2020 Olympics Rumors | Hoops Rumors

And-Ones: All-Star Game, Olympics, Dunk Contest, SPACs

March 2nd, 2021 at 2:52pm CST by Luke Adams

Speaking to Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press, NBA commissioner Adam Silver went into more detail on why the league felt compelled to hold an All-Star Game this season amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Silver, who has previously cited fan engagement as a key reason for not canceling the game, reiterated that point in his conversation with Reynolds.

“It’s the largest factor, the amount of engagement we get from our fans around All-Star,” Silver said. “Historically, in the modern digital age, we have roughly 100 million people vote for our All-Stars, and we came out about the same this year even with a shortened voting period.”

While Silver has insisted that the NBA is thinking about its fans, it’s safe to assume the league is also considering the interests of one of its largest broadcast partners, Turner Sports. The All-Star Game is one of TNT’s biggest annual events, and the network presumably pushed for the game to take place. If the game had been canceled, the league likely would’ve had to renegotiate aspects of its TV agreement with Turner Sports.

“My personal view is very few people do anything just for the money,” Silver told Reynolds. “But at the same time, while we’re clearly in a health emergency in this country, we’re also in the midst of an economic crisis and that extends to the NBA as well. There are tens of thousands of people who are dependent on the NBA for their livelihoods. So, for those who say we’re doing it for the money, they could say the same thing about our entire operation, about the fact that we’re even playing our season.”

Let’s round up a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

Team USA’s pre-Olympic camp in Las Vegas is scheduled to coincide with the NBA’s conference finals this summer, meaning one of the many difficult decisions USA Basketball will face relates to whether certain players are worth waiting for, Reynolds writes in another Associated Press story. The program is expected to have to make a handful of contingency plans as it prepares its roster for the Tokyo Olympics.
Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards, Celtics swingman Jaylen Brown, and Hornets forward Miles Bridges are among the players who have turned down invitations to participate in the 2021 slam dunk contest, according to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports. Pelicans star Zion Williamson also passed on the event, Haynes adds (via Twitter). The NBA will officially announce the participants for this year’s dunk contest, skills challenge, and 3-point contest tonight.
In a story for The New York Post, Josh Kosman and Thornton McEnery explore how the NBA will have soon have to make a decision on how to handle “special-purpose acquisition corporations” (SPACs) that want to purchase shares of franchises. The Warriors approached the NBA about selling a minority stake in their team to such a company, but withdrew that request when the league put off a decision, per Kosman and McEnery.

And-Ones: Korver, Executive Of The Year, Olympics, Bone

February 7th, 2021 at 5:45pm CST by JD Shaw

Veteran shooting guard Kyle Korver is pondering his playing future after spending 17 straight seasons in the NBA, as relayed by Mark Medina of USA Today.

“I’m not sure. I’ve talked to a few teams about it,” Korver said of a potential return. “Coming out of the bubble, I believe in honoring the game. I believe you honor the season with a good offseason. Coming out of the bubble with the quick turnaround, I didn’t feel I really did that. So I don’t want to cheat the game.

“If I want to go play, I want to go play well. I haven’t signed any paperwork. My wife asks me this question every day. It’s one I have a hard time finding my exact words for. So I haven’t signed paperwork yet. I’ve enjoyed being with my family, and it’s been a challenging season across the board for the league and for the players. But we’ll see. I don’t know.”

Korver also discussed multiple other subjects with Medina, including the Bucks’ walkout in the bubble, the Jacob Blake shooting, and the racial justice movement.

Here are some other odds and ends from around the basketball world:

Ariel Pacheco of Basketball Insiders examines the Executive of the Year watch, taking a detailed look into which executives could be under consideration for the award this season. Naturally, Pacheco mentions Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka, who constructed a championship team last season and is coming off a respectable offseason.
Joe Vardon of The Athletic explores whether NBA players will be able to represent Team USA at the Summer Olympics. The NBA Finals are set to extend into late July, with a potential Game 7 falling on July 22. Team USA is scheduled to open against France on July 25. “We’d like it if players on the roster could be replaced, even after [the tournament] starts,” managing director Jerry Colangelo said, recognizing the Olympic rules must be changed to allow this. As of right now, it’s unclear who will head to Tokyo on behalf of Team USA.
The Delaware Blue Coats (the Sixers‘ G League affiliate) have acquired Jordan Bone and a 2021/22 third-round pick from the Lakeland Magic (Orlando’s G League affiliate), the team announced in a press release. In return, the club sent the returning player rights to J.P. Macura, the returning player rights to Doral Moore and a 2021-22 second-round pick. Bone was most recently on a two-way contract with the Magic.

And-Ones: Garza, Robinson, USA Basketball, G League

February 4th, 2021 at 9:55am CST by Dana Gauruder

Luka Garza projects as a second-unit center who can beat up reserve bigs with his offensive skills, according to ESPN’s Jonathan Givony and Mike Schmitz (Insider link). While Garza is the most dominant scorer in college basketball this season, his defensive limitations will prove problematic at the next level. A best-case scenario would be for Garza to develop into an Enes Kanter-type player. ESPN currently ranks Garza as the 46th-best prospect in this year’s draft.

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Former No. 5 pick Thomas Robinson has parted ways with Bahcesehir in Turkey, he told JD Shaw of Hoops Rumors (Twitter link). It’s a matter of seeking another opportunity, with the 29-year-old looking to return to playing as soon as possible. He played 313 NBA games with six teams in 2012-17.
USA Basketball is planning to create a “bubble” in Las Vegas for Team USA, Australia and Spain where they can train and play exhibition games against one another prior to the Tokyo Olympics, Brian Windhorst of ESPN reports. Team USA is tentatively planning to open training camp the week of July 4 while the NBA playoffs are ongoing.
USA Basketball has petitioned the U.S. Olympic Committee, the IOC and FIBA — which runs the Olympic basketball tournament — to change the rules for when rosters for the Games must be submitted, Windhorst adds in the same report. Normally, the rosters must be set several weeks in advance but the NBA playoffs may not end until three days prior to Team USA’s first Olympic game.
Greensboro Swarm head coach Jay Hernandez provides details in a HoopsHype post on how his team is preparing for the G League season in Orlando while under quarantine.

And-Ones: Australia, Evans, Masks, Free Agency

February 2nd, 2021 at 9:58pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Ben Simmons heads the list of players named by Basketball Australia to the country’s preliminary Olympic squad, Marc Stein of the New York Times tweets. Among some of the other NBA notables on the 24-player list are Aron Baynes, Joe Ingles, Dante Exum, Matisse Thybulle, Patty Mills, Josh Green, Thon Maker and Matthew Dellavedova. The squad will have to be pared to 12 players for the Olympic tournament in Tokyo this summer.

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The Erie BayHawks waived guard Jacob Evans to make room for forward Jordan Bell, JD Shaw of Hoops Rumors tweets. Bell was released from his 10-day contract with the Wizards over the weekend. Evans played for the Warriors and Timberwolves the past two seasons.
The NBA will soon require players to wear KN95 or KF94 masks on the bench and all other areas where masks are necessary, Tim Bontemps of ESPN writes. The new rule will go into effect over the next week. Starting with games on Friday, the NBA will more strictly enforce current rules regarding the use of face masks, Bontemps adds.
The Athletic trio of James Edwards III (Pistons), Mike Vorkunov (Knicks) and Chris Kirschner (Hawks) take a closer look at their teams’ free agent moves during the offseason, how well those players have worked out so far, and what those franchises could have done differently.

And-Ones: AmeriCup, Olympics, All-Star Break, Draft

February 2nd, 2021 at 4:00pm CST by Luke Adams

USA Basketball issued a press release today announcing its 12-man roster for the AmeriCup qualifying tournament taking place in Puerto Rico later this month. Several players representing Team USA in games against The Bahamas on February 19 and Mexico on February 20 have already been reported, with former All-Stars Isaiah Thomas and Joe Johnson leading the way.

However, today’s announcement includes a few more players with NBA experience that we haven’t already passed along. Josh Boone, James Nunnally, and Jordan Sibert will also be part of the roster, per today’s announcement.

Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

FIBA has revealed the groups for the Tokyo Olympics men’s basketball tournament, announcing today that Team USA will be part of Group A alongside France and Iran. The fourth team in the group will be the winner of a qualifying tournament that includes Canada, Greece, Turkey, China, the Czech Republic, and Uruguay..
While players will get a break from March 5-10, between the first and second halves of the season, they’ll have to undergo daily COVID-19 testing during that time and will likely be required to be back in their team’s market two days before the end of that break, says Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link).
Jonathan Wasserman of Bleacher Report released an updated version of his 2021 mock draft, as did ESPN’s Jonathan Givony and Mike Schmitz (Insider link). Both mocks have Cade Cunningham at No. 1, Evan Mobley at No. 2, and Jalen Suggs at No. 4, but disagree about which G League Ignite player should be at No. 3 — Wasserman has Jonathan Kuminga there, while Givony and Schmitz favor Jalen Green.

And-Ones: Competitive Fairness, Surprises, Olympics, Kuminga

January 29th, 2021 at 11:06am CST by Arthur Hill

The NBA is facing competitive fairness issues stemming from pandemic-related disruptions to the schedule, writes Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today. The league has postponed 22 games through the first five weeks of the season, and the effects of health and safety protocols are showing up in the standings.

The Wizards are the most obvious example, holding the league’s worst record at 3-11 after roughly half the roster was forced to quarantine. Washington had just one practice before returning to action Sunday after two weeks off. The result was three straight losses by a combined 57 points. The Heat, defending Eastern Conference champions, are off to a 6-12 start while playing with a depleted roster. The teams at the top of the standings — the Lakers, Clippers and Jazz — have been relatively unaffected by the virus.

The Wizards and Grizzlies both had six games postponed and face a difficult road ahead to reach 72 games. Washington is looking at 39 games in 67 days when the NBA releases its second-half schedule, although the league is trying to alleviate that by moving some games to the first half.

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The Pistons‘ Jerami Grant and the Hornets‘ Gordon Hayward are the biggest surprises of the early season, according to John Hollinger of The Athletic. Both signed huge free agent deals during the offseason that were questioned around the league, but they have emerged as their teams’ best players. Hayward has gone back to the leader he was in Utah, Hollinger notes, while Grant has taken his game to another level.
FIBA will hold the draw ceremony for this year’s Olympic basketball tournament on February 2, the organization announced on its website. Eight men’s teams have already qualified, including Team USA, and the final four slots will be filled by the winners of tournaments to be played this summer in Canada, Croatia, Lithuania and Serbia.
At least 12 NBA teams have started research on Jonathan Kuminga, a projected high lottery pick in this year’s draft, writes Adam Zagoria for NJ.com. Kuminga, part of Team Ignite, will make his G League debut in the Orlando bubble next month. Ignite coach Brian Shaw compares him to Jaylen Brown and Paul George.
Former Net Josh Boone is the latest player to commit to Team USA for the AmeriCup qualifying tournament, according to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype. Boone, 36, plays for the Illawarra Hawks in the NBL and was last in the NBA in the 2009/10 season.

And-Ones: Olympics, Bubble Talk, Private Equity, Vaccinations

January 26th, 2021 at 8:41pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

In his 16th and last year as Team USA managing director, Jerry Colangelo talked extensively about the upcoming Tokyo Olympics with Chris Sheridan of Basketball News.

Colangelo indicated that he is in daily communication with the NBA and FIBA, discussing the Olympics as COVID-19 continues to spread across the globe. The games were originally scheduled to take place during the summer of 2020 before being pushed back a year.

“We have no choice but to proceed on the basis that the Olympics will be played, and so that’s basically what we are doing,” Colangelo told Sheridan. “We are preparing in every way possible until we hear otherwise, officially. I would guess, from what I’ve been told, it’s a go — unless they cancel because some other thing has developed regarding the pandemic, [like a] new strain, depending on how things go in Japan and Tokyo, in particular.”

There’s more from around the basketball world:

Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated observes that there appears to be growing support around the NBA, among at least some players and coaches, for a potential return to something along the lines of the contained “bubble” campus environment that was such a success last summer for the conclusion of the 2019/20 NBA season. “F— this,” a veteran assistant coach texted Mannix. “I’m ready to go back [to the bubble].”
After the NBA’s Board of Governors greenlit a plan to allow private equity firms to own portions of NBA teams, the league is striving to lure private equity money, according to Jabari Young of CNBC. Young details the process through which the league can sell stakes in teams to private equity firms.
Dr. Leroy Sims, the NBA’s senior vice president of medical affairs, recently spoke with Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated about pending COVID-19 vaccinations for players. “We understand that the vaccine is rolling out in such a way that you’re trying to get to the people who are most at risk or most vulnerable first, that includes front-line workers like myself working in the ER [emergency room], because we’re around so many people who could have the virus,” according to Dr. Sims. “After that, we’ll open it up. The vaccine will start to be distributed to others in the community. We recognize that our basketball players are young and healthy, so they will get vaccinated or have the opportunity to get vaccinated when it’s their turn. So we won’t be jumping the line there.”

And-Ones: Team USA, Monroe, Jerebko, Cuban, Beal

January 23rd, 2021 at 3:58pm CST by Dana Gauruder

USA Basketball has sent out approximately 60 invitations to players who have expressed interest in being part of the Olympic player pool, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski tweets. Team USA could be without players advancing to the NBA Finals, based on the timing of July Olympics in Tokyo, Wojnarowski notes. Among the players invited are some of the league’s young stars, including Duncan Robinson, Zion Williamson, Trae Young and Ja Morant, Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press tweets.

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Former NBA big men Greg Monroe and Jonas Jerebko had their contracts terminated by BC Khimki Moscow, the team tweets. Monroe played in nine Euroleague games with averages of 10.3 PPG and 6 RPG. Jerebko was averaging 11.5 PPG and 5.5 RPG. The team cited “personal circumstances of (the) players” as the reason for the termination.
Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said he is in talks with the NBA to organize some preseason games in Europe against Real Madrid or in Slovenia, according to Sportando. Cuban would like to give European fans a chance to watch Luka Doncic in action.
The Wizards have endured a number of postponement due to COVID-19 protocols and Bradley Beal wouldn’t mind if the league considered another bubble or regional sites as the season progresses, according to NBC Sports Washington’s Chase Hughes. Beal didn’t play in the summer restart in Orlando. “I probably wouldn’t be totally against it as long as we had the same success that we did the first go-around,” he said. “I wasn’t part of the bubble in the first go-around, so I don’t necessarily know how all that worked down there every day. But I know going through it every day here, it’s a lot. We test twice a day at least for the last week. That’s very overwhelming at times.”

And-Ones: Ferrell, G League, DeRozan, Brown, NBRA

December 7th, 2020 at 8:15pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Free agent guard Yogi Ferrell is still seeking NBA opportunities, according to Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia. His agent, Cervando Tejada, denied a report that he was negotiating with FC Barcelona in the EuroLeague. “Ferrell is in (the) U.S. working out and waiting for another NBA opportunity and no talks have happened with Barcelona as of now,” Tejeda told. Ferrell played for the Kings the past two seasons and appeared in 50 regular-season games as a reserve last season, averaging 4.4 PPG in 10.6 MPG.

We have more from around the basketball world:

NBA teams are offering fewer Exhibit 10 contracts to players on their training camp rosters, ESPN’s Bobby Marks tweets. There were 51 players on Exhibit 10 contracts as of Saturday, down from 128 two seasons ago. Players receive a $50K bonus if he spends 60 days with the G League affiliate of the team that signed him. But with the uncertainty regarding the G League’s season, such contracts have become less valuable, Marks adds.
Spurs guard DeMar DeRozan chased an intruder out of his house last month, according to a TMZ report. DeRozan confronted the man, who had made his way upstairs into a play area where at least one of DeMar’s kids was located. The intruder was arrested after attempting to get back into DeRozan’s gated community.
Warriors associate coach Mike Brown has aspirations of turning the Nigeria national basketball team into a powerhouse, Colin Udoh of ESPN writes. Brown has become Nigeria’s head coach and he believes there’s enough talent to earn a medal at next year’s Tokyo Olympics. “Our goal is to finish on the podium,” he said. “We want to show the world that we can compete with the best of them. And I think, with the talent that we have, it’s a realistic goal for us.”
The National Basketball Referees Association has ratified a Letter of Agreement which modifies its collective bargaining agreement with the NBA for the 2020/21 season, the NBRA tweets. The modifications address COVID-19 issues and provide for the officials’ waiver of certain work rules in order to implement those health and safety protocols.

And-Ones: Marijuana, Team USA, K. Alexander, W. Chandler

December 3rd, 2020 at 4:01pm CST by Luke Adams

After not testing players for marijuana during its summer restart, the NBA will continue to forgo those tests for the 2020/21 season, league sources tell NBA reporter Ben Dowsett (Twitter links).

As Dowsett explains, this decision is largely tied to COVID-19 safety protocols, since testing for marijuana only increases the amount of close contact required for players. Still, Dowsett notes that there’s no guarantee the testing program will ever return in its previous form. The expectation from many people in the league is that marijuana testing may be on the way out, per Dowsett.

Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

Team USA head coach Gregg Popovich acknowledged this week that putting together the roster for the Tokyo Olympics may be a challenge, given how late the NBA season will run. “The timing does make everything difficult,” Popovich said, per Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press. “And it will demand some real soul-searching and out-of-the-box type of thinking to put together the best team we possibly can.”
Free agent big man Kyle Alexander, who finished the 2019/20 season on a two-way contract with Miami, has reached an agreement to sign with Baloncesto Fuenlabrada in Spain for the 2020/21 season, the team announced (Spanish link). Alexander made his NBA debut in the Orlando bubble, appearing in two of the Heat’s eight seeding games.
ESPN.com has provided a primer on how the 2020/21 NBA season will work, including details on the league’s COVID-19 protocols, the new postseason play-in format, and more.
Wilson Chandler, who joined the Zhejiang Lions of the Chinese Basketball Association after finishing last season with the Nets, spoke on an episode of The Realm podcast about why he decided to continue his career in China. Kristian Winfield of The New York Daily News shares some of the highlights from the discussion.