Knicks Receive Permission To Interview Jason Kidd
The Knicks have requested and received permission to interview Jason Kidd for their head coaching opening, reports Marc Stein of The New York Times (Twitter link). Kidd is currently an assistant on Frank Vogel‘s Lakers staff.
Kidd, 47, has a pair of head coaching stints under his belt. He led the Nets to a 44-38 record during the 2013/14 season before joining the Bucks the following year. From 2014-18, he had a 139-152 (.478) record in Milwaukee, earning two playoff appearances but not advancing beyond the first round during that time.
This isn’t the first we’ve heard of the Knicks’ interest in Kidd. Ian Begley of SNY.tv previously reported that Kidd had fans within the organization, adding today that there had been “strong internal interest” in setting up an interview with the former All-Star point guard.
Kidd is the 11th candidate the Knicks are expected to interview as they conduct a wide-ranging search for their next permanent head coach. The full list of names can be found in our tracker.
Davis Bertans To Sit Out NBA Restart
Wizards forward Davis Bertans has decided to sit out when the NBA resumes its season next month, according to Adrian Wojnarowski and Tim Bontemps of ESPN (via Twitter).
As Wojnarowski notes, Bertans has suffered a pair of ACL injuries in the past and will be entering free agency this offseason on the heels of a career year. It’s not clear whether Bertans has any additional safety concerns related to COVID-19, but if he suffers an injury this summer, it could diminish his value as he seeks a new contract in the coming months.
Of course, it’s also worth noting that – with or without Bertans – the Wizards aren’t exactly championship contenders. Already missing star point guard John Wall, Washington will enter the restart trailing the Magic for the No. 8 seed in the East by 5.5 games. In order to earn a playoff spot, the Wizards would have to gain at least two games on Orlando or Brooklyn during the eight seeding contests, then win two consecutive games in a play-in tournament.
According to Wojnarowski, the Wizards “fully support” Bertans’ decision, which is viewed as a preventative measure. The veteran sharpshooter is still expected to participate in pre-Orlando training with the team, Woj adds.
Bertans, 27, averaged a career-best 15.4 PPG, 4.5 RPG, and 1.7 APG in 54 games (29.3 MPG) during his first season as a Wizard, making an impressive 42.4% of 8.7 three-point attempts per game. The Wizards, who turned down offers for Bertans at the trade deadline in February, view re-signing him as a top offseason priority, says Wojnarowski.
As for the short term, the Wizards will be eligible to sign a substitute player to replace Bertans in Orlando, without needing to open up a roster spot for that replacement. Once the franchise signs a substitute, Bertans would become ineligible to return this season.
Bertans will also forfeit 1/92.6th of his salary for each game he misses this summer — based on his $7MM salary for 2019/20, that would normally work out to about $605K for eight games. However, Bobby Marks of ESPN tweets that the actual figure will likely be close to $520K, since it will take into account previous reductions.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Knicks To Interview Mike Brown For Head Coach Job
The Knicks will interview Warriors associate head coach Mike Brown for their head coaching vacancy, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). New York’s list of coaching candidates has now cracked double-digits, with Brown representing the club’s 10th known interviewee.
Brown has served as an NBA coach for more than two decades, holding assistant roles in Washington, San Antonio, and Indiana to start his career. He became the Cavaliers’ head coach in 2005 and led the team to a 305-187 (.620) record over the next five seasons, earning a spot in the 2007 Finals and winning a Coach of the Year award in 2009.
After departing the Cavs in 2010, Brown over as head coach of the Lakers for the lockout season of 2011/12, leading the team to a 41-25 (.621) record. He was let go just five games into the following season when L.A. got off to a 1-4 start, and rejoined the Cavs for a single season in 2013/14.
Since 2016, Brown has been a top assistant on Steve Kerr‘s staff in Golden State. Brown, who interviewed with the Knicks in 2018 before they hired David Fizdale, is also coaching the Nigerian national team that will compete in next year’s Olympics in Tokyo.
The full list of the 10 known candidates for the Knicks’ head coaching position can be found within our tracker. According to Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic (Twitter link), the team started conducting phone calls with those candidates last week.
Top 2021 Prospect Cade Cunningham Sticks With Oklahoma State
Cade Cunningham, projected to be the potential No. 1 pick in the 2021 NBA draft, has decided to maintain his commitment to Oklahoma State for the 2020/21 season, he announced today on Twitter (video link).
After Cunningham made his original commitment to Oklahoma State, the school was sanctioned by the NCAA for recruiting violations. A 2021 postseason ban was among the penalties levied upon the Cowboys, leading to speculation that Cunningham may opt for a different program or even take the G League professional path. However, he has decided to play for Oklahoma State after all, despite not getting the chance to participate in next year’s NCAA tournament, barring an appeal that reverses the one-year ban.
According to Jeff Goodman of Stadium (Twitter link), Cunningham never seriously considered joining the G League option, having turned down a $500K+ offer to play for the new Select Team along with Jalen Green, Daishen Nix, and others.
Although Green edged out Cunningham on ESPN’s list of 2020’s top 100 high school recruits, draft guru Jonathan Givony has Cunningham ranked as the top player on his board for the 2021 draft. Givony noted in his most recent ’21 mock that both Cunningham and Green would likely go No. 1 in 2020’s draft if they were eligible.
A 6’7″ point guard, Cunningham was named the Naismith Prep Player of the Year in 2020, leading Montverde Academy in Florida to a 25-0 record with averages of 13.9 PPG, 6.4 APG, and 4.2 RPG.
COVID-19 Spike Unlikely To Change Restart Plans
The NBA is taking notice of the high number of COVID-19 cases in Florida, but it isn’t expected to alter plans to resume the season next month in Orlando, according to Baxter Holmes and Zach Lowe of ESPN.
Sources described commissioner Adam Silver as “resolute but somber” during a recent call with team executives. He acknowledged the seriousness of the recent rise in coronavirus cases in the state, but expressed confidence that the league’s bubble concept will protect players and staff members.
Florida set a single-day record Saturday with 4,049 new positive tests and has recorded record highs in seven of the past 10 days. The state is becoming a national hot spot with close to 94,000 total infections, but much of the increase is based in south Florida. The two counties where Walt Disney World is located in the central part of the state have a total of about 5,500 cases.
Players expressed their concerns this week in a virtual town hall conducted by the National Basketball Players Association, the authors add. Sources say a major topic was the lack of restrictions for WDW staffers, who will not live in the three hotels where the NBA will be stationed and will not be required to submit to coronavirus testing.
“Can’t say I am surprised, given the state’s approach to reopening,” NBPA executive director Michele Roberts said of the rising numbers. “We are obviously clearly monitoring the situation. While we take some solace in knowing our players will not travel commercially to get to Orlando, that access to the campus is severely limited and, of course, all of the other health and safety protocols in place, the numbers will keep our attention. If necessary to add further restrictions respecting those third parties having access to the campus, we will seek to implement them.”
She added that placing additional restrictions on resort employees may be difficult because they are union members.
The NBA’s health guidelines that were distributed to teams this week set limits on interactions with Disney staff members. Staff will be required to wear personal protective equipment and practice social distancing whenever they are in the same place as anyone from the league. Rooms will be serviced just once a week and only when the occupants are out. All bus drivers will be required to undergo coronavirus testing.
Victor Oladipo Unsure If He’s Ready For Orlando
Pacers guard Victor Oladipo will test his surgically repaired quad tendon before making a final decision on playing in Orlando, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Oladipo plans to start intense workouts next week to see how his body responds before making a commitment. He made his season debut January 29 and played in just 13 games before the hiatus, averaging 13.8 PPG in about 26 minutes per night. The former All-Star missed roughly a year of action after suffering the injury in January of 2019.
“I feel a whole lot better,” Oladipo said. “I know there’s risk going into it with the unique situation that I’m in — being off so long and trying to ramp it up that fast. I’ve just got to be smart, that’s all.”
The Pacers worked with Oladipo throughout his rehab process and were careful not to bring him back too soon, Wojnarowski adds. They will continue to watch him closely until a final decision is made.
Players face a Wednesday deadline to inform the league if they plan to report to Orlando, and teams must submit their active rosters by July 1. It’s not clear if Indiana would be able to replace Oladipo if he opts not to play, since substitute players aren’t eligible to replace players with injuries.
Anthony Tolliver Likely To Re-Sign With Grizzlies
With the NBA’s transaction window starting next week, Anthony Tolliver will likely end up re-signing with the Grizzlies during that period, according to Marc Stein of the New York Times (Twitter link). However, Stein cautions that Tolliver has attracted interest from multiple teams, so the veteran forward’s return to Memphis is not yet a done deal.
Tolliver, 35, was on a 10-day contract with Memphis that was set to expire just before the NBA suspended its season in March. The NBA veteran had split the 2019/20 campaign with the Blazers, Kings and Grizzlies. Across 47 games, he averaged 3.5 PPG and 2.8 RPG.
As Stein mentions in a separate tweet, players who are eligible to be signed are those who held a job in either the NBA or the G League this season. Additionally, players who were not under contract with a team outside of the United States are eligible to be signed as well.
NBA Draft, Free Agency Dates, Deadlines Set
The date for the 2020 NBA draft has been set for Friday, October 16, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link). Wojnarowski also notes (via Twitter) that free agency will open up two days later, on October 18, with a moratorium period on deals from October 19-23.
The NBA draft was originally tentatively rescheduled for October 15 with the draft lottery moved to August 25 from the original June 25 and May 19 dates, respectively.
In a pair of tweets, Wojnarowski says that the new early entry deadline for the draft is August 17, while the early entrant withdrawal deadline is October 6. The latter date makes sense, since the NBA’s deadline for early entrants to withdraw their names always falls 10 days before the draft.
However, the August 17 update may require some further clarification — the early entry deadline initially fell on April 26 and there was no indication at the time that the NBA had pushed it back. The NCAA recently set its own early entrant withdrawal deadline for no later than August 3.
In regards to free agency, teams will be able to negotiate with players starting at 6:00pm eastern time on October 18, per Wojnarowski (via Twitter). Players and teams figure to start reaching agreements at that point, though they won’t be able to complete them until a few days later. You can track all the players set to hit free agency this fall here.
Additionally, traded player exceptions that were originally set to expire on July 6-10 will expire on October 23-27, according to Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press (Twitter link). You can track those trade exceptions here.
The NBA is currently working toward resuming the 2019/20 season through a bubble league in Orlando. If and when the season can be resumed and completed, the new dates will impact franchise’s plans for building rosters toward the ’20/21 campaign.
NBA Transaction Window To Open On June 23
The NBA will lift its moratorium on transactions on Tuesday, allowing a number of moves to be completed between June 23 (starting at noon eastern time) and June 30 (until 11:59pm ET), sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
As Charania details (via Twitter), the following types of transactions will be permitted during that week-long window:
- Players can be signed to rest-of-season contracts.
- Substitute players can be signed for players opting not to report to Orlando.
- Two-way contracts can be signed or converted to standard deals.
- Players can be waived.
Trades won’t permitted during the transaction window, since the season’s deadline has passed and the offseason hasn’t yet begun. And while Charania’s report doesn’t mention it, it’s believed that all 30 teams will be eligible to participate in the transaction window, though the eight teams not included in the summer restart may be restricted from certain transactions, such as signing substitute players and two-way players.
The minimum salary for players with at least two years of experience who are signing rest-of-season deals will be $183,115, according to Charania. That’s the equivalent to 20 days’ worth of the $1,620,564 minimum salary for 2019/20.
Transactions have been frozen since shortly after the NBA suspended its season in March. The NBA and NBPA agreed in April to extend that moratorium indefinitely, so next week will represent the first time in more than three months that teams will be able to complete roster moves.
While it remains to be seen what moves will be made next week, we’ve heard that the Thunder have interest in converting Luguentz Dort‘s two-way contract into a standard deal and that the Rockets are eyeing free agent guard Tyler Johnson. With 22 teams set to participate in the summer restart, a number of two-way contract situations will also be worth keeping an eye on. You can check out our two-way contract tracker here.
Additionally, Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press notes (via Twitter) that Suns guard Jared Harper, who was waived just before the moratorium was imposed in March, will be placed on waivers once the transaction window opens on Tuesday — he’ll need to clear waivers on Thursday before officially becoming a free agent.
Rockets Eyeing Tyler Johnson
The Rockets are considering making a roster move in advance of the resumption of the 2019/20 season, according to Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle, who reports that signing Tyler Johnson is one possibility the team has looked at.
Johnson, 28, was sent to Phoenix at the 2019 trade deadline and appeared in 44 total games for the club, including 31 this season. Formerly a solid rotation player in Miami, Johnson had a down year with the Suns in 2019/20, averaging just 5.7 PPG and 1.6 APG on .380/.289/.750 shooting in 16.6 minutes per contest.
After not finding a deal that used his expiring contract at the trade deadline in February, the Suns waived Johnson a few days later. He has been a free agent since then and would be eligible to join a team for the NBA’s summer restart.
If the Rockets want to sign Johnson, they’ll have to open up a roster spot to do so. After signing Jeff Green and DeMarre Carroll on the buyout market, Houston has a full 15-man squad, with both two-way slots used as well.
Feigen doesn’t name a specific player whose roster spot may be in jeopardy if the Rockets make a move. However, Tyson Chandler, Bruno Caboclo, Isaiah Hartenstein, and Thabo Sefolosha are among the players on the roster who have limited roles and aren’t owed guaranteed money beyond this season.