Rockets Sign Justin Patton To Two-Way Deal
3:35pm: The Rockets have officially signed Patton to a two-way contract, the team announced in a press release.
7:15am: The Rockets will fill their open two-way contract slot by promoting a center from the G League, according to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype, who hears from agent Brian Jungreis that Justin Patton has agreed to a two-way deal with Houston.
Patton, 23, was the 16th overall pick in the 2016 draft, but was limited to just nine NBA games across his first three seasons in the NBA with the Timberwolves, Sixers, and Thunder due in large part to injuries, including broken bones in both feet.
The big man has seen more action at the G League level, appearing in 83 total NBAGL games since 2017/18. He was selected in the first round of this year’s G League draft by the Westchester Knicks and has played in four games for the club, averaging 10.0 PPG, 6.8 RPG, and 1.8 BPG in 21.5 minutes per contest.
The Rockets opened up one of their two-way spots earlier this week when they waived Ray Spalding, who suffered an Achilles injury in just his second game with the club. That was the latest blow to a Houston frontcourt that has had some bad injury luck lately — Christian Wood has been on the shelf with an ankle sprain for two weeks, while a quad issue has sidelined P.J. Tucker for the last two games.
[RELATED: 2020/21 NBA Two-Way Contract Tracker]
It’s possible Patton will see some action in the Rockets’ depleted frontcourt in the short term. Once he officially signs, we should get a better sense of whether Houston intends to keep him with the NBA squad for a little while or if he’ll report to the Rio Grande Valley Vipers before the G League season ends in March.
NBA Aims To Hold Vegas Summer League In August
The NBA is working toward holding its annual Las Vegas Summer League sometime in early- or mid-August in 2021, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Zach Lowe. The league is still figuring out all the specifics, sources tell ESPN.
The NBA was forced to scrap its 2020 Summer League in Las Vegas due to the coronavirus pandemic — the league was ramping up for its summer restart at Walt Disney World in July at the time the Vegas Summer League would typically have taken place.
The 2020/21 season is scheduled to end about a month later than usual, with the playoffs set to run through mid-July. As such, it makes sense that the NBA would also push back its Summer League dates by about a month. It’s safe to assume there will be a number of strict health and safety restrictions in place for the event, even if the pandemic outlook has improved by the summer.
Within their report, Wojnarowski and Lowe also provide some details on the NBA’s second-half schedule, noting that teams expect to see a draft version either this weekend or sometime next week.
According to Woj and Lowe, the plan for now is to have all 30 teams play a full 72-game slate, even if that requires more back-to-back sets down the stretch for the clubs that have to make up several postponements from the first half.
However, the NBA has acknowledged that if more games have to be postponed during the second half, there’s a chance not every team will be able to play 72 games, per ESPN’s duo. That admission suggests that the possibility of pushing back the start and end of the postseason isn’t currently on the table.
Saturday’s Rockets/Pacers Game Postponed
Saturday’s game in Houston between the Rockets and Pacers is being postponed due to the ongoing weather-related state of emergency in Texas, according to reports from Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link) and Scott Agness of Fieldhouse Files.
It’s the second Rockets game – and third NBA game in total – that has been postponed this week due to the severe weather conditions in Texas, which have caused significant power outages and running-water issues across the state, as well as a governmental shutdown of Houston’s Toyota Center.
Wednesday’s Pistons/Mavs game in Dallas and Friday’s Mavs/Rockets contest in Houston also couldn’t be played as scheduled.
The Rockets’ home stand is supposed to conclude with a Monday game vs. the Bulls. The league will likely wait another day or two to see if that game can be held as planned.
The Pacers, meanwhile, also had their February 22 game vs. San Antonio postponed due to a COVID-19 outbreak among the Spurs and aren’t currently scheduled to play again until next Wednesday vs. Golden State.
In a couple instances this week when healthy teams had their games postponed, the NBA inserted a new game into the schedule to avoid squandering that down time — we’ll have to wait to see if the league plans to sneak a new opponent onto the Pacers’ schedule before next Wednesday.
Rockets Guarantee DeMarcus Cousins’ 2020/21 Salary
The Rockets have made an early decision on DeMarcus Cousins‘ contract, guaranteeing his veteran’s minimum salary for the rest of the 2020/21 season, sources tell ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).
The league-wide salary guarantee date is February 27, but teams must release players on non-guaranteed contracts by February 24 to avoid taking on their full-season cap hits, so that they can clear waivers on or before February 26.
Cousins, who is earning $2.56MM on a one-year contract that counts as $1.62MM on Houston’s cap, is coming off a series of major leg injuries and hasn’t looked like his old All-Star self this season, averaging just 9.6 PPG and 7.6 RPG on 37.6% shooting in 25 games (20.2 MPG).
However, the 30-year-old has still occasionally flashed the ability to fill up the box score, including in a 28-point, 17-rebound, five-assist performance in Dallas on January 23. He has recently served as the Rockets’ starting center, with Christian Wood sidelined due to an ankle sprain.
Cousins will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season.
Domestic Assault Charges Against Terence Davis Dismissed
11:09am: As Blake Murphy of The Athletic explains (via Twitter), five of the seven charges against Davis were dismissed. The judge in the case technically granted an “adjournment in contemplation of dismissal” for criminal mischief and endangering the welfare of a child, which means those charges will also be dropped as long as the Raptors guard doesn’t run afoul of the law again for the next year.
10:29am: The New York District Attorney’s office has dismissed the domestic assault charges against Raptors guard Terence Davis, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link).
Those charges stemmed from an October 2020 incident at a Manhattan hotel. Davis’ girlfriend, who visited him at the hotel, alleged that he hit her multiple times after a verbal dispute, then grabbed her phone and broke it. Davis was arrested and faced counts of assault, harassment, and criminal mischief, as well as endangering the welfare of a child, as the woman’s young son was allegedly present.
While Davis won’t face any legal ramifications as a result of those allegations, the NBA and NBPA continue to conduct their own investigation into the matter, as Doug Smith of The Toronto Star tweets. Depending on the outcome of that investigation, the league could discipline the second-year guard, but that’s significantly less likely now that the charges have been dismissed.
A member of the NBA’s All-Rookie Second Team in 2019/20, Davis hasn’t played quite as regular a role for the Raptors so far this season. After appearing in all 72 regular season games as a rookie, he has been held out of six contests in 2020/21 and his minutes per game average has dipped from 16.8 to 13.3.
Still, Davis’ offensive numbers (6.5 PPG on .434/.378/.900 shooting) have been respectable, given his limited role, and the team has a slightly better net rating when he plays than when he sits. He’ll be eligible for restricted free agency at season’s end.
Lakers’ Davis Out About Four Weeks, Schröder In Protocols
After initially being ruled out at least two or three weeks when he was diagnosed with a right calf strain on Monday, Lakers star Anthony Davis was reevaluated by team doctors on Thursday and has a new recovery timeline, head coach Frank Vogel told reporters last night.
According to Dave McMenamin of ESPN, the Lakers expect that Davis will miss approximately the next four weeks. That estimate includes the time it would take him to ramp up his conditioning once he’s healthy enough to resume workouts.
“We want to try to put this fully behind him and be conservative with it, just to make sure that it’s fully healed before he’s back,” Vogel said of Davis, who has also experienced Achilles tendinosis in his right leg.
The updated timeline ensures that Davis will remain out for the Lakers’ last seven first-half games and won’t be back on the court until at least a week into the second half, which gets underway on March 10. It will also sideline him for the March 7 All-Star Game, opening the door for another Western Conference player to replace him on the roster if he’s named a reserve, which is likely.
The Lakers figure to lean more heavily on the likes of Kyle Kuzma, Montrezl Harrell, and Marc Gasol during Davis’ absence.
Meanwhile, Los Angeles also had to deal with a hole in its backcourt on Thursday night vs. Brooklyn, as Dennis Schröder was out due to the NBA’s health and safety protocols. Vogel said after the game that he’s not yet sure how much time Schröder will miss as a result of those COVID-19 protocols, per McMenamin (Twitter link).
There have been some instances of players receiving clearance within a day or two if they returned a false positive or inconclusive coronavirus test, or if they were subject to a contact tracing investigation and were determined not to have been a close contact of someone who tested positive for the virus.
However, if the player is determined to have been a close contact of someone who tested positive, he’s generally sidelined for at least a week. If the player registers a confirmed positive test himself, his return timeline is usually at least two weeks or so.
Wesley Matthews replaced Schröder in the Lakers’ starting lineup on Thursday. If Schröder has to sit for a week or two, Matthews, Alex Caruso, and Quinn Cook are among the top candidates to play extra minutes.
2021 NBA All-Star Game Starters Revealed
The NBA has revealed its 2021 All-Star Game starters. Here are those names:
Eastern Conference
- G Kyrie Irving, Nets
- G Bradley Beal, Wizards
- F/C Kevin Durant, Nets
- F/C Giannis Antetokounmpo, Bucks
- F/C Joel Embiid, Sixers
After missing all of the 2019/20 season while he recovered from a ruptured Achilles tendon, Durant is making his triumphant return to the All-Star Game. In his first appearance as a Brooklyn player, the 11-time All-Star will captain a team, having led the Eastern Conference in fan votes.
[RELATED: Community Shootaround: Eastern All-Stars]
This is the seventh All-Star appearance for Durant’s teammate Irving. Antetokounmpo, the reigning two-time MVP, has just made his fifth All-Star game. A frontrunner for the 2021 MVP award, Embiid is appearing in his fourth such contest. Beal will be making his first All-Star start after playing as a reserve in the 2018 and 2019 All-Star contests. The Wizards are the No. 13 seed in the East.
Western Conference
- G Stephen Curry, Warriors
- G Luka Doncic, Mavericks
- F/C LeBron James, Lakers
- F/C Nikola Jokic, Nuggets
- F/C Kawhi Leonard, Clippers
James, who was the top vote-getter in the Western Conference and the entire NBA with 5,922,554 fan votes, will again be a team captain. He will be suiting up for his 17th All-Star appearance, the third-most ever behind only fellow Laker legends Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (19 appearances) and Kobe Bryant (18). James was previously tied for making the third-most cumulative All-Star contests alongside Hall of Fame Nets and Sixers wing Julius Erving, who was selected into five ABA All-Star games and 11 NBA All-Star games.
Jokic, an early top MVP contender along with James and Embiid, will earn his first All-Star start in his third appearance in the game. Curry will partake in his seventh All-Star contest, while Leonard has just been voted into his fifth All-Star game.
[RELATED: Community Shootaround: Western All-Stars]
Doncic barely edged out Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard to be the second All-Star guard next to Curry among the starters, Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports tweets. Despite extended absences from starters CJ McCollum, Jusuf Nurkic, and Zach Collins, the Blazers boast an 18-10 record, good for the No. 4 seed in the crowded West, largely thanks to Lillard. The Mavericks, meanwhile, are 13-15, the No. 10 seed in the West.
As was the case during the last two years, the top vote-getters of each conference will captain a team, and will be able to draft players from either conference. The “Elam Ending,” which made the conclusion of last year’s game much more entertaining than it had been in recent years, is set to return again this year.
Earlier today, the league officially announced that the 2021 All-Star Game is set to take place at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, as a one-night event on March 7. The evening will also include its three All-Star weekend mainstay events: the Skills Competition, the Three-Point Contest and the Dunk Contest.
A full list of fan voting totals is viewable at this Twitter link, courtesy of Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated. The complete voting breakdown by position and conference, including media and player votes, can be found at the bottom of this press release.
The league will announce the 14 players who will comprise the All-Star reserves on Tuesday, February 22, at 7 p.m. ET, per Omari Sankofa II of the Detroit Free Press (via Twitter).
Grand Rapids Drive Expected To Become Nuggets’ G League Affiliate
The Nuggets are expected to finally get a G League affiliate of their own for the 2021/22 season, according to Mike Singer of The Denver Post, who reports that the franchise is on track to enter a partnership with the Grand Rapids Drive. The agreement won’t become official until the end of the season, Singer adds.
Last season, Denver was one of two NBA teams – along with Portland – that didn’t have a G League affiliate of its own, while the Drive, based in Michigan, were affiliated with the Pistons.
The Suns subsequently sold their G League affiliate to the Pistons, who are relocating the Northern Arizona Suns to Detroit and rebranding them as the Motor City Cruise for the ’21/22 campaign. That left the Drive without an NBA partner, freeing them up for the Nuggets. Phoenix and Portland now project to be the only teams without NBAGL affiliates next season.
According to Singer, the Nuggets have attempted for years to set up a G League affiliate, exploring cities like Las Vegas, Seattle, Nashville, San Diego, and Omaha, but have always run into roadblocks.
Partnering with Grand Rapids won’t be geographically convenient – there are no plans for the Drive to relocate to Colorado, per Singer – but it will at least give the Nuggets a place to send and develop their young prospects and two-way players. In recent years, Denver has had to either keep those youngsters with the NBA squad or rely on various other G League teams to play and develop them.
Because the infrastructure and an ownership group is already in place for the Drive, the Nuggets will have a hybrid relationship with the team, assuming control of the basketball operations department after buying in for roughly $9MM, Singer explains.
While those hybrid relationships used to be more common, the Rockets and the Rio Grande Valley Vipers are the only other active one now, according to Singer. Most NBA clubs have bought their own G League franchises or established expansion teams. That’s still an option the Nuggets could pursue eventually, either by trying to buy and relocate the Drive, or by continuing their attempts to set up a more local expansion team.
Friday’s Rockets/Mavericks Game Postponed
Friday’s game in Houston between the Rockets and Mavericks has been postponed, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). The NBA has issued a press release confirming the news.
This is the second postponement this week that is unrelated to COVID-19 and is instead due to the state of emergency in Texas, caused by severe weather conditions and a lack of power across many areas of the state. The local government has shut down the Rockets’ arena, the Toyota Center, as a result of those conditions.
The Mavericks, who also had their Wednesday game vs. Detroit postponed, aren’t scheduled to resume play until Monday, when they’ll tentatively host the Grizzlies. It’s unclear at this point whether the NBA might attempt to sneak another Mavs road game onto the schedule before then in order to reduce the number of games the team will have to play in the second half.
The Rockets, meanwhile, also have a Saturday home game vs. Indiana on their schedule, but it seems reasonable to assume that contest may be in jeopardy as well. Houston’s home stand would conclude with a game against Chicago on Monday.
This is the NBA’s 32nd postponement of the season. Of those postponements, 29 have been related to the coronavirus, two are due to weather, and one was a deliberate scheduling choice made weeks in advance to accommodate a makeup game.
Ainge Doesn’t View Celtics’ Current Roster As Championship-Caliber
Asked today during an appearance on Toucher and Rich in Boston if he believes the Celtics, as currently constituted, are good enough to win a championship, president of basketball operations Danny Ainge offered a straightforward assessment.
“No, I do not,” Ainge said, according to Alex Barth of 98.5 The Sports Hub. The Celtics’ exec added that he believes the roster needs another piece or two to reach that level (Twitter link via Darren Hartwell of NBC Sports Boston).
In a recent conversation with The Boston Globe, Ainge shouldered the blame for the Celtics’ modest record (14-14) and up-and-down play, and he echoed those sentiments in his radio appearance on Thursday.
“This team, where we are, 14-14, if there’s somebody to blame, this is Danny Ainge to blame,” Ainge said. “This is not Brad Stevens. It’s not Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown. It’s not good enough right now. And we all know that. And, you know, we need to get better.”
While Ainge acknowledged that a roster change is probably necessary, he also said he believes the team is capable of playing better if its key players are able to get healthy at once, which hasn’t really happened this season. Due to various injuries and COVID-19 protocols, the Celtics’ core four – Tatum, Brown, Kemba Walker, and Marcus Smart – has played just two games together in 2020/21.
Ainge’s comments today suggest that if the Celtics make a move, they’d want to acquire a player who will be part of the regular rotation even when everyone else is healthy and available.
“Depth is a problem and we’re aware of that,” Ainge said, per Barth. “But when you just say that you’re going to go add depth, then you get healthy and then the depth doesn’t get to play. And we’ve run through those problems before in the past.”
The Celtics are fairly well-positioned to make an in-season trade, armed with a $28.5MM trade exception, all their future first-round picks, and a handful of young prospects who would likely be expendable in the right deal.