Thomas Bryant, Gary Payton II Test Positive For COVID-19
Wizards center Thomas Bryant and point guard Gary Payton II have tested positive for the novel coronavirus and did not travel with their teammates to the Orlando campus for the NBA’s season restart, according to Ava Wallace of The Washington Post (Twitter link).
Shooting guard Garrison Mathews also did not travel with the rest of the team to Orlando, though his absence was a result of “personal reasons,” as Luke Adams noted in another Wizards story earlier today.
The 6’10” Bryant, a third-year player out of Indiana, started in 28 of his 38 games with the Wizards this season. He averaged career-highs in points (12.1 PPG), rebounds (6.8 RPG), assists (1.9 APG), and three-point percentage (40.7% on 1.4 attempts per night).
Since going undrafted in 2016 out of Oregon State, Payton saw limited action with the Bucks, Lakers and Wizards in parts of three NBA seasons. He saw more consistent action with Washington this year, playing in 14.9 MPG across 29 games, including 17 starts.
The future availability for all three Wizards players in the restart is now up in the air. Players who test positive for COVID-19 can be replaced by substitutes, but teams also have the option of waiting for those players to be medically cleared.
Washington is already missing starting shooting guard Bradley Beal (a two-time All Star), power forward Davis Bertans, and nominal starting point guard John Wall, who has been sidelined for the entire season.
Jamal Crawford Signs With Nets
JULY 9: Crawford has officially signed with the Nets, per an official team statement (Twitter link).
JULY 8: Free agent guard Jamal Crawford has agreed to join the depleted Nets for the league restart, per Shams Charania of Stadium and The Athletic (Twitter link).
The 40-year-old crossover maestro, a three-time Sixth Man of the Year, last suited up for the Suns in 64 games during the 2018/19 season. Across 19 NBA seasons, Crawford sports a slash line of 14.6 PPG, 3.4 APG, and 2.2 RPG. He is also averaging 34.8% from three-point range and 86.2% from the free-throw line.
During his lone Phoenix season, Crawford’s scoring dipped to a single-digit average for the first time since his 2001/02 season with the Bulls. Crawford averaged 7.9 PPG, 3.6 APG and 1.3 RPG, while shooting just 39.7% from the field. He scored 51 points in his last game for Phoenix, on April 9, 2019. John Hollinger of The Athletic notes that Crawford rated as a below-replacement level player last season (Twitter link).
The Nets have been hit particularly hard ahead of the NBA’s return to action at Orlando’s Disney World campus, currently scheduled to kick off July 30. Injured All-Stars Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving will miss the rest of the 2019/20 season. Center DeAndre Jordan, wing Taurean Prince, and guard Spencer Dinwiddie have been stricken with COVID-19 and will also all miss the restart. Additionally, Nicolas Claxton is sidelined due to a shoulder injury and Wilson Chandler has opted out of participating.
The team can sign up to two more substitute players after making it official with Crawford and Justin Anderson, whose deal was reported in June.
Northwest Notes: Melo, Jazz, Booth, Thunder
Trail Blazers small forward Carmelo Anthony is looking forward to a return to his original small forward position now that the team’s starting power forward Zach Collins has returned to health, per Casey Holdahl of Blazers.com.
“I’m actually very comfortable at that, I’ve been doing that my whole life,” Anthony said during a Zoom conversation yesterday. “Over the last couple years is where I started moving, transitioning toward playing the four more. You’ve got teams going small, so that was to my advantage as well.”
Anthony, a 10-time All-Star with the Nuggets and Knicks, has averaged 15.3 PPG (while shooting 37.1% from long range and 84.3% from the charity stripe), 6.3 RPG and 1.6 APG for the Blazers. The 36-year-old was inked to the club as an injury replacement for Collins in November. Portland’s 29-37 record slots the team in as the No. 9 seed in the West.
There’s more out of the Northwest Division:
- The Jazz touched down in the NBA’s Orlando restart campus last night. Team general manager Justin Zanik indicated in a Zoom conversation today between himself, executive vice president of basketball operations Dennis Lindsey and reporters that the club has not experienced any positive coronavirus tests since mandatory team testing began last month, according to Ryan McDonald of the Deseret News. Zanik traveled with the team to Orlando, while Lindsey stayed in Utah.
- New Nuggets general manager Calvin Booth is contemplating innovative approaches to remote scouting during the current pandemic, according to Alex Labidou of Nuggets.com. “All we’re trying to do is look for where inefficiencies are, where you can get value,” Booth said. “Even though as the years go on and as people get more and more interested in [scouting in] Europe and they are putting more resources into it, it’s still a landscape where you can find a gem.”
- Sixteen of 17 Thunder players are traveling to Orlando for the NBA’s Orlando season restart, as Brandon Rahbar of Daily Thunder details. In case you missed it, forward Isaiah Roby had surgery on his right plantar fascia and will miss the rest of the 2019/20 season.
Pacific Notes: Bagley, Oubre, Warriors, Smith
Kings big man Marvin Bagley, who has been limited by various injuries throughout his first two NBA seasons, has indicated that he feels vastly improved and is ready for the season restart in Orlando, per James Ham of NBC Sports Bay Area (Twitter link).
“I’m doing great,” Bagley said. “I’m 100%.” Bagley has been hampered by a broken thumb and a left foot sprain. He has logged time in only 13 games for the Kings this season.
There’s more out of the Pacific Division:
- During a media call on Monday, Suns general manager James Jones did not rule out the prospect of Kelly Oubre Jr. to join his teammates for the league’s Orlando restart, according to Duane Rankin of the Arizona Republic. Oubre, the team’s starting small forward, underwent an arthroscopic surgery on his right knee for a torn meniscus on March 3 and is reportedly expected to remain sidelined through the summer.
- Oubre, who will be an unrestricted free agent in the 2021/22 season, could be an appealing trade target for the Warriors, according to Anthony Slater of The Athletic. Slater assesses the Suns forward’s fit with Golden State. The contracts would line up nicely: Oubre is owed $14.2MM in 2020/21, and the Warriors have a $17.2MM trade exception on their books as a result of their Andre Iguodala trade last summer.
- New Lakers wing J.R. Smith, signed to bolster the team’s depth as a replacement for Avery Bradley, notes that he struggled with depression during the 20-month interim between his last NBA job (with the Cavaliers) and this one, according to Kyle Goon of the Orange County Register. “Being somebody who has been around the league predominately for most of their adult life, when that’s kind of taken away from you, it kind of gives you that culture shock and you obviously don’t understand what you lost until it’s gone,” Smith said.
Pacific Notes: Kings, Booker, Davis, Bazemore
In anticipation of the Kings returning to NBA action against the Spurs on July 31, James Ham of NBC Sports Bay Area analyzes the team’s full 17-man roster. The team will begin practicing in tandem after the squad arrives at the Orlando Disney World campus next week.
Sacramento big man Marvin Bagley III, injured for most of the season, and newly inked guard Corey Brewer are considered intriguing “wild card” pieces to the Kings puzzle. With a 28-36 record, the Kings are currently on the outside of the playoff hunt looking in.
There’s more out of the Pacific Division:
- Suns All-Star Devin Booker deserves to shoulder little blame should Phoenix miss the playoffs in the NBA’s season restart, according to Duane Rankin of the Arizona Republic. Rankin posits that, with Booker having elevated his play this season, the front office deserves much of the blame for his surrounding teammates. Center Deandre Ayton, drafted ahead of All-Stars Luka Doncic and Trae Young in 2018, has been putting up solid counting statistics this season, but has yet to live up to his billing as a No. 1 pick.
- Lakers All-Star big man Anthony Davis considers the long league layoff to be beneficial to his club’s title hopes, per ESPN’s Dave McMenamin. “I think our chances are higher just because we’re all rested and we’re all ready to go,” Davis said while addressing reporters during a video conference yesterday. Davis and fellow All-Star starter LeBron James have been instrumental in leading the 49-14 Lakers to the best record in the Western Conference. The team boasts top-five ratings in offense and defense this season.
- Kings bench swingman Kent Bazemore, currently playing out the final season of a four-year, $70MM contract, has indicated that he would like to re-sign in Sacramento for next season and beyond, according to James Ham of NBC Sports Bay Area (Twitter link). Bazemore was traded to Sacramento from Portland in January. In 21 games with his new team, he has averaged 10.3 PPG, while shooting 42.6% from the field and 38.6% from three-point range, plus 5.0 RPG, 1.1 APG and 1.2 SPG.
Central Notes: Bulls, Griffin, Oladipo, Bucks
The Bulls will have to make decisions on three young players, including two 2016 lottery draft picks, when those players become eligible for restricted free agency during the 2020 offseason. Whether or not retaining Kris Dunn, Denzel Valentine, and Shaquille Harrison makes sense for Chicago’s new front office is up for some debate, per NBC Sports Chicago’s Rob Schaefer.
Though the 26-year-old Dunn (the No. 5 pick out of Providence in 2016) is a strong defender, his awful shooting will limit his usefulness for the Bulls. Schaefer anticipates that Dunn will play out the 2020/21 season on his $7.1MM qualifying offer for the 2020/21 season without reaching a longer-term deal with the club.
Schaefer also expects Harrison to play out his significantly smaller minimum-salary qualifying offer. Schaefer is less optimistic about the Bulls keeping injury-prone Valentine (the No. 14 pick out of Michigan State in 2016), who has appeared in just 170 of 311 possible games across his four-year Bulls tenure.
There is more out of the Central Division:
- For the underwhelming Pistons, a healthy Blake Griffin could fetch a better return on the trade market than center Andre Drummond was able to this season, writes Keith Langlois of Pistons.com.
- Kevin Pelton of ESPN details the ramifications of Pacers guard Victor Oladipo‘s decision to opt out of the NBA’s Orlando season restart. Aaron Holiday looks to absorb most of Oladipo’s minutes, and Pelton anticipates the point guard will start in the backcourt alongside Malcolm Brogdon. Brogdon recently tested positive for COVID-19, but he expects to join the team in Orlando once he recovers.
- During the NBA’s season pause, the team with the best record employed creative outside-the-box thinking to stay active, per Lori Nickel of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Nickel details the 53-12 Bucks‘ intriguing practices. “It’s been weird,” All-Star Khris Middleton told reporters in a conference call today. “Usually we’re all encouraging each other, talking to each other, joking around with one another, playing music.”
Australian League Team Looking To Add Deng Adel
Small forward Deng Adel is being pursued by the Illawarra Hawks of Australia’s NBL, according to Sportando’s Emiliano Carchinia.
The Hawks are based in Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia. This would mark a return to Adel’s adopted home country. The swingman’s family fled from the war-ravaged South Sudan to Uganda before planting roots in Melbourne when he was eight.
The 6’7″ Adel went undrafted out of Louisville in 2018. Signed as a two-way player to the Cavaliers, Adel saw limited time in 19 games for Cleveland during the 2018/19 season. The Cavaliers did not retain him in the summer of 2019.
After being added and subsequently waived by the Nets prior to the start of the 2019/20 season, Adel latched on with Brooklyn’s G League affiliate, the Long Island Nets. Before the G League season was paused – and ultimately canceled – due to the coronavirus pandemic in March, Adel held averages of 11.1 PPG, 4.2 RPG and 2.6 APG.
Thabo Sefolosha To Skip Orlando Restart
Veteran Rockets swingman Thabo Sefolosha will be skipping the NBA’s bubble season restart and subsequent playoffs, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
The 36-year-old defensive specialist, who was born in Switzerland, inked a fully guaranteed one-year, veteran’s minimum contract with Houston at the start of the 2019/20 season, but has seen limited rotation minutes. Sefolosha opting out of the bubble will effectively make him an unrestricted free agent, though his contract won’t expire until the fall.
Across 41 games, Sefolosha – a former teammate of Rockets All-Stars James Harden and Russell Westbrook while all three were on the Thunder – averaged 2.2 PPG, 2.3 RPG, and 0.6 APG during 10.6 MPG the 2019/20 season, his 14th in the league. Though just 6’6″, Sefolosha primarily logged time as a power forward in coach Mike D’Antoni and team GM Daryl Morey‘s ultra-small ball Rockets lineups.
Sefolosha relayed his concerns about joining the bubble for an extended duration of time, away from his family with the coronavirus pandemic still on the rise, on an episode Brodie and the Beard, a podcast from Kelly Iko of The Athletic, per a tweet from Iko. In that conversation, Sefolosha called an isolated bubble tenure a “huge commitment.”
[RELATED: List Of Players Opting Out Of NBA’s Restart]
Iko observes in a separate tweet that the Rockets front office has been prepping contingency plans for Sefolosha potentially avoiding the season restart. A substitute for Sefolosha will now be sought by the Rockets. Sefolosha stands to lose about $230K in salary, according to Bobby Marks of ESPN (Twitter link).
Gal Mekel Extends With Spanish Team
Gal Mekel, once a point guard for the Mavericks and Pelicans, has signed a two-year extension with the Spanish ACB League/EuroCup club Unicaja Málaga, per Dario Skerletic of Sportando.
He had signed with the team just ahead of a pause in league play due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Mekel suited up for six games with Unicaja Málaga.
Mekel, 32, appeared in 35 NBA games across parts of two seasons. 31 of those contests were for Dallas in 2013/14, and four were as a Pelican the following season. A Wichita State alum who went undrafted in 2008, the Israel-born Mekel has been well-traveled internationally.
A three-time All-Israeli League First Teamer, Mekel is a two-time Israeli League MVP, for Hapoel Gilboa Galil in 2011 and for Maccabi Haifa in 2013.
Malone Expects Jokic To Join Nuggets In Orlando
Nuggets head coach Michael Malone said in a Zoom video conference call today that he anticipates the team’s lone All-Star, Nikola Jokic, who recently tested positive for COVID-19, will join Denver when the squad departs for Orlando next week, in comments captured by Nick Kosmider of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Malone acknowledged during the call that Denver’s practice facility is currently closed after there were “multiple” positive test results, but would not divulge which team personnel or players for the Nuggets tested positive, per Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN.
Jokic is not yet stateside. The 25-year-old seven-footer has been residing in his native Serbia since the middle of June, according to Mike Singer of the Denver Post.
“Next Tuesday, we depart for Orlando,” Malone said. “The hope and expectation is that Nikola Jokic will be with us on that plane.”
The 43-22 Nuggets are currently the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference, behind the two star-studded Los Angeles clubs. This season, Jokic is averaging an eye-popping stat line of 20.2 PPG, 10.2 RPG, and 6.9 APG.
Malone voiced his reservations about Disney employees being permitted to enter and depart the NBA’s proposed bubble — while NBA teams’ traveling parties are not — in an Orlando restart, per Kendra Andrews of The Athletic (Twitter link). The Nuggets head coach hopes that the NBA will make some adjustments to this component of the league’s un-pausing.