Brooklyn Nets Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Kevin Durant Tests Positive For Coronavirus

March 17th, 2020 at 4:31pm CST by ChrisCrouse

Kevin Durant is one of four Nets players that have tested positive for the coronavirus, he tells Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). Durant said he is feeling alright.

“Everyone be careful, take care of yourself and quarantine. We’re going to get through this,” he said.

It was announced earlier today that four Brooklyn players had tested positive for the virus. The Nets paid out of pocket to a private company to conduct the testing, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.com reports (Twitter link).

The team elected to protect the identity of those players, but Durant was willing to go public with his diagnosis. Brooklyn said that all four affected players are isolated and under the care of team doctors, as our own Luke Adams relayed. Three of the four players aren’t exhibiting symptoms, according to the club — it sounds like KD falls into that group.

The latest news means that the total number of NBA players diagnosed with COVID-19 is up to seven, as the four affected Nets join a list that already included Jazz stars Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell and Pistons big man Christian Wood.

Four Nets Players Test Positive For Coronavirus

March 17th, 2020 at 3:00pm CST by Luke Adams

Four Nets players have tested positive for the coronavirus, the team announced today in a press release. Brooklyn didn’t identify those players in its announcement, but said that all four are isolated and under the care of team doctors. Three of the four players aren’t exhibiting symptoms, according to the club.

[UPDATE: Kevin Durant among four Nets players who tested positive]

The Nets are in the process of notifying anyone who recently had known contact with the affected players, including recent opponents, and has asked all members of its travel party to remain isolated and closely monitor their health, the team said in its release.

The latest news means that the total number of NBA players diagnosed with COVID-19 is up to seven, as the four affected Nets join a list that already included Jazz stars Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell and Pistons big man Christian Wood.

Neither the Jazz nor the Pistons recently faced the Nets, so it doesn’t appear there are any obvious connections between all the cases. Brooklyn’s three most recent opponents were the Lakers (March 10), Bulls (March 8), and Spurs (March 6) — none of those teams played Utah or Detroit recently either.

The Nets had been scheduled to face the Warriors in a game without fans last Thursday night before Gobert’s positive test prompted the NBA to suspend its season on Wednesday.

More Teams, Players Pledge To Support Arena Workers During Hiatus

March 16th, 2020 at 11:42am CST by Luke Adams

The list of teams and players who have vowed to help support arena workers who will lose wages during the NBA’s hiatus continues to grow. Here are several of the updates from the couple days:

The Bulls‘ ownership group, along with United Center ownership, announced that it will pay day-of-game employees through the remained of the originally scheduled season. The Nets issued a press release indicating they’ll do the same for hourly employees who worked games and events at Barclays Center. A team official said the Sixers are doing so too, tweets John Clark of NBC Sports Philadelphia.
The Spurs announced the formation of a fund totaling $500K+ that will be used to pay its part-time employees through the rest of the season. The Hornets also established a fund to assist the organization’s part-time employees who had been scheduled to work Hornets and Greensboro Swarm games through the end of their respective seasons.
The Nuggets‘ ownership group pledged to pay its part-time and hourly employees for the next 30 days, per a press release.
Madison Square Garden has committed to paying event-driven employees, including those who work at Knicks games, through March 22 and is working to come up with a longer-term plan, per a memo obtained by Ian Begley of SNY.tv. The Suns, meanwhile, are paying their employees who were scheduled to work their two home games in March, noting that the staffing for their four home games in April hadn’t yet been finalized.
The Raptors said in a press release that they have joined forces with Toronto’s other sports franchises to create a fund for arena and stadium workers. “Being a good teammate means looking out for our neighbours, friends and the people we work with,” Raptors president Masai Ujiri said in a statement. “Through this fund, we all pledge to be good teammates to our arena, stadium and support staff. We want to be here for them, the way they are always here for us.”
Following the lead of stars Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton, the rest of the Bucks‘ roster has also committed to making donations to impacted Fiserv Forum workers, per the team (Twitter link). Magic center Mohamed Bamba vowed to do the same for Amway Center employees (Twitter link).
Timberwolves big man Karl-Anthony Towns is making a $100K donation as well, but his money will be going to the Mayo Clinic, which is rolling out a test to detect the virus that causes COVID-19. “My hope is that we can fight this virus quicker and more efficiently by increasing the testing capabilities and availability and Mayo Clinic’s overall COVID-19 response,” Towns tweeted.

Kleiman: “Not Very Realistic” To Expect Durant To Play In Summer

March 16th, 2020 at 10:22am CST by Luke Adams

Nets star Kevin Durant is one of a number of players around the NBA who was ruled out for the 2019/20 season due to an injury prior to the hiatus. Now that there’s a possibility the end of the season could be played in June, July, and/or August, projected return dates will be re-evaluated, since many injuries may not ultimately be season-ending after all.

However, appearing today on Golic & Wingo, Durant’s business partner Rich Kleiman downplayed the idea of KD returning to play in the summer (link via ESPN).

“Honestly, not very realistic from my standpoint, and (we have) not even spoken about,” Kleiman said.

Durant tore his Achilles tendon in Game 5 of the NBA Finals last June, so if the NBA season were to return in mid-June, it would give him a full 12 months to recover. Although Kleiman didn’t entirely rule out the possibility of the forward making his Brooklyn debut prior to opening night in 2020/21, he clearly wanted to keep expectations in check, given the serious nature of Durant’s injury.

“It feels like (Durant playing in 2019/20) clearly was not something that was in the cards prior to all this,” Kleiman said. “And now, I think just like the rest of the world, it’s hard to take anything more than day by day.

“I think that Kevin is going to figure out the space that he needs to be in to continue to rehab during this time. But even that is hard to answer at this point, with the new kind of rules that were put in place last night.”

The “new kind of rules” reference by Kleiman presumably refer to the NBA indefinitely extending its ban on team practices and limiting contact between players at team facilities.

The idea of the Nets getting back Durant and possibly Kyrie Irving for a summer postseason run is intriguing and would certainly make things more interesting in the East, but for now it feels like a long shot. We’ll see if that outlook changes in the coming months.

Nets Expected To Be Tested For Coronavirus

March 15th, 2020 at 9:38pm CST by JD Shaw

The Nets were expected to be tested for coronavirus over the weekend, as relayed by Maggie Gray of WFAN (Twitter link). In addition, Brooklyn released a statement last week that specified Barclays Center and the team’s practice facility would be thoroughly cleaned.

Tyronn Lue The Best Choice For Brooklyn?

March 15th, 2020 at 12:57pm CST by Arthur Hill

Tyronn Lue is expected to receive serious consideration to become the next head coach of the Nets, with oddsmakers in Las Vegas listing him as the early favorite, writes Greg Logan of Newsday. Brooklyn will be in the market for a coach once the season officially ends after parting ways with Kenny Atkinson last weekend.

Lue’s previous experience coaching Kyrie Irving in Cleveland makes him an obvious candidate, and current Laker Jared Dudley believes a reunion could be successful.

“T. Lue respected Kyrie,” Dudley said. “He loved Kyrie. He wanted the best for him. Every time he talked to him, it might be to calm down a situation and show him what he wanted. I could easily see it. T. Lue can walk into a room and every player is going to ‘dap’ him up because they respect him. Every ex-player who becomes a coach doesn’t always get the respect, but he put the work in.”

Lue was briefly the front-runner for the Lakers’ head coaching job last year, but he turned down an offer because he wanted a longer commitment and more say in hiring his staff. He eventually accepted a job with the Clippers as Doc Rivers’ lead assistant.

Another possible candidate is Lakers assistant Phil Handy, who was a developmental coach in Cleveland when Irving was there. Irving tried to convince him to join Brooklyn’s staff last summer, according to Brian Lewis of The New York Post.

Lewis talked to Nets guard Joe Harris, another former Cavalier, who gave strong endorsements to Lue and Handy.

“They’re both excellent coaches, Ty Lue especially,” Harris said. “Playing in this league, being an assistant for a long time, just the way he was able to relate with the players, especially just day-to day was pretty unique in terms of a coaching perspective. I always liked that about him, just his ability to jell and mesh with everybody. He seemed like, to me, to be one of those guys when he did play he was probably close with everybody in the locker room, just the way he was able to interact with every single guy on the team.”

Multiple NBA Teams Commit To Paying Arena Workers During Hiatus

March 13th, 2020 at 11:36am CST by Luke Adams

Some of the first comments Mavericks owner Mark Cuban made on Wednesday night after the NBA announced that it had suspended the 2019/20 season were focused on the team’s part-time, seasonal, and hourly employees, such as security guards and concession workers at the American Airlines Center. Cuban made it clear that the Mavs plan to take care of those employees.

“I reached out to the folks at the arena and our folks at the Mavs to find out what it would cost to support, financially support, people who aren’t going to be able to come to work,” Cuban told reporters, per Mark Medina of USA Today. “They get paid by the hour, and this was their source of income. So, we’ll do some things there. We may ask them to go do some volunteer work in exchange, but we’ve already started the process of having a program in place. I don’t have any details to give, but it’s certainly something that’s important to me.”

Since then, a handful of other teams have followed Cuban’s lead. Hawks owner Tony Ressler had been preparing for this possibility and had planned all along to compensate the team’s full-time and part-time employees who will have their jobs disrupted by the NBA’s hiatus, writes Sarah K. Spencer of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

“We have a pretty clear set of priorities in this kind of remarkable time that we’re living through,” Ressler said. “Protecting our fans, protecting our employees, and protecting the reputation of our league, all of which is important, but let there be no confusion, that means taking care of all of our employees, our full-time, our part-time.”

After Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie tweeted about taking care of non-salaried arena staff, team owner Joe Tsai responded that the Nets are working on a plan for those workers.

Cavaliers forward Kevin Love pledged $100K of his own money to aid arena employees displaced by the NBA’s stoppage, telling ESPN’s Dave McMenamin that he hopes “others will step up” as well. The Cavs announced (via Twitter) shortly thereafter that they’d be compensating all of their arena and event staff members as if every game and event at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse is still taking place.

While only a handful of teams have addressed the issue so far, I’d be surprised if that list doesn’t continue to grow in the coming days. Team owners and players will be affected financially by the suspension, but their losses likely won’t be as damaging in the short term as they would be for the lower-level employees who had been relying on the hourly wages earned at NBA events.

Hornets Notes: Rozier, McDaniels, Martin

March 11th, 2020 at 7:48pm CST by ChrisCrouse

Terry Rozier, who joined the Hornets this past offseason, doesn’t have to fill Kemba Walker‘s shoes, Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer writes. The offensive doesn’t necessarily revolve around Rozier and the point guard is alright with that role.

“When you come to a new team, there are a lot of expectations when you get signed [to a big contract],” teammate Bismack Biyombo said. “He’s trusted the coaches and adapted to the system, which isn’t easy right away. And he has excelled.”

Here’s more from Charlotte:

Jalen McDaniels has been a pleasant surprise for the Hornets this season and lately, he’s been the first player off the bench for the squad, as Bonnell relays in a separate piece. “We’ve said, ‘Here’s your role, here’s what we need from you. Go execute it’. And he’s doing that right now,” James Borrego said.
The buyouts of Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Marvin Williams paved the way for McDaniels to see more playing time. with the Hornets. Bonnell notes in the same piece. MKG went to Dallas after his buyout agreement while Williams landed in Milwaukee.
The Hornets are impressed with undrafted free agent Caleb Martin, who has split his time between the NBA club and its G League affiliate. “For him to make it in this league, he’s going to have to make that 3-ball,” Borrego said (via Bonnell in a separate piece). “He was really good offensively — attacked the rim, played with great pace, moved the ball. And he competes defensively. I’ve got Cody a little bit ahead of him defensively right now — that’s why we drafted him — but Caleb’s got the same length and size and tenacity.”

Warriors’ Thursday Game Will Be Closed To Fans

March 11th, 2020 at 1:17pm CST by Luke Adams

1:17pm: The Warriors have confirmed that Thursday’s game against the Nets will be played without fans, announcing in a press release that fans with tickets will receive refunds. The club has also cancelled, postponed, or relocated all other Chase Center events through March 21, including a Post Malone concert and a Santa Cruz Warriors game.

12:49pm: In the wake of news that the City of San Francisco has banned public gatherings of more than 1,000 people, the Warriors will be directed to close Thursday’s home game vs. the Nets to fans, according to Marc Stein of The New York Times (Twitter link).

The NBA recently instructed its teams to prepare for the possibility of playing home games with only essential personnel in the building, and had scheduled a Wednesday afternoon conference call with team owners and governors to discuss its response to the coronavirus outbreak.

A pair of Warriors games at Chase Center – Thursday vs. Brooklyn and March 25 vs. Atlanta – will be affected by the City of San Francisco’s decision to ban gatherings of 1,000+ people for the next two weeks. It remains to be seen how Golden State’s home games will be impacted beyond that date, or whether the league will elect to have games played behind closed doors in other NBA cities.

However, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link) hears from a source that the Warriors are planning to play their home games without fans for the “foreseeable” future, barring a change in the city’s directive. The team is still meeting to discuss the situation and could receive further direction from the NBA following today’s conference call, Woj adds (via Twitter).

Local governments in Ohio and D.C. have also recommended that indoor mass gatherings be postponed or cancelled — however, for the time being, that’s just a recommendation, not a ban. The Cavaliers and Wizards are unlikely to take any drastic measures without official word coming down from the NBA.

Hollinger: Nets' Coaching Vacancy Will Have Appeal

March 9th, 2020 at 3:07pm CST by Luke Adams

John Hollinger of The Athletic takes a deep dive into the Nets‘ situation and their surprising split with head coach Kenny Atkinson. Hollinger observes that Brooklyn’s coaching vacancy should be one of the most appealing around the NBA this spring, considering the team is in position to jump into the top four of the East in 2020/21.
In case you missed it, we passed along several other Nets notes earlier today.