And-Ones: Baker, Liga, Future Rosters, Atkins
Former NBA guard Ron Baker has parted ways with CSKA Moscow, according to a post from the team’s website. Baker appeared in 27 EuroLeague games with the club but averaged just 2.6 PPG in 11.1 MPG. Baker, 27, appeared in 96 games during his NBA career, including a combined 15 with the Knicks and Wizards during the 2018/19 season.
We have more from around the basketball world:
- ABA Liga has cancelled the remainder of its season and will not crown a champion due to the coronavirus pandemic, Emiliano Carchia of Sportando relays. Novosti originally reported the news that the teams agreed not to resume the competition in the 19-year-old European league, also known as the Adriatic League.
- Who would you choose as the best NBA players in 2025? James Edwards III, Tim Cato and Fred Katz of The Athletic conducted a mock draft and selected Luka Doncic, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Zion Williamson with the top three picks. The trio of writers selected 10 players apiece for the final rosters.
- Former NBA guard Chucky Atkins is one of 14 members in the NBA’s Assistant Coaches Program, according to Omari Sankofa II of the Detroit Free Press. The program assists former players in entering the NBA, G League and college coaching ranks. Atkins, who has battled personal issues since his playing career ended, hopes to become a head coach.
Sixers To Reopen Practice Facility On Wednesday
The Sixers will begin a “phased reopening” of their practice facility on Wednesday, the team announced today in a press release. Players will be permitted to conduct voluntary individual workouts at the facility, in accordance with the strict guidelines implemented by the NBA.
The 76ers’ practice facility is located in Camden, New Jersey, rather than in Pennsylvania, so the team was waiting on the go-ahead from New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy.
Murphy announced this morning that professional sports teams would be permitted to return “to training and even competition” in New Jersey (Twitter link). According to the Governor, the state has been engaged in “constant discussions” with teams about the necessary safety protocols.
With Brooklyn and Charlotte reopening their practice facilities today, 21 NBA teams have done so — Philadelphia will be No. 22. That leaves the Bulls, Celtics, Knicks, Mavericks, Pistons, Spurs, Warriors, and Wizards.
Roberts Informs Players Of Latest Plans To Resume Season
National Basketball Players Association executive director Michele Roberts is conducting team-by-team conference calls with players as momentum continues toward a resumption of play, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski tweets.
Roberts is providing details on formats to restart the season in Orlando, which has emerged as the likely place where games will be conducted. She is also going over the financial implications of those options and gathering feedback, Wojnarowski adds.
While there’s no word on how the players are reacting to the proposals, it does provide hope that players will soon convene to start training and practicing again. Several teams have opened their training facilities on a limited basis but thus far scrimmages and formal practices have not been permitted.
The NBA’s Board of Governors will conduct a conference call on Friday, which will include commissioner Adam Silver and team owners. It’s expected that by the end of the week, a course of action will be determined. Recent developments suggest that when play resumes, teams currently in the lottery will be excluded.
Coronavirus Notes: Orlando, Resuming Season, Ewing
Appearing today on ESPN’s Get Up (video link), Adrian Wojnarowski confirmed that Orlando remains the frontrunner to host the NBA’s return this summer and that it may end up being the lone bubble location the league uses.
[RELATED: NBA Enters ‘Exploratory’ Talks To Resume Season In Orlando]
“Everything is pointing toward a return of the NBA this season at a single site in Orlando at Disney World,” Woj said, adding that teams believe they’ll be told to recall players as early as next week.
As Wojnarowski explained, there will be plenty of calls taking place today and throughout the week, culminating with an NBA’s Board of Governors conference call on Friday, which will include commissioner Adam Silver and team owners. According to Woj, by the end of this week or early next week, we should have a better idea of what the format of a potential NBA return will look like.
Here’s more on the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on the NBA:
- Patrick Ewing Jr. issued an update today (via Twitter) saying that his father – former Knicks center and current Georgetown coach Patrick Ewing – is out of the hospital and is improving after having contracted COVID-19. “My father is now home and getting better,” the younger Ewing wrote. “We’ll continue to watch his symptoms and follow the CDC guidelines.”
- There’s no point in having all 30 NBA teams resume their seasons this summer, according to Steve Popper of Newsday, who argues in a column that the league would be best off minimizing the risk by just inviting the 16 current playoff clubs.
- As we relayed earlier today, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said during a Monday morning TV appearance that he thinks there’s a good chance only 16 teams will be involved in the resumption of the NBA season (video link). Windhorst suggests there will be “a lot of back-room haggling” over the next few days as the league weighs what proposal(s) to present to team owners on Friday’s conference call.
Hornets To Reopen Practice Facility On Tuesday
The NBA is moving closer to having all its teams reopen its practice facilities for voluntary individual workouts, with the Hornets issuing a press release indicating they’ll make the Novant Health Training Center inside Spectrum Center available starting Tuesday.
According to Charlotte’s announcement, the club’s practice court is the only area that will be available to players and coaches, with the locker rooms, weigh rooms, and medical/training areas remaining off limits. The team also wants players only doing on-court activities (ie. shooting) that can’t be done at home.
The Hornets will also adhere to the rest of the NBA’s league-wide regulations on workouts, including allowing no more than four players in the facility at a time and conducting symptom and temperature checks on anyone entering the building.
With the Nets also announcing plans to reopen their practice facility on Tuesday, more than two-thirds of the NBA’s clubs will have done so as of tomorrow. We’re still waiting on the Bulls, Celtics, Knicks, Mavericks, Pistons, Sixers, Spurs, Warriors, and Wizards.
Coronavirus Notes: Resuming The Season, Hall Of Fame, Ewing
Several teams that are unable to open their facilities because of government restrictions are asking the NBA if their players can report directly to the proposed campus environment, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Sources tell Woj that the NBA is willing to work out an arrangement with those teams. Franchises located in areas where stay-at-home orders are still in effect have a large number of players who have gone elsewhere, he adds.
A timetable and other specifics to resume the season are expected to be outlined in a Board of Governors call on Friday. Sources tell Wojnarowski that teams expect to be told to begin recalling players to their markets around June 1. A few teams have talked about establishing temporary training camps at other sites before arriving in Orlando, which is now considered the likely location to finish the season.
There’s more coronavirus-related news to pass along:
- During a conference call on Thursday, the league offered few specifics about how it plans to finish the season, Wojnarowski writes in the same story. Some Board of Governors members believe the league would prefer not to bring back all 30 teams because placing more people in the bubble environment means a greater opportunity of contracting the virus. Also, there was little support for a scenario that would provide a chance to make the playoffs for the league’s worst teams. Privately, Woj states, those teams are more concerned with preserving their odds for the draft lottery and don’t want to risk injuries to their veteran players.
- This year’s induction ceremony at the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame is still set for August 29, but two other dates are being considered if the virus is still prevalent, writes Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe. Hall officials are willing to move the ceremony to Columbus Day weekend or to next spring. No matter what happens, the 2020 and 2021 inductions will not be combined. “I do want to make it very clear we will have a separate event for the class of 2020 because of the notoriety of that class and, frankly, every class deserves its own recognition,” CEO John Doleva said. “There is a potential next calendar year that we could have two enshrinements.”
- Former Knicks star Patrick Ewing, now the head coach at Georgetown, has tested positive for COVID-19, according to Jeff Borzello of ESPN. Ewing issued a statement urging everyone to “stay safe and take care of yourselves and your loved ones.”
NBA Enters ‘Exploratory’ Talks To Resume Season In Orlando
The NBA has entered exploratory conversations with the Walt Disney Corporation about restarting the 2019/20 season at Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida in late July, tweets ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne.
“The NBA, in conjunction with the National Basketball Players Association, is engaged in exploratory conversations with The Walt Disney Company about restarting the 2019/20 NBA season in late July at Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Florida as a single site for an NBA campus for games, practices and housing,” NBA spokesperson Mike Bass said (via Shelburne). “Our priority continues to be the health and safety of all involved, and we are working with public health experts and government officials on a comprehensive set of guidelines to ensure that appropriate medical protocols and protections are in place.”
As we relayed earlier this week, Orlando emerged as a frontrunner to be the host city whenever the league resumed its season. In this bubble/campus-like format, Orlando would host all players, coaches, and other essential personnel as the NBA attempts to resume play.
Given the uncertainty amid the coronavirus pandemic, it remains to be seen if the season can be resumed while ensuring the safety of its players. However, this represents the most serious step since the season was suspended toward a return to play.
NBA Issues Survey To GMs On Possible Formats To Resume Season
In a recent survey sent to the NBA’s 30 general managers, several different proposals for play formats were proposed as the league weighs resuming the 2019/20 season, The Athletic’s Shams Charania reports.
Ranging from a direct-to-playoffs format to resuming the regular season, a number of different scenarios are mentioned. As the NBA zeroed in on Disney World in Orlando to resume play sometime in mid-July, the following scenarios are on the table:
- Playoffs: The top eight teams in each conference would advance directly to the postseason.
- “Playoffs Plus”: Increasing the number of teams that receive a chance to continue playing through either a play-in tournament or replacing the playoffs first round with a group stage.
- Note: The number of teams to return in this scenario would be either 18, 20, 22, or 24.
- Regular Season: Under this proposal, all 30 teams would resume the season where it ended and continue on as scheduled.
- Regular Season + Play-In: All teams play the same amount of games which would then include a play-in tournament and conclude with a traditional postseason.
- Playoffs Plus play-in: A play-in tournament which includes bubble teams playing for the eighth seed; a play-in tournament for the seventh and eighth seed; or a stage that replaces the first playoff round and all groups. In this scenario, every team would play two games against each group opponent and the top two teams from each group would advance to a traditional second round.
Further discussions in the survey include the amount of scrimmage games that would be played before a restart (between two and five), the total number of regular-season games that would be played (72 or 76), whether or not to do a traditional playoff format or reseed all teams, and when the season would end (Labor Day, Sept. 15, Oct. 1, Oct. 15 or Nov. 1).
Discussions continue on how and when the NBA season could be resumed safely and without fans in attendance.
Coronavirus Notes: Travel Parties, Testing, More
The traveling parties for NBA teams typically exceed 50 members, but Marc Stein of The New York Times (Twitter link) says the league has told clubs that number will have to be trimmed down if and when the season resumes in a bubble/campus-like environment.
According to Stein, teams have been informed that they’ll likely be permitted to bring approximately 35 total players, coaches, and staffers into the “bubble” this summer. Of course, if all 30 teams return to play, that would still work out to over 1,000 people, and that’s before taking into account all the other individuals, including league officials and staffers, who would need to be involved as well.
Here’s more on the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on the NBA:
- The NBA has informed its teams that it’s engaged in discussions with multiple national providers of COVID-19 tests, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter links). As Charania notes, coronavirus testing will be a “central component” of the resumption of the season, so the league is shoring up its testing protocols and has asked clubs to create accounts with BioReference Laboratories, LabCorp, Quest Diagnostics and Vault Health/RUCDR Infinite Biologics at Rutgers.
- Two medical experts who spoke to Seerat Sohi of Yahoo Sports have concerns about the “campus-like” environment described by Jared Dudley this week for the NBA’s return, suggesting that the plan relies too much on the accuracy of coronavirus tests, which may produce false negatives.
- In an ESPN report that features 15 bylines, writers who cover several different sports take an in-depth look at how those sports are attempting to return to action. As ESPN’s writers observe, the attitude among sports leagues has shifted over the last couple months, “from fear of one positive test shutting down a season to the gradual acceptance of risk.”
And-Ones: LaMelo, BBL, Salary Cap, Penny
The Illawarra Hawks of Australia’s NBL were unready for the enormous impact inking LaMelo Ball to a contract had on the 2019/20 season, according to ESPN’s Kane Pitman. “It was weird because you had ‘Melo who was like a rock star and just followed so heavily online and with the social media stuff it made it interesting,” Ball’s teammate David Andersen told Pitman.
In just 12 games, Ball won the NBL’s Rookie of the Year award sporting a slash sheet of 17 PPG/7.5 RPG/7 APG. The 18-year-old younger brother of Pelicans guard Lonzo Ball is expected to be a top-five pick in the forthcoming NBA draft.
There’s more from around the basketball world:
- Germany’s Basketball Bundesliga will resume play, after pausing the league due to the coronavirus pandemic, with a three-week final tournament commencing June 6, per Dario Skerletic of Sportando.
- An adjusted salary cap would affect each of the NBA’s teams in a variety of ways, as John Hollinger of The Athletic details. Though the 2020/21 cap was projected at $115MM per team in February, that number was predicted prior to the coronavirus pandemic and will almost certainly end up being lower.
- Memphis Tigers coach Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway opined to ESPN’s The Jump that the G League’s recent recruitment of players straight out of high school will greatly impact college recruitment, including his program, according to ESPN News Services. “It’s going to have a huge impact, because it’s just a recruiting war right now when it comes to that,” Hardaway said. “But I think it’s going to affect us because we’re recruiting a bunch of five-stars.”