- Pistons coach Dwane Casey will miss tonight’s game against Indiana due to personal reasons, Keith Langlois of the team’s website tweets. It’s not due to a COVID-19 issue. Assistant Rex Kalamian will run the show in Casey’s absence. It’s unknown whether Casey will return to coach the team in two home games this weekend.
The Bulls have announced (Twitter link) that their next contest, scheduled to be a Sunday matinee matchup against the Lakers, has been pushed back to a later start time. The game will now tip off at 7 p.m. CT, after originally being scheduled to start at 2:30 p.m. CT.
It was announced yesterday that the NBA would postpone Chicago’s two other scheduled games this week – tonight against the Pistons and Thursday night against the Raptors – after it was revealed that as many as 10 Bulls are currently in the league’s COVID-19 health and safety protocols.
K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago tweets that Coby White, Javonte Green, Derrick Jones Jr., and star wing DeMar DeRozan all have a chance to be cleared by the new tip-off time Sunday. It was reported over the weekend that White had returned to the Bulls’ Advocate Center practice facility for the first time since his diagnosis.
There’s more out of the Central Division:
- After missing the Pacers‘ Monday loss to the Warriors, Indiana assistant coach Jenny Boucek is now in the league’s COVID-19 health and safety protocols, per Scott Agness of Fieldhouse Files. The first-season assistant will be replaced by Calbert Cheaney on the front of the bench, Agness adds.
- Pistons head coach Dwane Casey has revealed that the NBA will examine game tape to determine which Nets players came into “close contact” with Detroit players, per James Edwards III of The Athletic (Twitter link). Brooklyn players Paul Millsap, LaMarcus Aldridge, DeAndre’ Bembry, Jevon Carter, and James Johnson are currently in the league’s COVID-19 health and safety protocols.
- The Pistons are optimistic that the G League play of second-year point guard Saben Lee will translate at the NBA level, writes Keith Langlois of Pistons.com. Langlois notes that the early returns have been positive, and could lead to more minutes with Detroit for Lee. “I’m just doing whatever the coaches ask me to do,” Lee said. “Up here, I know there’s a lot of scorers, a lot of shooters. Whatever coach [Casey] asks me to do, I’m going to do that. That’s how I navigate that.” Saben played with Detroit’s NBAGL club, the Motor City Cruise, for his first seven contests this season.
- The Pistons have lost 12 straight and their game at Chicago, scheduled for Tuesday, has been postponed due to COVID-19 issues among the Bulls. Detroit won’t play again until Thursday against Indiana and that’s just fine with coach Dwane Casey, Rod Beard of the Detroit News tweets. “It gives us a couple of days of practice, which is very, very important,” Casey said.
The NBA has postponed the Bulls‘ game in Chicago on Tuesday vs. the Pistons, reports Omari Sankofa II of The Detroit Free Press (Twitter link). The league is also postponing the Bulls’ game in Toronto against the Raptors on Thursday, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).
The Bulls have 10 players in the league’s health and safety protocols related to COVID-19. With Patrick Williams also sidelined due to a long-term wrist injury, Chicago has just eight active players. The club also has staff members and commentators in the protocols.
Typically, the NBA won’t postpone a game unless a team has fewer than eight players available, but the league is playing it safe in this instance to allow the Bulls to get a little healthier and to avoid risking further spread of COVID-19, tweets Wojnarowski.
Woj adds (via Twitter) that Chicago’s Department of Public Health was concerned about the Bulls continuing to play this week, which was a factor in the league’s decision.
Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, Ayo Dosunmu, Derrick Jones Jr., Troy Brown Jr., Matt Thomas, Stanley Johnson, Alize Johnson, Coby White, and Javonte Green are the Bulls players in the protocols. White and Green are reportedly the closest to returning to action, but haven’t yet been fully cleared.
Last season, dozens of games were postponed due to COVID-19 outbreaks and/or contact tracing. While a number of players have entered the league’s health and safety protocols after testing positive this season, the schedule hadn’t been affected at all until now — these are the first two postponements of the 2021/22 campaign.
Pistons forward Jerami Grant is expected to be one of the most sought-after players on the trade market this season, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic, who hears from sources that Detroit is open to a possible deal.
Charania says that the Pistons get dozens of calls about Grant each week, though the list of known suitors isn’t long at this point.
Charania identifies the Trail Blazers and Lakers as a couple teams in pursuit of the 27-year-old. The Sixers have previously been said to have interest in Grant, but there have been conflicting reports about how serious that interest is. Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer wrote today that Grant would make sense as a trade target for the Jazz — that sounds more like speculation than anything concrete, though it’s worth noting that Charania also said today that Utah is in the market for a “defensive-minded wing” on the trade market.
Grant has expanded his game since arriving in Detroit, showing an ability to be an on-ball scorer and secondary play-maker after establishing himself as a solid spot-up shooter and defender in Oklahoma City and Denver. His skill set would appeal to most playoff teams, so he figures to draw widespread interest around the league if he’s legitimately available.
Grant is currently on the shelf due to torn ligaments in his right thumb and likely won’t return until closer to the trade deadline. However, both Charania and O’Connor hear that the injury is unlikely to affect his trade market or the Pistons’ willingness to listen to offers.
In 78 games (33.7 MPG) across two seasons with the Pistons, Grant has averaged 21.6 PPG, 4.7 RPG, 2.7 APG, and 1.1 BPG on .425/.344/.847 shooting. He’s earning just over $20MM this season and his contract runs through 2022/23. As Charania observes, Grant will become extension-eligible during the 2022 offseason and could sign a four-year deal worth up to $112.65MM at that time.
Teams with trade interest in Grant know they’d have to go pretty close to that max – if not all the way up to it – in order to extend him before he reaches free agency in 2023, according to Charania, who likens Grant’s situation to that of Aaron Gordon a year ago. Denver acquired Gordon from Orlando at the trade deadline, then signed him in the offseason to a four-year extension with a base value of nearly $87MM.
Yet another Bulls player has entered the NBA’s health and safety protocols, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, who reports (via Twitter) that forward Alize Johnson has tested positive for COVID-19.
The Bulls are currently experiencing the league’s worst outbreak of the coronavirus this season, with 10 players in the protocols. The team only has eight healthy players available, though it’s possible Coby White and/or Javonte Green could exit the protocols and be cleared in time to play on Tuesday vs. Detroit.
The NBA typically requires teams to play their games if they have at least eight players available, so as long as the Bulls don’t enter any more players into the protocols today or tomorrow, the game vs. the Pistons may simply proceed as scheduled.
However, K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago (video link) says the Bulls have made an appeal to the NBA to postpone that game, which the league could consider — even if Chicago technically has eight players available, the outbreak has reached the point where a postponement may be worth it to ensure the Bulls have stopped the spread and won’t be putting another team at risk.
Besides Johnson, White, and Green, the Bulls players currently affected by the health and safety protocols are Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, Ayo Dosunmu, Derrick Jones Jr., Troy Brown Jr., Matt Thomas and Stanley Johnson. Patrick Williams is also unavailable due to a wrist injury that’s expected to keep him on the shelf for the rest of the regular season.
Following Tuesday’s home game vs. Detroit, the Bulls are scheduled to play in Toronto on Thursday.
- The Pistons called up Jamorko Pickett and Isaiah Livers from their G League affiliate on Sunday, Keith Langlois of Pistons.com tweets. The decision was made shortly after the team announced that Jerami Grant would miss at least six weeks with a thumb injury.
DECEMBER 12: Grant suffered a UCL ligament sprain and will be re-evaluated in six weeks, tweets Keith Langlois of Pistons.com.
DECEMBER 11: Pistons forward Jerami Grant will be out indefinitely with torn ligaments in his right thumb, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic.
Grant suffered the injury in Friday night’s loss to the Pelicans as the thumb was bent backward in an awkward manner. He has been Detroit’s most consistent player for the first two months of the season, averaging 20.1 points, 4.8 rebounds and 1.1 blocks in 24 games.
Tests conducted earlier today confirmed the extent of the injury, according to Omari Sankofa II of The Detroit Free Press (Twitter link).
Grant, who has one more year left on his contract at about $21MM, has been the subject of trade rumors as the Pistons begin to look toward building for the future. A mid-November report suggested that the Sixers might have interest in Grant in a potential Ben Simmons swap, but that rumor seems to have gone cold.
While Grant is out of action, more playing time may fall to power forward Trey Lyles, who is averaging 7.8 points and 4.3 rebounds off the bench in his first season in Detroit.
- With a record of 4-20, the Pistons rank dead last in the NBA. However, Rod Beard of The Detroit News believes that coach Dwane Casey‘s job should be safe. He notes that the Pistons have struggled to make open shots all year, which is a player problem, not a coaching issue. The team believes in Casey’s ability to work with and develop young players, Beard adds.
- The results might not be showing it yet, but James L. Edwards III of The Athletic says the Pistons are in a much healthier place this season compared to the last few. He points to several young players on rookie contracts, another potential top pick this summer, and cap flexibility moving forward as reasons why the outlook is brighter in Detroit than it might appear on the surface.
The 4-19 Pistons, losers of nine straight games, are currently sole owners of the NBA’s worst record. Happily from a big-picture perspective, intriguing rookie guard Cade Cunningham is showing promising early signs of development, details James L. Edwards III of The Athletic.
Cunningham was shelved for Detroit’s entire preseason and the early portion of the 2021/22 regular season with an ankle injury, but has come on in a big way across the Pistons’ last four games. In that time, Cunningham has averaged 22 PPG while shooting 51% from the floor and 50% from deep, along with 7.7 RPG and 3.2 APG. Overall, the 6’6″ point guard is averaging 14.9 PPG, 6.6 RPG and 4.6 APG across the 18 games he has played this season.
“I feel like my voice is heard in the locker room,” Cunningham said of where he stands on the Pistons roster. “That hasn’t been a problem for me. We have a good group of guys.”
There’s more out of the Central Division:
- Injured Bucks starting shooting guard Donte DiVincenzo will continue to rehabilitate with Milwaukee’s G League affiliate, the Wisconsin Herd, per Eric Nehm of The Athletic. DiVincenzo will practice with the Herd ahead of an anticipated return to the floor for the Bucks. The 24-year-old tore an ankle ligament during the first series of the Bucks’ 2020/21 title run. Last year, the Villanova alum averaged 10.4 PPG, 5.8 RPG and 3.1 across 66 regular season games for Milwaukee.
- After it was floated earlier today that the Pacers would be open to offloading players following an underwhelming 10-16 season start under the stewardship of new head coach Rick Carlisle, Evan Sidery of Basketball News has cooked up some intriguing potential trade destinations for swingman Caris LeVert. Clubs like the Cavaliers, Grizzlies, Jazz Mavericks and Pelicans are all considered fits by Sidery. Sidery notes that LeVert has become movable thanks in part due to the emergence of rookie wing Chris Duarte.
- As the Pacers look to shake up their roster, Clark Wade of The Indianapolis Star wonders which Indiana players the club should trade. The markets for big men Domantas Sabonis and Myles Turner, plus lead guard Malcolm Brogdon, all good players on agreeable contracts, should be robust, though Brogdon won’t be trade-eligible until the offseason.