Tag: 2019-20 NBA season

Celtics, NBA’s resumed season coming into focus with new memo

A new memo shared by The Athletic’s Shams Charania relates what Boston and the rest of the league can expect from a restarted season.

Per The Athletic’s Shams Charania, the Boston Celtics and 21 other NBA teams slated to travel to Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex in Lake Buena Vista, Florida in late July have received a memo from the league on a number of critical issues regarding the resumption of play.

The number of people in team’s traveling party will be limited to 35, and include an athletic trainer, a strength or conditioning coach, an equipment manager and team security official. Optional members as needed could also include private personal trainers, massage therapists, or additional security.

Hotels will be apportioned to teams based on their current standings in the league, reports Charania.

The Grand Destino will be reserved for the league’s top-tier teams, including the Milwaukee Bucks, Los Angeles Lakers, Toronto Raptors, Los Angeles Clippers, Denver Nuggets, Utah Jazz and Miami Heat in addition to the Celtics.

The Grand Floridian will be given over to the next tier of teams, which include the Oklahoma City Thunder, Philadelphia 76ers, Houston Rockets, Indiana Pacers, Dallas Mavericks, Brooklyn Nets, Memphis Grizzlies and Orlando Magic, and the last tier of teams will stay at the Yacht Club.

That group of franchises include the teams hoping to play their way into the postseason, and is comprised of the Portland Trail Blazers, Sacramento Kings, New Orleans Pelicans, San Antonio Spurs, Phoenix Suns, and Washington Wizards, according to Charania.

The Raptors will be the sole team arriving in Orlando to begin training during Phase 1 of the resumed season, which begins on June 12 and continues to June 22. Players abroad or outside their home market are expected to return to it before June 22 at latest.

Once in their home market, players and their households are expected to limit excursions to voluntary practice (for players) and essential trips (for everyone).

Phase 2 is to begin June 23, and include mandatory COVID-19 testing for all players and staff using a variety of testing methods.

Players will have the right to opt out of playing in the resumed series, but will lose 1/92nd of their salary for doing so unless a medical issue or other agreement made with their respective team removes such an obligation.

Phase 3 behind July 1, and is primarily characterized by the start of mandatory individual workouts at team facilities (excluding Toronto); group workouts are off the table for safety reasons.

Phase 4 begins on the 7th of that month at the NBA Campus at Walt Disney World, where teams will arrive in staggered fashion with individual isolation in their hotel rooms until players have two negative coronavirus tests in a row in a 24-hour period.

Masks are to be worn at almost all times, with a limited number of exceptions relative to things like eating or when working out outdoors more than six feet from another person. Special ‘alarm’ rings will be available to help players realize when they get to close to others if desired, which all staff will also wear.

Phase 4 will allow group workouts to begin as early as July 9, context permitting, and will continue on until July 21.

At that point, Phase 5 begins with scrimmage games held until Phase 6 begins on July 30 with the eight so-called “seeding games” that will decide whether there will be a play-in tournament for each conference, and what teams will make the postseason more generally.

A great deal more detail is available in Charania’s article linked here, which is worth a look just for the comprehensive strategies to be used by the NBA in the hopes of avoiding coronavirus infection.

While many issues remain in need of resolution — most notably player reservations about safety and racial justice issues — the plan being developed by the league is finally starting to become tangible.

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Report: some players uneasy with NBA return due to protests, pandemic

A faction of players led by former Boston Celtic Kyrie Irving have issues resuming the season under the current plan.

There is a faction of NBA players who are not comfortable with a return to action at the end of July, as much due to the risk such a resumption presents in a pandemic as its optics create in the midst of ongoing racially-motivated civil rest, reports Yahoo Sports’ Chris Haynes.

Turner Sports’ Taylor Rooks relates that a group of 50 players who recently held a conference call to discuss potential responses to this situation plan a much larger meeting of 150 or so players to clarify what sort of stand they should take.

Former Boston Celtic Kyrie Irving has been a “driving force” behind these calls, according to Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck, who relates players want more freedom of movement.

Beck also shares that at least one agent he has been in conversation with in the issue relates up to two-thirds of the top-40 players in the league would refuse to play under the current plan.

Haynes relates players are upset they did not have more of a voice in such an important decision, made by the National Basketball Players Association executive committee and its board of representatives, rather than by a rank-and-file vote.

Additionally, the emergence of the movement springing from the killing of George Floyd has also raised significant concerns about the appearance of a majority-African American league sacrificing three months of their lives in quarantine to entertain a majority white audience with players.

“What message are we sending by agreeing to this during this time?” an anonymous African American player told Haynes. “We’re out here marching and protesting, and yet we all leave our families in these scary times and gather to perform at a place where the owners won’t be at?”

“What type of sense does that make? We’ll be going backwards. That place isn’t that magical,” they added.

Irving in particular has taken on a leadership role in this faction, who are reportedly hesitant to push back against some of the stars of the league who have gone on record to support a return to action with precautions in place.

For now, there is an agreement pending that would see players able to opt out of the return if they feel compelled to stay home for any reason, though that player would not be paid a portion of their salary due them if they did opt out of the return.

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Shams: NBA ‘planning to allow … up to 17 players’ per team at Disney

The Athletic’s Shams Charania reports the NBA is planning to allow up to 17 players at the ‘Orlando bubble’ location to finish the season.

The Athletic’s Shams Charania reports the Boston Celtics and other teams invited to finish their 2019-20 season in Florida will likely be allowed to to bring 17 players — including two-way players — to the Orlando-area ‘bubble’ location the NBA has chosen to resume play at.

While it is unclear if the two way players will be allowed to play in the playoffs without a regular, rostered player being injured, it does suggest that at minimum both center Tacko Fall and point guard Tremont Waters will be allowed to travel with the team for the completion of the current season.

Two way players may be able to participate in the postseason afterward without a player being injured, but for now such details are unsettled, with the NBA and National Basketball Players’ Association still ironing out the details on who can participate when.

Earlier in the week, the Celtics Wire reported on that negotiation process, which will likely at minimum allow two way players of a team to be part of the pool of players available to teams to replace injured players on the roster.

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Woj: ‘faction of players’ asking if season restart ‘a good idea’

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports there are at least some players who question the wisdom of restarting the season.

If an unnamed faction of NBA players concerned with the safety of returning to play in the midst of a pandemic get their way, they and anyone who shares their concerns won’t have to suit up until things are safe again.

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports that there is a group of players who doubt the safety of resuming play in the so-called ‘Orlando bubble’, even with the league’s detailed safety protocol of daily testing and quarantine periods.

Several dozen such concerned players participated in a conference call on the subject over the last day, and it would not surprise to hear Boston Celtics fourth-year shooting guard Jaylen Brown as being one of them.

While there is no specific reporting tying the Georgia native to the faction, he is one of several vice presidents of the National Basketball Players’ Association (NBPA), and has publicly asked for information on the long-term impact of coronavirus on player health.

Brown also penned an opinion piece on the viral pandemic’s tendency to lay bare systemic inequities in the U.S in the Guardian in April.

It is far too early to know how asymptomatic infection — or even full-blown COVID-19 complications — can be expected to impact players long-term, but there have been many anecdotal reports of a concerning loss of lung capacity, nerve damage and other negative outcomes that are justifiably worrisome.

To that end, the NBPA and NBA are expected to come to an agreement that lets players sit out with no penalty save for a portion of wages lost for choosing not to play, reports Wojnarowski.

There are also reports being relayed to retired NBA veteran Matt Barnes that some players on at least the Los Angeles teams are not comfortable returning to play until the ongoing racial justice issues behind the flood of protests across the U.S. and world are addressed.

Barnes co-hosts a podcast with another retired basketball player, Stephen Jackson — a personal friend of George Floyd, whose killing by a white police officer helped spark the protests in question.

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Texas ex LaMarcus Aldridge undergoes surgery, season over

When the 2019-20 NBA season resumes on July 31, the San Antonio Spurs will be without one of their top players.

When the 2019-20 NBA season resumes in late July, the San Antonio Spurs will be without one of their top players. Continue reading “Texas ex LaMarcus Aldridge undergoes surgery, season over”

NBA working on G League, player eligibility for ‘Orlando bubble’

What happens if a player gets hurt or sick in the ‘Orlando bubble’? The NBA and NBPA are trying to sort that out, among many other things.

The NBA and National Basketball Players’ Association are negotiating a mechanism for replacing players who test positive for COVID-19 or are otherwise seriously injured during the resumed 2019-20 season and subsequent playoff report ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Bobby Marks.

The single-site location in Lake Buena Vista, Florida was selected out of a concern for safety in the midst of the pandemic that forced the suspension of the season in the first place.

Still, it is unlikely that there will be no positives tests among invited players, to say nothing of the coaching and other staff needed to host the season resumption.

Teams will need to have a means of replacing players who test positive for the virus, and at present there is an assumption there will be no limit on teams to replace players heading into the training camps and remaining regular-season games.

There may be a limit on the pool of available players to replace them, however.

There will also likely be a limit on such players having had to have been in the NBA, G League or a training camp contract this season to be eligible to participate, meaning no international players or players who have not signed with a team in one of the above capacities at some point this season.

There may be provisions introduced which will allow two way players like Tacko Fall and Tremont Waters participate fully, as well as a requirement of any player who is replaced due to a positive COVID-19 diagnosis to be ineligible to return to action.

Pushing back against the notion of allowing two way players to play is that it could add up to an additional 44 players and their families once players are allowed to bring family members to the “bubble” campus.

The league has its hands full with a monumental balancing act between maintaining the future fiscal solvency of the league and its many global projects and being a responsible business in terms of protecting the health of its employees and partners.

No enviable task, that the NBA has even gotten this far is a testament to the strength of relationships between the league, it’s players and its business partners. With luck, this and many other issues facing the league before the restart will be resolved favorably for all affected parties in the coming weeks.

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ESPN’s Rose likes the Celtics to make the NBA Finals from the East

ESPN NBA analyst Jalen Rose thinks the Boston Celtics are the team to beat in the East coming out of the hiatus.

ESPN’s Jalen Rose likes the Boston Celtics to come out of the East in the NBA’s new format to resume the season.

Speaking about who he believes will excel in the novel format being planned for 22 of the NBA’s 30 teams headed to Lake Buena Vista, Florida to complete the 2019-20 season, the NBA analyst was especially supportive of the Celtics’ prospects.

The new format will see teams play without audiences in the Disney-provided single-site location as a means of mitigating the risk of professional sports during a pandemic.

That single location format will eliminate home court advantage and shorten the rest of each team’s regular season to the next eight contests on their original schedule with teams invited to the Florida-based complex.

Because of these factors, the Michigan product believes the Celtics have the advantage.

“In a neutral situation, the way the season is about to be shotgun-started again, I’m taking the Celtics in the East,” he explained.

“I’m taking the Celtics in the East, because one of the great things about the Bucks — of course, their game does travel — but their home court was a huge advantage for them, a major advantage. If we’re playing pickup ball, and the Celtics and Bucks players are in the gym, I’m going to pick Giannis Antetokounmpo, but the next four or five picks are going to be Celtics.”

“That’s my choice to come out of the East,” he added.

What specifically is it about Boston, though, does Rose like? More than anything else, their style of play, it seems.

“Small ball, spread it out and take advantage of the big guys that can’t score against little guys. That’s really what it’s going to be. It’s gonna be like AAU out there,” the ESPN analyst offered.

“Boston’s winning the East. The more I think about this — god, strike me down — I hadn’t said this out of my mouth or even thought about it one time until we had this conversation, until right now. Boston’s winning the East, and don’t sleep on Houston in the West, but they’re not better than the Lakers or the Clippers.”

There are still skeptics as to whether both teams’ frontcourts will be able to excel in the sort of slower halfcourt playoff-style game that tends to dominate the NBA postseason.

But, it will be interesting to see whether Boston’s center-by-committee approach and the Rockets’ “pocket” approach bear fruit as both teams hope the recent tumult can come with some silver linings for their respective playoff aspirations.

And with the league having committed to a July 31st target restart date, we won’t have too long to wait to find out.

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How a 22-team return will affect the Celtics’ 2020 NBA draft odds

The new format and its draft odds will likely benefit the Boston Celtics’ potential draft odds, though not through their own draft picks.

ESPN senior writer Zach Lowe related how the new return-to-play format approved by the NBA’s Board of Governors will affect the NBA Draft Thursday.

The approved format will see 22 teams descend on Lake Buena Vista, Florida to resume the 2019-20 season at the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex in Walt Disney World at the end of July with many changes to the usual course of a season due to the pandemic which delayed the season to begin with.

For the purposes of sussing out how these changes will affect the 2020 NBA Draft (now to be held on October 15th) many have been wondering how this will impact draft odds compared to previous seasons.

Lowe relates that for all 16 teams that make the playoffs — whether by record alone or qualifying through a potential play-in game — draft order will be by reverse order of how the team performed up to the March 11th suspension of league activities and seeding games combined.

The lottery would be comprised of the eight teams not traveling to Florida for the season restart and the six teams who make the trip to the Disney-hosted ‘bubble’ but do not make the playoffs, and odds would only be derived from their records as of March 11th.

As has been noted by the Celtics Wire previously, this leaves in place the unlikely-but-possible chance that the first round draft pick owed the team by the Memphis Grizzlies could conceivably become a lottery pick.

Should Memphis manage to fall in the standings enough to trigger the play-in game scenario in the West, their 2020 first round pick would enter the lottery, and convey to Boston so long as it is drawn above the top-six protection the Grizzlies placed upon it.

With the Grizzlies just 3.5 games behind the Portland Trail Blazers, New Orleans Pelicans and Sacramento Kings, it’s definitely a candidate for the new format.

Any eighth seed within four games of the ninth will have to beat that opponent two times in a row to advance to the postseason, meaning it is actually realistic for Memphis to end up in the lottery, even if it is still more likely they will not.

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How the strength of remaining schedule can impact Boston’s postseason

The Boston Celtics had the 11th-toughest schedule remaining before the hiatus; where do they sit now in the East’s potential outcomes?

The Boston Celtics had the 11th-hardest schedule remaining in the NBA’s soon-to-be-resumed 2019-20, according to data shared by NBA Soundsystem’s Micah Adams.

Because those figures were based on Boston’s (and every team’s) remaining schedule before the pandemic, the schedule in front of the 22 teams who are invited to finish the season is bound to play out differently based on the format being voted on by the Board of Governors Thursday.

Pending likely approval, teams will play the next eight games on their prior schedule, sans the eight teams who will not be traveling to Orlando to finish the season.

Those teams — so bad they had no chance of making even the play-in format adopted by the league in light of pandemic’s limiting factors — helped pad Boston’s schedule before the shift in scheduling, and substituting in tougher opponents could cause some changes even if it is happening with every team.

Estimates on strength of schedule from before the suspension included games that would have been played after the eight each team will play in the resumed season, which should also change the weight of each team’s challenge in the rest of the regular season.

Boston is three games behind the second-place Toronto Raptors and 2.5 ahead of the Miami Heat, and thus almost certain to remain in the third seed no matter what happens to their Eastern Conference peers.

They’ll face the Milwaukee Bucks, Washington Wizards, Raptors, and Brooklyn Nets in their first game back, and the Wizards, Memphis Grizzlies, Portland Trail Blazers and Miami Heat to close out the season.

With more than half their remaining games against sub- .500 teams, Boston may actually have one of the easiest schedules left in the resumed seasons, so a third-place finish seems all but certain.

That said the movement in the standings that could most affect them is among their potential playoff opponents.

Currently poised to face the Philadelphia 76ers, the Indiana Pacers and Miami loom as potential playoff adversaries as well with the 76ers and Pacers tied at 39-26 and the Heat just two games up on them both in the standings at 41-24.

With time off to heal, it’s possible teams like Boston, Indy and especially Philly could all be stronger than they were before the hiatus. But that same hiatus exists as an unknown in terms to how well teams will play coming out of the break in ways which will be harder to predict.

We do know that the Sixers have one of the toughest schedules left in the league, and that the Heat aren’t far behind them.

Philly plays Indiana, Toronto, Phoenix Suns and Portland for its first four games, then the Wizards, Orlando Magic and San Antonio Spurs.

The Pacers will play the 76ers, the Heat, Phoenix and Orlando for their first four games, followed by the Houston Rockets, Sacramento Kings, closing out against both the Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers.

The Heat are looking at games against the Bucks, Pacers, Oklahoma City Thunder and Denver Nuggets, followed by four more vs. the Suns and Celtics and Indiana and Boston both a second time.

This gives the 76ers a schedule on par with Boston with just three opponents with winning records remaining, the Pacers five teams with winning records, and the Heat face a murder’s row with only the Suns as a sub- .500 club left on their schedule.

Both Boston and Philadelphia may find themselves with latitude to impact the final standings with games against the Spurs and Heat to close out their respective schedules, so we could see some pretty unusual lineups from these teams to end the 2019-20 season.

Another issue to watch is the Memphis Grizzlies in the West.

With Boston controlling its 2020 first rounder, a drop out of the playoffs could in theory happen, thereby putting the pick in the lottery.

While there’s a built-in limit to some of the more unlikely outcomes with the pick owed them being top-six protected, it’s not out of the question that the Celtics find themselves with a better pick than the 17th they are currently projected to receive.

But don’t get your hopes up too high — with the New Orleans Pelicans, Kings, and Blazers in a statistical tie 3.5 games behind the Griz, it’s nothing you’d want to count on.

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NBA returning with 22 teams; will play from July 31 to Oct. 12 in Orlando

The NBA has a plan to resume the 2019-20 season with 22 teams returning to play in Orlando from July 31 to Oct. 12.

The NBA has a plan to resume the 2019-20 season amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pending votes from NBA owners and the National Basketball Players Association, 22 teams will partake in an eight-game conclusion to the regular season. There will then be a play-in tournament for the final seeds to a 16-team playoff at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex near Orlando, Fla., a source told USA TODAY Sports.

A vote is expected to be held Thursday at 12:30 p.m. ET during the NBA’s Board of Governors video conference. A three-fourths approval is required from the owners before the plan is put in front of the NBAPA for ratification.

NBA return format

  • Teams will begin training at their own facilities in July and are expected to be able to report to the ESPN complex later in the month for a 2 1/2-week training camp before games begin July 31.
  • Each of the 22 teams will play an eight-game finish to the regular season.
  • A play-in tournament will be held for the eighth seed in both conferences unless the ninth-place team is not within four games of the eighth-place team in that conference.
  • Several games per day will be played on multiple courts on several Disney properties through the end of the regular season and the first round of the playoffs.
  • The last possible date for a Game 7 of the NBA Finals is Oct. 12, according to sources.
  • Regular, if not daily, testing for COVID-19 will be conducted.

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Eastern Conference teams

  1. Milwaukee Bucks: 53-12
  2. Toronto Raptors: 46-18, 6.5 games back
  3. Boston Celtics: 43-21, 9.5 games back
  4. Miami Heat: 41-24, 12 games back
  5. Indiana Pacers: 39-26, 14 games back
  6. Philadelphia 76ers: 39-26, 14 games back – trail Pacers in tiebreaker based on head-to-head record (1-2)
  7. Brooklyn Nets: 30-34, 22.5 games back
  8. Orlando Magic: 30-35, 23 games back
  9. Washington Wizards: 24-40, 28.5 games back

Western Conference teams

  1. Los Angeles Lakers: 49-14
  2. Los Angeles Clippers: 44-20, 5.5 games back
  3. Denver Nuggets: 43-22, 7 games back
  4. Utah Jazz: 41-23, 8.5 games back
  5. Oklahoma City Thunder: 40-24, 9.5 games back
  6. Houston Rockets: 40-24, 9.5 games back – trail Thunder in tiebreaker based on head-to-head record (1-2)
  7. Dallas Mavericks: 40-27, 11 games back
  8. Memphis Grizzlies: 32-33, 18 games back
  9. Portland Trail Blazers: 29-37, 21.5 games back
  10. New Orleans Pelicans: 28-36, 21.5 games back
  11. Sacramento Kings: 28-36, 21.5 games back – trail Pelicans in tiebreaker based on head-to-head record (0-1)
  12. San Antonio Spurs: 27-36, 22 games back
  13. Phoenix Suns 26-39, 24 games back

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