Sixers Notes: Broekhoff, Simmons, Robinson
After signing with the Sixers during the last week of June, sharpshooter Ryan Broekhoff has yet to report to the NBA’s campus at Walt Disney World. In a Twitter statement on Sunday, Broekhoff explained the delay.
“I am not with the 76ers right now in Orlando because my wife who is high risk tested positive for COVID,” he wrote. “We have a young son and my focus needs to be with my family at this time. I appreciate the 76ers for their support.”
As the team waits to see whether Broekhoff will be able to report to Orlando, here’s more on the Sixers:
- Speaking to reporters on Monday, 76ers head coach Brett Brown said he has been playing Ben Simmons “exclusively” at power forward during the first few Florida practices and has been impressed by what he has seen. “He’s so dynamic,” Brown said, per Tim Bontemps of ESPN. “Let’s just talk about running. There’s nobody faster in the NBA. So to always have the ball and dribble it up against five guys … to do that dilutes some of his potent weapons. So, watching him fly up the floor, watching him and Joel (Embiid) play off each other, has been a really good look. I think they’ve been fantastic together.” As Bontemps notes, if Brown intends to play Simmons at the four, it would likely mean having Shake Milton in the starting five, with Al Horford coming off the bench.
- Sixers forward Glenn Robinson III is experiencing some upper back discomfort and received treatment today, but was still able to participate fully in practice, writes Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. The club doesn’t consider it a serious issue, Pompey adds.
- In case you missed it, we also rounded up a series of Sixers-related notes on Saturday.
Two NBA Players Tested Positive On Campus, Didn’t Clear Quarantine
Of the 322 NBA players who have been tested for the coronavirus since arriving in Orlando on July 7, two returned confirmed positive tests, the league and the NBPA announced today in a press release.
Those players were tested while self-isolating in their hotel rooms and never cleared quarantine, according to today’s announcement. They have since left the NBA’s Walt Disney World campus to isolate at home or in isolation housing. As a result, the hope is that the campus isn’t compromised and there won’t be any sort of outbreak.
According to the NBA and NBPA, 19 players have also tested positive in their home markets since July 1. Those players remain in their respective markets and didn’t travel to Orlando. They’re recovering, quarantining, and awaiting medical clearance before they get the go-ahead to travel to Disney.
While the identity of many of those affected players isn’t known, some have been reported or have announced their positive tests themselves. Rockets star Russell Westbrook became the latest to do so today, announcing on Twitter that he contracted the virus.
Kings’ Holmes Quarantining On Campus For Eight More Days
Kings center Richaun Holmes announced today on Twitter that he “briefly and accidentally crossed the NBA campus line” in order to pick up a food delivery following the initial quarantine period. As a result, Holmes is subject to a new 10-day quarantine period — he indicated in his statement that he has eight days left.
Holmes is the second player known to have violated the NBA’s campus protocols, joining Rockets forward Bruno Caboclo. Today’s report on Caboclo suggested that he left his room during the initial quarantine period, whereas it sounds like Holmes inadvertently left the campus. In each case, the player must quarantine for 10 more days before resuming basketball activities.
The Kings are scheduled to participate in their first inter-squad scrimmage on July 22 vs. the Heat. Holmes’ quarantine period will have just ended at that point, so he may not be ready to play right away. Presumably he’ll be good to go by the time Sacramento’s first seeding game takes place on July 31 vs. San Antonio.
While the Kings will be missing Holmes for the next eight days, they did get some good news on Sunday. Head coach Luke Walton told reporters – including Dave McMenamin of ESPN (Twitter link) – that Buddy Hield and Jabari Parker had reported to Walt Disney World and begun their quarantines. Both players previously tested positive for COVID-19 but were medically cleared to travel to Orlando.
Nuggets Missing Multiple Players In Orlando
In addition to waiting on star center Nikola Jokic to arrive at the Walt Disney World campus from Serbia, the Nuggets are also currently missing a few other players, according to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). League sources tell Haynes that Gary Harris, Michael Porter Jr., and Torrey Craig haven’t made the trip to Disney.
Haynes’ report doesn’t include any additional info, so it’s not clear if Harris, Porter, and Craig are set to arrive soon, or if there’s a possibility that any of them might end up not reporting at all. There’s also no word on whether the absences are related to the coronavirus.
Jokic’s trip to Florida was delayed by the fact that he tested positive for COVID-19 in his home country of Serbia. Before joining the Nuggets at the Disney campus, he had to be medically cleared and get a flight to the United States. Head coach Michael Malone said last week that he expected Jokic to arrive within a few days.
According to Kendra Andrews of The Athletic (Twitter link), guard Monte Morris also hasn’t been spotted in photos or videos since the team reported to Orlando last week, so it’s possible Morris isn’t there yet either, though that’s unconfirmed.
Even if all of the Nuggets’ missing players eventually arrive at Disney, they’ll have to go through a brief quarantine period before being cleared to participate in practices, so they could have a very abridged ramp-up period — Denver’s season is set to resume on August 1, just 19 days from now.
Still, with a comfortable hold on a playoff spot, the Nuggets could end up focusing on getting to full strength by the time the postseason begins rather than going all-out during the seeding games.
Knicks Complete Second Round Of Head Coaching Interviews
The Knicks have completed the second round of interviews for their head coaching job, according to Steve Popper of Newsday.
As reports last month indicated – and as president of basketball operations Leon Rose later confirmed – the Knicks’ search process included a first round of informal meetings with the candidates for its head coaching position. More recently, the club conducted a second round of more formal interviews.
It’s not clear whether the Knicks are now ready to make their decision or whether the organization will narrow down its initial list of 11 candidates to a smaller group of finalists before finalizing a hire. Rose said during an appearance on MSG Network last month that he expects the team to make a decision on its permanent head coach before the NBA resumes its season later this month in Florida.
According to Popper, Tom Thibodeau – who has been considered the frontrunner since the start of the process – remains the odds-on favorite. However, New York’s search was wide-ranging.
In addition to Thibodeau and interim head coach Mike Miller, the club also interviewed former Nets coach Kenny Atkinson, former Knicks coach Mike Woodson, former Bucks and Nets coach Jason Kidd, former Lakers and Cavs coach Mike Brown, and five current assistants without head coaching experience, including Ime Udoka of the Sixers.
The full list of candidates can be found on our 2020 head coaching tracker.
Here’s more on the Knicks:
- The Knicks will get the opportunity to learn about “the Spurs way” during their head coaching interviews, according to Marc Berman of The New York Post, who points out that besides current Spurs assistant Will Hardy, Udoka has also served on Gregg Popovich‘s staff.
- In a mailbag for The New York Post, Berman discusses the Knicks’ coaching decision, potential offseason targets, Allonzo Trier‘s departure, and more.
- Knicks executive Craig Robinson has been named the next executive director of the National Association of Basketball Coaches (Twitter link). Robinson is on an expiring deal with New York and the expectation has been that he won’t be retained by the new management group, led by Rose.
Community Shootaround: Western Conference Seeding
As we detailed on Friday when we discussed the playoff picture in the Eastern Conference, there will be an opportunity for teams to move up – or down – in the standings when play resumes on July 30.
With eight “seeding games” on tap, teams are unlikely to make up five- or six-game deficits on the clubs ahead of them in the standings, but there’s a strong likelihood of a shake-up in instances where teams are only separated by a game or two.
That’s even more true in the Western Conference than it is in the East, albeit not necessarily at the very top of the standings, where the 49-14 Lakers hold a fairly comfortable lead on the 44-20 Clippers. The Lakers’ magic number to clinch the conference is just three, so they’re a safe bet to hang onto the No. 1 seed.
After that though, there’s some congestion in the standings. The Clippers’ lead on the Nuggets (43-22) is just 1.5 games. Denver holds an identical lead over the Jazz (41-23). Utah, meanwhile, is just a couple losses away from slipping down to the No. 6 seed, as the Thunder (40-24) and Rockets (40-24) are right on their heels. The 40-27 Mavericks round out this group of six teams, a game-and-a-half behind OKC and Houston and just 5.5 games behind the second-seeded Clippers.
A number of those six clubs bunched up in the middle of the Western Conference playoff picture will face one another when play resumes. For instance, the Thunder – who have the potential to move up or down a couple spots in the standings – will open the restart against the Jazz and Nuggets and eventually finish their season against the Clippers. The Clips will face the Mavericks and Nuggets in addition to OKC. Dallas opens its eight seeding games by playing the Rockets.
Given the strength of competition in the West, seeding could be paramount in the postseason. The Nuggets, for example, could conceivably face the Jazz, Thunder, Rockets, or Mavs in the first round and would likely prefer some opponents to others in that group. The Jazz, currently at No. 4, could be motivated to avoid the No. 6 Rockets in the first round, since they’ve been eliminated by Houston in each of the previous two postseasons.
At the bottom of the playoff picture, the No. 8 Grizzlies (32-33) have essentially no chance to move up, since they’re seven games back of Dallas. But they’ll be looking to increase their lead over the Trail Blazers, Pelicans, Kings, Spurs, and Suns — if they can finish with more than a four-game lead on all those clubs, they’ll avoid a play-in tournament. If the Nos. 8 and 9 seeds finish within four games of one another, a play-in tournament will be necessary to determine that final playoff spot.
A newly-healthy Blazers squad will be a major threat to the Grizzlies, as will a Pelicans team that faces one of the league’s weakest schedules over the course of the eight seeding games.
What do you think? Do you think we’ll see much movement in the Western Conference’s top eight? Will the Grizzlies be knocked out by one of the challengers behind them in the standings? What do you expect the West’s top eight seeds to look like by the time the playoffs begin?
Head to the comment section below to weigh in with your predictions!
Russell Westbrook Tested Positive For COVID-19
Rockets guard Russell Westbrook announced today (via Twitter) that he tested positive for the coronavirus prior to departing for the NBA’s campus in Florida.
“I’m currently feeling well, quarantined, and looking forward to rejoining my teammates when I am cleared,” Westbrook wrote in his statement.
Westbrook had been one of three Rockets players who had yet to report to the Walt Disney World campus, along with former MVP James Harden and recently-signed forward Luc Mbah a Moute. It’s unclear whether Harden’s and Mbah a Moute’s absences are coronavirus-related or whether their arrivals have been delayed for other reasons. Head coach Mike D’Antoni said on Sunday that he expected the missing players to report within a few days.
Teams are permitted to replace players who contract COVID-19 with a substitute player. However, replaced players are ineligible to return for the rest of the season. With Westbrook said to be feeling well, there’s no reason for the Rockets not to wait for him to recover — his statement and D’Antoni’s comments suggest the team will do just that.
Assuming Westbrook is cleared to head to Orlando and report to the Rockets within the next week or two, he should still have plenty of time to ramp up before the playoffs begin on August 18.
Acquired last July in a blockbuster trade with the Thunder, Westbrook has had a strong first season in Houston, averaging 27.5 PPG, 8.0 RPG, and 7.0 APG in 53 games (35.9 MPG). He has been particularly effective as a slasher and play-maker since the Rockets introduced their “micro-ball” lineup and will be counted on to play a key role if the club is to make a deep postseason run.
Bruno Caboclo To Re-Isolate After Breaking Quarantine
Rockets forward Bruno Caboclo inadvertently broke quarantine at the NBA’s Walt Disney World campus and will be required to re-quarantine for another eight days before he resumes team activities, according to Tim MacMahon, Zach Lowe, Malika Andrews, and Tim Bontemps of ESPN (Twitter link). Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle clarifies (via Twitter) that Caboclo is now two days into a new 10-day quarantine period.
Any sort of coronavirus outbreak within the Disney campus could throw a wrench into the NBA’s restart plan, so the league is requiring players, coaches, and staffers to strictly follow the protocols put in place. Caboclo is the first player known to have run afoul of those protocols, having left his room during the initial quarantine period, tweets MacMahon. He was unaware he wasn’t allowed to do so, despite having been informed of those restrictions.
Caboclo, 24, was traded from Memphis to Houston at the trade deadline in February, but didn’t see much action after joining the Rockets. He appeared in just five games before the season was suspended in March, averaging 2.0 PPG and 1.8 RPG in 5.6 minutes per contest.
Rockets head coach Mike D’Antoni is unlikely to utilize a super-deep rotation in Orlando, but with David Nwaba unable to play due to his Achilles recovery and Luc Mbah a Moute rejoining the team after a long layoff, Caboclo had a chance to move up on the depth chart. Now that he won’t be able to resume practicing until next week, it seems less likely that he’ll play regular minutes during the seeding games.
The Rockets are still waiting for stars James Harden and Russell Westbrook, as well as Mbah a Moute, to report to the Disney campus in Florida. According to Feigen, D’Antoni said on Sunday that those players are working out at “their own home base” and that they should arrive “in a few days.” He declined to offer specifics on why the arrivals of Harden, Westbrook, and Mbah a Moute have been delayed.
“These are things that people are dealing with,” D’Antoni said. “We’re not going to get into why not. They’re on their way.”
Financial, Logistical Uncertainty Looms Over 2020/21 NBA Season
Now that the NBA has finalized its plan for the summer restart and teams have reported to Orlando, we have a pretty clear idea of what the rest of the 2019/20 season will look like, assuming it can be completed. However, uncertainty looms over the ’20/21 campaign, which doesn’t yet have an official start date.
According to Alex Silverman of Morning Consult, the NBA’s Global Innovation Group recently sent out an internal planning document outlining four possible scenarios for the 2020/21 season. Three of the proposed scenarios would feature a December start date and a July end date, but the fourth would see the season start in March 2021 and run through October, Silverman writes.
As Silverman explains, that fourth scenario is one that could be considered if there’s a pathway in early 2021 to a coronavirus vaccine or therapeutic treatment for COVID-19 that would allow teams to host fans in their home arenas for a full season. Under that proposal, the league would consider breaking for the Tokyo Olympics in the summer and would execute a “rolling schedule” rather than releasing the full-season schedule at once, Silverman writes.
It seems more likely that the NBA will opt for one of the December-to-July scenarios (the league has tentatively proposed a December 1 start date), but that will mean making contingency plans and preparing for a wide variety of complications related to the state of the coronavirus pandemic across North America.
According to Silverman, the NBA may still have to consider rolling schedule releases if the season starts in December, as well as “increasing game density, building in buffers for canceled or rescheduled games, and potentially using alternate sites like neutral markets or practice and G League facilities.” Regionally restricting matchups to reduce travel is also a possibility, Silverman adds.
Determining how to safely play in a world with the coronavirus will be a crucial question for the NBA to answer as it weighs its options for next season, but there are other important factors to consider, per Brian Windhorst and Tim Bontemps of ESPN. Notably, the NBA’s owners and players will have to agree to a deal on how to financially operate, and 30 teams facing different restrictions and market conditions will have to figure out the best way to share revenues.
As Windhorst and Bontemps explain, the NBA salvaged its lucrative television deals in 2019/20 and had played about 75% of its regular season before the coronavirus pandemic forced a stoppage, so the financial losses were significant but not debilitating.
During the 2020/21 season, however, teams might not be able to fill their arenas with fans at all from opening night through the playoffs, which would significantly cut into the league’s earnings — commissioner Adam Silver has estimated that about 40% of the NBA’s revenues come from ticket sales and other arena-related revenues.
“The truth is, things are changing so fast that, when it comes to next season, the best we can do is put a stake in the ground and make a guess,” an Eastern Conference team president told ESPN. “The reality is nobody is probably going to operate in the black next season. The only question is how much each of us are going to lose.”
According to Windhorst and Bontemps, the league’s financial situation will become even cloudier if – due to local health restrictions and regulations – some teams can’t get fans into their arenas while others can. In a typical season, massive revenues for teams like the Lakers and Warriors help support smaller-market clubs. But if those smaller-market teams can host fans while big-market teams can’t, “traditional revenue sharing becomes distorted,” Windhorst and Bontemps write.
Sources tell ESPN that NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum recently told team presidents that the league’s plan for now is to allow local governments to regulate crowds at games. That means franchises around the NBA could be at the mercy of the policy views of local governors and mayors.
The salary cap for the 2020/21 season will be another important detail to resolve. While there’s a widespread desire to artificially smooth the cap based on this year’s $109MM rather than allowing a substantial dip, that will require negotiations between owners and players. Additionally, as Windhorst and Bontemps note, since owners and players share the NBA’s revenues, there will have to be some sort of system in place to ensure a split near 50/50 is maintained, even as revenues decrease.
According to the ESPN duo, one option would be to increase the amount of players’ salaries that are held in escrow from 10% to 20%. Another option would be for the excess player salaries needed to balance the revenue split to be offset in future seasons.
“In one case, the owners want a loan from the players. And in the other case, the players want a loan from the owners,” one agent told ESPN. “It will probably end up somewhere in the middle and it will get done after some yelling and posturing.”
The NBA put in a ton of work to establish a plan to end the 2019/20 season — much more work will be required to figure out what next season will look like.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Pacific Notes: Kawhi, J. Green, Lakers, Suns, Warriors
Star forward Kawhi Leonard didn’t travel to Walt Disney World this week with the rest of the Clippers this week, sources tell Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports. According to Haynes, Leonard was given permission by the club to tend to a family matter. Haynes wrote on Wednesday that the reigning Finals MVP was expected to arrive in Orlando within “a few days.”
Leonard isn’t the only Clippers player who will be late in arriving to the NBA’s campus. Sources tell Andrew Greif and Broderick Turner of The Los Angeles Times (Twitter link) that forward JaMychal Green is tending to a family matter of his own and isn’t in Orlando yet. Green is expected to arrive on Sunday, per The L.A. Times.
Here’s more from around the Pacific:
- Anthony Slater of The Athletic digs into the question of whether J.R. Smith or Dion Waiters will help the Lakers more this summer in Orlando.
- Not all of the Suns players are at the NBA’s campus yet, but Monty Williams declined on Thursday to identify the players arriving at a later date, writes Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic. Phoenix’s head coach did say it was good to get back on a practice court. “It’s not weird when we get into the gym,” Williams said of the unusual circumstances. “It’s just when we leave the gym and you have to put your mask on and the coaches have had their mask on the whole practice. So you can imagine the huffing and puffing that goes on with us older coaches.”
- Appearing this week on David Aldridge’s “Hoops, Adjacent” podcast at The Athletic, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr discussed a bevy of topics. Among them: His desire to conduct offseason team activities and the Warriors’ plan for Stephen Curry to make sure they’re “not wearing him out” going forward.