The NBA and NBPA announced on Wednesday that three of the 490 players tested for the coronavirus since March 10 returned confirmed positive tests. That’s relatively good news for the league, since there was some concern about players moving all over the country during the All-Star break before returning to their teams. It appears there hasn’t been a spike in COVID-19 cases following the break.
Meanwhile, as players and staffers around the league begin to receive vaccinations for the coronavirus, the NBA and the NBPA have agreed to relax certain protocols and restrictions related to the virus, as Baxter Holmes of ESPN details.
Fully vaccinated individuals no longer have to quarantine following exposure to COVID-19, while fully vaccinated teams won’t have to wear masks at their practice facilities, Holmes writes. Additionally, restrictions related to home visitors and in-restaurant dining are being loosened for those individuals and teams.
A player is considered to be fully vaccinated two weeks after his final dose, while a team meets the criteria once 85% of its players and 85% of its staff members have been vaccinated, Holmes adds.
Here’s more from around the basketball world:
- Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic (Twitter link) has heard that the Lakers and Bucks are among the teams to watch if Isaiah Thomas gets another NBA opportunity. While Thomas continues to pursue an NBA comeback, he may have to wait until after teams see who’s available at the trade deadline and on the buyout market.
- John Hollinger of The Athletic shares eight creative, hypothetical trades he’d like to see happen at the deadline, including a Hornets/Hawks swap that involves John Collins, Devonte’ Graham, and P.J. Washington, and a four-team trade that sends Gorgui Dieng to the Nets.
- The Mavericks shared an extremely sad piece of news this week, announcing on their website that former NBA center Shawn Bradley was struck by a car in January while riding his bicycle, resulting in a traumatic spinal cord injury that has left him paralyzed. Bradley has spent the last eight weeks hospitalized and undergoing rehab, but is said to be “in good spirits” and aims to use his platform to bring greater public awareness to the importance of bike safety.
I don’t think there is a good trade for John Collins out there
Hawks have enough depth already
Collins for one single player only
I agree in the fact ATL doesn’t really have a pressing need and have pretty good depth even sans Collins
It seems all ATl’s future pain is going to be self inflicted from their last offseason moving forward
Willl be very interesting seeing how the maneuver outta this
Any 3 of Bazley/Pokusevski/Roby/Moses plus Phoenix’s 2022 1st & Miami’s 2023 1st for John Collins & Bruno Fernando would be a good deal for both sides. SGA gets a bona-fide beast to work with. OKC gets to choose which of their young bigs they wanna keep to pair with Collins & they still have at least 2 1sts in every draft for the foreseeable future… Atl keeps the flexibility to be able to possibly re-sign all of their talented young wings (Dre/Cam/Kevin) along with Trae’s eventual max extension. We lose a big time 4 in John but get 3 young talented guys who could battle with Okongwu & Knight for pt behind Clint & Gallo plus a couple future 1sts is always a good thing
That is not a bad idea Sankara. Collins is the exact kind of player that OKC should be targeting with their multitude of picks. He’s young, he’s proven in the league, and he can probably be had for a package that OKC wouldn’t really miss.
They aren’t going to be able to use all 34 draft picks over the next 7 years, so they might as well try to put something together while still keeping a decent amount of picks.
Which 1 of these 4 would you wanna keep if you’re OKC, Bazley/Pokusevski/Roby/Moses?
OKC would hold onto Moses Brown in that .. the issue is the Hawks dont need depth .. I doubt Atlanta would pull the trigger
Bazley got the minutes he seemed to deserve but no numbers improvement. Why so? Not as fresh with more PT?
POKUSEVSKI!!!
I see that, and I raise you Larry Nance and any of the Cavs future firsts for John Collins and Kris Dunn
I like Nance but I definitely like OKC’s young bigs more
I think PJ Washington fits a need and while they don’t need Graham he probably has decent value, they can flip him down the line for a pick or 2
Why is it that the baseball form has 100 times more comments than the basketball one?
Been established longer, more people care about the Hot Stove than hoops, football, or hockey combined. Also, it’s the best forum for baseball chit chat. There are a few other outlets for Hoops.
I suspect it has more to do with the demographic. I’m making inferences about how some are much more intelligent and insightful than others. ^.^
The main reason I don’t comment over there is that there are so many comments. Who wants to wade through 130 comments, most of which have no context to each other?
It’s bacon cheeseburger day.
Tell me more…
It’s all about the mystery, brother. I can tell you the spice is intentional…nothing more…
Okay it’s just Serranos.
I am happy this group is smaller than the baseball forum. You can kind of get to know the people you are chatting with, at least as much as get to know anyone without actually meeting them. Plus, large population usually breed trolls. There are a couple of guys here that get annoying, but nowhere near the level of the baseball forum. And when multiple trolls get together, it’s just impossible to even try to have normal conversations.
if youre talking about annoying people here, i guess you’re one of them. or maybe you’re thinking highly of yourself… thinking you’re not one of those annoying people… which one is you?
you activated his trap card
so?
Shawn Bradley came at a time when Centers got paid. Let’s hope it can help him now. Use to love riding bike, especially in summertime. Don’t trust cars anymore. I go to bike trails if at all. Glad he’s got family around him. God speed player.
I know Isaiah has had multiple chances and looked bad since his hip injury, but I still think he’s worth a shot for a team like the Bucks. He seems pretty adamant the hip thing is finally better … probably not true but if it is he could be a steal
I actually could see Isaiah Thomas being a fit for Milwaukee as a potential depth scoring PG