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Southeast Notes: Magic, Crowder, Silva, Beal

August 30th, 2020 at 12:04pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Magic consider their time at the Disney World complex to be a learning experience as they point toward next season, writes Josh Robbins of The Athletic. The loss of Al-Farouq Aminu, Mohamed Bamba, Aaron Gordon, Jonathan Isaac and Michael Carter-Williams took away any chance for Orlando to be competitive with the top-seeded Bucks in the playoffs.

“If you go back to, say, our first day of training camp, I envisioned us being a much different team, obviously, than the team that I was speaking with in there,” coach Steve Clifford said after the Magic were eliminated Saturday. “To start the year, we envisioned being a size team that could be great defensively, playing Aaron and Jonathan and then Farouq as obviously a major part of our team. And none of those guys were in there today. It happens in this league, but we did have more than our fair share of bad luck this year with injuries, and not only in the bubble.”

The toughest loss was a torn ACL for Isaac, who was attempting a comeback from a knee injury that had sidelined him since January 1. Two days later, Carter-Williams suffered a strained tendon in his left foot, and then Gordon strained his left hamstring the next day.

“Milwaukee, they’re a championship-caliber team, and we hung in there because we had the right approach,” Clifford said. “We gave ourselves chances in every game but Game 3. It says a lot about the character of the guys in the locker room.”

There’s more from the Southeast Division:

Jae Crowder has been a valuable addition for the Heat, but management will be cautious about making a long-term investment, contends Ira Winderman of The Sun-Sentinel. Miami may be planning to maximize cap room for a star-filled free agency market in 2021, and the front office learned from overvaluing players such as Tyler Johnson, James Johnson and Dion Waiters. Winderman believes Crowder might have to accept a large one-year contract if he wants to remain in Miami.
Heat forward Chris Silva has a stress fracture in his left pubic bone and there’s no timetable for his return, the team announced in an email. Silva, who started the season on a two-way contract, appeared in 44 games but didn’t play in the first-round series against Indiana.
Tom Haberstroh of NBC Sports believes the Warriors have the trade assets to make a serious offer for Wizards guard Bradley Beal, but Washington may not be ready to rebuild before seeing what Beal and a healthy John Wall can do next season.

Frustration Led To Gordon's Departure

August 28th, 2020 at 8:06pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Frustration over his hamstring injury led Magic forward Aaron Gordon to leave the Orlando campus, Josh Robbins of The Athletic tweets. “He’s so frustrated because there were days when he felt good and looked like he might be close to playing, and (then) he can’t run, can’t sprint,” coach Steve Clifford said. “And every time he tried to amp it up and do more, he was just never all that close.”

NBA Announces Updated Playoff Schedule

August 28th, 2020 at 3:47pm CST by Luke Adams

After postseason contests on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were postponed due to player protests, the NBA has announced its new playoff schedule for the weekend. That schedule is as follows:

Saturday, August 29

Bucks vs. Magic, Game 5 — 3:30pm ET
Rockets vs. Thunder, Game 5 — 6:30pm ET
Lakers vs. Trail Blazers, Game 5 — 9:00pm ET

Sunday, August 30

Raptors vs. Celtics, Game 1 (round two) — 1:00pm ET
Clippers vs. Mavericks, Game 6 — 3:30pm ET
Jazz vs. Nuggets, Game 6 — 8:30pm ET

While no games have been scheduled beyond Sunday, it’s probably safe to assume the NBA will resume its every-other-day format for each series. As such, the Rockets and Thunder would presumably play Game 6 on Monday. The Lakers/Trail Blazers and Bucks/Magic would do so as well if those series continue — L.A. and Milwaukee currently hold 3-1 leads.

For more details on the resumption of the season and the initiatives that the NBA and NBPA agreed upon as part of the restart, be sure to check out our earlier story.

NBA, NBPA Confirm Agreement To Resume Playoffs

August 28th, 2020 at 11:42am CST by Luke Adams

The NBA and National Basketball Players Association have issued a joint statement confirming that the postseason will resume on Saturday, August 29 and outlining the social justice and voting initiatives that have been agreed upon as part of the restart.

The full slate of games for Saturday and Sunday can be found right here.

As part of the agreement to resume the playoffs, the NBA and its players will immediately establish a “social justice coalition,” which will focus on issues such as “increasing access to voting, promoting civic engagement, and advocating for meaningful police and criminal justice reform.” Players, coaches, and team owners will all be part of that coalition.

Additionally, in each city where the NBA team owns its arena, owners will work with local officials to convert those buildings into voting locations for the 2020 election. A number of clubs have started doing this already, with the Rockets and Jazz among the latest to confirm their plans.

The Heat pushed for this initiative, according to Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press, who tweets that the club has been “trying for months” to get local officials to make AmericanAirlines Arena a voting center.

The NBA also plans to work with players and the league’s broadcast partners to create more advertisements that promote “greater civic engagement in national and local elections” and raise awareness about voter access — they’ll be aired during the remaining 2020 playoff games.

Following the players’ decision not to play Wednesday’s games as scheduled, they met multiple times on Wednesday and Thursday and ultimately decided they wanted to complete the season. They held a call with team owners on Thursday evening to discuss next steps and came away satisfied with how their concerns were addressed — presumably, the initiatives detailed above were all discussed during that call.

NBA Postseason Expected To Resume On Saturday

August 28th, 2020 at 6:41am CST by Luke Adams

AUGUST 28, 6:41am: Reports from Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle and Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press, among others, continue to point to Saturday as the day when the NBA’s postseason is on track to resume. We’re still waiting for official word from the league and the NBPA, but it appears increasingly unlikely that Friday’s games will be played as scheduled.

AUGUST 27, 1:28pm: NBA spokesperson Mike Bass has issued a statement confirming that Thursday’s games have been postponed and indicating that the league is hopeful to resume play either Friday or Saturday.

As reported by Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link) and confirmed by Bass, a meeting will take place today at 5:00pm eastern time to discuss the resumption.

Two players from each remaining playoff team, the owners of those 13 teams, commissioner Adam Silver, NBPA executive director Michele Roberts, and Hornets owner Michael Jordan (chair of the labor relations committee) will take part in that meeting, per Goodwill.

AUGUST 27, 1:07pm: The NBA playoffs are expected to resume on Saturday, according to Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer (Twitter link).

Following Wednesday’s boycotts, NBA players decided today that they would resume the season. However, Thursday’s games are being postponed and it sounds like Friday’s will be as well.

According to Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe (Twitter link), the Celtics/Raptors second-round series that had been scheduled to begin on Thursday is now expected to tip off on Sunday. Tania Ganguli of The Los Angeles Times notes (via Twitter) that nothing is official yet, but says it sounds like the Lakers and Trail Blazers will play Game 5 of their first-round series on Saturday.

While no other dates have been confirmed so far, it seems safe to assume that the games originally scheduled for Wednesday would take place on Saturday, with Thursday’s contests being rescheduled to Sunday.

That would mean that Game 5 in two other playoff series – Bucks/Magic and Rockets/Thunder – would take place on Saturday, with the Jazz/Nuggets and Clippers/Mavericks playing Game 6 of their respective series on Sunday.

With meetings between players and team owners scheduled to take place later today, we’ll have to wait for official word from the NBA before locking anything in.

Aaron Gordon Leaves NBA’s Campus

August 27th, 2020 at 4:27pm CST by Luke Adams

Magic forward Aaron Gordon has left the NBA’s Walt Disney World campus, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). Charania explains that Gordon left the bubble due to his left hamstring injury and the “events of (the) past few days.”

Gordon, who suffered a hamstring strain on August 5 vs. Toronto, missed Orlando’s last four seeding games and had yet to play in the postseason. Despite some optimism that he was getting close to returning, the veteran forward was still unable to sprint up and down the court, head coach Steve Clifford said this week. Clifford also told reporters that the team didn’t want to risk Gordon suffering a more serious injury.

With playoff games expected to resume on Friday or Saturday, the Magic’s season could be over by the end of the weekend — Orlando currently trails the Bucks by a 3-1 margin in their first-round series.

Gordon will enter next season with two years left on his contract, having averaged 14.4 PPG, 7.7 RPG, and 3.7 APG in 62 games (32.5 MPG) in 2019/20. He was considered a potential trade candidate before Jonathan Isaac suffered a torn ACL this summer. With Isaac’s availability for the 2020/21 season up in the air, it’s possible Orlando will be more inclined to hang onto Gordon.

Players Decide To Resume Playoffs; Thursday’s Games To Be Postponed

August 27th, 2020 at 11:01am CST by Luke Adams

The three NBA playoff games scheduled to take place on Thursday will be postponed, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter links). However, players have decided to resume the postseason and discussions are underway about when that will happen, Wojnarowski reports.

Games appear likely to resume as soon as Friday, per Shams Charania of The Athletic and Jeff Goodman of Stadium (Twitter links).

[UPDATE: NBA Hopes To Resume Postseason By Saturday]

According to Charania (Twitter link), NBA players who met today want to find “new and improved ways” to make social justice statements as they prepare to restart play.

Another meeting will take place today on the Orlando campus at 4:00 pm eastern time, with two players from each team participating, per Goodman and Tim MacMahon of ESPN (Twitter links). The goal of that meeting will be to formulate a specific action plan to address racial injustice issues and to work out the logistics of restarting play, a source tells MacMahon (Twitter link).

A meeting of NBA owners and players is also set up for later today, Wojnarowski and Marc Spears of ESPN report (via Twitter). It sounds like that will be a separate meeting, though it figures to focus on similar issues.

“The bubble is about more than just crowning a champion,” one veteran player told Spears (Twitter link). “More so now than ever. It felt like the message was fading. Hopeful this can create a new level of activism and commitment from our owners, (the) league, (and) teams towards real change.”

After the Bucks decided not to play Game 5 of their first-round series against the Magic on Wednesday to protest social and racial injustices, the Rockets, Thunder, Lakers, and Trail Blazers followed suit, and the NBA postponed those games.

Today’s contests between the Nuggets and Jazz, Celtics and Raptors, and Mavericks and Clippers will also need to be rescheduled. Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press (Twitter link) hears that one “common-sense” scenario being considered is to simply push each game back by two days, from Wednesday to Friday and Thursday to Saturday.

Following Wednesday’s boycott, players gathered last night to discuss next steps and that meeting reportedly got “emotional.” Players from the Lakers and Clippers voted in favor of ending the season, while other teams voted to continue playing and some players – including CJ McCollum – cautioned against giving up the platform afforded by the NBA’s bubble.

After further discussions both last night and this morning, LeBron James and other prominent players changed their positions, agreeing that it’s in players’ best interest to finish the season, tweets Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports.

Sources tell Charania that players today discussed the sacrifices they’ve made to reach this point of the 2019/20 season, as well as the sense of normalcy that will be gained when family members are allowed to enter the Orlando campus next week (Twitter link). Everyone was ultimately in agreement on restarting the season, one player told Goodman (Twitter link).

Bucks Co-Owners, Players Issue Statements

August 26th, 2020 at 6:35pm CST by Luke Adams

Bucks co-owners Marc Lasry, Wes Edens, and Jamie Dinan have put out a statement in response to their players’ decision not to play Game 5 of their first-round series against Orlando on Wednesday. Within the statement, the Bucks co-owners said they “fully support” the players’ decision.

“Although we did not know beforehand, we would have wholeheartedly agreed with them,” Lasry, Edens, and Dinan said. “The only way to bring about change is to shine a light on the racial injustices that are happening in front of us. Our players have done that and we will continue to stand alongside them and demand accountability and change.”

In addition to the Bucks, ownership groups of other teams that were scheduled to play have put out statements of their own. The Magic‘s team owners said they “stand united” with the Bucks and the rest of the league in “condemning bigotry, racial injustices, and the unwarranted use of violence by police against people of color.” Lakers owner Jeanie Buss said she stands behind the players “today and always” (Twitter link).

All of today’s games were ultimately postponed, but it was the Bucks’ decision to boycott that created a domino effect. The Bucks’ efforts to raise awareness and enact change resulted in the team getting on a conference call with Wisconsin attorney general Josh Kaul and lieutenant governor Mandela Barnes this evening, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link).

Milwaukee players also appeared outside their locker room tonight, where Sterling Brown and George Hill read a prepared statement to media members. Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link) provided video of that statement.

“We are calling for justice for Jacob Blake and demand the officers be held accountable,” Hill said. “For this to occur, it is imperative for the Wisconsin State Legislature to reconvene after months of inaction and take up meaningful measures to address issues of police accountability, brutality, and criminal justice reform.”

Players at the Orlando campus are expected to meet within the next hour to discuss potential next steps. According to Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer (Twitter link), coaches in the bubble have also been invited to attend that meeting. NBPA executive director Michele Roberts will also be in attendance, tweets John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7.

NBA Says Wednesday’s Games Will Be Rescheduled; Players To Discuss Next Steps

August 26th, 2020 at 4:23pm CST by Luke Adams

The NBA has announced in a press release that all three Game Fives scheduled to take place on Wednesday have been postponed and will be rescheduled.

Bucks players led a boycott of this afternoon’s game against the Magic, with the Thunder, Rockets, Trail Blazers, and Lakers quickly deciding to follow suit. The protests stem from a desire to raise awareness of social and racial injustices and enact change, and come in response to the recent police shooting of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (via Twitter), the NBA, team owners, and front offices didn’t see today’s wave of player boycotts coming — as a few hours ago, they expected all of today’s games to take place.

NBA players have called a meeting for Wednesday night in Orlando to discuss and determine potential next steps, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).

As Chris Mannix of SI.com notes (via Twitter), some teams – including the Raptors – have discussed the possibility of leaving the bubble altogether. Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe (Twitter link) hears that the Raptors and Celtics are leaning toward not playing Game 1 of their second-round series on Thursday.

Bucks Players Boycotting Game 5 Vs. Orlando

August 26th, 2020 at 3:46pm CST by Luke Adams

3:46pm: Bucks players are in their locker room attempting to contact Josh Kaul, the attorney general of Wisconsin, reports Charania (via Twitter). According to Charania, the Magic are refusing to accept the Bucks’ forfeit of today’s game.

“Some things are bigger than basketball,” Alex Lasry, the Bucks’ senior vice president and son of team owner Marc Lasry, said in a statement (via Twitter). “The stand taken today by the players and org shows that we’re fed up. Enough is enough. Change needs to happen. I’m incredibly proud of our guys and we stand 100% behind our players ready to assist and bring about real change.”

3:21pm: Bucks players have decided to boycott Game 5 of their first-round series against the Magic this afternoon in protest of the recent police shooting of Jacob Blake, according to reports from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter links).

As the Magic took the court for pregame warmups this afternoon, the Bucks remained in their locker room, prompting Orlando players and the game’s referees to eventually leave the floor. Charania and Wojnarowski reported that the Bucks were seriously considering a boycott as league and team officials gathered outside the team’s locker room.

The shooting of Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, took place in Kenosha, Wisconsin, which is less than 50 miles south of Milwaukee.

The Bucks met before practice on Tuesday to discuss the incident and other social and racial justice issues, as Matt Velazquez of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel details. Multiple players expressed reservations about being in the NBA’s Disney World bubble with more important things going on, with George Hill suggesting that players should never have gone to Orlando to restart the season.

“I think it was said by multiple people there’s nothing more important than getting social justice and getting the wrongs that are happening in our country right and creating real and lasting change,” head coach Mike Budenholzer said of the meeting. “There’s literally nothing more important.”

It’s also worth noting that Bucks swingman Sterling Brown has first-hand experience with police brutality and racial profiling, having been tased and arrested by Milwaukee police officers over a parking violation in 2018. He has an ongoing lawsuit against the city, alleging that the officers used excessive force and targeted him because he is Black.

Earlier reports had indicated that NBA players – particularly members of the Celtics and Raptors – were mulling the possibility of boycotting games. Now that the Bucks have done so, it’s unclear what sort of domino effect the decision might have or how exactly the league will handle it.

As Bobby Marks of ESPN notes (via Twitter) the NBA’s Operations Manual includes “failure to appear” language that would subject a team to a forfeit and a fine of up to $5MM. However, that doesn’t mean those penalties will be applied in this situation — especially if this isn’t the last game to be boycotted.