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L.A. Notes: Noah, Williams, Leonard, LeBron

July 11th, 2020 at 6:30pm CST by Arthur Hill

Joakim Noah, who recently signed with the Clippers for the rest of the season, might have joined the team earlier if not for an accident in September, writes Garrett Chorpenning of Sports Illustrated. Noah had a workout scheduled, but was forced to cancel after getting hurt.

“In September, I had a freak accident and cut my Achilles, and you know, I told myself that that’s just not how I wanted to end my career,” Noah told reporters today. “So you know, the day after the surgery, I was in the gym working out with the hope of making this team. I knew that if I didn’t keep training and if I got a call from the Clippers and I wasn’t ready, I knew I would have regrets for the rest of my life. … Being in a position to win a championship, it’s not something that I take for granted.”

The 35-year-old center finally joined the team on a 10-day contract in March, just two days before the hiatus began. Late last month, he signed a deal that covers the remainder of this season and is non-guaranteed for 2020/21.

There’s more regarding the L.A. teams:

  • Clippers guard Lou Williams was “50-50” about coming to Orlando, but respected the results of a team vote, tweets Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN. “We decided our decision was going to be everybody or nobody,” Williams said. “… We decided to come as a group. I’m part of the group. I have a lot of thoughts, ideas I felt strongly about personally, but I represent a group.”
  • After not traveling with the Clippers to Orlando, Kawhi Leonard joined the team last night, tweets Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports. Coach Doc Rivers said he hasn’t decided what to do with Leonard’s minutes yet, but having a fully healthy team will make it easier to rest him, tweets Jovan Buha of The Athletic.
  • Lakers star LeBron James will wear his name on the back of his jersey rather than one of the league-approved messages regarding social justice, according to ESPN. James said the available options “didn’t seriously resonate with my mission, with my goal.” He adds that he never feared that the NBA wouldn’t finish its season. “No, never crossed my mind that we did not need to play this beautiful game of basketball that brings so many people together,” James said. “That brings happiness. That brings joy to the households of so many families.”
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Paul George: “Feeling Back To Myself Again”

July 11th, 2020 at 4:30pm CST by Arthur Hill

The NBA’s four-month hiatus allowed Paul George to fully heal for the first time since having surgery on both shoulders last offseason, writes Jovan Buha of The Athletic. In a Zoom session with reporters, the Clippers star talked about how much progress he has made since the season was suspended.

“I had insecurities throughout the season just because I wasn’t all the way 100 (percent), shoulder didn’t feel back to 100 (percent),” George said. “Everything was kind of waiting and hoping, believing in the doctors that everything they were telling me was going to come into this moment now where I feel great, no shoulder issues. The whole season, all the way up until maybe a month or two ago, I had to always do shoulder rehab stuff, warming the shoulder up. Just so much went into stuff I had to do before I actually took a foot on the floor.

“Now I feel great again. I feel great going on the court, shooting, doing regular things. Just confident in that, feeling back to myself again.”

Even though George finished third in the MVP race with the Thunder last season, he was playing through pain, dealing with a small labrum tear in his left shoulder and a partially torn tendon in the right one. He was traded to L.A. in July, but missed all of training camp and the Clippers’ first 11 regular season games while recovering from the operations. A strained left hamstring in midseason cost him 11 more games.

George told reporters he was able to stay in “great shape” during the hiatus by using an exercise machine, adding, “My body (is) in the best form that it can be right now.”

Clippers coach Doc Rivers got to watch George shoot at the team’s practice facility and said the physical difference was evident.

“When you factor in at the beginning of training camp, P.G. couldn’t play, he wasn’t healthy,” Rivers said. “Now in this second ‘training camp,’ he’ll be 100 percent healthy. I think that’s huge for us.”

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Kawhi, Green Not Yet With Clippers As Disney

July 10th, 2020 at 3:56pm CST by Luke Adams

Star forward Kawhi Leonard didn’t travel to Walt Disney World this week with the rest of the Clippers this week, sources tell Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports. According to Haynes, Leonard was given permission by the club to tend to a family matter. Haynes wrote on Wednesday that the reigning Finals MVP was expected to arrive in Orlando within “a few days.”

Leonard isn’t the only Clippers player who will be late in arriving to the NBA’s campus. Sources tell Andrew Greif and Broderick Turner of The Los Angeles Times (Twitter link) that forward JaMychal Green is tending to a family matter of his own and isn’t in Orlando yet. Green is expected to arrive on Sunday, per The L.A. Times.

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Clippers’ Landry Shamet Tests Positive for COVID-19

July 4th, 2020 at 12:13pm CST by Arthur Hill

Landry Shamet has tested positive for the coronavirus and isn’t expected to be with the Clippers when they travel to Orlando on Wednesday, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic.

The Clippers were forced to close their practice facility this week after a member of their traveling party registered a positive test for COVID-19. There was hope that the facility might be reopened before the team departs for Florida, but Shamet’s test may affect that decision.

Twenty-five NBA players and 10 staffers had recorded positive tests through Thursday, according to a release from the league.

The second-year guard has become a valuable rotation player since being acquired from the Sixers midway through last season. He is averaging 9.7 points per game and has started 27 of the 47 games he has played this year.

 

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Clippers Close Facility Following Positive COVID-19 Test

July 3rd, 2020 at 9:13am CST by Luke Adams

The Clippers became the latest NBA team to close their practice facility following a positive COVID-19 test by a member of their traveling party, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

Sources tell ESPN that the Clippers may be able to reopen their practice facility for workouts in the coming days. However, it won’t be long until the team travels to Orlando — that’s scheduled to happen on Wednesday, as Woj writes.

The Clippers are one of a handful of teams that have temporarily shut down their practice facilities. The Nuggets, Suns, Heat, and Nets are also known to have done so, though most have since reopened.

According to an NBA announcement on Thursday, 25 players and 10 team staffers have tested positive for the coronavirus since mandatory testing began last Tuesday, June 23. As such, it’s possible there were other clubs that temporarily closed their facilities to ensure their buildings were safe for players and coaches.

Only individual workouts are taking place at teams’ practice facilities — group workouts and scrimmages won’t begin until after the top 22 clubs have traveled to Walt Disney World and gone through a brief quarantine period.

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Lou Williams Expected To Play In Restart; Beal Still Undecided

July 2nd, 2020 at 9:48am CST by Luke Adams

Seven players so far have opted out of the NBA’s restart this summer, but Clippers guard Lou Williams is unlikely to join that group. Despite previously expressing uncertainty about his status, Williams is expected to suit up for the Clippers as they pursue a title at Walt Disney World, head coach Doc Rivers said on Wednesday.

“As far as Lou, all indications (are) that yes, he is (playing),” Rivers said on a Zoom call, per Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN.com. “Obviously, up until we get on the plane, anything can happen. But I do expect Lou to be with us. I would be very surprised if he’s not.”

Meanwhile, another high-scoring guard, Bradley Beal, remains uncertain about his status for Orlando, as Youngmisuk writes in a separate story. Beal’s teammate Davis Bertans has already pulled out due to injury concerns ahead of his upcoming free agency. Beal’s backcourt mate and fellow All-Star John Wall won’t be in attendance either, as he continues to focus on his Achilles rehab and a 2020/21 return.

According to Youngmisuk, Beal is considering health factors too as he weighs his options.

“I have yet to make (my decision),” Beal told reporters on Wednesday. “I am still working my tail off every single day as if I am playing. It is more or less a decision that will come down to the medical staff and coming back from zero to 100, and then I have some nagging stuff from the end of the year that we are trying to clean up, too. We are looking at it from all angles. I am definitely working out every single day here. It is good to be back in the facility. … I am not swayed one way or another.”

Here’s more on certain players’ participation decisions:

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Restart Notes: Older Coaches, Roberts, Power Rankings, Disney Employees

July 1st, 2020 at 1:01pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The league won’t prevent older coaches and staff members from working at the Orlando campus, Tim MacMahon of ESPN tweets. “We’ve been assured by the league that no one will be red-flagged by the league from going to Orlando based on age alone,” according to Mavericks coach and NBA Coaches Association president Rick Carlisle. All coaches and staffers will go through a medical screening process, MacMahon adds.

We have more news related to the NBA’s restart:

  • National Basketball Players Association executive director Michele Roberts is unconcerned about losing some fans due to the players’ desire to make social justice messages during the resumption of play, she told The Athletic’s Michael Lee. Among other things, the league will paint “Black Lives Matter” on the Orlando courts. “Anybody that says, ‘I’m done with the NBA,’ see ya,” she said. “I can’t even abide someone that says that because we are saying killing Black people is something we need to talk about. If they don’t want to hear that, I don’t really think they have a place in our game.”
  • After perusing each team’s eight “seeding” games prior to the playoffs, The Athletic’s Zach Harper places the Bucks and Lakers in the top two spots in his latest Power Rankings. Harper previously had the Lakers on top. The Clippers and Raptors remained in the third and fourth spots, respectively, with the Heat moving up two notches to No. 5.
  • While NBA teams will be subject to rigorous testing, Disney World employees won’t have similar restrictions, Rich Greenfield of LightShed tweets. There will be no COVID-19 testing of employees at Disney parks before they return to work next week. Instead, they will only be administered temperature checks.
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Clippers Sign Joakim Noah

June 28th, 2020 at 3:35pm CST by Luke Adams

JUNE 28 (3:35pm): The Clippers have officially signed Noah to his contract, the team announced in a press release on Sunday.

JUNE 28 (9:00am): Noah’s new deal covers the rest of the season and is non-guaranteed for 2020/21, tweets Jovah Buha of The Athletic.

JUNE 20: The Clippers intend to sign veteran center Joakim Noah to a rest-of-season contract once the NBA opens its transaction window next week, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (via Twitter).

Noah had been just three days into a 10-day deal with the Clippers when the NBA suspended its season on March 11. However, active 10-day contracts, including Noah’s, will expire on June 23, per Charania. All other active 10-day deals belonged to players on teams that won’t be participating in the league’s resumed season this summer.

News that the Clippers plan to retain Noah doesn’t come as a major surprise. When he first signed with the club in March, the agreement was reported as an opportunity for a 10-day audition that was expected to be followed by a rest-of-season commitment. More recently, Noah spoke as if he would be part of Los Angeles’ roster when play resumed.

A former Defensive Player of the Year, Noah appeared in 42 games for the Grizzlies during the 2018/19 season, averaging 7.1 PPG, 5.7 RPG, and 2.1 APG in 16.5 minutes per contest. The big man reportedly had a workout lined up with the Clippers last September, but was forced to cancel it after suffering an injury. He sat out most of the ’19/20 campaign, eventually joining the Clips once he got healthy.

Once the Clippers officially re-sign Noah, they’ll have a full roster, with 15 players on standard contracts and two on two-way deals. In order to make any additional changes, they’ll likely have to waive someone, though they’d also be eligible to sign a substitute player if one of their current players chose not to participate in the restart.

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Pelicans-Jazz Begins NBA Restart On July 30

June 26th, 2020 at 6:33pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Pelicans and rookie star Zion Williamson will face the Jazz on July 30 at 6:30 p.m. ET in the first game of the NBA’s restart, the league announced on Friday.

There will be 88 “seeding” games from July 30 to August 14 prior to the postseason.

The Clippers will square off against the Lakers in the second game on July 30 at 9 p.m. ET. The first two games will be broadcast by TNT.

It will get very busy the next day with six games scheduled, highlighted by Celtics vs. Bucks and Rockets vs. Mavericks. There will be a maximum of seven games per day, with start times ranging from 12-9 p.m.

At the conclusion of the seeding games, the seven teams in each conference with the highest combined winning percentages across regular-season games and seeding games will be the first through seventh seeds for the conference playoffs.  If the team with the eighth-best combined winning percentage (regular-season games and seeding games) in a conference is more than four games ahead of the team with the ninth-best combined winning percentage in the same conference, then the team with the eighth-best winning percentage would be the No. 8 seed.

If the team with the eighth-best combined winning percentage in a conference is four games or fewer ahead of the team with the ninth-best combined winning percentage in the same conference, then those two teams would compete in a play-in tournament to determine the No. 8 playoff seed in the conference.  The play-in tournament will be double elimination for the eighth-place team and single elimination for the ninth-place team.

Much of the intrigue regarding the seeding games concerns the final Western Conference spot. The Grizzlies, currently eighth, hold a 3 1/2-game lead over the Trail Blazers, Pelicans and Kings, a four-game lead over the Spurs and a six-game advantage on the Suns.

Memphis will face the Blazers, Spurs, Pelicans, Jazz, Thunder, Raptors, Celtics and Bucks during the seeding round. Among the Grizzlies’ pursuers, the Pelicans appear to have the weakest schedule. After opening against the Jazz, they’ll face the Clippers, Grizzlies, Kings (twice), Wizards, Spurs and Magic.

The Nets and Magic need only to hold off the Wizards in the East to claim the final two spots in their conference. Washington trails Brooklyn by six games and Orlando by 5 1/2 games.

The breakdown of each team’s seeding schedule can be found here. The day-by-day schedule and national TV schedule can be found here.

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Amick’s Latest: Restart Concerns, Guests In Orlando, More

June 24th, 2020 at 2:40pm CST by Luke Adams

The Clippers have been the most vocal of the teams pushing the NBA to allow family and friends to be allowed in the Orlando bubble earlier in the summer, according to Sam Amick of The Athletic. Currently, the league doesn’t plan to allow any guests to join players until after the first round of the postseason. Amick says the Clippers hope that rule will be tweaked to allow a player to bring in at least one guest at the start of the playoffs.

“They’re fighting for that,” a rival general manager told Amick.

According to Amick, some GMs and others around the league have wondered if the NBA would consider reducing the number of teams invited to Orlando from 22 to 16. Doing so would provide more room for family members or friends to join players sooner, and would mitigate concerns about long-shot playoff contenders like the Wizards and Suns possibly treating seeding games like a de facto Summer League. However, it’s not under consideration at the moment, says Amick.

As Amick writes, players aren’t the only ones who have expressed disappointment about the limitations on family members and friends being allowed at the Orlando campus. A source tells The Athletic that Celtics head coach Brad Stevens has pushed the NBA to reconsider its ruling that families of staff members won’t be allowed at Disney at all.

Here’s more from Amick’s latest piece for The Athletic:

  • A number of general managers who spoke to Amick praised the work the NBA has done to ensure a safe environment at Walt Disney World, suggesting that players and staffers will be better off at the Orlando campus than in teams’ home markets. “I think the precautions the NBA is taking to enhance the safety of the bubble participants are nothing short of extraordinary,” one GM said. “… Once (everyone is) on campus, I think (people within the league) will appreciate the NBA’s work on this.”
  • Not every GM is fully on board with the plan, however, with some expressing reservations to Amick. Asked how he felt about the experience to come, one offered the following assessment: “Uncomfortable — how can anyone not be? A lot of uncertainty. I know all the proper measures are being taken but (there) is still a lot (of) unknown. You know and I know why we are playing — for the money. If not that, do you really think we would be playing? I get it, and I’m in…but with hesitation.”
  • The fact that Walt Disney World staffers will be traveling in and out of the campus environment is a major point of concern for a number of general managers who spoke to Amick. “It is, by definition, no longer a bubble, and so even the illusion of a safer environment is gone,” one said. “With each case that rises in Orlando, the smart players with families are like, ‘Why the f— are we going there again?” another said.
  • There’s a sense that the NBA has to try to make it work because the league would risk creating major financial problems for the league for years to come if this season can’t be completed, writes Amick. “The financial stuff that’s coming in is so heavy, and I think everybody has to share in that responsibility,” one GM told The Athletic. “If you don’t at least try and see how this goes … the NBA could be impacted easily in the next five to 10 years in a way that it’d be very similar to what your industry is going through as well. There’s just going to be mass layoffs, and it could really change.”
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