After placing guards Fred VanVleet and Malachi Flynn in the health and safety protocols earlier in the day, the Raptors have now added two frontcourt players to that list. Rookie forward Scottie Barnes and center Precious Achiuwa have become the sixth and seventh Raptors in the COVID-19 protocols, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link).
If Barnes and Achiuwa have tested positive for COVID-19, they’ll be out for 10 days or until they return two consecutive negative tests at least 24 hours apart. VanVleet, Flynn, Pascal Siakam, Gary Trent Jr., and Dalano Banton are the other players in the protocols for Toronto.
The injury report is getting crowded for the Raptors, who will also be without Justin Champagnie (non-COVID illness), David Johnson (left calf strain), and Goran Dragic (not with team) for Wednesday’s game in Chicago. That leaves the club with just six of its initial 16 players available, and one of those six – Khem Birch – is listed as questionable due to a right knee issue.
However, as Wojnarowski reports (Twitter links), there’s no indication at this point that Wednesday’s game will be postponed. Toronto has reportedly reached deals with four replacement players – Nik Stauskas, Brandon Goodwin, Tremont Waters, and Juwan Morgan – and could sign more before tip-off tomorrow night,, assuming there’s time for those players to clear COVID-19 testing and travel to Chicago.
The NBA already postponed one Raptors/Bulls contest last Thursday, so the league will likely want to avoid having to push back a second game between the two teams.
This is the best summary I’ve seen for the omicron variant. Unfortunately, for those of you who only get your facts from snarky Facebook memes this is written in a question and answer format by the American Society for Microbiology.
link to asm.org
Good work Buckman. Some real information I can appreciate. Unlike those NY times links … ain’t nobody trying to pay for that garbage.
Dragic should be on the roster right away. This is an example of why I criticize Raptor management so much. I won’t summarize how poorly they treated him earlier in the season. The Toronto media is not doing their job either. Why is Goran not called up ? He is being paid 19 million to do what ? This is a publicly traded team and no wonder the president of Rogers objected strongly to the contract given to the GM Masai.
Its more the underwhelming return on the Lowry sign &trade that Masai has to answer for as well as the continuing lack of a NBA calibre “5” for the past 2 seasons (and Birch is not a frontline 5). You mentioning Rogers however is a non starter as he’s generally regarded as a buffoon and a sad example of a disfunctional rich man’s boy.