- Before he signed with the Nuggets as a free agent in November, Isaiah Hartenstein drew interest from the Trail Blazers, Cavaliers, Pelicans, and Wizards, league sources tell Singer in a separate Denver Post story.
- Pelicans star Brandon Ingram continued to build on his impressive campaign last game, ESPN’s Andrew Lopez writes. Ingram has been the team’s leading scorer in four of six games so far, and had a season-best 31 points on Saturday. “Brandon has been playing great overall,” teammate Zion Williamson said of Ingram, who recently was named the Western Conference Player of the Week. “He always steps up for us. When we need him, he’s there for us.”
- Pelicans big man Wenyen Gabriel (right knee/quadriceps tendinosis) recently participated in some three-on-three work and hopes to play in Monday’s game against Indiana, according to Andrew Lopez of ESPN (Twitter link). The team is currently listing his status as questionable.
- It was fake crowd noise because no fans are allowed in the arena, but the Thunder made sure Pelicans center Steven Adams received a loud ovation in his return to Oklahoma City Thursday night, according to NOLA.com. Adams spent seven years in OKC before being traded to New Orleans during the offseason.
With the starting Pelicans backcourt tandem of Eric Bledsoe and Lonzo Ball struggling to score, William Guillory of The Athletic suggests that swapping in sharpshooter J.J. Redick for Bledsoe could help unlock the club’s offense.
- As they incorporate new additions Steven Adams and Eric Bledsoe, the Pelicans are working on improving their chemistry – especially on offense – following a condensed offseason, writes Christian Clark of NOLA.com. “It’s different from every other year because of the time,” Adams said. “Still man, it’s not impossible. Chemistry is just a weird thing. You can’t really rush it.”
- The Pelicans are just two games into their season and depth already looks like an issue, observes Christian Clark of NOLA.com. New coach Stan Van Gundy used his top seven players for 227 of the 240 minutes in Friday’s loss to Miami. “I haven’t given anybody a chance,” he admitted after the game. “That’s on me.”
When the 2019/20 NBA season ended in October, it didn’t seem likely that we’d see another NBA game played until some time in the new year, perhaps even as late as February or March. But the league accelerated its plans for the 2020/21 regular season in the fall, ensuring that an annual tradition was preserved: the five-game Christmas Day slate.
Today’s schedule is as follows:
- New Orleans Pelicans at Miami Heat (11:00am central time)
- Golden State Warriors at Milwaukee Bucks (1:30pm CT)
- Brooklyn Nets at Boston Celtics (4:00pm CT)
- Dallas Mavericks at Los Angeles Lakers (7:00pm CT)
- Los Angeles Clippers at Denver Nuggets (9:30pm CT)
A couple of these matchups look even more tantalizing today than they did a week ago. The Pelicans, for instance, looked awfully impressive in their opening-night game against Toronto on Wednesday and will be going up against the defending Eastern champion Heat, who are hungry for their first win of the season.
A Stephen Curry/Giannis Antetokounmpo showdown between the Warriors and Bucks will be followed by a matchup of two potential Eastern Conference contenders who looked great on opening night, the Nets and Celtics.
Luka Doncic and the Mavericks and LeBron James, Anthony Davis and the Lakers will all be looking for their first win of the season in the evening.
And the night is capped off with a rematch of last year’s Western Conference Semifinals, with Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, and the Clippers visiting Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, and the Nuggets.
Which game are you most looking forward to watch today? Which five teams are you picking to win the Christmas Day games? Use the comment section below to weigh in with your thoughts and make your predictions!
Seventeen teams have indicated that they plan to participate in the NBA G League bubble, according to Jonathan Givony of ESPN, who notes that the G League Ignite select team will be the 18th squad.
While we don’t yet have a full, official list of the teams participating in the G League bubble, Ridiculous Upside has done a good job passing along reports (including some of ours) and providing new details on which clubs are in and out. Their list includes 13 teams believed to be in, not counting the Ignite, as follows:
- Agua Caliente Clippers of Ontario (Clippers)
- Austin Spurs (Spurs)
- Canton Charge (Cavaliers)
- Delaware Blue Coats (Sixers)
- Fort Wayne Mad Ants (Pacers)
- Lakeland Magic (Magic)
- Long Island Nets (Nets)
- Memphis Hustle (Grizzlies)
- Oklahoma City Blue (Thunder)
- Raptors 905 (Raptors)
- Salt Lake City Stars (Jazz)
- Santa Cruz Warriors (Warriors)
- Westchester Knicks (Knicks)
G League expert Adam Johnson says the Greensboro Swarm (Hornets), Iowa Wolves (Timberwolves), and Erie BayHawks (Pelicans) are also expected to take part (Twitter link).
The G League reportedly asked for teams to volunteer to opt out, since bringing 29 franchises to the bubble wouldn’t have been logistically possible, so the clubs passing on the bubble aren’t necessarily doing so because they’re not interested in participating.
Teams opting out of the bubble who signed players to Exhibit 10 contracts before the season will be given the option to loan or “flex” those players to another G League team for the bubble and will be responsible for paying all expenses for those players, Givony explains.
The Wizards, for example, aren’t expected to have the Capital City Go-Go play in the bubble, but will likely use the Pelicans’ affiliate – the BayHawks – as their temporary affiliate for their former Exhibit 10 players, such as Caleb Homesley, Marlon Taylor, and Yoeli Childs, tweets Fred Katz of The Athletic.
A G League draft would take place in January, according to Givony, who reports that players whose returning rights are held by non-bubble teams would temporarily be dispersed to other clubs in that draft. If non-bubble teams don’t want to “flex” their former Exhibit 10 players to G League teams participating in the bubble, those players will also enter the draft pool, says Givony.
Stefan Bondy of The New York Daily News reported earlier this week that the tentative start date for the G League season is February 8. Adam Zagoria of Forbes (Twitter link) shares a more detailed breakdown of the proposed timeline, which would see G League players and staffers begin an “at-home” quarantine period on January 13.
Givony confirms that teams participating in the bubble still expect to play a minimum of 12 games apiece (not including the playoffs), as was reported in November.
Finally, Givony reports that the G League is making adjustments to its roster rules to make it easier for NBA teams to recruit and sign veterans with five or more years of NBA experience. Each team will be able to designate an “NBA Vet Selection” who fits that bill, and won’t have to navigate the NBAGL’s complicated waiver process to add that player, per Givony.
As Johnson tweets, the rule will be a one-off for this season and will allow – for instance – the Warriors to add Jeremy Lin to their Santa Cruz affiliate, like they wanted to.
Now that the regular season is underway, no NBA team is carrying more than 17 players in total — 15 on standard contracts and two on two-way deals. However, not every team is making use of all 17 roster spots available to them.
Currently, 12 of the league’s 30 teams have at least one open roster spot, either on their regular roster or in their two-way slots.
Those dozen teams have different reasons for not carrying a 15th man on their standard roster. For some clubs, the decision is likely financially motivated, since an open roster spot means not having to pay an extra player.
Some teams may want to maintain the roster flexibility that an open roster provides — it can allow a club to act quickly and decisively in the event of an injury or a two-for-one trade opportunity.
A handful of teams actually can’t add a 15th man at this point, since they’re too close to their hard cap and won’t be able to fit another minimum-salary contract below that hard cap until later in the season.
With the G League season not yet underway, a healthy team may simply decide there’s no point in filling the 15th spot with a developmental player who won’t see any game action. That may also be the reason why some teams haven’t yet filled both their two-way contract slots.
Listed below, with the help of our roster counts breakdown, are the teams that aren’t carrying full rosters.
Teams with an open 15-man roster spot:
- Charlotte Hornets
- Houston Rockets *
- Los Angeles Clippers *
- Los Angeles Lakers *
- Milwaukee Bucks *
- Minnesota Timberwolves
- New Orleans Pelicans
- Portland Trail Blazers
- San Antonio Spurs
- Utah Jazz
Note: An asterisk (*) denotes that the team can’t currently sign a 15th man due to the hard cap.
Teams with an open two-way slot:
- Detroit Pistons
- Phoenix Suns
- Portland Trail Blazers
Though new Pelicans starting point guard Eric Bledsoe faces a tall task in replacing fan favorite guard Jrue Holiday, he still will prove a dependable starter for a New Orleans team with a good chance to at least qualify for a play-in game, as William Guillory of the Athletic details.
“The same role (Holiday) had here, I’m kind of in. But at the same time, I’ve still got to play my game,” Bledsoe said. “(My role is) defense, helping guys get better … trying to be a leader and going out there to help them win games.”
Guillory expects Bledsoe, a two-time All-Defensive Team selection who relies on a killer first step to score, to help lead a supercharged backcourt alongside Lonzo Ball. That tandem scored a combined 34 points on a 10-of-21 shooting from the floor tonight in a 113-99 defeat of the Raptors.
There’s more out of the Southwest Division:
- Ahead of the Spurs‘ 2020/21 season, John Hollinger of the Athletic previewed the club’s outlook. Hollinger notes that 30-something veterans LaMarcus Aldridge, DeMar DeRozan, Patty Mills and Rudy Gay could control the ball for extended stretches of possessions, though the advanced age and short-term contracts of most of those players are increasingly at odds with the timeline for the team’s younger prospects.
- Rockets big man Bruno Caboclo agreed to push back the deadline for his 2020/21 salary to become fully guaranteed to February 27, 2021 (the league-wide deadline), according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks (via Twitter). It had previously been scheduled to become guaranteed today.
- Now on his third team in three seasons, new Mavericks swingman Josh Richardson will be expected to guard the opposing team’s toughest perimeter players, according to Callie Caplan of the Dallas Morning News. Richardson has the length and speed to convincingly defend several positions.