- Warriors head coach Steve Kerr confirmed during his media session on Tuesday that he expects newly-added forward Kelly Oubre to be in the starting lineup, but said he’s not prepared to name a starting center yet, as Anthony Slater of The Athletic details.
Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN tweets that the NBA has set its Christmas Day schedule for 2020/21.
Woj emphasizes that the currently starry five games scheduled are “tentative.” That’s likely due to the risk of COVID-19 cases preventing certain contests, rather than the league continuing to finalize the schedule.
ESPN reporters Andrew Lopez, Eric Woodyard, Nick Friedell, Dave McMenamin, and Ohm Youngmisuk have weighed in on the five scheduled games.
Here’s the full list of anticipated Christmas Day matchups, per Woj’s reporting:
- New Orleans Pelicans at Miami Heat, 12 p.m. EST
- Golden State Warriors at Milwaukee Bucks, 2:30 p.m. EST
- Brooklyn Nets at Boston Celtics, 5 pm. EST
- Dallas Mavericks at Los Angeles Lakers, 8 p.m. EST
- Los Angeles Clippers at Denver Nuggets, 10:30 p.m. EST
All four 2020 conference finalists will be present, though none will be facing each other. The champion Lakers, led by LeBron James and Anthony Davis and filled out by a revamped roster of role players, will host the Mavericks, looking to take a leap in the standings after rising superstar Luka Doncic‘s first All-Star season.
The Eastern Conference champion Heat, fronted by Jimmy Butler and newly-extended Bam Adebayo, will host another Western Conference club with a promising rep from the NBA’s next wave of superstars, the Pelicans and second-year forward Zion Williamson.
The Nuggets/Clippers matchup should feature plenty of fireworks, as Los Angeles faced ample scrutiny for letting go of the rope enough for Denver to climb all the way out of a 3-1 deficit to win their second-round matchup during the 2020 playoffs.
The Celtics will square off against the formidable Nets, piloted by a newly healthy Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.
Reigning two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, meanwhile, will do battle with Durant’s old club, the Warriors, led by a former two-time MVP of their own in Stephen Curry. Antetokounmpo’s Bucks have recorded league-leading regular season records, only to fall short of the Finals in the playoffs during each of the last two seasons. Milwaukee is no doubt hopeful that its offseason makeover will amend that. The Warriors, meanwhile, saw their championship hopes jeopardized after All-Star shooting guard Klay Thompson incurred an Achilles tear that will sideline him for the entire season.
The Raptors, Rockets and Sixers, three perennial playoff clubs that (currently) have two All-Stars apiece, appear to be the biggest snubs this season, although the fate of Houston’s two All-Stars remains in flux.
Assuming every game happens as scheduled, which December 25 bout are you most excited for in 2020? Are there any teams or matchups you’re disappointed to see (or not see) listed? Let us know what you think in our comments section!
The Warriors have delayed the start of their training camp by one day after two players tested positive for COVID-19, president of basketball operations Bob Myers said today (Twitter link via Anthony Slater of The Athletic).
Rather than beginning individual workouts today and group workouts on Sunday, those start dates will be pushed to Wednesday and Monday, respectively, per Myers. The Warriors’ executive didn’t identify the two players who tested positive for the coronavirus.
The Warriors likely won’t be the only team with at least one or two COVID-19 cases to deal with this week. Players are reporting to their home markets from all over the country – or from overseas, in some cases – and haven’t necessarily been tested regularly during the offseason.
As was the case during the summer when the league began its Walt Disney World bubble, the hope will be that those cases can be identified now, with opening night still a few weeks away. The goal will be to prevent the virus from spreading, swiftly moving any affected players into quarantine until they’re medically cleared.
The Rockets still expect to begin the season with former MVPs James Harden and Russell Westbrook on their roster, despite a handful of November trade rumors, Shams Charania of The Athletic said during an appearance on Complex’s Load Management podcast.
Although there’s no momentum toward a trade involving either player, Charania dropped a couple interesting tidbits during his podcast discussion about the Rockets stars, mentioning that the Warriors “made a call” about Harden and that the Cavaliers talked to Houston about Westbrook. Based on Charania’s comments, it doesn’t sound like any traction was gained in either case.
Here’s more from around the Southwest:
- The Grizzlies are currently carrying 17 players on guaranteed contracts, meaning a couple of those players will have to be traded or released before the start of the regular season. Chris Herrington of The Daily Memphian suggests that Mario Hezonja and Marko Guduric appear to be the most likely odd men out.
- Confirming a previous report, Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle reiterated today that Kristaps Porzingis (knee) won’t play until at least January, per Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News (Twitter link). Carlisle did say that Porzingis’ rehab is going well and that the big man is doing “light court work.”
- Mavericks rookie guard Tyrell Terry will receive $4.6MM in guaranteed money on his four-year contract, tweets ESPN’s Bobby Marks. While we don’t know the exact terms of Terry’s deal, it sounds like his first three seasons will be guaranteed.
- The three-year, minimum-salary contract that second-rounder Tre Jones signed with the Spurs is fully guaranteed for the first two years, as Keith Smith of Yahoo Sports details (via Twitter).
The Warriors have signed Axel Toupane, Dwayne Sutton and Kaleb Wesson, according to the RealGM transactions log.
Toupane, a forward from France, and Sutton, a swingman from Louisville, received Exhibit 10 contracts. Their invitations to camp include the possibility of earning a bonus if they joins the team’s G League affiliate in Santa Cruz.
The 28-year-old Toupane has previous NBA experience, signing with the Nuggets late in the 2015/16 season. He appeared in 21 games for Denver, averaging 3.6 points and 1.5 rebounds per night, but was waived before the next season began. He had brief stays with the Bucks and Pelicans in 2016/17, getting into two games with each team.
Sutton is a candidate to earn a two-way contract, since Golden State still has one of those slots available. The 6’5″ 23-year-old Sutton was an All-ACC Honorable Mention with the Cardinals last season.
Wesson, an undrafted big man out of Ohio State, received a training camp deal that likely also includes Exhibit 10 language. He averaged 12.9 PPG, 7.0 RPG, 1.6 APG, 0.8 BPG and 0.8 SPG in three seasons with the Buckeyes. Wesson is also a candidate for the two-way spot.
The Warriors have officially signed No. 2 overall pick James Wiseman to his first NBA contract, the team announced today in a press release.
While that No. 2 pick was the subject of trade rumors for months, the Warriors ultimately hung onto it and selected the top center in this year’s draft class. He’ll receive a $8.73MM salary in his rookie season and will have a four-year contract worth nearly $40MM in total, assuming he receives the maximum allowable 120% of the rookie scale.
Scouts and college basketball fans only got a brief look at Wiseman during his three-game career at Memphis. After being embroiled in an eligibility battle with the NCAA, the 7’1″ big man left school in December to focus on preparing for the NBA. He was dominant in his brief time with the Tigers, averaging 19.7 points, 10.7 rebounds and 3.0 blocks per game.
The Warriors also confirmed in today’s announcement that they’ve signed second-round pick Nico Mannion to a two-way deal, as was expected.
Second-round pick Nico Mannion will be signing a two-way contract with the Warriors, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Mannion, who started 32 games for Arizona as a freshman last season, averaged 14.0 PPG, 5.3 APG, and 1.2 SPG with a .392/.327/.797 shooting line before declaring for the 2020 draft.
He was widely viewed as a potential first-round pick, but slipped down to No. 48, where the Warriors nabbed him. Executives around the NBA were surprised to see Mannion fall so far, according to a report last week.
Undrafted wing Dwayne Sutton is said to be the favorite to earn Golden State’s other two-way contract. The Warriors’ other second-round selection, No. 51 pick Justinian Jessup, is expected to spend season in Australia, where he’s already a member of the Illawara Hawks.
The Warriors have been granted a disabled player exception due to Klay Thompson‘s season-ending Achilles injury, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (via Twitter). The news comes in on the same day that Thompson underwent surgery to repair that torn Achilles.
The disabled player exception is a salary cap exception designed to allow teams to add a replacement for a player who suffers a major injury. It’s worth either half the injured player’s salary or the value of the non-taxpayer mid-level exception, whichever is lesser. Since Thompson is earning a $35MM+ salary, Golden State’s DPE will be worth $9,258,000, the amount of the MLE.
[RELATED: Hoops Rumors Glossary: Disabled Player Exception]
The disabled player exception doesn’t give a team an extra roster spot, but it allows the club to add a player without using cap space to do so. It can be used to sign a free agent, to claim a player off waivers, or to acquire a player in a trade. However, it can only be used on one player and can only accommodate a player on a one-year deal. A free agent signee can’t get a multiyear contract, and any trade or waiver target must be in the final year of his contract.
The Warriors already face a mammoth projected luxury tax bill and any additional salary they take on will only increase their end-of-season tax penalties, so the front office won’t use it just for the sake of it.
With no top free agents left on the open market, the Warriors will likely hang onto their DPE for now and see if it can be used closer to the trade deadline — or even after the deadline, on the buyout market. It will expire on April 19 if it’s still unused by then, according to Charania.
The Warriors will sign undrafted free agent OSU power forward/center Kaleb Wesson to a training camp deal, Anthony Slater of The Athletic tweets.
The 6’9″, 270-pound rookie big man spent three seasons with the Buckeyes. The 21-year-old was awarded Second-Team All-Big Ten honors during his junior season with the club.
Through his three seasons with Ohio State, Wesson averaged 12.9 PPG, 7.0 RPG, 1.6 APG, 0.8 BPG and 0.8 SPG and started in 92 of 96 contests. In a Warriors-friendly stat, Wesson averaged 38.5% on his 2.0 three-point attempts per game during his OSU tenure. His three-point output got more frequent and accurate each season. By his seniors year, he was converting 42.5% of his 3.4 attempts a night.
John Hollinger of The Athletic had Wesson listed as his No. 62 favorite rookie prospect in an epic pre-draft rankings piece.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Warriors sharpshooter Klay Thompson underwent surgery in Los Angeles today to repair his torn right Achilles, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, who says the five-time All-Star is expected to make a full recovery (Twitter links).
After missing the entire 2019/20 season while recovering from a torn left ACL, Thompson had been on track to return for opening night next month, but tore his Achilles last week during a workout in Southern California. As a result, he’ll be sidelined for his second consecutive full season and will go more than two years between NBA appearances.
The Warriors acquired Kelly Oubre in a trade with the Thunder and added Kent Bazemore in free agency in an effort to replenish their depth on the wing in the wake of Thompson’s devastating season-ending injury.
The team also applied for a disabled player exception in response to Thompson’s injury. Assuming it’s approved, which it should be, the exception would be worth approximately $9.3MM and would allow the team to acquire a player without using cap room.
A disabled player exception can be used to sign a free agent, to acquire a player in a trade, or to claim a player off waivers, but it can only be used on one player. Additionally, it can only be used to sign a player to a one-year deal — or to trade for or claim a player in the final year of his contract.