Raptors Will Finish 2020/21 Season In Tampa
The Raptors will spend the rest of the 2020/21 season playing their home games at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida, the team announced today in a press release.
The franchise, which was unable to play in Toronto to start this season due to the coronavirus-related restrictions in place on the U.S./Canadian border, had left the door open to the possibility of returning to its own building – Scotiabank Arena – later in the season.
The hope was that the COVID-19 situation would have improved enough on both sides of the border to loosen those health and safety restrictions by the second half. However, it appears that won’t happen.
“Florida has been really welcoming to us and we’re so grateful for the hospitality we’ve found in Tampa and at Amalie – we’re living in a city of champions, and we intend to carry on the tradition of winning for our new friends and fans here,” Raptors president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri said in a statement. “But home is where the heart is, and our hearts are in Toronto. We think often of our fans, of our Scotiabank Arena family, and all those we are missing back home, and we can’t wait until we can all be together again.”
The Raptors have enjoyed only a slight “home-court” advantage in Tampa so far in 2020/21, going 6-5 in home games and 6-8 on the road.
The team hosted fans at Amalie Arena at a reduced capacity earlier in the season but later reversed course and closed its doors. The stated reason was the rise of COVID-19 cases in the area, but the fact that many of the fans in attendance were cheering for Raptors’ visiting opponents may have played a part as well.
Karl-Anthony Towns Returns For Wolves
6:45pm: Towns was cleared to play after participating in pregame warm-ups, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic.
3:12pm: Towns intends to go through shootaround and see how he feels before his status for tonight’s game is finalized, he said in a tweet.
2:24pm: Timberwolves star Karl-Anthony Towns, who has been limited to just four games so far this season due to a wrist injury and a case of COVID-19, is expected to return to action on Wednesday night when the team hosts the Clippers, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (via Twitter).
Having Towns back in their starting lineup will be a welcome sight for the struggling Timberwolves. The team has a 2-2 record when the 25-year-old has played, but has lost 16 of the 20 games he has missed.
Towns, who hasn’t played since January 13, has averaged 22.0 PPG, 12.5 RPG, 4.3 APG, and 2.8 BPG in his limited action so far this season. Minnesota has a +6.1 net rating when he has been on the court, compared to a -8.9 mark when he isn’t playing.
Towns’ return figures to result in Naz Reid shifting back to a reserve role.
Tighter Health And Safety Protocols Extended
The NBA and its players union have agreed on an extension of the current health and safety protocols through at least the final game before the All-Star break, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic. Those rules place strict limits on interactions between traveling parties and the community.
The league introduced tighter protocols in early January in an effort to keep COVID-19 under control. The new regulations include a requirement that all players who are dressed for a game must wear face masks until they check in. Inactive players must be masked for the entire game.
The agreement comes at a time when the virus situation throughout the league is improving. Players registered just one positive result in the latest round of testing, marking three straight weeks with no more than one. Twenty-three games have been postponed since the start of the season, but none have been called off since February 1.
Jahlil Okafor Out 6-8 Weeks After Procedure On Knee
Pistons center Jahlil Okafor will miss six to eight weeks after undergoing a surgical procedure to clean the lateral meniscus in his left knee, the team announced in a press release.
Okafor, 25, has been dealing with pain in both knees for a while and hasn’t played since January 30. He has appeared in 12 games this year and is averaging 4.3 points and 2.3 rebounds in 10 minutes per night. Rookie Isaiah Stewart has taken his spot in Detroit’s rotation.
Okafor was the third player picked in the 2015 draft, but he has turned into a journeyman, playing for four teams in the past four seasons. He signed a two-year contract with the Pistons in November at the veteran’s minimum.
NBA Planning To Add Dunk Contest, Other Events To All-Star Game
Progress is being made toward holding a dunk contest, 3-point shootout, and skills competition on the night of the NBA All-Star Game, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
The plan is for the dunk contest to take place at halftime, per Wojnarowski. It’s not clear whether the other competitions would also happen then, or if they’d take place earlier in the night.
Negotiations are continuing with the players’ union, and sources tell Wojnarowski that an agreement is expected to be finalized later this week, along with health and safety protocols for the event, which will take place March 7 in Atlanta.
Officials from the league and the NBPA are planning a condensed version of All-Star Weekend, which normally stretches events out over three days, culminating with the game on Sunday night. This year’s festivities will take place in a much smaller window, with participants expected to arrive on Saturday in private planes. They will be kept in private accommodations away from hotel crowds and will leave after the game is over.
Several prominent players have spoken out against holding the game this year because the league is operating under strict guidelines to contain the spread of COVID-19.
One New Positive COVID-19 Test Among Players Since Feb. 3
Among the 470 NBA players who were tested for the coronavirus within the last week, just one recorded a confirmed positive test, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). The NBA and NBPA issued press releases confirming those testing results, which date back to February 3.
The league and its teams haven’t been publicly confirming which players have tested positive for the coronavirus. However, Khris Middleton‘s comments earlier in the week suggested that Bucks teammate Jrue Holiday registered a positive test.
Middleton did note that there was a chance that test was a false positive, so we don’t know for sure that Holiday was the one player to have a confirmed positive this week.
Either way, it’s a fairly encouraging update for the NBA, which has now had three consecutive weeks with no more than one positive confirmed test among its players. If the trend continues, the league should be able to avoid the mass postponements that occurred in January when 27 players tested positive during a two-week stretch.
Forbes Releases 2021 NBA Franchise Valuations
It has been an up-and-down 12 months for the NBA, which had to pause its operations for several months when its players first began testing positive for the coronavirus last March. Although the league was eventually able to play the 2020 postseason and is in the midst of its (slightly-abridged) 2020/21 regular season, fans still haven’t been able to return to arenas in many NBA cities, putting a major dent in projected revenues for the coming year.
Despite the financial challenges faced by many of the NBA’s teams, the overall value of those franchises continues to increase, according to a report from Kurt Badenhausen and Mike Ozanian of Forbes. While it’s the most modest year-over-year rise since 2010, Forbes estimates that average team values are up by about 4% from 2020.
The Knicks have become the first franchise to earn a $5 billion valuation from Forbes, with a league-high 9% increase in their value since last February. The Warriors, meanwhile, also saw their value rise by 9%, according to Forbes, surpassing the Lakers for the No. 2 spot on the annual report. The league-wide average of $2.2 billion per team in 2021 is a new record for Forbes’ valuations.
Forbes’ valuations are slightly more conservative than the ones issued by sports-business outlet Sportico last month — Sportico’s report featured an average team value of nearly $2.4 billion, with the Knicks, Warriors, and Lakers all surpassing the $5 billion threshold.
Here’s the full list of NBA franchise valuations, per Forbes:
- New York Knicks: $5 billion
- Golden State Warriors: $4.7 billion
- Los Angeles Lakers: $4.6 billion
- Chicago Bulls: $3.3 billion
- Boston Celtics: $3.2 billion
- Los Angeles Clippers: $2.75 billion
- Brooklyn Nets: $2.65 billion
- Houston Rockets: $2.5 billion
- Dallas Mavericks: $2.45 billion
- Toronto Raptors: $2.15 billion
- Philadelphia 76ers: $2.075 billion
- Miami Heat: $2 billion
- Portland Trail Blazers: $1.9 billion
- San Antonio Spurs: $1.85 billion
- Sacramento Kings: $1.825 billion
- Washington Wizards: $1.8 billion
- Phoenix Suns: $1.7 billion
- Utah Jazz: $1.66 billion
- Denver Nuggets: $1.65 billion
- Milwaukee Bucks: $1.625 billion
- Oklahoma City Thunder: $1.575 billion
- Cleveland Cavaliers: $1.56 billion
- Indiana Pacers: $1.55 billion
- Atlanta Hawks: $1.52 billion
- Charlotte Hornets: $1.5 billion
- Orlando Magic: $1.46 billion
- Detroit Pistons: $1.45 billion
- Minnesota Timberwolves: $1.4 billion
- New Orleans Pelicans: $1.35 billion
- Memphis Grizzlies: $1.3 billion
While most franchise values increased, that wasn’t the case across the board. The Thunder, Hawks, Hornets, Pistons, Pelicans, and Grizzlies all maintained the same value that they had in 2020. No teams decreased in value, however.
The Jazz had the biggest rise in the bottom half of this list, moving from 21st in 2020’s rankings to 18th this year. That’s because the team was actually sold to a new majority owner in recent months, with Ryan Smith assuming control of the franchise at its new $1.66 billion valuation.
As that Jazz example shows, the actual amount a team is sold for often exceeds Forbes’ valuation, so these figures should just be viewed as estimates.
Iman Shumpert Out 1-2 Weeks With Hamstring Strain
Newly re-signed Nets wing Iman Shumpert will have to wait another week or two to make his season debut for a new-look Brooklyn club after straining his left hamstring, head coach Steve Nash said today, per Malika Andrews of ESPN (Twitter link).
Shumpert re-joined the Nets on January 31 on a non-guaranteed veteran’s minimum contract. The injury must be quite recent, as Nash suggested in statements made earlier this week that Shumpert was “completely available” to play.
As Bobby Marks of ESPN notes (via Twitter), Shumpert’s partially-guaranteed deal with the franchise only becomes fully guaranteed if he remains under contract through February 24, just beyond Nash’s established two-week recovery window.
It will be interesting to see whether the Nets opt to waive Shumpert in favor of another free agent wing. Defensive-oriented free agent swingmen who could be had in Shumpert’s stead include Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, most recently with the Mavericks, and former Thunder wing Andre Roberson.
Patrick Beverley May Return During Clippers’ Road Trip
Clippers starting point guard Patrick Beverley may suit up for the first time since January 24 during Los Angeles’s upcoming two-game road trip, head coach Tyronn Lue said today, per Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN (via Twitter). Knee soreness has sidelined Beverley over the past eight games.
As Andrew Greif of the Los Angeles Times notes (via Twitter), before the team will officially OK a return, L.A. is holding out to observe Beverley’s continued recovery. Beverley, in his fourth season with the Clippers, is averaging 8.1 PPG, 4.4 RPG, 2.1 APG, 1.0 SPG and 0.8 BPG. The 6’1″ defensive-oriented vet boasts a shooting slash line of .400/.414/.762.
The 32-year-old out of Arkansas is currently in the second season of a three-year, $40MM deal he signed to remain in Los Angeles in the summer of 2019, a transformative period for the Clippers roster.
All-Star Clippers small forward Paul George, however, will not be joining L.A. as the team travels to face the Timberwolves and Bulls, Greif adds in a separate tweet. Greif suggests the Clippers will assess George’s health when they returns to their home market this weekend. George has been absent for the past two games with a bone edema in his foot.
Malik Beasley Sentenced On Violence Charge
Timberwolves guard Malik Beasley received a 120-day sentence in the Hennepin County Workhouse with work release and a home confinement option after pleading guilty to making threats of violence with reckless disregard to risk, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic.
The sentence will be served at the end of the season, and the threats of violence charge will be reduced to a misdemeanor once he completes three years of probation, Charania adds (Twitter link).
“We are very pleased with this outcome that will allow Malik to continue working on becoming a better person and making better choices,” said his attorney, Steve Haney.
The sentence also includes a three-year ban on alcohol and illicit drug use, with regular testing, and a lifetime ban on possessing firearms, writes Paul Walsh of The Star Tribune. A felony drug charge was dismissed as part of Beasley’s plea agreement.
Beasley, 24, was accused of aiming a rifle at a pregnant woman, her husband and their teenage daughter in an SUV outside his home in September. During a video hearing, he expressed remorse for his actions, Walsh adds, but explained that “for several weeks leading up to this incident, day and night, countless vehicles … came up to my house bothering my family and myself. I was worried and in fear for the safety of us and … all this caused me to be frustrated in this situation.”
Beasley’s house was listed on a Parade of Homes tour, even though had asked to have it removed, according to defense attorney Ryan Pacyga. The family was participating in the tour when the incident occurred.
Beasley asked the judge how he could “apologize face-to-face” to the victims and was instructed to write a letter to them and have it delivered. He is banned from having any future contact with the family.