Celtics’ Hayward Anticipates Leaving Campus For Birth Of Child
Celtics forward Gordon Hayward told reporters today, including Tim Bontemps of ESPN, that he intends to leave the NBA’s Walt Disney World campus for the birth of his fourth child in September, assuming his team is still alive in the playoffs at the time.
“I’m for sure going to be with her,” Hayward said of his wife Robyn. “… “It’s a pretty easy decision for me on that. I’ve been at the birth of every one of my children and I think there are more important things in life. So we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”
Players who receive permission to leave the Orlando campus for a family situation will be required to quarantine for four days upon returning, as Bontemps notes. That hinges on the player being gone for fewer than seven days and testing negative for COVID-19 each day that he’s away. Unexcused absences would require a quarantine period of at least 10 days upon returning to the NBA’s Disney campus — that shouldn’t apply to Hayward, but he could still miss at least a couple games.
The exact due date for Hayward’s child is unclear, but based on the NBA’s tentative schedule, the conference semifinals will take place during the first half of September, with the conference finals taking place during the second half of the month. In other words, Boston – currently the No. 3 seed in the East – is in good position to be playing into September.
According to Jared Weiss of The Athletic, Celtics big man Vincent Poirier and his partner Assouan are due to have their first child on September 17. Poirier told The Athletic that, like Hayward, he plans to leave the campus to attend the birth, so depending on the timing – and Boston’s performance – the team could be down a couple players in September.
NBA Expected To OK Chicago Mini-Camps, Games For Bottom Eight Teams
4:14pm: Within her full ESPN.com story on the proposed Chicago campus, MacMullan writes that most of the bottom eight teams would prefer to hold mini-camps in their own markets, but commissioner Adam Silver and NBPA executive director Michele Roberts – who have repeatedly expressed that they believe the Orlando campus will be safer than teams’ own markets – want to create a similar environment for the non-Orlando teams before they approve group workouts and scrimmages.
Seven of the bottom eight teams – all except the Knicks – were on a call today with the NBA to discuss the issue, with the league seeking assurances that teams would send their players to Chicago, per MacMullan. There’s a belief that veterans like Stephen Curry and Blake Griffin may not travel to Chicago for the event, but that younger players would be more inclined to participate.
Participation would be voluntary and the cost of setting up the campus would be split among the NBA’s 30 clubs, sources tell ESPN. MacMullan notes that some of the bottom eight teams want to wait a couple weeks to see how the Orlando plan plays out, while others are in favor of moving forward with a plan as soon as possible, since they don’t believe there’s a ton of time to work out the details.
There’s still work to be done before the NBPA signs off on the plan, tweets K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago.
3:56pm: The NBA is close to signing off on creating a second campus location in Chicago for the league’s bottom eight teams who weren’t invited to Orlando, sources tell ESPN’s Jackie MacMullan (Twitter link via Adrian Wojnarowski).
As MacMullan reports – and Woj relays – the eight clubs not invited to Orlando would be permitted to hold mini-training camps and inter-squad games in Chicago. The goal would be for the event to take place in September.
The news comes as a bit of a surprise. Many of the clubs whose seasons are over have been pushing the NBA to allow some sort of offseason team activities along these lines, in the hopes of keeping their young players engaged and active during a nine-month gap between games. However, a report earlier this week suggested that the NBA wasn’t expected to approve mandatory OTAs, and there was skepticism that the league would go to the effort of creating another “bubble” without its massive TV deals – and its 2020 postseason – at stake.
We’ll have to wait for more details on the NBA’s Chicago plan, but it seems safe to assume there would be more player opt-outs among the bottom eight teams than there have been among the top 22. As Bobby Marks of ESPN points out (via Twitter) that approximately 40 players on the non-Orlando teams could reach free agency in October, limiting their incentive to participate in a September mini-camp for teams they may be leaving a month later.
The Warriors are the only team without any pending free agents on their roster, but Anthony Slater of The Athletic notes (via Twitter) that their preference has been to hold a controlled mini-camp in the Bay Area — not to participate in a de facto Summer League across the country.
The Warriors, Timberwolves, Hornets, Bulls, Hawks, Knicks, Cavaliers, and Pistons are the eight teams not playing in Orlando this summer who would be invited to the Chicago campus, assuming the NBA and NBPA finalize an agreement.
Latest On NBA’s Coronavirus Testing Results
After announcing last week that 16 of the 302 NBA players who were tested for COVID-19 last Tuesday came back positive, the league has issued an update today on its latest coronavirus testing results. Here are the details, per the NBA:
- Of the 344 players tested between June 24-29, an additional nine players tested positive for COVID-19.
- That makes 25 of 351 total players who have been diagnosed with the coronavirus since mandatory testing began on Tuesday, June 23.
- Of the 884 team staff members who were tested between June 23-29, a total of 10 tested positive for the coronavirus.
Some of the 25 players who tested positive have been publicly identified, including Spencer Dinwiddie and DeAndre Jordan of the Nets. In other cases, teams have revealed that players on their roster tested positive without specifically identifying them, such as when the Pelicans announced they had three cases. In general though, the NBA and its teams won’t be announcing which specific players or staffers have tested positive, leaving that decision up to those individuals.
As the NBA notes in today’s announcement, any player, coach, or staffer who tests positive must self-quarantine until they satisfy public health protocols and have been cleared by a doctor. While some players, such as Jordan, may opt out of the NBA’s restart as a result of a coronavirus diagnosis, players will be permitted to rejoin their teams after their self-isolation period, assuming they’re asymptomatic and return multiple negative tests.
The NBA’s hope is that all COVID-19 cases around the league will be identified before teams and players travel to the Walt Disney World campus next week.
Wizards Sign Jerian Grant
JULY 1: Grant has officially inked a deal with the Wizards to replace Bertans, per a press release on the team’s official site.
JUNE 25: The Wizards intend to sign free agent guard Jerian Grant as a substitute player for Davis Bertans, a source tells Wizards reporter Chris Miller (Twitter link). The deal will become official on July 1, Miller adds.
Bertans has decided to opt out of the NBA’s restart this summer in large part due to injury concerns. The Wizards have a full 15-man roster, but can sign a replacement for someone like Bertans, who voluntarily opts out and surrenders his salary for the eight seeding games.
That replacement will be Grant, who spent most of the 2019/20 season playing for Washington’s G League affiliate, the Capital City Go-Go, following a brief stint in China last fall. In 39 games (33.3 MPG) for the Go-Go, the veteran point guard averaged 16.3 PPG, 5.5 APG, and 4.4 RPG with an impressive .475/.441/.835 shooting line.
Grant, a former first-round pick who has previously played for the Knicks, Bulls, and Magic, will receive a rest-of-season, minimum-salary deal as a substitute player. The Washington, D.C. native will be an unrestricted free agent at season’s end, and the Wizards won’t hold any form of Bird rights on him.
Grant will help provide depth in a Washington backcourt that will be missing point guard John Wall. Wall, who continues to recover from an Achilles tear, isn’t eligible to be replaced by a substitute player since he’ll be sidelined due to an injury rather than voluntarily opting out or being ruled out due to a health issue related to COVID-19.
Thabo Sefolosha To Skip Orlando Restart
Veteran Rockets swingman Thabo Sefolosha will be skipping the NBA’s bubble season restart and subsequent playoffs, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
The 36-year-old defensive specialist, who was born in Switzerland, inked a fully guaranteed one-year, veteran’s minimum contract with Houston at the start of the 2019/20 season, but has seen limited rotation minutes. Sefolosha opting out of the bubble will effectively make him an unrestricted free agent, though his contract won’t expire until the fall.
Across 41 games, Sefolosha – a former teammate of Rockets All-Stars James Harden and Russell Westbrook while all three were on the Thunder – averaged 2.2 PPG, 2.3 RPG, and 0.6 APG during 10.6 MPG the 2019/20 season, his 14th in the league. Though just 6’6″, Sefolosha primarily logged time as a power forward in coach Mike D’Antoni and team GM Daryl Morey‘s ultra-small ball Rockets lineups.
Sefolosha relayed his concerns about joining the bubble for an extended duration of time, away from his family with the coronavirus pandemic still on the rise, on an episode Brodie and the Beard, a podcast from Kelly Iko of The Athletic, per a tweet from Iko. In that conversation, Sefolosha called an isolated bubble tenure a “huge commitment.”
[RELATED: List Of Players Opting Out Of NBA’s Restart]
Iko observes in a separate tweet that the Rockets front office has been prepping contingency plans for Sefolosha potentially avoiding the season restart. A substitute for Sefolosha will now be sought by the Rockets. Sefolosha stands to lose about $230K in salary, according to Bobby Marks of ESPN (Twitter link).
Cauley-Stein Opting Out Of Restart; Mavs Sign Burke
JULY 1, 12:53pm: Burke has officially signed a contract, according to his Twitter feed.
JUNE 25, 12:32pm: Mavericks center Willie Cauley-Stein has opted to sit out of the NBA’s restart this summer, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic, who notes (via Twitter) that Cauley-Stein and his partner are expecting a newborn child in July.
Free agent guard Trey Burke has agreed to a rest-of-season deal with Dallas and will take Cauley-Stein’s place on the summer roster, per Charania (via Twitter). Tim MacMahon of ESPN (Twitter link) first reported that the Mavs had interest in signing Burke.
Burke, 27, was waived by the Sixers at this year’s trade deadline when Philadelphia needed a roster spot to accommodate incoming additions Glenn Robinson III and Alec Burks. Up until that point, the former lottery pick had been a solid offensive option off the bench for the 76ers, averaging 5.9 PPG and 2.1 APG on .465/.421/.722 shooting in 25 games (13.2 MPG).
Burke has some history with the Mavericks, having spent a portion of the 2018/19 season in Dallas after being traded by the Knicks. He recorded 9.7 PPG and 2.6 APG in 25 games (17.4 MPG) for the Mavs last season, and will help replace injured guard Jalen Brunson in the team’s backcourt this season. He’ll get a minimum-salary, rest-of-season deal and will become an unrestricted free agent at season’s end.
The Mavericks have a full 15-man roster and weren’t eligible to add a substitute player to replace any of their injured players (Dwight Powell, Courtney Lee, and Brunson). However, they don’t need an open roster spot to sign a replacement for a player who is voluntarily opting out, such as Cauley-Stein.
Cauley-Stein, who holds a $2.29MM player option for 2020/21, won’t be fined or suspended for deciding not to participate in the summer restart. However, he’ll forfeit some ’19/20 pay for sitting out, giving up 1/92.6th of his salary for each Mavs game he misses, up to a maximum of 14 contests. Cauley-Stein is the fourth player known to be opting out of the NBA’s return, joining Avery Bradley, Trevor Ariza, and Davis Bertans.
If the Mavericks want to make another addition to their roster to help fill the holes created by injuries, waiving Lee – who is on an expiring contract – would be an option. However, Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News tweeted earlier this week that the Mavs aren’t eager to release Lee, since they value his locker room impact and would like to have him in Orlando this summer.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Blazers Sign Guard Jaylen Adams
JULY 1, 12:46pm: Adams has officially signed with the team, Wojnarowski tweets.
JUNE 29, 8:05pm: The Trail Blazers are expected to sign point guard and G League MVP runner-up Jaylen Adams, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN tweets.
Adams will replace veteran forward Trevor Ariza on the roster. Ariza opted out of the league’s restart plan due to family reasons.
The 6’2” Adams appeared in 34 games last season with the Hawks. The 24-year-old appeared in 34 games with the Wisconsin Herd this season, racking up averages of 20.9 PPG, 5.2 APG, 4.9 RPG and 1.7 SPG in 31.7 MPG. He went undrafted in 2018 after a stellar college career with St. Bonaventure.
As a substitute player, Adams won’t push the Blazers further into the luxury tax. His salary will be included in total league salaries but won’t count against Portland’s cap, Bobby Marks of ESPN tweets.
The Blazers still have one open spot on their 15-man roster.
Lakers Sign Veteran Guard J.R. Smith
JULY 1, 12:45pm: Smith has officially signed a contract with the team, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski tweets.
JUNE 29, 11:10am: The Lakers are expected to finalize a rest-of-season contract with free agent shooting guard J.R. Smith this week, league sources tell Marc Stein of The New York Times (Twitter link). According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (via Twitter), Smith and the Lakers are working through the final steps of a deal today.
Smith, 34, didn’t play in the NBA at all this season, but worked out for the Lakers in March before the league went on hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic. When word broke last week that Avery Bradley was voluntarily opting out of the NBA’s restart, Smith was immediately identified as a leading candidate to replace him on L.A.’s summer roster.
Smith last played in the NBA in 2018/19, appearing in just 11 games for the Cavaliers before being waived in November of that season. In ’17/18, his last full season, he was a solid role player in Cleveland, averaging 8.3 PPG and 2.9 RPG with a .375 3PT% in 80 games (28.1 MPG).
As a substitute player, Smith will receive a rest-of-season, minimum-salary contract that won’t count against the Lakers’ cap. It will pay him just shy of $290K, which represents 20/177ths of the usual $2,564,753 minimum salary for a player with 10+ years of NBA service. He’ll be an unrestricted free agent after the season and L.A. won’t hold any form of Bird rights on him this fall.
Even with Bradley out, it’s not clear that Smith will actually see much action this summer. However, he becomes the latest intriguing character to join the Lakers’ depth chart on the wing — the team signed veteran shooting guard Dion Waiters shortly before play was suspended in March.
Assuming no other Lakers players voluntarily opt out of the resumption of the season, the club won’t have the ability to make another addition without cutting someone. Currently, all 17 roster spots are filled, with two-way players Devontae Cacok and Kostas Antetokounmpo joining the 15 players on standard contracts.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Cameron Payne Signs With Suns
7:18pm: The Suns have officially signed Payne, per Gina Mizell, most recently of The Athletic (Twitter link).
6:20pm: Well-traveled point guard Cameron Payne, a current free agent most recently with the Cavaliers during the 2018/2019, has agreed to a two-year contract with the Suns, per Shams Charania of Stadium and The Athletic (Twitter link).
Since being drafted at the bottom of the 2015 lottery with the No. 14 pick out of Murray State by the Thunder, Payne has logged time – primarily as a backup – with Oklahoma City, the Bulls and the Cavaliers. He holds averages of 6.0 PPG (he is connecting on just 39.7% of his looks from the field but a decent 77.5% from the charity stripe), 1.8 RPG, and 2.5 APG.
The 26-39 Suns, led by All-Star Devin Booker, will be joining the NBA’s season restart in Orlando. The 6’3″ Payne can help the team shore up their guard depth as an end-of-bench/practice addition at either position.
No corresponding move is required, as the Suns have an open spot on their 15-man roster.
Zhaire Smith Suffers Bone Bruise, Will Miss Orlando Restart
Sixers wing Zhaire Smith has suffered a bone bruise in his left knee, per Derek Bodner of The Athletic (Twitter link). He will skip the NBA’s season restart, which kicks off on July 30 in Orlando. Bodner also notes that Smith should make a full recovery by the start of the 2020/21 NBA season.
According to Bodner (Twitter link), Smith began feeling pain in the knee ahead of the team’s restart training camp last week. The Sixers won’t be able to sign a substitute player, since injured players aren’t eligible to be replaced. After adding shooting guard Ryan Broekhoff, the team is currently carrying 17 players.
Smith, the No. 16 pick by the Sixers in the 2018 draft out of Texas Tech, has been hampered by lower-extremity injuries since entering the league. The 6’3″ shooting guard has played in just 13 of a possible 147 games.
Though Smith’s injury should not greatly affect the current Sixers roster’s depth in a season restart, the fact that he has suffered another season-ending malady after sporadic play in his sophomore campaign cannot be comforting to the Philadelphia front office.