The Raptors announced in a press release on Monday that three members of their organization tested positive for COVID-19 during the league-mandated testing period prior to training camp. Those three people are self-isolating, with the club indicating that follow-up testing has revealed no further spread to other members of the organization.
As Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca tweets, head coach Nick Nurse said on Sunday that all the Raptors’ players were able to participate in the club’s first group practice. As such, it sounds like the people who tested positive for the coronavirus are likely non-players, though that hasn’t been confirmed.
Here’s more from around the Atlantic:
- Raptors president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri is the franchise’s biggest free-agent-to-be for 2021, Michael Grange writes in an interesting, in-depth story for Sportsnet.ca. As Grange writes, Ujiri – whom league insiders expect to become the NBA’s highest-paid executive – seems content to slow-play negotiations on his next contract. “They’d have to be nuts not to (want to sign him),” one of Grange’s sources said of Raptors ownership. “It’s not like there’s a Plan A and a Plan B. There’s only Plan A, and it’s him. But he’s a very deliberate guy, and the kind of guy you have to respect his space.”
- Sixers star Ben Simmons admitted in a media session on Friday that accountability was an issue for the club last season, as Tim Bontemps of ESPN writes. However, he believes that will change under new head coach Doc Rivers, despite the fact that Rivers’ former team in L.A. reportedly had accountability problems in 2019/20 too. “Bringing in Doc and all these guys in, and Doc’s team, with all these coaches around, the maturity has definitely risen with the team,” Simmons said.
- Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau said he’s “focused on the players that we have here,” but acknowledged that the team’s $18MM in cap room could come in handy at some point, per Marc Berman of The New York Post. “I think improving your club never ends,” Thibodeau said. “… Obviously we can use the cap space to get a player. We can trade. There’s a lot of things that we can do, and I don’t think that ever stops.”
The Clippers constantly underperformed and disappointed their fans with Doc coaching the team, always blowing 3-1 leads during the playoffs. Sixers fans should be ecstatic to have him around so they can finally go deep in the postseason like Toronto, Boston, or Miami so often do in the eastern conference.
Same
Rockets are always underperformed for this century
Durant was injured and still lost game 5 and 6
PHI is still better than HOU!
I would think that Doc knows how to hold players accountable. He coached huge personalities in Boston…Garnett, Pierce, Glen Davis (Rondo and Perkins to an extent). Paul George and Kawhi Leonard got special treatment because they demanded it and don’t have team mentality like Doc’s championship team. It’s the Clippers players fault, not Doc’s (imo). Clippers might perform better with Lue, but only because they got a wakeup call when they were outed in the playoffs.
If I were Knicks I’d do 30 million under the Cap then waiting for diamond to fall from the air to MSG
Idk why they didn’t take Batum and Zeller + a 1st on for Randle. Hornets wanted Randle. Would have helped them by not stretching Batum.
Ah here he is. Every Knicks post Silli has to talk some nonsensical gibberish.
Glad in these uncertain times I can rely on something.
I don’t even know what he’s talking about. It’s like random thoughts that are typed out and grammatically disastrous.
The rumor was Rozier for Randle. Randle will still be moved. Cause he’s only in the way of Toppin. The cap space, Randle, expiring contracts. Means we can still trade for a big talent. But it should be a younger star or budding star. Come TD there will be options for Knicks. Best to concentrate on which of young guys are staying or leaving.
Doc has to take blame for what happened in Clipper land. But it’s childish when grown ars players. Complain about decisions they were a part of. Clippers blew it. Don’t matter who’s fault it is. Grow up and do something about it. Doc overall has had a successful coaching career. But he has something to prove in Philly. He’s got good young talent that needs direction. Sixers got potential here. So he’s in a good place. Best to him
Rivers passing the buck again. No surprise for anyone who’s followed his coaching career. He has never taken any responsibility for his team’s poor years, while taking every opportunity to strut over their better ones. Last year:
– He pushed (hard) for the trade for PG13 (and was the one who almost unilaterally convinced the owner to give up all those draft picks, which – btw – he made sure was noted in the press, lest anyone might think he had lost his GM type influence). He did it full knowledge of KL’s demands, and had to know that they would likely apply to PG13 as well. His Celtic teams were likewise with the big 3, but, on that team, no holdover had any history of success, nor had he.
– He made the strategic decision to treat the regular season like a preseason, believing (apparently) that there would be some natural chemistry between his superstars when the playoffs arrived. There wasn’t.
– His response to the divisions within the team was to ignore them, and treat the second unit like a separate team, with its own stars and playing time entitlements; thus, the most talented bench in the league punched below its weight as an enhancer to the starters. Depth should create flexibility, but in this case it created rigidity.
If he’s not the one responsible for these, then who is?
Story says nothing about Doc saying anything at all.Its about things being said by Ben Simmons.You just saw an opportunity to bash the guy,and took it.
That’s fine though.Still happy he’s here in Philly.Clear upgrade and brings a certain level of respect to the 6ers.Maybe not yours,but definitely to the players on the team,and others all around the NBA.
Simmons used the word Maturity. Good word… players have to have it with Rivers, which could be a good thing. But it’s the NBA!