Central Notes: Oladipo, Bitadze, Kornet, Sabonis
Pacers head coach Nate McMillan states that star shooting guard Victor Oladipo, whose status for the NBA’s season restart has remained uncertain, will be a game-day decision for Indiana’s first seeding game in Orlando on Saturday, according to Eric Woodyard of ESPN.com (Twitter link).
“He went through practice today, he’ll go through practice tomorrow and like any other one of our players, we’ll see who’s available for Saturday,” McMillan said. Oladipo did play in all three of the Pacers’ scrimmages in Orlando.
Here are more notes from around the Central Division:
- McMillan also said this week that Pacers rookie center Goga Bitadze, the No. 18 pick in the 2019 draft, remains “a couple of weeks away” from being able to suit up for Indiana, according to J. Michael of the Indy Star (Twitter link). McMillan indicated last week that Bitadze is struggling with a soft-tissue injury.
- Bulls bench center Luke Kornet had a disappointing first season in Chicago, as Rob Schaefer of NBC Sports Chicago details. Kornet, who inked a two-year, $4.5 MM contract with the club last summer, was roundly outplayed by second-round rookie Daniel Gafford, and averaged just 6.0 PPG, 2.3 RPG, and 0.7 BPG.
- With the team’s lone 2019/20 All-Star Domantas Sabonis away from the NBA’s restart campus dealing with plantar fasciitis, the Pacers are now looking to take a small-ball approach to their seeding games and subsequent playoff run, according to Mark Montieth of Pacers.com.
Zion Williamson To Play On Thursday
JULY 30: Williamson will be active on Thursday vs. the Jazz, reports Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports (Twitter links). Although Zion won’t have a set minutes restriction, he’s expected to play in “short quick bursts,” Haynes adds.
JULY 29: The availability of Pelicans star rookie forward Zion Williamson for his team’s first seeding match on Thursday against the Jazz will be a game-time decision, according to head coach Alvin Gentry, writes Andrew Lopez of ESPN.
Williamson cleared his on-campus quarantine on Tuesday, having returned to the league’s Orlando restart campus last week after tending to a pressing family matter. He will have practiced twice with his team ahead of Gentry’s decision tomorrow.
Gentry did acknowledge during a press conference today that Williamson took part in five-on-five drills on Tuesday. Zion engaged in a light-contact practice with the Pelicans today, per Mark Medina of USA Today (Twitter link).
Williamson has no reservations about his preferences for tomorrow’s contest in Orlando. “If you know me, I want to hoop,” Williamson said. The No. 1 pick in the 2019 NBA draft has been limited to just 19 contests out of a possible 64 this season, though his play has lifted New Orleans to the brink of playoff contention.
Williamson boasts a terrific slash line of 23.6 PPG, 6.8 RPG, and 2.2 APG, while shooting 58.9% from the field and 46.2% from long range. For the 2019/20 season, the Pelicans are 11-8 with Williamson and 17-28 without him.
Gentry noted that the Pelicans’ medical staff would determine whether or not there would be a minutes restriction on Williamson, should he indeed suit up on Thursday, according to Andrew Lopez of ESPN (Twitter link). Williamson had no known medical issues prior to departing the Orlando campus earlier this month.
Jimmer Fredette To Return To Shanghai Sharks?
JULY 30: Fredette’s agent Chris Emens tells Sportando that there’s no agreement in place yet between Fredette and the Sharks.
“We are speaking to many clubs looking for a solution for the 2020/21 season. No such agreement has been reached,” Emens said. “We could not even consider such an agreement in China until after they rule whether or not import players will be allowed.”
According to Carchia, Sportando’s sources continue to insist that Fredette will sign with the Sharks as long as foreign players are permitted in the CBA next season.
JULY 29: Former sharpshooting BYU phenom Jimmer Fredette is set to return to the CBA’s Shanghai Sharks for $1.6MM, according to Emiliano Carchia of Sportando.
Fredette played for the Sharks from 2016-2019, and was a three-time CBA All-Star with the club. The length of the contract has not yet been announced, but Fredette was previously compensated to the tune of $1.8MM annually by the Sharks, so this may be a one-year contract.
Following his 2019 season with the Sharks, Fredette suited up for six games with the Suns during the end of the 2018/19 regular season — his last NBA action as of this writing.
After his tenure in Phoenix, Fredette returned abroad, joining Greek team Panathinaikos for the club’s 2019/20 season. He averaged 13.2 PPG while shooting 52% from the field, 49% from three-point range, and 92% from the free-throw line across 45 games. Fredette’s Panathinaikos squad was named the 2020 Greek League champion. He has also played in the summer winner-take-all event The Basketball Tournament stateside since 2017.
The 6’2″ sharpshooting guard was drafted by the Kings with the No. 10 pick in 2011 — one pick ahead of three-time champion and five-time All-Star Klay Thompson, five picks ahead of four-time All-Star, two-time Finals MVP, and two-time Defensive Player of the Year Kawhi Leonard, and 20 picks ahead of five-time All-Star Jimmy Butler.
After the Kings, Fredette had brief stints with the Bulls, Pelicans, and Knicks before first seeking opportunities overseas. In the NBA, Fredette boasts a career 37.2% three-point percentage on 2.2 attempts per contest.
Tyus Jones To Miss Some Seeding Games With Knee Soreness
Grizzlies backup point guard Tyus Jones is battling knee soreness and will miss at least a week of action before being reassessed, per an official team announcement (Twitter link).
The 32-33 Grizzlies, the West’s current No. 8 seed, will play their fourth seeding game a week from today, on August 5, against the 28-36 Pelicans, the current tenth seed. There are currently six teams in the West scheduled to compete for the conference’s eighth seed. The loss to the club’s depth in these crucial pre-playoff games could be an impediment.
Though Jones is a bench player averaging just 19.5 MPG, he is a consistent rotation piece who has logged time in every single game for the Grizzlies this season. The 6’3″ guard out of Duke signed a three-year, $24MM offer sheet with Memphis as a restricted free agent last summer — his former team, the Timberwolves, declined to match.
Jones is enjoying his best scoring year as a pro during his inaugural Grizzlies season, averaging a career-best 7.4 PPG on a career-high 45.9% field goal shooting. He’s also making a career-best 37.9% of his three-point attempts on 6.6 tries per night to go along with 4.4 APG and 1.6 RPG.
Chris Herrington of the Daily Memphian tweets that the loss of Jones will necessitate more time running the point for second-year guard De’Anthony Melton and that little-used Grizzlies backup Grayson Allen figures to receive rotation minutes during Jones’s absence.
Roberts Talks Revenue Loss, Possible 2020/21 Campus, CBA
In a wide-ranging phone conversation with Tim Bontemps of ESPN today, National Basketball Players Association executive director Michele Roberts discussed a variety of topics pertaining to the league’s immediate future. Key on everyone’s mind recently has been the success thus far of the 2019/20 season’s Orlando campus, wherein no NBA players or travel team personnel have tested positive for COVID-19 after clearing their quarantines for the past three weeks.
Roberts acknowledged that another possible campus set-up, with NBA players stationed at a single, isolated site with frequent testing, seems like a realistic possibility for the 2020/21 NBA season, given the current state of the novel coronavirus in the US.
“If tomorrow looks like today, I don’t know how we say we can do it differently,” Roberts said. “So it may be that, if the bubble is the way to play, then that is likely gonna be the way we play next season, if things remain as they are.”
The 2020/21 NBA season is tentatively slated to tip off on December 1, though the NBPA hasn’t approved that start date.
[RELATED: Financial, Logistical Uncertainty Looms Over 2020/21 NBA Season]
Roberts went on to commend the safety precautions implemented within the Disney World campus setup.
“The medical facilities and the physicians on campus, I’m not worried about anyone getting sick and not being able to get absolutely immediate health care,” she said. “I am completely satisfied that we’ve come up with the right protocol.”
The NBA and the NBPA are bracing for a significant loss in league revenue, stemming from the loss of fan attendance for much or all of the 2020/21 season. Both sides will negotiate handling the fallout of these losses and are “beginning some very high-level discussions with respect to what the potential issues are,” Roberts told Bontemps.
Roberts also noted that she does not intend to use the revenue conversations between the NBA and NBPA as a moment to opt out of the NBA’s current Collective Bargaining Agreement for a total renegotiation ahead of the December 15, 2022 deadline for doing so.
“That’s not something that has been addressed and, I would venture to say, is not going to happen.”
PJ Dozier Joins Nuggets In Orlando
Nuggets guard PJ Dozier has touched down in the NBA’s Disney World campus in Orlando, filling out Denver’s season restart roster, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN tweets.
The 6’8″ floor-spacing bench guard out of South Carolina has seen limited time for Denver in his third season, averaging 11.1 minutes per game for just 21 of the team’s 65 games. He is a career 39.5% three-point shooter, and has connected on 39.6% of his 1.3 attempts this season.
Dozier will need to immediately quarantine himself in his hotel room, clear a physical, and test negative for the coronavirus for two straight days before he can join the Nuggets for team activities. This timeline would allow him to participate in the team’s first seeding game on Saturday, August 1 against the Heat.
Starting point guard Jamal Murray, starting small forward Will Barton, bench small forward Keita Bates-Diop, and exciting rookie forward Michael Porter Jr. were only available to partake in their first scrimmage game yesterday, while backup point guard Monte Morris just cleared quarantine protocols and appears probable for Saturday’s first seeding game on Saturday, as we previously noted.
Coach Michael Malone said earlier this week that, prior to yesterday, the team’s various player absences have meant that scrimmages against other teams have served as the only time the Nuggets could play five-on-five basketball, per Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN (Twitter link). The Nuggets sport a 43-22 record ahead of their season restart this weekend, and are currently the No. 3 seed in the West.
Morris, Bates-Diop Joining Nuggets In Orlando
Nuggets backup point guard Monte Morris is scheduled to arrive at the NBA’s Disney World campus on Friday, per Kendra Andrews of The Athletic (Twitter link). Andrews went on to note that deep-bench forward Keita Bates-Diop touched down in Orlando for the league’s season restart on Thursday.
The reason for either player’s delay in joining the Nuggets has not been provided. They’ll both be required to quarantine and take a physical, as well as testing negative for COVID-19 for two straight days, before joining their squad for team practices.
Morris was previously rumored to be missing from the Orlando campus, having not been spotted in team photographs or videos at all since the team touched down earlier this month.
Morris had developed into being an integral part of the Nuggets’ rotation during 2019/20. The 6’2″ third-year guard out of Iowa State logged averages of 8.4 PPG, 3.5 APG and 1.7 RPG in 21.6 MPG across 65 games for Denver. He connected on 37.5% of his 2.2 three-point looks and 82.3% of his free throw attempts.
At 43-22, the Nuggets are the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference. Their first seeding game during the NBA’s season restart is scheduled for Saturday, August 1 against the Heat.
The 6’8″ Bates-Diop, the No. 48 pick out of OSU in 2018, appeared in just two games for Denver this year prior to the suspension of the season, after being traded to the team from the Timberwolves in a larger deal. The Nuggets occasionally sent Bates-Diop to the G League’s Windy City Bulls to accrue in-game reps.
Raptors Notes: Nurse, Draft, Campus, Restart
Raptors general manager Bobby Webster has lauded 2019/20 Coach Of The Year candidate Nick Nurse without expressly defining a timeline for Nurse’s potential contract extension.
“Nick obviously has done an incredible job for us and those (types) of conversations are always top of mind for us,” Webster said, per Michael Grange of Rogers Sportsnet (Twitter link).
Nurse inked a three-year, $10MM deal with the Raptors in 2018 that will keep him on the sidelines through the 2020/21 NBA season. During his first year as head coach, the Raptors won the 2019 NBA Finals. This season, the 46-18 Raptors are the No. 2 seed in the East and the team had two 2020 All-Star representatives in Pascal Siakam and Kyle Lowry, despite having lost Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard in 2019 free agency.
“Obviously, (the) timeline’s a little different this year,” Webster noted when asked about a potential extension for Nurse (Twitter link via Blake Murphy of The Athletic).
There’s more out of Toronto:
- Webster indicated today that the team’s front office has held conversations with about 50 or 60 potential 2020 draft picks thus far, per Blake Murphy of The Athletic (Twitter link). How the Raptors appraise those prospects remains relatively up in the air and contingent on COVID-19 numbers and league guidance as to whether or not individual player workouts or a draft combine will be permitted this season.
- The Raptors are among the few teams present for the NBA’s summer restart at the Walt Disney World Resort whose traveling team includes both of their top front office executives, president Masai Ujiri and Webster, per Michael Grange of Rogers Sportsnet. “I think you guys know how we operate, and having both of us here is good to take care of things here on the ground,” Webster noted on a conference call with reporters today.
- The Raptors are eagerly anticipating their first return to NBA action tomorrow, in a scrimmage game against the Rockets, according to Josh Lewenberg of TSN Sports. “It’s huge that we get to play basketball again and I’m excited,” Toronto guard Patrick McCaw said. “It’s a different type of atmosphere, no fans and things like that. The focus is just going to be on us, and just basketball.”
Patrick Beverley Leaves Disney Campus For Emergency
Clippers starting point guard Patrick Beverley left the NBA’s Orlando campus tonight to deal with “an emergency personal matter,” according to Malika Andrews of ESPN. Andrews notes that Beverley, who practiced with the Clippers this morning, plans to rejoin the club at some point during the league’s season restart.
Last week, bench big man Montrezl Harrell also departed the Disney World campus to tend to an emergency. The Clippers play their first seeding game on July 30 against their fellow Staples Center residents, the Lakers.
Losing Beverley, a pesky defensive specialist, for any extended period of time would be a significant blow for the Clippers, the No. 2 seed in the West with a 44-20 record. The 32-year-old boasts a slash line of 7.9 PPG, 5.4 RPG, and 3.7 APG for the season. He is connecting on 37.9% of his 4.1 three-point attempts a night. Beverley is in the first season of a three-year, $40MM contract he signed with Los Angeles last summer.
Sharpshooting Sixth Man of the Year candidate Lou Williams could fill in for Beverley as a temporary starter. New waiver wire addition Reggie Jackson could provide additional support. Andrews speculates that Jackson could start ahead of Williams, who is more of a defensive liability. Led by 2019 Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard and six-time All-Star Paul George, the Clippers, along with the Lakers and Bucks, are widely viewed as a top contender for a title when the 2019/20 season resumes.
If a player is away from the Disney campus for seven or more days, he will have to test negative for COVID-19 for seven consecutive days before touching down again in Orlando. If the player is off-site for fewer than seven days, he must test negative for each of those days. The player would then quarantine for four days upon returning. If Beverley isn’t tested regularly for the novel coronavirus while away, he may need to quarantine for 10-to-14 days.
Marvin Bagley III Ruled Out For Season Restart
Kings big man Marvin Bagley III has officially been ruled out for the NBA’s season restart due to a lateral sprain in his right foot following an MRI on Sunday evening, according to Sam Amick and Shams Charania of the Athletic (Twitter link). He is expected to be in a walking boot for the next two weeks, Charania tweets.
A press release from the team indicates that Bagley suffered the injury in a team scrimmage on Sunday (h/t to James Ham of NBC Sports Bay Area who first tweeted the announcement).
Bagley, the No. 2 pick in a loaded 2018 draft that has already yielded two All-Stars, posted 2019/20 season averages of 14.2 PPG and 7.5 RPG across just 13 games in 25.7 MPG. He also missed 20 games during his 2018/19 rookie season.
Bagley had previously missed most of his second season as a result of a left foot sprain and a thumb injury. This right foot sprain is a new injury. In addition to this being a long-term situation to monitor for the 6’11” Duke alum, this also spells bad short-term news for the Kings. Teams can only replace players afflicted with COVID-19 when on the Disney World campus, not players who get injured on-site.
Bagley is not the only current absent player for the Kings. Forward Harrison Barnes has yet to report to the NBA’s campus after contracting the coronavirus earlier this month. Starting point guard De’Aaron Fox returned to non-contact drills with the team today as he continues to recover from a less severe ankle injury.
At 28-36, the team is the eleventh seed in the Western Conference and was thus already a long shot to make the playoffs even before these absences.