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And-Ones: Referees, Protocols, Thornton, Koufos

January 1st, 2022 at 3:29pm CST by JD Shaw

The NBA has reached a season-high number of referees who are in health and safety protocols, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.com. As of Thursday afternoon, Wojnarowski reported that 25 of 70 officials (36%) were in quarantine.

As our health and safety protocols tracker shows, over 100 NBA players are currently out due to the virus. Eleven games have been postponed this season, including – most recently – Thursday’s Warriors-Nuggets game.

The NBA has called up G League officials to make up for various absences. Some games have been played with two referees instead of three, but Wojnarowski reports that the league is working to limit these instances.

Here are some other odds and ends from around the basketball world:

The NBA and NBPA have agreed to change the absence timeline for a player who enters protocols, Wojnarowski and Baxter Holmes write in a separate story for ESPN. The adjustment only impacts asymptomatic and vaccinated players. As the duo writes, players were allowed to return after seven days if their CT levels were above 35, but the change now allows players to return after five days if their CT levels are above 30.
Eight-year NBA veteran Marcus Thornton has signed a contract in the G League, sources told Hoops Rumors. Thornton has played 483 NBA games, making past stops with New Orleans, Sacramento, Brooklyn, Boston, Phoenix, Houston and Washington during his career. He last played with the Pistons’ G League affiliate during the 2018/19 season.
Free agent center Kosta Koufos will no longer sign with Italian club Reyer Venezia due to new guidelines and travel restrictions in the country, according to Marc Stein (Twitter link). Koufos, an 11-year NBA veteran, owns 686 games of experience since being drafted No. 23 overall in 2008.

Quinn Cook Leaving Russian Team

December 28th, 2021 at 2:16pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Former NBA point guard Quinn Cook is leaving Russian club Lokomotiv Kuban, per Aris Barkas of Eurohoops (via Twitter).

Barkas adds that Cook, 28, who won titles as a reserve with the Warriors in 2018 and the Lakers in 2020, had already been stateside for the team’s holiday break. According to Barkas, the divorce was a mutual decision.

This departure is intriguing news, given the NBA’s frenzy to add players through 10-day hardship exception contracts due to a rash of COVID-19 cases on several teams. The 6’1″ Cook went undrafted out of Duke in 2015 but eventually carved out an NBA niche as a bench sharpshooter, starting in the middle of the 2016/17 NBA season with the Mavericks. Given that Cook is a career 40.8% three-point shooter at the NBA level, on 2.3 attempts per night, there could be a market for the vet this season.

Cook has five years of NBA experience. In that time, he has suited up for the Mavericks, Pelicans, Warriors, Lakers, and the Cavaliers. After splitting the 2020/21 season between Los Angeles and Cleveland, Cook joined the Trail Blazers ahead of their 2021/22 preseason on a non-guaranteed deal.

Having lost out on a roster spot to Dennis Smith Jr., Cook opted to venture overseas, signing with Lokomotiv Kuban of the VTB United League. Now that he is a free agent once again, it appears Cook is well-positioned to contend for a 10-day deal, should he be interested in an NBA return.

And-Ones: Team USA, Faried, Bennett, All-Star Voting

December 25th, 2021 at 6:50pm CST by Arthur Hill

New Team USA coach Steve Kerr may not hold a training camp involving players during the summer, writes Joe Vardon of The Athletic. Kerr, who officially took over the position earlier this week, has talked to managing director Grant Hill about conducting a coaches camp instead, which would represent a new approach for the national team.

The next World Cup won’t take place until the 2023 offseason, and the next Olympics are two-and-a-half years away. Team USA will be hoping to get a two-year commitment from its players to participate in both events. The Americans have won the last four Olympic gold medals, but finished seventh at the 2019 World Cup.

“I’m in touch with Grant all the time and we’re discussing those things,” Kerr said. “Obviously there is COVID complications as well, but with the World Cup not being until the following summer, there’s not a huge sense of urgency to get a bunch of players together. It’s more about getting the coaches together and really starting to put a foundation together.”

Here’s more from around the basketball world:

Kenneth Faried has received an offer to play in the G League, tweets Marc Stein of Substack. The 32-year-old big man played eight NBA seasons, but hasn’t been in the league since finishing the 2018/19 season with the Rockets. Faried has played overseas since then, but ended his arrangement with CSKA Moscow last week.
Anthony Bennett has parted ways with Hapoel Jerusalem, tweets Israeli basketball writer Roi Cohen. Bennett, the first selection in the 2013 draft, averaged 7.0 points per game while playing in the Winner League and the Basketball Champions League. Bennett has been out of the NBA since the 2016/17 season and has played both in the G League and overseas.
Fan voting for the NBA’s All-Star Game began today and will continue through January 22, the league announced (via Twitter). Votes can be submitted at NBA.com, through the NBA app or on Twitter. Votes will count double today, as well as January 13, 17 and 20.

Timofey Mozgov Signs With Russian Team

December 25th, 2021 at 1:45pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Longtime NBA center Timofey Mozgov has inked a deal with Russian Super League team Runa Basket Moscow, per Dario Skerletic of Sportando.

After spending the 2017/18 NBA season on the Nets, the 7’1″, 275-pound center traveled overseas. He rejoined Russian club Khmiki from 2019-21. He also suited up for Khmiki from 2006-2010 and again during the 2011 NBA lockout. Last year, Mozgov averaged 8.3 PPG and 4.2 RPG across six contests.

The 35-year-old big man logged eight seasons in the NBA after initially going undrafted in 2008. He played with the Knicks, Nuggets, Cavaliers, Lakers, and finally the Nets. Mozgov won a title as a key role player for the 2016 championship Cleveland team.

After winning in Cleveland, Mozgov signed a lucrative four-year, $64MM deal with the Lakers, which immediately became an albatross. Los Angeles traded him to Brooklyn the next summer. It would be his final NBA on-court action, and he essentially became a contract used to match salaries in deals.

Mozgov was then sent to the Hornets in the summer of 2018, who promptly traded his contract to the Magic. Mozgov never played a game for Orlando during the 2018/19 season after being felled by a knee injury that required surgery. Orlando waived him in the 2019 offseason.

Mozgov holds career averages of 6.8 PPG, 4.9 RPG, and 0.8 BPG across 454 games.

And-Ones: Roster Rules, Muhammad, Faried, Prospects

December 20th, 2021 at 3:41pm CST by Luke Adams

A handful of reporters have shared some additional details on the changes to the NBA’s roster rules as agreed upon by the league and the players’ union, which we outlined this morning.

According to Eric Koreen of The Athletic, while teams are now being required to sign replacement players if they have multiple players sidelined due to positive COVID-19 tests, a club won’t have to sign any additional replacements if it’s able to have 13 healthy players in uniform.

Meanwhile, Keith Smith of Spotrac (Twitter link) cites multiple sources who say it won’t just be new hardship signings that don’t count against team salary for cap or tax purposes — that change will be applied retroactively to all of this season’s hardship signings. Teams, of course, will still be required to pay 10-day salaries to each player they sign, but those deals won’t have an impact on a club’s cap or tax situation.

Finally, according to Ian Begley of SNY.tv (Twitter link), even though players on two-way contracts no longer face a 50-game regular season limit, they remain ineligible to participate in play-in or postseason games unless they’re promoted to their team’s standard roster.

Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

Former lottery pick Shabazz Muhammad, who last played in the NBA in 2018, joined the Grand Rapids Gold – the Nuggets‘ G League affiliate – for the NBAGL Showcase, as Marc Stein reported (via Twitter). Muhammad struggled in his debut on Sunday vs. the G League Ignite, recording four points, four turnovers, and six fouls in 16 minutes of action.
CSKA Moscow and veteran NBA big man Kenneth Faried have parted ways, the Russian club recently announced in a press release. Faried signed a two-month contract with CSKA in October, but played a limited role for the team, which opted not to extend his deal to cover the entire season. “Thank you for having me, it was amazing – the organization, coaches and people of CSKA Moscow,” Faried said in a statement. “I wish I could have stayed the whole season but it’s a business and I understand that!”
Sam Vecenie of The Athletic identifies seven college upperclassmen to keep an eye on this NCAA season as 2022 draft prospects, singling out Kansas wing Ochai Agbaji, Duke wing Wendell Moore Jr., and Northwestern forward Pete Nance (Larry Nance Jr.‘s brother), among others.

And-Ones: Franchise Valuations, Maker, Ferrell, J. Smith

December 16th, 2021 at 9:46am CST by Luke Adams

Kurt Badenhausen of Sportico has released his annual NBA franchise valuations, with the Knicks ($6.12 billion), Warriors ($6.03 billion), and Lakers ($5.63 billion) leading the way. Those three clubs are far and away the NBA’s most valuable, in Sportico’s view — no other team is valued above $3.61 billion, which is where the fourth-place Nets land, and the average league-wide valuation is about $2.6 billion.

Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

Former NBA lottery pick Thon Maker and Hapoel Jerusalem have parted ways, the Israeli team announced earlier this week (via Twitter). Maker, who spent part of last season with the Cavaliers, is once again a free agent.
Veteran guard Yogi Ferrell recently signed with a team in Slovenia, but he remains focused on playing his way back to the NBA, he said this week on Eurohoops’ EurohooPOD podcast. “I definitely want to get back over there and still show I belong in the league,” Ferrell said.
While Paolo Banchero and Chet Holmgren have long been viewed as the consensus top two prospects in the 2022 draft class, John Hollinger of The Athletic says that Auburn’s Jabari Smith is making a legitimate case to be considered at No. 1.
The Bulls‘ organization is being impacted by COVID-19 at multiple levels. Like the NBA squad, the G League’s Windy City Bulls have had their schedule affected by the health and safety protocols and won’t take part in the upcoming NBAGL Winter Showcase, the league announced in a press release.

Chasson Randle Signs With NBL Team

December 15th, 2021 at 3:55pm CST by Luke Adams

Veteran guard Chasson Randle has signed with the New Zealand Breakers, the team announced in a press release. The Breakers play in Australia’s National Basketball League (NBL).

Randle has been added to the Breakers’ roster as an injury replacement for former NBA guard Peyton Siva, who reportedly suffered a hamstring tear. Another one of the team’s guards, Jeremiah Martin, is dealing with a rolled ankle.

“It’s been a very difficult start with COVID, with two of our imports injured, and we wanted to get the best import on the market available,” said team owner Matt Walsh, whose team has an 0-3 record. “… Randle is a legit NBA player who has started games and played significant minutes, and we believe he’s going to come in and be one of the best imports in our league. We anticipate him coming in and putting us back in the hunt.”

Randle, 28, appeared in 41 games with the Magic in 2020/21, averaging 6.5 PPG, 2.0 RPG, and 1.8 APG on .388/.338/.792 shooting in 20.4 minutes per contest. He even made five starts with Orlando in games where both Markelle Fultz and Cole Anthony were unavailable.

The Suns signed Randle for training camp this fall, but he didn’t earn a spot on the team’s 15-man regular season roster. He was later part of the U.S. team that played a pair of qualifying games for the 2023 World Cup against Mexico and Cuba last month.

T.J. Leaf To Play In China

December 14th, 2021 at 2:15pm CST by Luke Adams

Former NBA first-round pick T.J. Leaf has reached a deal to play in the Chinese Basketball Association, reports Scott Agness of Fieldhouse Files (Twitter link). It’s unclear which team Leaf is joining.

The 18th overall pick in 2017 out of UCLA, Leaf spent his first three NBA seasons with the Pacers, but never developed into a reliable rotation player. He averaged 3.3 PPG and 1.9 RPG on .491/.341/.551 shooting in 139 games (8.7 MPG) during his time in Indiana.

Leaf was traded from the Pacers to the Thunder in the 2020 offseason and was subsequently waived by Oklahoma City. He caught on with the Trail Blazers this past April and finished the 2020/21 season on a two-way contract with Portland, logging limited minutes in seven regular season games and three playoff contests.

Leaf is still just 24 years old, so he could get another shot in the NBA down the line if he plays well overseas.

And-Ones: Stephenson, Popovich, Thibodeau, Africa League, Samuel

December 9th, 2021 at 5:57pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Lance Stephenson is currently playing for the Nuggets’ G league affiliate, the Grand Rapids Gold. He ultimately hopes to get another chance to play in the NBA, as he told Bob Kravitz of The Athletic.

“I want to show everybody I’m a different guy and I’ll do anything I can to contribute to a team,’” he said. “My whole mindset is getting back to the NBA. I feel like I belong there. That’s my destination. And I’ll never quit trying.”

Stephenson, who is averaging 19.5 PPG and 7.4 RPG for the Gold, hasn’t appeared in the NBA game since the 2018/19 season, when he played in 63 regular-season games for the Lakers.

We have more from around the basketball world:

A successor for Gregg Popovich as Team USA’s head coach has yet to be named. Popovich said that Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau would make an excellent choice, according to Steve Popper of Newsday. “Oh sure, there are a lot of guys up here that would be fantastic and he’s one of them,” Popovich said. “I think that experience is great and the people that they’re looking at, they’re all great candidates and I think everybody is going to be happy with the final selection for sure. He also was really helpful and supportive during my last four or five years with this, talking to him about how it all goes, giving advice.”
The Basketball Africa League will have an expanded second season, according to an NBA press release. The season will begin on March 5, 2022, in Dakar, Senegal, and will include stops in Cairo, Egypt, and Kigali, Rwanda. The BAL will once again feature the to 12 club teams from 12 African countries and will expand to a total of 38 games over three months.
Seton Hall big man Tyrese Samuel has caught the eye of NBA scouts, Adam Zagoria of NJ.com writes. According to Zagoria, 25 NBA scouts from 17 teams will be in attendance on Thursday when the Pirates play Texas. There’s a chance Samuel could enter the draft after this season, depending on the feedback he gets.

Dante Exum Signs With Spanish Team

December 7th, 2021 at 1:35pm CST by Dana Gauruder

DECEMBER 7: Barcelona has completed its short-term deal with Exum, announcing today in a press release that the point guard will be on the roster through February 28.

DECEMBER 4: Former NBA guard Dante Exum is close to signing a three-month contract with Barcelona, Sportando relays via a Chema de Lucas tweet.

Exum was waived by the Rockets during training camp. Exum signed a three-year deal with Houston in September that had a base value of $8.1MM and included another $8MM+ in likely and unlikely incentives. But the contract was non-guaranteed and the Rockets had 15 other players with guaranteed deals.

Exum, the fifth overall pick in the 2014 draft, finished last season with Houston after being acquired in the four-team James Harden trade, but he didn’t play any games for the franchise. He appeared in six games for Cleveland last season, when he had an expiring $9.6MM contract, before being sidelined with a calf injury.

Exum played a prominent role on Australia’s bronze medal-winning squad at the Tokyo Olympics, averaging 9.0 PPG and 2.8 APG.

Still just 26 years old, Exum has seen his NBA career sidetracked by injuries. He’s appeared in 245 career games, averaging 5.6 PPG and 2.1 APG in 18.6 MPG.