COVID-19 Notes: Freedom, McClaughlin, Kings, Vaccines

Celtics center Enes Kanter Freedom has entered the NBA’s health and safety protocols, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). Freedom was out of the rotation during the first month of the season, but had appeared in 19 straight games for Boston and even played 40 minutes in his first start of the season on Monday vs. Philadelphia.

As our tracker shows, the Celtics now have eight players in the COVID-19 protocols. They’re probably still a few days away from some of those players returning, since all of them have entered the protocols in the last week.

Here are a few more COVID-related updates:

• Mavericks two-way player JaQuori McLaughlin has entered the health and safety protocols, according to the team (Twitter link). McLaughlin joins Luka Doncic and five other teammates — Dallas has had to place seven players in the protocols in the last six days.
• In a well-reported story on the impact of the NBA’s COVID-19 surge, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Baxter Holmes share a number of interesting anecdotes, including how both Kings equipment managers contracted COVID-19 and couldn’t work, forcing the team to temporarily transfer those duties to a video room intern and a game-night attendant.
• Within that ESPN story, Wojnarowski and Holmes say that some team executives around the league believe asymptomatic players should be allowed to play, but that idea is a “non-starter” for now in the eyes of NBA and NBPA leadership. ESPN’s duo also reports that almost one-third of the NBA’s vaccinated players initially received the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which offers a lower level of protection than the Pfizer or Moderna shots.