- Arctos Sports Partners is increasing its stake in the Warriors from 5% to 13%, Scott Soshnick and Eben Novy-Williams of Sportico report. The team is valued at about $5.5 billion in the deal, the same valuation as when Arctos bought its initial 5% earlier this year. A majority of this new equity is coming from minority partners, with a small portion from the team’s main owners, Joe Lacob and Peter Guber, the Sportico report adds. The deal must be approved by the NBA’s Board of Governors.
- Warriors big man James Wiseman could advance to on-court contact next week, Anthony Slater of The Athletic tweets. Wiseman has been rehabbing from offseason knee surgery.
DECEMBER 23: The signing is official, according to a team press release.
DECEMBER 22: The Warriors are calling up shooting guard Quinndary Weatherspoon from their G League affiliate, per Shams Charania of The Athletic, who reports (via Twitter) that the two sides have agreed to a 10-day deal. Golden State will complete the signing using a hardship exception.
The Warriors haven’t been hit too hard yet by COVID-19 this month, but do have two players in the protocols for the time being — Jordan Poole entered the protocols last Friday and Andrew Wiggins joined him on Sunday. This will be the club’s first hardship signing of the season.
The 49th overall pick in the 2019 draft, Weatherspoon spent his first two professional seasons with San Antonio, logging limited minutes in a total of 31 games. This season, he has been a regular contributor for the Santa Cruz Warriors in the G League, averaging 16.1 PPG, 4.3 RPG, and 3.7 APG on .442/.281/.905 shooting through nine games (27.4 MPG).
Golden State’s team salary is far above the luxury tax line, but Weatherspoon’s 10-day deal won’t count for cap or tax purposes. He’ll earn $95,930 across 10 days.
- Warriors players are raving about Klay Thompson after watching him in workouts, according to Shayna Rubin of The San Jose Mercury News. Thompson is expected to return sometime in January, and his teammates say he’s looking like the player he was before the injuries. “He’s always going to shoot the ball well, but he seems really confident in his body,” Kevon Looney said. “He’s going up for dunks. He’s playing physical and when you see that much confidence in him, it means he’s getting close to ready. It’s a joy to have in practice to have his energy back.”
Hawks guard Kevin Huerter and Warriors guard Damion Lee are the latest additions to the long list of NBA players in health and safety protocols.
Huerter is the sixth Atlanta player to be sidelined because of COVID-19, writes Sarah K. Spencer of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He joins Trae Young, Clint Capela, Danilo Gallinari, Lou Williams and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, who have all entered the protocols since Sunday.
Huerter is averaging 10.5 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.7 assists through 28 games. The Hawks had been hoping he could carry a larger share of the scoring load with so many rotation members out of action.
Atlanta is also without De’Andre Hunter, who is recovering from an injury to his right wrist, and Solomon Hill, who’s sidelined with a torn right hamstring. Lance Stephenson and Malcolm Hill, who were both added to the roster today under the hardship provision, are expected to be available for tonight’s game with the Magic.
“It’s an adjustment that we have to make, we can’t allow this to be a distraction,” coach Nate McMillan said. “We have a game to play tonight. We have to come out with that energy and that effort we’ve been talking about, no matter who is in uniform. We have to play this game harder than we’ve played here lately. We’ve got to execute better, even though we’ve got a few new faces that will be out on the floor.”
The Warriors are listing Lee as being in the protocols in their latest injury report, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. He becomes the third Golden State player affected, joining Andrew Wiggins and Jordan Poole. Lee has been a dependable bench player for the Warriors, averaging 8.4 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.0 assists in 25 games.
Otto Porter Jr. has been a bargain for the Warriors on a veteran’s minimum contract and he’ll be more important than ever with two starters in the health and safety protocols, writes Anthony Slater of The Athletic. Porter played nearly 30 minutes in Monday’s win over Sacramento, contributing 12 points and five rebounds, but what really stood out were his four blocked shots. Porter has changed his game since coming to Golden State, Slater notes, to become more of a rim protector and an inside presence.
“Otto’s been tremendous in adapting to that role. He rebounds the ball extremely well,” Draymond Green said. “I noticed that at the very beginning of the season. I would tell (Kevon Looney) like, ‘Loon, Otto really rebounds.’ When I first said it to Loon, Loon said, ‘He better, he’s 6’9″!’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah Loon, but you know 6’9″ guys, just because they’re 6’9″ they don’t rebound it.’ … (Porter) grew up his whole life playing the wing, and I think you see that a lot around the league where teams will put a guy in a position to be a big because they have size and they don’t have a clue of the positioning that you need to have, and Otto is making that adjustment with the blocked shots, with the rebounding.”
There’s more from the Pacific Division:
- The Warriors have also benefited from the return of Andre Iguodala, who is back to being a force off the bench after missing 11 games with knee swelling, Slater adds. Another veteran’s minimum acquisition in the offseason, Iguodala seems to be able to contribute wherever Golden State needs help.
- The Lakers‘ Anthony Davis feared he suffered a major injury on Friday when he heard “something pop” in his left knee, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN. Davis will miss at least four weeks with a sprained MCL, but after collapsing in the tunnel on the way to the locker room, he thought it was something much worse. “I just reached a point where it was tough to walk,” he explained. “I had to take a break. … I did hear something pop — and the first thing I thought of was (a major injury). Which, I was emotional, I was just like everywhere. But like I said, thank God that it wasn’t that.”
- ESPN’s Kevin Pelton (Insider link) examines how Davis’ injury might affect the Lakers‘ playoff odds, while Jovan Buha of The Athletic considers lineup options for the team with AD unavailable.
- Paul George felt good as he returned to the lineup Monday for the first time in two weeks, but the Clippers forward still experienced occasional pain in his right elbow, according to Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN. “It took some hits today, couple stingers,” George told reporters after the game. “We’ll see how it feels tomorrow, not sure it will be sore or not. See how it feels in the morning.”
DECEMBER 20: USA Basketball has made it official, announcing that Kerr has taken over as the head coach of the men’s national team, with Williams, Spoelstra, and Few joining him as assistants.
DECEMBER 10: Steve Kerr will be the next head coach for USA basketball, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. A deal is currently being finalized, and a formal announcement is expected soon.
Kerr, who served as an assistant to Gregg Popovich on this year’s gold-medal winning team in Tokyo, will take over for the FIBA World Cup in 2023 and the Paris Olympics in 2024 (Twitter link). His staff will include Suns head coach Monty Williams, Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra and Gonzaga head coach Mark Few.
Kerr, 56, has been among the NBA’s most successful head coaches since being hired by the Warriors in 2014. He has led Golden State to three titles and five appearances in the NBA Finals.
The decision on Kerr represents Grant Hill‘s first major move since taking over as managing director of USA Basketball, Wojnarowski notes (Twitter link), adding that Hill spent several months meeting with candidates and assembled a coaching team that has experienced success in the NBA, college and internationally.
Marc Stein first reported in September that Kerr was viewed as the frontrunner to be Popovich’s successor for USA Basketball.
Warriors forward Andrew Wiggins has been placed in the NBA’s health and safety protocols, Anthony Slater of The Athletic tweets.
Wiggins is one of several players to enter the league’s protocols this weekend, joining Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and Trae Young, among many others. He’s also the second Warrior currently in the protocols, along with Jordan Poole.
As a whole, the NBA currently has over 60 players out due to the health and safety protocols. The league also postponed five games earlier today as multiple teams deal with outbreaks.
Wiggins, an eight-year veteran, has played a key role in the Warriors’ success this season. He’s holding per-game averages of 18.7 points, 4.5 rebounds and 31.1 minutes, shooting 49% from the floor and 42% from three.
Golden State owns the second-best record in the league at 24-6, though the team is only 6-4 in its last 10 games.
- The Warriors issued a statement Friday that Klay Thompson completed his latest G League assignment and his recovery timeline is still on schedule. Thompson is expected to debut at a home game some time in January.
The Warriors and sharpshooter Klay Thompson are circling January home games for an ideal return date, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. Woj specifically mentions two dates as possibilities: Jan. 9 against Cleveland and Jan. 18 versus Detroit. He says a third date, Jan. 3 against Miami, is unlikely, but possible.
This aligns with a report yesterday that stated Thompson would return after Christmas. Thompson is currently in the process of ramping up his conditioning, so his return timeline remains somewhat in flux.
After missing the past two-plus seasons, Warriors don’t want to put any pressure on Thompson to return before he’s 100% ready, and there’s certainly no rush to get him back in the lineup — the Dubs have an NBA-best 23-5 record and can afford to be patient.
Thompson’s last official contest was Game 6 of the NBA Finals on June 13, 2019. He was in the midst of an outstanding game, scoring 30 points in 31 minutes on just 12 field goal attempts, but suffered a torn ACL late in the third quarter, which caused him to miss the entire 2019/20 season. After recovering from the ACL injury, he tore his Achilles tendon in the 2020 offseason, which sidelined him all of last season and has pushed back his debut this season.
In 615 career games (33.1 MPG), the five-time All-Star and three-time NBA champion holds averages of 19.5 PPG, 3.5 RPG, and 2.3 APG on a stellar .459/.419/.848 shooting line.
Warriors guard Jordan Poole is among the latest players to enter the NBA’s health and safety protocols, according to Anthony Slater of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Jared Weiss of The Athletic reports (via Twitter) that Celtics forward Grant Williams and one other Boston player have also been placed in the protocols. Shams Charania of The Athletic says (via Twitter) the second Celtic is Al Horford.
If Poole, Williams, and Horford have tested positive for COVID-19, they’ll be sidelined for at least 10 days or until they return two consecutive negative tests at least 24 hours apart.
The Warriors hadn’t had any players in the health and safety protocols prior to today’s update on Poole, but they faced the Knicks on Tuesday. New York has been experiencing a minor COVID-19 outbreak and placed Kevin Knox in the protocols on Thursday after he logged 20 minutes vs. Golden State.
The Celtics, meanwhile, put Jabari Parker in the protocols on Thursday, so they now have three players affected.
The Warriors and Celtics are scheduled to play on Friday night in Boston, so they’ll likely test and retest all their players today to make sure there are no more positives before they tip off.