.46MM.
Another standout Eastern Conference guard, Jrue Holiday earned a third $255K bonus this week for appearing in at least 59 games averaging more than 3.15 rebounds, Marks notes. Having already earned $765K in incentives, Holiday could further increase that number if he’s named to an All-Defensive team ($100K), if the Bucks come out of the East ($200K), and/or if Milwaukee wins the title ($1MM).
Here’s more from around the Eastern Conference:
- Pacers center Myles Turner, who has appeared in just one game since April 6, is still dealing with turf toe and won’t be available for the team’s play-in game on Tuesday, tweets J. Michael of The Indianapolis Star. “I don’t think so,” head coach Nate Bjorkgren said on Sunday. “I wouldn’t expect Myles the next game.”
- The Hornets will increase the capacity of the Spectrum Center to 60% (about 12,000 fans) for the postseason, the team announced in a press release. The Hornets previously had a 25% capacity for home games, but North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper has lifted gathering restrictions in the state.
- Sixers center Dwight Howard served a one-game suspension on Friday for having accumulated 16 technical fouls this year. However, Howard will get a fresh slate for the postseason, where he’d have to rack up seven more technicals before earning an automatic suspension.
Raptors Notes: Birch, Trent, Anunoby, Harris, More
Fourth-year center Khem Birch will be an unrestricted free agent this summer, giving him the freedom to sign with any team, but his comments following Sunday’s regular season finale made it sound as if he’d like to stick with the Raptors, according to Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca, who tweets that Birch said fit is as important as money in free agency.
“I got lucky,” Birch said of his late-season move from the Magic to the Raptors. “If I would’ve stayed in Orlando people probably would’ve thought I’m just a regular bench big who can’t score. I’m fortunate these guys believed in me.”
After averaging 4.7 points and 4.4 rebounds in 188 total games in Orlando (16.5 MPG), Birch put up 11.6 PPG and 7.2 RPG in 18 games (29.8 MPG) with Toronto and didn’t sacrifice efficiency — his field-goal percentage increased to 55.8% despite the fact that he was attempting a career-high 1.6 threes per game as a Raptor.
Here’s more on the Raptors, who missed the postseason for the first time since 2013:
- As a restricted free agent who was a key trade-deadline acquisition for the Raptors, Gary Trent Jr. is a good bet to remain with the team, though he indicated today that he’s prepared for any scenario. According to Lewenberg (Twitter link), Trent said he understands that the NBA is a business and that – as an RFA – his future isn’t fully in his hands, but said he’d “definitely” be open to being a Raptor going forward.
- OG Anunoby said that his injured calf is getting better and that he’s looking forward to carrying over his work this season into the summer, tweets Blake Murphy of The Athletic. Anunoby missed the final eight games of the season due to that calf issue.
- With so many regular contributors injured or resting near the end of the season, many of the Raptors’ bench players have had a chance to shine. As Holly MacKenzie writes for the team’s official site, Stanley Johnson and Jalen Harris each established a new career-high for points in a game in the season’s final week (Harris did it twice).
- Harris and Malachi Flynn didn’t receive a ton of attention this season compared to other members of the 2020/21 rookie class, but both players look like good fits in the Raptors’ culture and could stick around for a while, writes Eric Koreen of The Athletic.
NBA Informs Teams Of Pre-Draft Guidelines, Protocols
The NBA issued a memo to its 30 teams informing them of the guidelines and health and safety protocols for the 2021 pre-draft process, according to multiple reports.
[RELATED: 2021 Draft Combine To Take Place In Person In Chicago]
A year ago, teams were extremely limited in their ability to meet with and/or work out prospects in person due to the coronavirus pandemic, but those restrictions have been loosened for 2021. Here are a few highlights from the NBA’s memo:
- An NBA team will be permitted to work out a player at its facility, as long as three days have elapsed since the player’s last team workout (Twitter link via Jonathan Givony of ESPN).
- A player who visits a team’s facility for a workout must record a negative PCR test for COVID-19. However, a team may waive this step if it confirms that a player has been vaccinated (Twitter links via Givony).
- Similar health and safety protocols will be in place for the June combine in Chicago — the NBA won’t mandate vaccinations for the players attending that event, but negative PCR tests will be required (Twitter link via Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN).
- Teams aren’t permitted to attend Pro Days or workouts organized by the player’s representation unless they’re part of the June combine in Chicago (Twitter links via Shams Charania of The Athletic and Wojnarowski).
- A prospect can’t visit with the same team more than twice (Twitter link via Charania).
In a typical year, teams are able to get a head-start meeting with college seniors before the NBA officially unveils its list of early entrants. However, because the NCAA gave seniors an extra year of eligibility due to the pandemic, seniors aren’t automatically draft-eligible in 2021 and must declare for the draft if they don’t intend to use that extra year at the college level.
In order to ensure that seniors still get a bit of a head-start this year, the NBA will release a “preliminary early entry list” for college seniors on May 18 and another one on May 25, according to Givony (Twitter links).
The players on those preliminary lists will be permitted to meet with teams in person or via Zoom, but won’t be able to work out for teams until the final early entry list is released around June 1 (following the May 30 early entry deadline). Teams won’t be allowed to contact early entrants who aren’t seniors until that final list is released, Givony notes.
This year’s combine will take place from June 21-27, with the draft to follow on July 29.
Rockets Notes: Injuries, Thomas, Reynolds, Tate, Brooks
As has been the case for much of the 2020/21 season, the Rockets have a crowded injury report today, with 10 of the team’s players having been ruled out for the regular season finale in Atlanta.
However, according to Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle (via Twitter), none of those 10 players are dealing with long-term injuries that will hinder their ability to conduct offseason training or participate in Summer League games.
That includes Khyri Thomas, who underwent an MRI this weekend after he “tweaked” his Achilles on Friday (Twitter link via Feigen). According to head coach Stephen Silas, that Achilles injury isn’t severe, which bodes well for Thomas and the Rockets — the young swingman just signed a four-year contract with the team on Friday.
Here’s more out of Houston:
- Cameron Reynolds will only spend three days (two games) with the Rockets before his rest-of-season contract expires, but even that brief stint with his hometown team means a lot to the Pearland, Texas native, as Mark Berman of Fox 26 Houston relays. “I’ll never forget this,” Reynolds said, adding that several family members were in attendance to watch him on Friday. “I’ll never forget being able to play for the Houston Rockets. This is huge for me.”
- After going undrafted in 2018, Jae’Sean Tate played for a new team in each of his first three professional seasons, so he’s especially appreciative of being able to enter the 2021 offseason knowing he’ll remain under contract with the Rockets and won’t have to find a new home. “It’s kind of surreal,” Tate said, per Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle. “This is what I’ve been dreaming of. This is what I’ve been working so hard for, to come in on the back end of my first year. It went by so fast; I feel I just walked into training camp. Also, it just makes me hungrier because I know there are so many things I can work on and get better at.”
- Armoni Brooks, who went undrafted in 2019, didn’t make his NBA debut until last month, but he has played big minutes (25.6 MPG) for an injury-ravaged Rockets team and his 54 three-pointers are the most ever by any NBA player through the first 19 games of his career. In a separate Houston Chronicle story, Feigen looks at what’s next for Brooks, who is shifting his focus to summer workouts.
Northwest Notes: Conley, Rosas, Pokusevski, Gobert
Jazz All-Star point guard Mike Conley enjoyed a solid comeback game after missing nine contests with a sore right hamstring, writes Eric Walden of the Salt Lake Tribune. In what amounted to a playoff tune-up game for Conley, an unrestricted free agent this summer, he scored 10 points in just 16 minutes during the first half of a 109-93 victory against the Thunder. Conley, 33, could be in line for one last big multiyear payday thanks to his stellar season in Utah.
“It was great to have him back,” Conley’s All-Star Jazz teammate Rudy Gobert said. “I feel like he was quick, he was making the right decisions. Obviously, he didn’t play the second half, but I thought in the first half, he really gave us a lift. That’s what we expect him to do. He’ll find his rhythm and hopefully get back to the level that he is comfortable playing [at]. If he plays the way he played tonight every night, I’m totally fine with that.”
There’s more out of the Northwest Division:
- Timberwolves team president Gersson Rosas is confident that he is building a long-term winner in Minnesota, writes Chris Hine of the Star Tribune. “We’ve had what we’ve had the last two years for whatever reasons there are,” Rosas said. “Things we can control, things we can’t control, and our record is what it is and that’s who we are. We really feel confident about the core, the roster we have in place. … Even though it’s a small sample size, when our top guys are on the floor, we’re a winning team and that’s our belief.” The Timberwolves are currently 22-49, tied with the Cavaliers for the league’s fifth worst record. The team’s 2021 draft pick will be sent to the Warriors unless it moves into the top three during the draft lottery.
- Thunder rookie power forward Aleksej Pokusevski, the No. 17 pick in the 2020 draft, saw his season trajectory benefit from a G League assignment, per Joe Mussatto of the Oklahoman. “The first 10-15 [NBA] games I was just shooting the ball, wasn’t even reading the defense,” Pokusevski said. “The game slowed down after the G League for me. I started reading the game.”
- Jazz All-Star center Rudy Gobert has unlocked his second consecutive $250K bonus for having his minutes-to-rebounds ratio being less than 3.2, tweets Bobby Marks of ESPN. Gobert, the likely Defensive Player of the Year, will make an additional $500K if he is named an All-Defensive First Teamer. Marks adds (Twitter link) that none of Gobert’s potential bonuses will impact the team’s projected luxury tax bill, since those incentives were deemed likely entering the season.
Oubre To Miss Play-In With Lingering Wrist Injury
Warriors forward Kelly Oubre Jr. will miss the next seven-to-10 days of on-court action as he continues to recover from a small avulsion fracture and ligament tear in his left wrist, the team announced today (via Twitter). The injury has kept him sidelined for the past nine games.
Golden State will re-assess Oubre’s wrist in the next seven-to-10 days, so there is a distinct possibility he would be available should the team advance to the first round of the playoffs.
As Kendra Andrews of NBC Sports Bay Area tweets, this update means Oubre will miss the team’s first play-in tournament appearance. Depending on the outcome of today’s season finale against the Grizzlies, the Warriors will either finish as the No. 8 or No. 9 seed in the Western Conference.
Both Golden State and Memphis sport identical 38-33 records at present — a win today for the Warriors would ensure they just need to win one of two play-in chances to make the playoffs, rather than two of two.
The 6’7″ Oubre was the team’s starting small forward for most of the season, starting in 50 of the 55 games in which he appeared. He will wrap up the 2020/21 regular season with averages of 15.4 PPG, 6.0 RPG, 1.3 APG, 1.0 SPG and 0.8 BPG across 30.7 MPG, with a shooting line of .439/.316/.695. He’ll be an unrestricted free agent this offseason.
Heat Notes: Butler, Yurtseven, Long-Term Outlook, Bam
Heat star wing Jimmy Butler has had an outsized impact on the club during the games he has been available this season, per Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald. As Chiang observes, the Heat are 6-13 in games played without Butler this year. Miami is 33-19 when Butler has suited up.
The veteran swingman is averaging 21.5 PPG and career highs of 6.9 RPG, 7.1 APG and 2.1 SPG for the club, though Chiang notes that Butler’s impact goes beyond these basic counting stats — his on/off-court net rating differential is 11.4 points per 100 possessions. Chiang posits that Butler, whose early-season injuries kept him out of making his sixth All-Star team, will earn significant consideration for All-NBA and All-Defensive team honors.
“I think if we had a complete year and a full year and health and everything, yeah Jimmy Butler, in my mind, has to be in that conversation for [league] MVP,” head coach Erik Spoelstra raved, while taking into consideration the fact that Butler and several of his teammates have missed significant time due to COVID-19 health and safety protocols and injuries during a truncated 2020/21 season. “I think his game is just continuing to grow, that’s as a winner, as a throw back player. A guy that really impacts the game on both ends of the court. He truly does, it’s not just talk. He has as much of an impact on the defensive side as he does the offensive side.”
The 39-32 Heat, currently the No. 6 seed in the Eastern Conference, will conclude their season today against the 20-51 Pistons. Butler missed yesterday’s loss to Milwaukee due to lower back stiffness, and Chiang tweets that he will sit out the season finale as well.
There’s more out of South Beach:
- The Heat’s latest addition, 275-pound seven-footer Omer Yurtseven, inked his deal with Miami Friday. Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald reveals that the 22-year-old big man’s contract covers the 2021/22 season, though next year’s salary will be non-guaranteed. Yurtseven was undrafted out of Georgetown in 2020. “I think that will be the biggest thing, the rebounding and the defending,” he said during a video call with reporters Friday. “And on the other side of the floor, being able to stretch the floor, being a hybrid big.” Yurtseven played for the Oklahoma City Blue, the Thunder’s G League affiliate, during the 2020/21 NBAGL “bubble” season in Orlando. Across 14 games for the Blue, he averaged 15.2 PPG, 9.3 RPG, 1.5 APG, 1.4 BPG during 21.1 minutes. He also boasted a solid slash line of .626/.381/.680.
- Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel suggests that thinking too long-term could hurt the Heat’s short-term aspirations. Winderman points to the club’s decision to sign unproven rookie Yurtseven to its 15th and final roster spot over a veteran who could help the club in the playoffs.
- Heat center Bam Adebayo could net a major payoff if he earns end-of-year awards honors during the span of his maximum five-year, $163MM rookie extension with the club, as Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel notes. If Adebayo is named to the All-NBA First Team, the value of his deal increases to $186MM over the length of the contract. If he nets the Defensive Player of the Year award, his cumulative salary would increase to $179MM. Neither of those outcomes seems particularly likely this season, however.
Warriors Re-Sign Gary Payton II
MAY 16: The Warriors have officially announced Payton’s new contract ahead of today’s regular season finale.
MAY 13: The Warriors plan to bring back Gary Payton II on a new deal this weekend, sources tell Shams Charania and Anthony Slater of The Athletic (Twitter links). Payton previously inked a pair of 10-day contracts with the team.
Payton, 28, got into 10 games for the Warriors during his 20 days with the organization. He only logged 40 total minutes in those 10 contests, but made the most of them, putting up 25 points on 10-of-13 shooting with 11 rebounds and six steals. Head coach Steve Kerr said at the time that the team wasn’t ruling out re-signing Payton before the end of the season.
“Gary played really well,” Kerr said in April. “He’s somebody who we feel like we’d love to have back. He’s got to consider his own options as well. So, we’ll see how it works out.”
Payton, the son of Hall-of-Famer Gary Payton, earned G League Defensive Player of the Year honors with the Raptors 905 earlier this year. He’ll provide depth in the backcourt for the Warriors as they prepare for the play-in tournament next week.
According to Slater (via Twitter), there’s an expectation that Payton’s new contract will extend beyond this season, though it’s unclear if any of next year’s money will be guaranteed. The terms are still being finalized, Slater adds.
Golden State currently just has 13 players on its standard 15-man roster, but is promoting two-way player Juan Toscano-Anderson to fill one of those spots — Payton would take the other, while Jordan Bell will be signed to a new two-way deal, giving the club a full 17-man squad.
Knicks Notes: Noel, Robinson, Point Guards, Draft
Among the many surprising aspects of the Knicks‘ season is that their defense has been able to survive the loss of center Mitchell Robinson, who is recovering from surgery on a fracture in his right foot. Mitchell’s shot blocking has been replaced by Nerlens Noel, who swatted five shots in Saturday’s win over the Hornets and now ranks second in the league with 2.1 per game, writes Stefan Bondy of The New York Daily News.
“His gift is obviously the rim protection,” coach Tom Thibodeau said. “… He alters a lot of shots because everyone is looking for him. He has great value, he’s the anchor of the defense.”
Noel was a lottery pick in 2013, but wasn’t able to find a stable situation as he bounced from the Sixers to the Mavericks to the Thunder. He signed with New York during the offseason and has been a valuable addition in the wake of Robinson’s injuries, starting 40 of the 63 games he has played.
“I just feel like I’ve got something in me that comes alive, especially moments like (crunch time),” Noel said. “I live for moments, the big moments, and anything for my team.”
There’s more from New York:
- Thibodeau offered a medical update on Robinson, who has started on-court activities but remains a long way from playing, Bondy adds. “He’s still in the rehab phase,” Thibodeau said. “… As I’ve said before, we’re not going to rush him along. We’re going to be cautious and make sure he goes through every phase of it properly. We just don’t want to take any chances with him.”
- The Knicks can wrap up the fourth seed by beating the Celtics this afternoon, but their point guard situation remains muddled, according to Marc Berman of The New York Post. Elfrid Payton played less than 13 minutes on Saturday and Berman suspects Thibodeau is losing confidence in him. Alec Burks ran the point with the second unit, and Frank Ntilikina was inserted late in the game for his defense.
- The dramatic turnaround in New York has made the draft an afterthought this year, writes Steve Popper of Newsday. Before the season began, the Knicks started scouting with the expectation that they might have a high lottery pick, along with the Mavericks’ first-rounder from the Kristaps Porzingis trade. New York’s selection is currently at No. 18, while Dallas’ is at No. 23.