NBA To Announce Awards For Top Bubble Performers On Saturday
The NBA announced today in a press release that it will name an All-Seeding Games Team and the Player of the Seeding Games to honor the top performers of the summer restart.
According to the league, media members – sportswriters and broadcasters – who have been on site at the Walt Disney World campus covering the restart will vote on the awards. Those voters will select a total of 10 players for the All-Seeding Games First Team and Second Team.
The winners will be announced on August 15 – this Saturday – before the first game of the Western Conference play-in tournament.
Because these awards will only reward the top performers for the eight seeding games played between July 30 and August 14, players from the bottom eight teams obviously won’t be eligible.
However, players who may not receive serious consideration for full-season awards – such as Pacers forward T.J. Warren – will have an opportunity to earn a spot on the All-Seeding Games Team based on their strong play this summer.
The NBA recently announced the finalists for its full-season awards, including MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, and Rookie of the Year, among others.
Andre Iguodala: I Have “About A Year Or Two Left”
During last year’s NBA Finals, then-Warriors forward Andre Iguodala addressed the topic of his eventual retirement, suggesting that he had “a good idea” of how much longer he wanted to play. At the time, Iguodala claimed he could play four or five more years, but didn’t plan to do so.
Speaking this week to Mark Medina of USA Today, Iguodala – now a member of the Heat – revisited that topic and provided a more concrete timeline for the potential end of his career.
“I have about a year or two left,” the former Finals MVP told Medina. “I’m serious this time. I got two left.”
When the Heat acquired Iguodala from the Grizzlies at this year’s trade deadline, they agreed to a two-year contract extension that includes a guaranteed $15MM salary for 2020/21 and a $15MM team option for ’21/22. Presumably, the 36-year-old plans to play out that contract, though if Miami doesn’t pick up his option next year, perhaps he’ll consider retiring after just one more season.
According to Medina, one of the primary factors in Iguodala’s thinking is his desire to spend more time with his family, helping wife Christina raise their teenage son, Andre Jr.
“He lives a rich and soft life. So I have to prepare him to be self-sufficient,” Iguodala told Medina, half joking. “He’s smart enough, but he hasn’t dealt with any danger. Coming from where we come from, it helps us in terms of having street awareness. You have to scope the scene and know there is danger around. But he’s so comfortable that I have to reign him in.”
Iguodala no longer has the same kind of impact on the court that he did when he averaged nearly 20.0 PPG with the Sixers in 2008 or when he won his NBA Finals MVP award with Golden State in 2015. Still, he has established himself as a regular, reliable part of the Heat’s rotation since joining the club in February. In 20 games for Miami (20.2 MPG), he has averaged 4.8 PPG, 3.9 RPG, and 2.6 APG.
Terrence Ross Returns To NBA Campus
Magic sharpshooter Terrence Ross wasn’t away from the NBA’s campus at Walt Disney World for long. After announcing on Monday that Ross had left to address a medical matter unrelated to COVID-19, the Magic said this morning (via Twitter) that he has returned.
Ross’ medical tests came back negative and he has begun his quarantine period, according to the team. Typically, a player who leaves the NBA’s campus for personal reasons must quarantine for at least four days upon returning. However, the league sent out a memo in July informing teams that players wouldn’t necessarily have to quarantine for that long if they leave the bubble for local medical treatment with league approval.
The Magic previously announced that Ross would be out for Tuesday’s game against Brooklyn, but if we assume his quarantine period will be brief, he could be back in action on Thursday when Orlando faces New Orleans in the team’s final seeding game. Whether or not he plays this week, he definitely should be available for the start of the postseason on August 17.
Although he hasn’t started a game in 2019/20, Ross is the first man off the bench for the Magic, playing 27.4 minutes per contest. He has averaged 14.7 PPG on .403/.351/.853 shooting in 69 games this season, though those numbers are slightly down during the restart — 14.3 PPG on .362/.300/.913 shooting in six games this summer.
Knicks Hire Kenny Payne As Assistant Coach
The Knicks have formally announced the first addition to Tom Thibodeau‘s new staff, confirming in a press release that they’ve hired Kentucky associate head coach Kenny Payne as an assistant. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski first reported the hiring.
Payne, who has been a member of John Calipari‘s Wildcats staff for the last decade, has strong relationships with new Knicks president of basketball operations Leon Rose and executive VP William Wesley, Wojnarowski notes.
“I’m thrilled that Kenny has joined my staff as an assistant coach. He has an outstanding ability to forge relationships with players and improve their skills,” Thibodeau said in a statement. “He knows what it takes to win and has learned from one of the best coaches there is in John Calipari. Kenny will be a tremendous addition to our organization.”
Before being hired by Kentucky in 2010, Payne was an assistant with the Oregon Ducks. He also played basketball professionally before beginning his coaching career, spending a few seasons with the Sixers from 1989-93.
As we noted over the weekend when discussing the Knicks’ interest in Payne, the longtime college assistant is known for developing big men, including Timberwolves star Karl-Anthony Towns. He also worked with Knicks forwards Julius Randle and Kevin Knox while they were at Kentucky.
Mike Woodson and Mike Miller are among the other coaches rumored to be candidates to join Thibodeau’s staff.
Nets To Formally Launch Coaching Search When Season Ends
Although interim head coach Jacque Vaughn has done an admirable job with the Nets during the NBA’s restart this summer, the team still intends to formally launch a full head coaching search when their season comes to an end, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic.
As Charania explains, team owner Joseph Tsai wants to identify the best possible “partner for team ownership, the front office, coaching staff, and players.” The team will be prioritizing building its culture based on relationships and “pursuing sustainable success.”
It’s possible the Nets’ search will lead them back to Vaughn, as Charania indicates he’s expected to receive serious consideration to retain his current position. Since replacing Kenny Atkinson in March, Vaughn has led Brooklyn to a 6-2 record, and four of those wins have come with a depleted squad in Orlando. Although the seventh-seeded Nets aren’t expected to win a playoff series, putting up a spirited fight against the defending-champion Raptors in the first round could further bolster Vaughn’s chances.
Still, Brooklyn is expected to consider several outside candidates as well. Charania identifies former NBA head coaches Jason Kidd, Tyronn Lue, and Jeff Van Gundy as possible targets, echoing an April report from The New York Times.
Sixers assistant Ime Udoka is also among the Nets’ potential candidates, according to Charania, who notes that more contenders could emerge “as job statuses around the league change.”
Of course, with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving due back from injuries for the 2020/21 season, an ability to connect with and command the respect of those superstars will be a major factor the Nets consider as they decide on a permanent head coach.
Sixers’ Embiid Out Tuesday, Simmons Undergoes Surgery
The Sixers issued a pair of injury updates on their two star players this afternoon, indicating that center Joel Embiid (left ankle) will miss Tuesday’s game vs. Phoenix, while guard/forward Ben Simmons underwent successful surgery in Philadelphia to remove a loose body from his left knee (Twitter links via Derek Bodner of The Athletic and Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer).
Simmons, whose procedure had been reported over the weekend, will be re-evaluated in two weeks, the Sixers indicated in today’s announcement. However, the expectation is that the former No. 1 overall pick will likely miss the rest of the season, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).
While Simmons’ outlook for the remainder of 2019/20 isn’t good, there’s optimism that Embiid’s ankle injury isn’t serious and that he’ll be back soon, Wojnarowski tweets. Even after tomorrow’s game, the 76ers have two more seeding contests on Wednesday and Friday, so Embiid will have a couple more opportunities to suit up before the playoffs begin next week.
Embiid’s unavailability for Tuesday is good news for the Suns, who are 6-0 in the bubble and are pushing hard to participate in a play-in tournament for the final postseason spot in the West. According to Bodner (Twitter link), Josh Richardson will also miss Tuesday’s game for rest purposes, while Al Horford (left knee soreness) and Tobias Harris (right ankle soreness) are considered questionable.
2020 NBA Draft Lottery To Be Held Virtually
As expected, the 2020 NBA draft lottery won’t take its usual form, with representatives from the 14 lottery teams all brought to a single location where the league reveals the results. Instead, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link), it’ll be a virtual event, with reps from the lottery teams appearing via video.
This year’s draft lottery, originally scheduled to be held on May 19, will now take place on August 20, next Thursday. We checked in on the lottery last week, noting that the top eight spots in the lottery standings are locked in, having been filled by the league’s bottom eight teams as of March 11.
Since then, the Wizards have secured the ninth spot in the lottery standings by virtue of being eliminated from playoff contention in Orlando.
The remaining spots in the lottery standings, Nos. 10-14, will be filled by the Kings, Pelicans, and the three other Western teams that don’t ultimately make the playoffs. They’ll be sorted based on their record as of March 11, so the Suns would have the 10th-best odds if they don’t make the postseason, while the Grizzlies would have the 14th-best odds if they don’t make it.
The Warriors, Cavaliers, and Timberwolves will have the best chance to land the No. 1 overall pick, at 14.0% each. Once the lottery order has been determined, teams can start ramping up their preparations for the draft, which will take place on October 16.
Montrezl Harrell Returns To NBA’s Campus
More than three weeks after leaving the NBA’s campus in Florida for personal reasons, Clippers center Montrezl Harrell has returned to Walt Disney World. As Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN writes, Harrell published an Instagram video early on Monday morning showing the view from his Disney hotel, and posted, “I’m back!!!!!!!!” on Twitter.
Harrell left the NBA’s campus before last month’s scrimmages began, in order attend his grandmother’s funeral and to be with his family. The 26-year-old was very close with his grandmother, whose death hit him hard. The team had told Harrell to take as much time as he needed to grieve before returning to Orlando.
Having left the bubble with an excused absence, Harrell will likely be subject to a quarantine period of just four days now that he’s back, as long as he tested negative for the coronavirus each of the last seven days of his absence. If he didn’t abide by the league’s testing protocols, his quarantine period could be up to 10-to-14 days, but for now there’s no indication that will be the case.
As Youngmisuk notes, Clippers head coach Doc Rivers was asked on Sunday whether the team might have Harrell available for its final seeding game this Friday vs. Oklahoma City.
“We hope so,” Rivers replied. “That’s all I can say.”
Of course, even if Harrell clears quarantine on Thursday, he may need a practice or two to get back up to speed, considering he hasn’t worked out with the team since mid-July. But his return to Disney World bodes well for his availability for the postseason, which is scheduled to begin a week from today.
Grizzles, Blazers, Spurs, Suns Vying For Play-In Spots
As a result of this past weekend’s games, we’re now assured of having our first-ever “play-in tournament” in the Western Conference, since there’s no way that the Grizzlies – or any other team that can finish at No. 8 – will finish more than four games ahead of the West’s No. 9 seed.
That won’t be the case in the East, where the Nets are locked into No. 7 and the Magic into No. 8, with the Wizards too far out of contention to force a play-in. But two teams out of the Grizzlies, Trail Blazers, Spurs, and Suns are set to participate in a play-in tournament in the West. The Kings and Pelicans have officially been eliminated from play-in contention.
That play-in tournament will essentially be a best-of-three series, with the No. 8 team being staked to a 1-0 advantage in the “series.” In other words, the No. 9 seed will need to win twice to earn the conference’s final playoff spot, while the No. 8 seed will only need to win once in two tries to make it through.
Here are the current standings in the West:
| Seed | Team |
Record |
Games back | Games left |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | Grizzlies | 33-38 | – | BOS, MIL |
| 9 | Blazers | 33-39 | 0.5 | DAL, BKN |
| 10 | Spurs | 31-38 | 1 | HOU, UTA |
| 11 | Suns | 31-39 | 1.5 | OKC, PHI, DAL |
The Grizzlies are the only team that fully controls its own destiny when it comes to claiming the No. 8 seed. Wins over Boston and Milwaukee would ensure that Memphis holds that spot, and a win in either one of those games would guarantee that the Grizzlies at least participate in the play-in tournament.
Those games – against two of the East’s top three teams – won’t be easy though, and if the Grizzlies lose both of them, the race will be wide open, with any of the three teams chasing them technically still in play for the No. 8 seed.
The Blazers, with the softest remaining schedule, still look like a good bet to participate in a play-in tournament, but they’ll need to finish strong — losing one of their two games would leave them vulnerable to being passed in the standings by the Spurs and Suns if those teams win out. If Phoenix and San Antonio both win out, the Suns would finish slightly ahead of the Spurs.
All four teams still alive for the Nos. 8 and 9 seeds play their final seeding games on Thursday, so we’ll know by the end of that day which teams will take part in the play-in. The most important game to watch on today’s schedule is Suns vs. Thunder. Phoenix won’t be eliminated from play-in contention with a loss, but it would make their path a whole lot more difficult.
What do you think? Which two teams do you expect to participate in the play-in tournament, and which club still do you expect to ultimately claim the No. 8 spot in the West?
Draymond Green Fined For Violating Anti-Tampering Rule
Warriors forward Draymond Green has been fined $50K for comments he made about the Suns‘ Devin Booker on TNT, the NBA announced on Twitter.
The league considers Green’s suggestion that Booker should force his way out of Phoenix so he can play for a better organization to be a violation of its anti-tampering rule. In announcing the fine, the league notes that before the current season, it “adopted a stricter enforcement approach for conduct relating to tampering, salary cap circumvention, and free agency timing rules, including with respect to the rule prohibiting player-to-player tampering.”
Green, who is serving as a studio host during the NBA’s restart, raised eyebrows Friday with pointed comments toward the Suns and his opinion on Booker’s future.
“It’s great to see Book playing well and Phoenix playing well, but get my man out of Phoenix,” he said. “It’s not good for him, it’s not good for his career. Sorry Chuck (Charles Barkley), but they’ve gotta get Book out of Phoenix. I need my man to go somewhere that he can play great basketball all of the time and win, because he’s that kind of player.”