Washington Wizards Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Wizards Sign Jordan Goodwin Via Hardship Exception

December 27th, 2021 at 11:47am CST by Dana Gauruder

DECEMBER 27: The Wizards have officially signed Goodwin to a 10-day contract, the team announced in a press release.

DECEMBER 26: The Wizards are planning to sign Jordan Goodwin from their G League affiliate, the Capital City Go-Go, on a 10-day contract under the hardship exemption, Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets.

Goodwin is averaging 15.9 PPG, 6.1 RPG and 3.6 APG in 14 games with the Go-Go, including 10 starts. He went undrafted earlier this year following a four-year college career with Saint Louis.

The 6’3” guard will fortify a backcourt that has two prominent players, Bradley Beal and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, in the league’s health and safety protocols.

COVID Updates: Green, Brooks, Bazley, Augustin, Scrubb, Niang, Neto

December 26th, 2021 at 4:00pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The league continues to be ravaged by COVID positives with an increasing number of players entering the league’s health and safety protocols. Here are the latest updates:

Warriors star forward Draymond Green has entered the protocols, Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets. Green joined four other Warriors in the protocols heading into a pair of games against Denver.
The Grizzlies’ Dillon Brooks, De’Anthony Melton and Yves Pons all entered the protocols prior to their game against Sacramento on Sunday, the team’s PR department tweets. Memphis now has five players under those restrictions.
Darius Bazley became the first Thunder player in protocols, Andrew Schlecht of The Athletic tweets.
Veteran Rockets guard D.J. Augustin has entered the health and safety protocols, Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle tweets.
Clippers two-way player Jay Scrubb has been placed in the protocols, Andrew Greif of the Los Angeles Times tweets.
Wizards guard Raul Neto has joined two other Washington players in the protocols, Josh Robbins of The Athletic tweets.
Two Hornets regulars, Miles Bridges and P.J. Washington, are now in the protocols, the team’s PR department tweets.
On the positive side, Sixers forward Georges Niang has cleared the protocols, Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer tweets.

Bradley Beal, Trevor Ariza, Jarrett Culver Enter Protocols

December 23rd, 2021 at 3:45pm CST by Luke Adams

Wizards star Bradley Beal has entered the health and safety protocols and will miss Thursday’s game vs. New York, according to the team (Twitter link). Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is also currently in the protocols for Washington.

If Beal hasn’t registered a confirmed positive COVID-19 test, it’s possible he could exit the protocols in a matter of days. But if he did test positive, the 28-year-old figures to be sidelined for at least 10 days unless he can return two consecutive negative tests.

Beal, who remained unvaccinated as of September, missed the Olympics earlier this year because he tested positive for the coronavirus just before Team USA left for Tokyo.

Meanwhile, Lakers forward Trevor Ariza and Grizzlies wing Jarrett Culver have also been placed in the COVID-19 protocols, according to their respective teams (Twitter links). Ariza is the fifth Laker in the protocols, while Culver is the second Grizzlies player affected, joining Ziaire Williams.

While three players enter the protocols, another has exited — the Knicks announced that Quentin Grimes has been cleared to rejoin the team (Twitter link).

Hughes Examines Wizards' Trade Deadline Needs

December 23rd, 2021 at 10:13am CST by Luke Adams

Trade talks across the NBA have been put on the back burner for now as teams focus on dealing with COVID-19 outbreaks and signing replacement players. However, those discussions figure to heat up in the coming weeks, prompting Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington to take an early look at potential trade deadline priorities for the Wizards. The team could use more shooting, more size, and a speedy point guard, says Hughes.

Wizards Sign Jordan Schakel To 10-Day Deal

December 22nd, 2021 at 11:26am CST by Luke Adams

DECEMBER 22: Schakel’s 10-day deal is now official, the Wizards announced in a press release. It’ll run through December 31.

DECEMBER 21: The Wizards are calling up rookie wing Jordan Schakel from their G League affiliate, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, who reports (via Twitter) that Schakel will sign a 10-day contract via a hardship exception.

Schakel, who went undrafted earlier this year out of San Diego State, joined the Wizards for training camp, but didn’t make the team’s regular season roster. The 23-year-old joined the Capital City Go-Go and has averaged 14.1 PPG and 3.1 RPG in his first 14 games (32.1 MPG) in the G League, knocking down an impressive 39.6% of his 7.9 three-point attempts per game.

The Wizards haven’t had major issues this month with COVID-19, but Kentavious Caldwell-Pope tested positive on Monday night and was placed in the protocols today, making the team eligible for a hardship exception.

Schakel’s 10-day deal won’t count against team salary for cap or tax purposes.

Caldwell-Pope, Gallinari, Capela, Others Enter Protocols

December 21st, 2021 at 12:13pm CST by Luke Adams

Wizards wing Kentavious Caldwell-Pope has entered the NBA’s health and safety protocols, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic. Washington had been one of 10 teams that didn’t currently have any players in the protocols, but that’s no longer the case.

According to Wizards head coach Wes Unseld Jr., Caldwell-Pope returned a positive COVID-19 test on Monday evening (Twitter link via Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington). He’ll be sidelined for 10 days or until he can return consecutive negative tests at least 24 hours apart.

Here are a few more protocol-related updates from around the league:

Hawks forward Danilo Gallinari and center Clint Capela been placed in the health and safety protocols, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter links). An earlier report stated that two Atlanta players were entering the protocols today — now we know that Gallinari and Capela are those two players.
Lakers center Dwight Howard and guard Talen Horton-Tucker have exited the health and safety protocols, the team announced today (Twitter link via Dave McMenamin of ESPN). That doesn’t necessarily mean that both players have been cleared to return to action, but they’re able to rejoin the team for practices and should be available soon.
Bulls two-way guard Devon Dotson is now in the health and safety protocols, according to Darnell Mayberry of The Athletic (Twitter link). Chicago has had some players return since the team’s initial COVID-19 outbreak, but still has five other players in the protocols in addition to Dotson.
Kings two-way center Neemias Queta is the latest Sacramento player to enter the COVID-19 protocols, tweets Wojnarowski. The club now has seven players in the protocols.
The NBA has told the 10 teams scheduled to play on December 25 that some of their games could be shifted to new times if any Christmas Day contests have to be postponed, tweets Wojnarowski. As Woj explains, the league is prioritizing the 2:30pm ET, 5:00pm, and 8:00pm windows, so if one of those games is postponed, either the early or late game would likely be moved.

Magic-Raptors Off Monday, Nets-Wizards Postponed Tuesday

December 19th, 2021 at 12:50pm CST by Rory Maher

In addition to the three games postponed on Sunday, the league also announced two more postponements: Magic vs. Raptors on Monday, and Nets vs. Wizards on Tuesday (via Twitter).

The Magic are decimated by injuries and COVID-19 at the moment, hence the postponement. The Nets currently have 10 players in the health and safety protocols, although they did play Saturday night against Orlando, a 100-93 loss. The Nets started three rookies against the Magic, and their bench was comprised entirely of players on 10-day contracts.

As our JD Shaw tweets, part of their reason for the postponements is that many of the players who would receive 10-day contracts via hardship exceptions are participating in the G League showcase event, which makes it difficult to find immediate replacements.

ESPN’s Baxter Holmes tweets that 64 players and two head coaches have entered the league’s COVID-19 health and safety protocols over the past six days, which is approximately 13% of players signed to standard and two-way contracts, according to Bobby Marks of ESPN (via Twitter).

Bryant To Return In January

December 15th, 2021 at 9:25pm CST by Rory Maher

Wizards coach Wes Unseld Jr. says center Thomas Bryant, who’s recovering from a torn ACL, is expected to make his debut sometime in January, according to Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington (via Twitter). Hughes notes that the team had previously mentioned December as a possible target for return, but apparently Bryant isn’t ready yet.

Kuzma Returns Weds After Negative Tests

December 15th, 2021 at 7:51pm CST by Rory Maher

Starting power forward Kyle Kuzma will be available for the Wizards Wednesday after returning two negative tests 24 hours apart, Josh Robbins of The Athletic reports (Twitter links). Kuzma attended the team’s shootaround on Wednesday morning.

Southeast Notes: LaMelo, McDaniels, Anthony, Wizards, Hawks

December 14th, 2021 at 10:00pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Hornets point guard LaMelo Ball has exited the NBA’s COVID-19 health and safety protocols, the team announced on Tuesday (Twitter link). Ball was assigned to Charlotte’s NBA G League affiliate, the Greensboro Swarm, to get back into game shape. Rod Boone of the Charlotte Observer adds (via Twitter) that the second-year guard was subsequently recalled from Greensboro following the practice with the NBAGL club.

The Hornets also announced (Twitter link) that forward Jalen McDaniels has fully cleared the NBA’s COVID-19 health and safety protocols and will be available to suit up for Charlotte in the team’s next game, Wednesday against the Spurs.

There’s more out of the Southeast Division:

In a conversation with Michael Scotto of HoopsHype, second-year Magic point guard Cole Anthony discussed his candidacy for the 2021/22 Most Improved Player award after a hot start to his sophomore season. Anthony revealed that vying for the award had been a goal ahead of his second year in Orlando. “Coming into this season, that’s an award me and my team talked about winning,” Anthony said. “It’s something that I’d love to win, but at the end of the day, if it happens, it happens. I want to make sure my team is functioning well, everyone is getting better, and that’s a bigger win to me. That being said, I wouldn’t be mad if I won that award. It would be pretty cool to be rewarded for your hard work.” The 6’2″ Anthony was drafted with the No. 15 pick by the Magic out of North Carolina. This season, he is averaging 20.5 PPG on .425/.376/.874 shooting splits, plus 6.1 RPG, 5.6 APG and 0.9 SPG.
Though the Wizards opened the 2021/22 season with a red-hot 10-3 start, they have since fallen back to earth, going 5-10 in their 15 most recent contests. Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington writes that the club could greatly benefit from the returns of forward Rui Hachimura and center Thomas Bryant, neither of whom has played a game for Washington this year. Hughes notes that the 24-year-old Bryant is at least a few weeks away as he continues to recuperate from a February ACL surgery. The 23-year-old Hachimura, who has missed every game this year for undisclosed personal reasons, is currently practicing to acclimate his body to NBA-level play again.
The 13-14 Hawks are striving to improve their on-court cohesion after a disappointing start to the 2021/22 season, per Chris Kirschner of The Athletic. “I feel like it’s approach,” recently-extended power forward John Collins said. “We need to understand each moment. I don’t think talent, playing the game or any basketball factors are what’s wrong. It’s a matter of analyzation and execution. That’s what needs to change.” Kirschner pinpoints the absences of shot creators Bogdan Bogdanovic and De’Andre Hunter, the team’s lackluster reserve point guard play, and a lack of defensive intensity as the root causes for Atlanta’s frustrating first few months.