NBA Plans To Launch Players-Only 2K Tournament
12:07pm: The Boardroom has provided a full list of the 16 participants in the tournament, along with the first-round matchups (Twitter link). Devin Booker (Suns), Trae Young (Hawks), and Zach LaVine (Bulls) are among the other stars set to take part in the event.
11:19am: With no NBA games expected to happen on the court anytime soon, the league is setting up a virtual tournament in an attempt to sate fans’ appetite for basketball, reports Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports.
According to Haynes, the league intends to launch an NBA 2K tournament that will feature NBA players competing against one another. The goal is to begin the 10-day event this Friday, though the league is still working out and finalizing the details, sources tell Haynes. The tournament would be broadcast on ESPN.
Nets star Kevin Durant, Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell, Cavaliers center Andre Drummond, and free agent big man DeMarcus Cousins are among the 16 players expected to participate, per Haynes.
Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel had previously tweeted that Trail Blazers center Hassan Whiteside and Heat swingman Derrick Jones were among the players set to play in an NBA 2K20 Players Tournament in April. That info appears to be based on an announcement from the NBPA, which was quickly deleted. Jeff Garcia of Spurs Zone (via Twitter) shares the full list of participants the NBPA identified in that premature release.
According to Winderman, the tournament is expected to have a $100K prize for charity.
Chinese Basketball Association Faces Another Setback
The Chinese government issued an order on Tuesday that will delay the restart of the Chinese Basketball Association’s 2019/20 season and other group sporting events in the country, according to Brian Windhorst of ESPN.
The order represents the latest setback for the CBA, which has been suspended since late January and had hoped to resume in early May. Windhorst writes that China’s General Administration of Sport didn’t provide a timeline for how long the restriction will be in place, resulting in uncertainty about if or when the basketball league might be able to resume its season.
Despite the setback, CBA teams have been telling players that they still expect to resume play and that they should have more clarity within the next few weeks, sources tell ESPN’s Jonathan Givony. Emiliano Carchia of Sportando confirms that the CBA doesn’t intend to cancel its season and will have a meeting later in April to discuss the situation.
The Chinese Basketball Association had been planning to split its 20 teams into a pair of groups and send them to two separate cities to play in empty arenas, per Windhorst. The league, which had to deal with a coronavirus shutdown well before the NBA did, is viewed as a “test case” for American sports leagues, as Windhorst explains, so the fact that its resumption keeps getting delayed isn’t a positive sign.
According to Windhorst, even though the spread of COVID-19 has slowed significantly in China, sports officials are concerned about asymptomatic carriers. This figures to be an issue for the NBA and other North American sports leagues when they attempt to resume their own seasons in the coming months.
NBA Continues To Mull Possible Playoff Scenarios
As industries across North America and around the world continue to be hit hard by the ongoing effects of the coronavirus pandemic, NBA executives are still hanging onto hope that the 2020 postseason can be salvaged, writes Marc Berman of The New York Post.
“They’re very determined to have a champion,” one source told The Post.
League executives are hoping it will be possible to play five-to-seven regular season games followed by a 16-team playoff, according to Berman, who suggests those games would all happen in a single city and would be played behind closed doors. The NBA only wants to consider a single-elimination postseason as a last resort, but reducing each round to a best-of-three series is a possibility. One league official tells Berman that “nothing is off the table.”
Previous reports have suggested that the NBA would like to have each team play at least 70 regular season games, since there’s language in regional TV deals calling for a minimum of 70 local games. However, that has become less of a priority as of late, according to Berman, who adds that that idea of completing the full regular season is essentially a non-starter at this point.
A best-case scenario might see the NBA resume its 2019/20 season in late June or early July, with the intent of pushing the start of the ’20/21 campaign back to December, says Berman.
As for where the season might be completed if it resumes, one report last week said the league was eyeing Las Vegas as a candidate, since the city has multiple venues and has a preexisting relationship with the NBA as a result of Summer League. Berman confirms that Vegas is a possibility, but suggests the NBA has also had “internal talks” about locales such as Orlando, Atlantic City, Hawaii, and Louisville.
Tentative 2020 NBA Draft Dates, Deadlines
In the past, the NBA and NCAA have worked together on an annual calendar that provides fairly rigid dates and deadlines each year for draft-eligible prospects and players who decide to enter the draft early. However, given the coronavirus pandemic currently affecting every aspect of life in North America and around the world, that calendar could be a whole lot more fluid this year.
Already, the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament, a key part of the pre-draft schedule for NBA scouts and evaluators, has been canceled, and that event is highly unlikely to be the last one in the draft process impacted by COVID-19.
With that in mind, we’re using this space to keep tabs on the 2020 NBA draft dates and deadlines, as currently scheduled. If deadlines listed below are changed or certain events are eliminated altogether, this post will be updated to reflect that.
So, with the caveat that these dates and deadlines are extremely tentative for the time being, here are the dates worth watching in the coming weeks and months:
April 16 (11:59pm ET): Deadline to request evaluation from NBA Undergraduate Advisory Committee
An early entrant who requests an evaluation from the NBA Undergraduate Advisory Committee can hire an NCAA-certified agent without worrying about losing his remaining college eligibility.
April 26 August 17 (11:59pm ET): Deadline for early entrants to declare for the draft (Rescheduled)
College underclassmen and international early entrants initially had until the end of the day on April 26 to submit their names into the 2020 NBA draft pool. However, the NBA retroactively pushed that deadline back to August 17, essentially creating a second window for early entrants to declare.
Those early entrants can always withdraw their names later if they decide they’re not ready to go pro this year.
May 17-19: G League Elite Camp (Canceled)
In a typical year, 40 NBA G League invitees would participate in the first half of this mini-camp before 40 top draft-eligible players who weren’t invited to the combine participate in the second half. Those invites would be sent out at the start of May.
However, this year, the event will almost certainly be postponed, canceled, or revamped to avoid having 80 players brought together.
May 19 August 20: NBA draft lottery (Rescheduled after being postponed)
In theory, the lottery could be conducted without needing to bring reporters, league executives, draft prospects, and representatives from every lottery team into one room. However, given how much scrutiny the lottery process faces from fans and team executives alike, the NBA may have to get creative to find a way to do it remotely.
May 19-24: NBA draft combine (Postponed indefinitely)
This five-day event typically allows NBA teams to get a first-hand look at many of this year’s top draft-eligible players. It’s particularly important for early entrants who have yet to decide whether or not to stay in the draft. The feedback they get at the combine goes a long way toward dictating whether they keep their names in the draft or return to school for another year.
In 2020, the combine won’t look anything like it typically does. There’s an expectation that some sort of virtual regional events can take place and some in-person interviews may be permitted, but teams’ abilities to scout players in person will be extremely limited, if not nonexistent.
June 3 (11:59pm) August 3 (11:59pm): NCAA early entrant withdrawal deadline (Rescheduled after being postponed)
College underclassmen who want to retain their NCAA eligibility will have to withdraw their names from the draft pool by August 3 or 10 days after the combine, whichever comes first. We’re assuming for now that August 3 will come first, since there are still no plans for a rescheduled combine.
NBA rules call for a later withdrawal deadline, but the NCAA has its own set of rules that call for a player to pull out by a certain date if he wants to be able to play college ball again.
June 15 (5:00pm) November 8 (5:00pm): NBA early entrant withdrawal deadline (Rescheduled)
This is the NBA’s final deadline for early entrants to withdraw their names from the draft pool and retain their draft eligibility for a future year. By this point, we generally know whether an NCAA underclassman kept his name in the draft or not, but this is an important deadline for international players, who aren’t subject to the same restrictions as college players.
June 25 November 18: NBA draft day (Rescheduled)
It remains to be seen what form this year’s draft will take. The WNBA completed a “virtual draft” in April — the NBA will likely opt for a similar arrangement.
In any case, with the NBA intending to resume its season in July, the June 25 draft had to be postponed. After initially pushing it back to October 16, the league and players’ union delayed it again. November 18 is the new date.
Information from the NCAA and NBA.com was used in the creation of this post.
Atlantic Notes: Dolan, Oakley, Knox, Sixers, Celtics
Although they were ordered earlier this month to personally participate in a March 31 conference call to media their long-running dispute, Knicks owner James Dolan and former NBA big man Charles Oakley will no longer be required to do so, as Stefan Bondy of The New York Daily News details. Instead, their lawyers will take part in the call. According to Bondy, there was a sense that a conference call might not be conducive to mediation between Dolan and Oakley themselves.
Oakley sued Dolan after the Knicks owner had him arrested and banned from Madison Square Garden in 2017. While Tuesday’s call could offer some form of resolution, a face-to-face meeting may be necessary for Dolan and Oakley to truly bury the hatchet. And, as Bondy notes, it’s not clear when that sort of meeting might be viable, given the social-distancing measures enacted in New York, not to mention Dolan’s positive coronavirus test.
Here’s more from around the Atlantic:
- Former Knicks head coach David Fizdale and interim replacement Mike Miller both felt that second-year forward Kevin Knox had a tendency to play “soft,” a league source tells Marc Berman of The New York Post. The Knicks have been impressed by Knox’s effort level and the strides he made on the defensive end, but Berman hears from a source that Miller, who was still tasked with winning games following the trade deadline, didn’t feel as if giving Knox heavy minutes was the best way to achieve that goal.
- In an interesting piece for The Athletic, Derek Bodner takes a look at how things might have been different for the Sixers if they hadn’t traded up to select Markelle Fultz in the 2017 draft. Bodner refers to the decision as “the turning point of when the Sixers’ team-building became complicated.”
- Steve Bulpett of The Boston Herald takes a look at what the Celtics got out of each player on their roster in 2019/20 and what the team might have expected from those players if the season hadn’t been postponed.
- In case you missed it, we rounded up a few Nets-related rumors and notes earlier this afternoon.
Nets Rumors: Third Star, Dinwiddie, Coach, Kyrie
In the latest edition of his Hoop Collective podcast, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said he believes the Nets have signaled they’ll try to use some of their young talent to trade for a third star this offseason to complement Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.
“We could enter a healthy debate here about whether Caris LeVert is that third star, and they may make the decision that he is,” Windhorst said. “But my feel (from) reading the tea leaves, paying attention to what (general manager) Sean Marks has said, and also being aware of some conversations that they had at the trade deadline – which was some sticking the toe in the water on some things – I think that they are going to swing for the fences whenever the offseason comes.”
As Windhorst and guests Bobby Marks and Kevin Pelton note, it’s not clear which stars on other rosters would even available via trade and whether the Nets would be willing to package players like LeVert or Spencer Dinwiddie. Marks and Pelton point out that moving a point guard like Dinwiddie could be somewhat risky, given all the games Irving has missed due to injuries in recent years.
Here’s more on the Nets:
- Windhorst also suggested in today’s podcast that the Nets figure to seek an established head coach who would be comfortable leading a veteran team going all-in on contending. “One of the things that has been expressed sort of through the grapevine – that’s the way I’m going to say it to protect myself from the aggregators – is that Durant and Irving would like a blue chip coach,” Windhorst said. “I don’t know what this says about the way they felt about (Kenny) Atkinson, but they want a big-name coach.”
- In a subsequent discussion on potential head coaching options for Brooklyn, Windhorst speculates that Tom Thibodeau will receive consideration from both the Nets and Knicks. As Windhorst observes, Thibodeau’s experience as an assistant for Team USA gives him a connection to Durant and Irving.
- In the latest installment of his player-by-player look at the Nets’ roster, Brian Lewis of The New York Post focuses on Irving, writing that it’s hard to imagine Kyrie’s second year in Brooklyn being as “tumultuous” as year one was. Lewis also doesn’t close the door on the possibility of Irving returning to action in 2019/20 if the season resumes in two or three months.
Community Shootaround: Hypothetical Sixth Man Ballot
Last week, we discussed hypothetical 2019/20 ballots for the MVP, Rookie of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, and Most Improved Player awards. We’re finishing up our look at the NBA’s major awards this week, starting with Sixth Man of the Year.
Any discussion for this award generally has to start with Clippers guard Lou Williams, who has been named the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year twice in a row and three times in the last five years. In 2019/20, the 33-year-old was once again one of the league’s leading scorers off the bench, with 18.7 PPG and a career-high 5.7 APG.
However, with Kawhi Leonard and Paul George in the picture, Williams wasn’t leaned on quite as heavily this season, and his .416 FG% was his lowest mark since 2015/16. Mark Murphy of The Boston Herald still had Williams atop his hypothetical Sixth Man of the Year ballot, but neither Dan Devine of The Ringer nor Zach Harper of The Athletic even had him in the top three.
Devine’s Sixth Man pick was one of Williams’ teammates: Montrezl Harrell. As Devine points out, a handful of advanced stats favor Harrell, who led all reserves in value over replacement player and total win shares in 2019/20. The big man’s traditional stats, including 18.6 PPG and 7.1 RPG, were pretty impressive too, earning him a runner-up spot on Harper’s and Murphy’s ballots.
Harper, however, went in another direction with his choice, opting for Thunder guard Dennis Schroder. Chris Paul‘s return to All-Star status and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander‘s breakout sophomore season may have earned more headlines, but Schroder played a major role this year in Oklahoma City’s unexpected success. His 19.0 PPG ranked first among reserves, and he has scored those points efficiently (.468/.381/.839) while chipping in 4.1 APG and 3.7 RPG as well.
Heat guard Goran Dragic, who accepted a backup role and enjoyed a nice bounceback season, with 16.1 PPG and 5.1 APG, earned the third spot on Harper’s and Murphy’s ballots. Bucks guards George Hill and Donte DiVincenzo, who provided key depth for the NBA’s best team, tied for third place on Devine’s list. Pistons point guard Derrick Rose (18.1 PPG, 5.6 APG) earned an honorable mention from Harper.
Wizards sharpshooter Davis Bertans, Jazz sparkplug Jordan Clarkson, Kings wing Bogdan Bogdanovic, and big men like Dwight Howard (Lakers) and Christian Wood (Pistons) are some of the other players who deserve consideration, though Bogdanovic and Wood were among those who had become starters by the time the season was suspended.
What do you think? Who is your pick for Sixth Man of the Year in 2019/20 (assuming the regular season is over or close to it)? How would you fill out your top three if you had a ballot?
Head below to the comment section to share your thoughts!
Michigan’s Isaiah Livers Enters 2020 NBA Draft
Michigan junior forward Isaiah Livers has elected to enter the 2020 NBA draft, the Wolverines announced on Monday in a press release.
Although he’ll sign with an agent, Livers will maintain his college eligibility throughout the process and isn’t making any final decisions yet. As such, returning to Michigan for his senior season remains a possibility.
“The University of Michigan has done so much for me and helped me get to a position where I might be able to reach my goal of playing professional basketball,” Livers said in a statement. “While this is only the start of the evaluation, I have appreciated your encouragement and will continue to need it as this process moves on.”
In 21 games (31.5 MPG) in 2019/20, Livers led Juwan Howard‘s squad with 12.9 PPG. He also averaged 4.0 RPG and shot an impressive 40.2% from beyond the arc.
While he’s certainly no lock to be drafted, Livers does show up on ESPN’s big board of 2020 prospects, coming in at No. 100.
Hoops Rumors Glossary: Non-Bird Rights
Players and teams have to meet certain criteria to earn Bird rights and Early Bird rights, but Non-Bird rights are practically a given. They apply to a player who has spent a single season or less with his team, as long as he finishes the season on an NBA roster. Even a player who signs on the last day of the regular season and spends just one day with his club would have Non-Bird rights in the offseason.
Teams can also claim Non-Bird rights on Early Bird free agents if they renounce them. The primary motivator to do so would be to allow the team to sign the free agent to a one-year contract, a move that’s not permitted via Early Bird rights.
Teams are eligible to sign their own free agents using the Non-Bird exception for a salary starting at 120% of the player’s previous salary, 120% of the minimum salary, or the amount of a qualifying offer (if the player is a restricted free agent), whichever is greatest. Contracts can be for up to four years, with 5% annual raises.
The cap hold for a Non-Bird player is 120% of his previous salary, unless the previous salary was the minimum. In that case, the cap hold is equivalent to the two-year veteran’s minimum salary. If a Non-Bird free agent only has one year of NBA experience, his cap hold is equivalent to the one-year veteran’s minimum salary.
The salary limitations that apply to Non-Bird rights are more severe than those pertaining to Bird rights or Early Bird rights, so in many cases, the Non-Bird exception may not be enough to retain a well-regarded free agent. For instance, the Bucks held Brook Lopez‘s Non-Bird rights last summer, but were unable to realistically use them to re-sign the free agent center.
Because Lopez’s 2018/19 salary was only $3,382,000, the club’s ability to offer a raise using the Non-Bird exception was extremely limited — 120% of Lopez’s previous salary worked out to just $4,058,400, which wouldn’t have been a competitive starting point for an offer.
In order to bring back Lopez, who ultimately signed a new four-year, $52MM deal with Milwaukee, the team had to use cap room or another exception. The Bucks ended up making a series of moves that allowed them to carve out the cap space necessary to pay Lopez $13MM annually.
Holding Non-Bird rights on a free agent didn’t really help the Bucks in that scenario, but there are cases in which the exception proves useful. For instance, the Clippers will only have Non-Bird rights on Marcus Morris this offseason, but because his ’19/20 salary is $15MM, Los Angeles would be able to offer a starting salary worth up to $18MM. That should give the club plenty of flexibility to re-sign Morris without using cap room or another exception, if there’s mutual interest in a new deal.
Although no contracts signed during the 2019 offseason fit the bill, Luke Kornet‘s 2018 contract with the Knicks provides an example of a team using Non-Bird rights on a minimum salary player. Kornet, whose minimum salary would have been $1,349,383 in ’18/19, was eligible to sign for up to 120% of that amount via the Non-Bird exception. As such, his one-year deal with New York was worth $1,619,260.
Finally, it’s worth noting that a player who re-signs with his previous team on a one-year deal and will have Early Bird or Bird rights at the end of that contract would surrender those rights if he consents to a trade. In that scenario, he’d only finish the season with Non-Bird rights.
This happened to Rodney Hood in 2019, when he agreed to a trade that sent him from Cleveland to Portland. Because he lost his Bird rights by consenting to the deal, Hood only had Non-Bird rights during the 2019 offseason, so the Trail Blazers had to use their taxpayer mid-level exception to re-sign him.
Note: This is a Hoops Rumors Glossary entry. Our glossary posts will explain specific rules relating to trades, free agency, or other aspects of the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. Larry Coon’s Salary Cap FAQ was used in the creation of this post.
Earlier versions of this post were published in previous years by Luke Adams and Chuck Myron. Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Southeast Notes: Fournier, Heat, Capela, Hawks
Due to his player option for the 2020/21 season, Evan Fournier will be eligible to become a free agent as early as this offseason, and a possible next contract for him will be one of the toughest decisions facing the Magic, writes Josh Robbins of The Athletic.
As Robbins notes, Fournier is one of the Magic’s top scorers — his 18.8 PPG in 2019/20 represented a career high and his .599 TS% was easily the team’s best mark. However, “many higher-ups” don’t think he’d be a top-three offensive option on a contending team, according to Robbins, who adds that some opposing scouts and executives believe Fournier would be better suited as a bench scorer on a championship-caliber club.
Robbins also points out that the Magic had a more effective offense and a 4-0 record in games Fournier missed this season, though that could be viewed as a small-sample anomaly. Still, it will be among the many factors the team figures to consider as it weighs whether to add another pricey, multiyear deal to its books. Nikola Vucevic and Terrence Ross are on long-term contracts and Markelle Fultz and Jonathan Isaac will be up for extensions before long.
Here’s more from around the Southeast:
- Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel doesn’t expect the Heat to add another veteran – such as Jamal Crawford – for depth purposes if and when the 2019/20 season resumes. Winderman also explores Derrick Jones‘ free agent value, suggesting it remains unclear whether Miami will be willing to invest in him on a mid-level-type multiyear contract or if the team prefers to retain more cap flexibility.
- In a mailbag for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Sarah K. Spencer provides an injury update on Clint Capela, writing that the big man had been participating in half-court workouts before practices were shut down. If the season had played out normally, Spencer notes, there’s a chance Capela wouldn’t have returned at all or would have been on a strict minutes limit. If it ends up resuming in the summer, his odds of making his Hawks debut this season figure to increase.
- Chris Kirschner and John Hollinger of The Athletic teamed up for a two-part look at the Hawks‘ future, exploring whether the team made positive strides in 2019/20 and what its outlook is going forward.