Knicks, Nets Among Teams Keeping Eye On Zach LaVine
The Knicks and Nets are among the teams who have been monitoring Zach LaVine‘s situation in Chicago, according to Ian Begley of SNY.tv, who reports that both New York and Brooklyn have done “background work” on the Bulls guard.
LaVine remains under contract for an additional two years beyond this season, so he won’t be reaching free agency anytime soon. However, with no star players known to be available on the trade market for the time being, teams like the Knicks and Nets are keeping an eye on players who could conceivably become available in trade talks within the next year or two.
LaVine, a six-year veteran, has never made the playoffs with the Timberwolves or the Bulls, and suggested in March that he was “upset” with Chicago’s performance in 2019/20.
Disgruntled stars on lottery teams often make the best trade candidates, though in LaVine’s case, it seems likely that he’ll want to give the new Bulls regime a chance to improve the roster before making any decisions about his future. The team hired Arturas Karnisovas as president of basketball operations and Marc Eversley as general manager in the spring.
According to K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago (Twitter link), LaVine was in Chicago two weeks ago and had a “positive” visit with the Bulls’ new decision-makers. Johnson adds that while they’ll likely be willing to listen to any ideas, Karnisovas and Eversley appear focused on maximizing the roster’s potential for next season — not on trading the club’s leading scorer.
The front office’s decision on head coach Jim Boylen is also worth keeping an eye on in relation to LaVine’s situation, since he and Boylen haven’t always seen eye-to-eye. Sources have told Marc Berman of The New York Post that the Bulls appear likely to stand pat with Boylen for now.
LaVine had a career year in ’19/20 before the coronavirus pandemic prematurely ended Chicago’s season. He averaged 25.5 PPG, 4.8 RPG, and 4.2 APG on .450/.380/.802 shooting in 60 games (34.8 MPG).
Rockets’ Rivers Leaves Campus Due To Urgent Family Matter
9:51am: Rivers expects to return to Orlando sometime this weekend, tweets Charania. Assuming he only requires a four-day quarantine period, Rivers should have a chance to be active for Houston’s first seeding game next Friday.
9:28am: Rockets guard Austin Rivers has left the NBA’s campus at Walt Disney World in order to attend to an “urgent family matter,” reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (via Twitter).
Based on the NBA’s protocols, Rivers will be subject to a quarantine period of at least four days when he returns to Orlando. He’ll have to remain quarantined for up to 10-14 days if he doesn’t return daily negative coronavirus tests for each day that he’s off campus (or each of the last seven days, if he’s away for more than a week).
Unless Rivers’ absence is brief, it seems unlikely he’ll be available for Houston’s first seeding game on July 31 vs. Dallas. However, he still has plenty of time to return and get back up to game speed before the playoffs begin (around August 17). The Rockets are hopeful he’ll be able to return soon, tweets Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle.
Rivers is the fourth player known to have left the campus for a personal emergency. Pelicans forward Zion Williamson, Clippers center Montrezl Harrell, and Clippers guard Patrick Beverley have also done so.
Pacific Notes: Rubio, Suns, Holmes, Bagley
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday for the first time since entering the NBA’s Walt Disney World campus, Suns guard Ricky Rubio acknowledged that his delayed arrival was a result of testing positive for the coronavirus, according to Andrew Lopez of ESPN. As Lopez writes, Rubio said he’ll have to be careful about ramping back up to game speed after not just enduring a four-month hiatus but dealing with the virus as well.
“I’m good. I don’t have symptoms,” Rubio said. “Now that I’m back playing, after being out for three or four months, your legs feel it, your lungs feel it. That’s something I have to work on and figure out how to give my best to the team and focus on my health too.”
As Lopez relays, Rubio didn’t say when he first tested positive for COVID-19, but admitted that it was hard on him to have his family back in Spain while he dealt with the virus in Phoenix.
Here’s more from around the Pacific:
- Suns officials said this week that the team’s new $45MM practice facility is on track to be completed by late August or early September, per Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic. The team had to use its old arena, the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum, for individual workouts in the weeks leading up to the trip to Orlando as construction progressed on the new facility.
- Kings center Richaun Holmes, who was subjected to a 10-day quarantine period at Walt Disney World after inadvertently crossing the campus line, explained his mistake to reporters on Wednesday. “Ordered some wings and went to grab the wings, but I really wasn’t too aware of the borders,” Holmes said, according to Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. “I kind of knew what was going on, but the specific area I was in, I wasn’t aware. So, yeah, I stepped out and grabbed the food and came back, and they just let me know they wanted to be as safe as possible. They had to enforce the rules and I completely understand that, so I won’t make that mistake again.”
- Despite an injury-plagued sophomore season for Marvin Bagley III, the Kings‘ support for the former No. 2 overall pick hasn’t wavered, Anderson writes in a separate Sacramento Bee story. “We know what kind of player he’s going to be,” head coach Luke Walton said of Bagley, who is out for the season with a foot injury. “He’s going to have a great career. And we’ve got to keep him healthy and he’s got to continue to work, which he’s proven to do since I’ve been here as far as every time that he’s gotten injured. So it’s going to be a big offseason, but I’m confident that he’ll attack that with everything he has.”
- In case you missed it, we rounded up a series of updates on all five Pacific teams on Wednesday, and earlier today passed along word that Lakers forward Markieff Morris has cleared quarantine at the NBA’s Orlando campus.
Revisiting 2019/20 NBA Over/Under Predictions
Before the 2019/20 NBA season got underway, we polled Hoops Rumors readers on the win totals for each of the league’s 30 teams, using over/unders from major betting sites. From the Bucks (57.5 wins) to the Hornets (23.5), our readers made their picks for whether each team’s win total would land over or under the projected figures.
Unfortunately, one effect of the stoppage caused by the coronavirus pandemic was to ensure that no NBA team will actually play a full 82-game schedule this season, which means many of those over/under predictions won’t be resolved.
If you had bet on a team’s win total at a Vegas casino or a major sportsbook, the abridged season may have resulted in your bet being voided. But since our predictions were just for fun, we might as well take a look back at them to see which ones were on track to be right or wrong — and which ones were still very much up in the air when the season was suspended in March.
Let’s dive in…
Eastern Conference
Picks that were on pace to be right:
- Milwaukee Bucks (53-12): Over 57.5
- Miami Heat (41-24): Over 43.5
- Indiana Pacers (39-26): Over 46.5
- Chicago Bulls (22-43): Under 33.5
- New York Knicks (21-45): Under 27.5
- Cleveland Cavaliers (19-46): Under 24.5
Our voters seemingly had a much better handle on the Central than on the other two Eastern divisions, accurately picking four of five Central over/unders while only nailing one team in the Atlantic and one in the Southeast.
Of these six teams, the Bucks and Heat were virtual locks to surpass their projected win totals and hit the over. The Pacers would have had to go 7-10 down the stretch to miss their over, while the Bulls would’ve had to go 12-5 to avoid the under — neither was particularly likely.
The Knicks and Cavaliers were the only two that were really up in the air here. They only would’ve had to go 7-9 and 6-11, respectively, to exceed their projections. That wouldn’t have been out of the question.
Picks that were on pace to be wrong:
- Toronto Raptors (46-18): Under 46.5
- Boston Celtics (43-21): Under 49.5
- Philadelphia 76ers (39-26): Over 54.5
- Brooklyn Nets (30-34): Over 43.5
- Orlando Magic (30-35): Over 41.5
- Washington Wizards (24-40): Under 26.5
- Charlotte Hornets (23-42): Under 23.5
- Detroit Pistons (20-46): Over 37.5
- Atlanta Hawks (20-47): Over 33.5
The Atlantic didn’t play out like our voters expected this season, with the Raptors and Celtics outperforming regular-season expectations, while the Sixers and Nets were on track to fall short of theirs.
The bottom of the conference was a bit of a mess as well. The Wizards and Hornets were expected to be among the East’s worst teams, but weren’t quite as bad as anticipated. The Pistons and Hawks, meanwhile, fell short of their goals for the season in part because they were without key frontcourt players (Blake Griffin and John Collins) for big chunks of the year.
In the middle, the Magic still had a chance to get to 42 wins if they’d been able to recapture their end-of-season form from 2018/19, when they followed a 20-31 start with a 22-9 finish.
Western Conference
Picks that were on pace to be right:
- Los Angeles Lakers (49-14): Over 51.5
- Los Angeles Clippers (44-20): Over 54.5
- Denver Nuggets (43-22): Over 53.5
- Utah Jazz (41-23): Under 53.5
- Houston Rockets (40-24): Under 54.5
- Dallas Mavericks (40-27): Over 41.5
- New Orleans Pelicans (28-36): Under 39.5
- Minnesota Timberwolves (19-45): Under 35.5
Some of these were pretty close calls. The Clippers were on pace to win 56 games; the Nuggets were on track to get to 54 victories; the Jazz were on pace to get to 53 wins; the Rockets were on track to win 51 games; and the Pelicans‘ soft end-of-season schedule would given them a realistic chance to get to 40+ wins.
Other predictions were more comfortable victories though. The Lakers and Mavericks were projected to blow past their preseason over/under numbers, and the Timberwolves would’ve had to finish the season on a 17-1 run to avoid falling short of their projected win total.
Importantly, eight teams are listed in this section, which means our voters had a winning record on their Western Conference picks!
Picks that were on pace to be wrong:
- Oklahoma City Thunder (40-24): Under 32.5
- Memphis Grizzlies (32-33): Under 27.5
- Portland Trail Blazers (29-37): Over 46.5
- Sacramento Kings (28-36): Over 38.5
- San Antonio Spurs (27-36): Over 46.5
- Phoenix Suns (26-39): Under 29.5
- Golden State Warriors (15-50): Over 48.5
We were way off on the Thunder, Grizzlies, Trail Blazers, Spurs, and Warriors, who had already clinched their respective overs or unders even before the season went on hiatus. The Kings and Suns, at least, probably would have finished in the relative vicinity of their preseason projections.
For a second straight season, our readers finished with a 14-16 record in their over/under picks, though this year definitely comes with an asterisk — maybe we can talk ourselves into believing we would’ve gotten to at least .500 if the season had played out in full.
Looking back at the preseason projections, along with your predictions, which team surprised or disappointed you the most? Jump into the comment section below to share your thoughts!
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Bam Adebayo, Kendrick Nunn, Markieff Morris Clear Quarantine
Three more players have cleared quarantine at the NBA campus and are free to join their respective teams for practices. Heat big man Bam Adebayo, Heat guard Kendrick Nunn, and Lakers forward Markieff Morris have all returned the necessary two negative coronavirus tests after arriving at Walt Disney World on Tuesday, according to reports.
Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press, who confirmed (via Twitter) that Adebayo and Nunn are out of quarantine, tweets that the plan is for the two Miami starters to conduct individual workouts today. The Heat will resume practicing on Friday before participating in their second inter-squad scrimmage on Saturday, against the Jazz.
It remains to be seen whether Adebayo and Nunn will be ready to go in time for either one of the Heat’s upcoming scrimmages, but with both players set to return to practice, they should be ready to go when the club plays the first of its eight seeding games on August 1 vs. Denver.
As for Morris, Tania Ganguli of The Los Angeles Times reported (via Twitter) that he has cleared quarantine. The veteran forward, of course, won’t be available for the Lakers during tonight’s inter-squad scrimmage against Dallas, but figures to return to L.A.’s rotation soon.
Draft Notes: Combine, Hinton, Krejci, Pinson, Miller
When the NBA announced in a memo to teams earlier this week that the 2020 draft lottery has been moved up by five days, the league also informed clubs that possible dates and formats for a 2020 combine are still being evaluated, writes Tim Bontemps of ESPN.
The combine typically takes place in May after the lottery, but holding such a big event in person this spring was impractical due to the coronavirus pandemic.
While it remains to be seen whether any sort of in-person combine can take place, the NBA told teams which 105 prospects received the most votes to be invited to such an event. If the league is able to move forward with a combine in some form, that number would likely be whittled down to about 70 players, says Bontemps.
Here’s more on the 2020 NBA draft:
- Jonathan Givony of ESPN (Twitter links) compares the list of 105 prospects in the NBA’s memo to ESPN’s big board of 2020’s top 100 prospects, noting that ESPN is higher on Houston guard Nate Hinton, while NBA teams seem to be higher on Czech guard Vit Krejci, who plays for Zaragoza in Spain.
- Missouri guard Xavier Pinson indicated in an Instagram video this week that he’ll return to school for at least one more year after testing the draft waters. As a sophomore in 2019/20, Pinson averaged 11.1 PPG, 2.8 APG, and 2.8 RPG in 31 games (24.0 MPG).
- UNC Greensboro guard Isaiah Miller will also remove his name from draft consideration, according to Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports (Twitter link). Miller declared for the draft following a junior year in which he averaged 17.8 PPG, 5.0 RPG, 3.1 APG, and 2.8 SPG in 32 games (28.4 MPG).
And-Ones: Beasley, Walkup, China, Ntilikina
The Nets issued a press release two weeks ago announcing that they had signed Michael Beasley, then voided that contract after the forward tested positive for COVID-19. According to John Hollinger of The Athletic (Twitter link), Beasley’s case is technically being treated as if he failed his physical and had his contract disapproved. As Hollinger puts it, “it’s like he was never there.”
Substitute-player contracts don’t count against NBA teams’ cap sheets this summer, so the Nets’ cap will be unaffected either way. However, presumably the team won’t be on the hook for the $183K they would have owed Beasley.
More importantly, the five-game suspension that Beasley would have had to serve if he had stuck with the Nets appears to still be in play — if and when the former No. 2 pick signs with a new NBA team, he’ll still have to serve that five-game ban before being activated.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Former Stephen F. Austin guard Thomas Walkup, who has spent the last three seasons overseas, received some NBA interest, but has decided to remain with Lithuanian team Zalgiris Kaunas rather than exercise his opt-out, according to Donatas Urbonas (Twitter link).
- The NBA has terminated its relationship with a basketball academy located in the Xinjiang region of China, according to a letter sent by the league to a U.S. senator, obtained by Ross Dellenger of SI.com. “The NBA has had no involvement with the Xinjiang basketball academy for more than a year, and the relationship has been terminated,” deputy commissioner Mark Tatum wrote to Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn. The Xinjiang region, where Chinese authorities are holding approximately one million Muslims in “re-education” camps, is “known as one of the world’s worst humanitarian zones,” Dellenger writes.
- A handful of NBA players are taking part in a basketball tournament in Paris this week, according to Marc Berman of The New York Post, who reports that Knicks guard Frank Ntilikina, Pistons forward Sekou Doumbouya, and Bulls two-way player Adam Mokoka are participating in the event.
Latest On Knicks’ Head Coaching Search
The Knicks aren’t currently engaged in contract negotiations with any of their 11 reported head coaching candidates and haven’t made a contract offer to any of those candidates either, sources tell Ian Begley of SNY.tv.
However, New York’s goal is still to hire a permanent head coach by the end of the month, likely prior to the NBA season resuming in Florida next Thursday, Begley says. Sources tell SNY that there’s a “strong likelihood” the Knicks will have discussions with multiple candidates next week.
Although Tom Thibodeau has been cited as the frontrunner throughout the process, Begley observes that the latest updates on the search suggest the team hasn’t necessarily zeroed in on any one candidate.
Still, Marc Berman of The New York Post calls attention to one factor working in Thibodeau’s favor. New Knicks president of basketball operations Leon Rose has hinted that the front office may have a hand in filling out the new coach’s staff — Thibodeau has been averse to that idea in the past, preferring to hand-pick his own assistants, but trusts Rose and is open to front office input in this case, sources tell Berman.
Kenny Atkinson and Jason Kidd are among the candidates that the Knicks have not “crossed off the list” as of yet, Berman adds. Atkinson met with the team on Monday in what was believed to be his second interview, Begley notes. As our tracker shows, New York has also interviewed interim coach Mike Miller, former NBA coaches Mike Brown and Mike Woodson, and a handful of current assistants from around the NBA.
Despite the lengthy process, some people believe the Knicks have a top choice in mind and are simply doing their due diligence on every candidate before finalizing their decision, Berman writes.
“In trying to be thorough and doing everything perfectly, the Knicks are dragging it out to a new level,” an NBA source tells The Post. “I believe they know who they’re going to hire, always have. They just need to make sure.”
Southwest Notes: Mbah A Moute, Burke, Mavs, Winslow
Another Rockets veteran has reported to the NBA’s campus, according to Kelly Iko of The Athletic (Twitter link), who hears from a source that forward Luc Mbah a Moute arrived in Orlando on Wednesday.
James Harden, Russell Westbrook, and Mbah a Moute didn’t initially travel with the Rockets to Orlando, but Harden and Westbrook have since arrived and started practicing with the club. Mbah a Moute will have to go through a brief quarantine period and return a pair of negative COVID-19 tests, but after that, Houston should be at relatively full strength.
Here’s more from around the Southwest:
- Mavericks guard Trey Burke – signed earlier this month as a substitute player for Willie Cauley-Stein – was scheduled to arrive in Orlando and begin his quarantine period on Wednesday, per head coach Rick Carlisle (Twitter link via Tim MacMahon of ESPN). Burke will help provide depth in a Dallas backcourt that’s missing Jalen Brunson and Courtney Lee.
- Tim Cato and John Hollinger of The Athletic explore the Mavericks‘ future, suggesting that a best-case scenario could conceivably see the club playing in the NBA Finals a couple years from now.
- Noting that the club didn’t provide many details on the hip injury that brought Justise Winslow‘s season to an end and further delayed his Grizzlies debut, Chris Herrington of The Memphian attempts to make sense of what the injury means for the team this season and in 2020/21.
Eric Bledsoe Arrives At NBA Campus, Begins Quarantine
Having gone through the NBA’s protocols after testing positive for COVID-19 earlier this month, Bucks starting point guard Eric Bledsoe arrived at the Walt Disney World campus on Wednesday night, the team announced (via Twitter).
As Malika Andrews of ESPN notes, Bledsoe will now have to quarantine for two days and will have to return two negative coronavirus tests – at least 24 hours apart – before he can rejoin the team and participate in practices. He obviously won’t be active for Milwaukee’s first inter-squad scrimmage on Thursday vs. San Antonio.
Although Bledsoe won’t be immediately available for the Bucks, his presence in Orlando is good news for the Eastern Conference leaders. Milwaukee has a comfortable 6.5-game lead on the Raptors for the No. 1 seed in the East, so there should be little need for the club to go all-out in the eight seeding games. Bledsoe will have plenty of time to ramp up to 100% before the start of the postseason next month.
The Bucks are a little closer to full strength as a result of Bledsoe’s arrival, but are still waiting on role player Pat Connaughton. He revealed earlier this week that he also tested positive for the coronavirus and is waiting on clearance to travel to Orlando.