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COVID-19 Updates: Suns, Blazers, Rockets, Wolves, More

December 26th, 2021 at 9:20pm CST by Luke Adams

Here are the latest health and safety protocols updates from around the NBA:

Entering the protocols:

Jae Crowder and Elfrid Payton have become the first two Suns players to enter the COVID-19 protocols, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).
The Trail Blazers‘ outbreak continues to grow, with Jusuf Nurkic and Cody Zeller among the players now in the protocols, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). Seven Portland players have been placed in the protocols since Friday.
Rockets guard Garrison Mathews became the second Houston guard to enter the protocols today, joining teammate D.J. Augustin, per Tim MacMahon of ESPN (Twitter link).
Timberwolves big man Naz Reid is now in the health and safety protocols, bringing Minnesota’s list of affected players up to eight, tweets Chris Hine of The Star Tribune.
The Thunder announced today that they’ve placed rookie guard Tre Mann in the protocols. Oklahoma City now has two players affected — Mann and Darius Bazley.

Exiting the protocols:

Point guard De’Aaron Fox returned to action on Sunday when the Kings hosted Memphis. Fox had been in the health and safety protocols since December 16.
A pair of Timberwolves – Patrick Beverley and Josh Okogie – are no longer in the health and safety protocols, tweets Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News. They’re both listed as questionable for Monday’s game vs. Boston.
Clippers forward Marcus Morris has cleared the health and safety protocols, though he remained inactive on Sunday as he goes through a reconditioning period, tweets Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN.
Cavaliers wing RJ Nembhard was no longer listed on the team’s injury report on Sunday and played vs. Toronto, so he’s out of the protocols. Isaac Okoro has exited the protocols too, though he’s still working his way back, according to head coach J.B. Bickerstaff (Twitter link via Kelsey Russo of The Athletic).

Blazers Sign Jarron Cumberland, Brandon Williams To 10-Day Contracts

December 26th, 2021 at 7:31pm CST by Luke Adams

DECEMBER 26: The Trail Blazers have officially signed Cumberland and Williams to 10-day deals, the team announced today in a press release. Those contracts will run through January 4.

DECEMBER 25: The Trail Blazers, having already agreed to terms with Cameron McGriff, will sign two more players using hardship exceptions, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter links), who reports that guards Jarron Cumberland and Brandon Williams are signing 10-day contracts with the club.

Cumberland, 24, went undrafted out of Cincinnati in 2020 after earning AAC Player of the Year honors in 2019. The 6’5″ shooting guard played for the Raptors 905 and Rio Grande Valley Vipers in the G League as a rookie and joined the Delaware Blue Coats for the 2021/22 season. In 13 NBAGL games (21.1 MPG) this season, he has averaged 9.4 PPG, 3.7 RPG, and 2.8 APG on .432/.341/.857 shooting.

A former Arizona Wildcat, Williams had been playing for the Westchester Knicks this season. While his averages of 17.7 PPG, 4.5 APG, and 1.9 SPG through 10 games (30.1 MPG) are impressive, he has struggled with his efficiency, making just 36.4% of his field goal attempts, including 28.3% of his threes.

Portland didn’t have any players in the health and safety protocols entering the day on Friday, but has since placed five players in the protocols and lined up three deals with replacement players.

The Blazers’ next game is on Monday, so the team has a couple days to get its roster in order and finalize its signings. Hopefully no more Portland players have to be placed in the protocols before then.

Trail Blazers Sign Cameron McGriff To 10-Day Deal

December 26th, 2021 at 7:30pm CST by Luke Adams

DECEMBER 26: The Blazers have officially signed McGriff, according to a press release from the team.

DECEMBER 25: The Trail Blazers intend to sign forward Cameron McGriff to a 10-day contract via a hardship exception, agent Keith Kreiter tells Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). McGriff is being called up from the Greensboro Swarm, Charlotte’s G League affiliate.

McGriff, 24, went undrafted out of Oklahoma State in 2020 and played for Belgium’s Okapi Aalstar last season, putting up 13.5 PPG and 5.0 RPG. With the Hornets’ NBAGL team this season, he has averaged 10.2 PPG and 4.9 RPG on .455/.364/.846 shooting in 14 games (22.4 MPG).

The Blazers had avoided this month’s league-wide COVID-19 outbreak up until Friday, when they placed two players – Dennis Smith Jr. and Trendon Watford – in the health and safety protocols.

With Smith and Watford in the protocols, Portland is eligible to sign two replacement players. As a two-way player, Watford must be replaced by someone with no more than three years of NBA experience, so McGriff fits that bill. If the Blazers want to sign a replacement for Smith, any free agent would be eligible.

D’Angelo Russell, Three Blazers Enter Protocols

December 25th, 2021 at 11:04am CST by Luke Adams

Timberwolves guard D’Angelo Russell has joined the growing list of Minnesota players in the health and safety protocols, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link).

The Timberwolves now have eight players affected, including stars Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards. They’ve already signed a pair of replacement players – Chris Silva and Rayjon Tucker – using hardship exceptions, but will likely make at least one more roster addition before their next game on Monday.

Here are more COVID-19 protocol updates from around the NBA:

Three Trail Blazers players – Robert Covington, Ben McLemore, and Keljin Blevins – have entered the health and safety protocols, per Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). That brings Portland’s total count to five affected players, all of whom have been placed in the protocols in the last two days.
Kevin Knox has exited the protocols, but Jericho Sims has entered, so the Knicks still have three players affected, according to the team (Twitter links). RJ Barrett is back in the starting lineup for New York today and Quentin Grimes is also expected to play, but Immanuel Quickley and Knox will need a little more time to ramp up their conditioning, says Tim Bontemps of ESPN (Twitter link).
Mavericks wing Josh Green has tested out of the protocols, but didn’t travel with the team to Utah and won’t play tonight, tweets ESPN’s Tim MacMahon.

COVID-19 Updates: Hawks, Blazers, Celtics, Bucks, Nets

December 24th, 2021 at 6:00pm CST by Rory Maher

Wesley Iwundu, who just signed a 10-day contract with the Hawks on Thursday, has entered the NBA’s health and safety protocols, per Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link). Iwundu played 23 minutes in the Hawks’ 98-96 victory over the Sixers Thursday night, scoring two points and grabbing five rebounds. ESPN’s Bobby Marks tweets that the Hawks will need to sign another replacement player to replace Iwundu — himself a replacement player.

Hawks big man Onyeka Okongwu, who made his season debut last week, has entered the protocols as well, Sarah K. Spencer of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution tweets. In three games this season (22.3 MPG), Okongwu is averaging 10.3 PPG, 5.7 RPG, and 2.0 BPG. The Hawks now have nine players in the protocols.

Here are a few more COVID-related updates:

Backup point guard Dennis Smith Jr. and two-way rookie Trendon Watford have entered the protocols for the Trail Blazers and the rest of the team will now be re-tested, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (via Twitter). DSJ and Watford are the only players currently in the protocols for the Blazers.
The Celtics have four new players entering the protocols: C.J. Miles, Justin Jackson, Aaron Nesmith, and Bruno Fernando, tweets Jared Weiss of The Athletic. However, Al Horford, Juan Hernangomez, Jabari Parker, and Brodric Thomas, who’ve all been in the protocols, are listed as questionable for Saturday’s game against Milwaukee, so they could be exiting the protocols soon. Until those four are cleared, the Celtics will have 12 players in the COVID-19 protocols — the largest outbreak in the NBA.
In addition to Giannis Antetokounmpo, Bobby Portis has exited the protocols for the Bucks, Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press tweets. Like Horford and the other Celtics, Donte DiVincenzo, who’s also been in the protocols, is listed as questionable to make his season debut Saturday.
Meanwhile, Bruce Brown and James Johnson have exited the protocols for the Nets, but seven others, including star Kevin Durant, remain in the protocols for their game Saturday against the Lakers, according to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports (via Twitter).
Warriors rookie Moses Moody has entered the protocols, according to Anthony Slater of The Athletic (Twitter link). Golden State now has four players in the protocols.

CJ McCollum’s Lung Has Fully Healed

December 23rd, 2021 at 6:34pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Trail Blazers guard CJ McCollum has been cleared for non-contact drills after a CT scan on Wednesday showed that his right lung is fully healed, according to a team press release.

McCollum suffered a pneumothorax — a collapsed right lung — earlier this month.

McCollum has averaged 20.6 PPG and 4.5 APG on .424/.393/.700 shooting in 24 games (35.3 MPG) so far this season. The 30-year-old, who is in the first year of a three-year, $100MM contract, could be an in-season trade candidate.

McCollum also been cleared for increased conditioning and shooting and will be reevaluated next week, according to the release. That suggests he’s is probably still at least a couple of weeks away from returning to action for Portland, which is languishing with a 13-19 record.

NBA Postpones Thursday’s Nets/Blazers Game

December 22nd, 2021 at 9:05am CST by Luke Adams

This week’s game between the Nets and Trail Blazers, scheduled to be played on Thursday in Portland, has been postponed, the NBA announced today in a press release. According to the league, Brooklyn doesn’t have the required minimum of eight players available.

It’s the third straight postponement for the Nets, who were also unable to play on Sunday vs. Denver and Tuesday vs. Washington. Brooklyn has a league-high 10 players in the health and safety protocols, and Joe Harris (ankle) and Nicolas Claxton (wrist) were also out of action when the team last played on Saturday.

Patty Mills, Blake Griffin, Cameron Thomas, David Duke, and Kessler Edwards were active for the Nets on Saturday and the team has added four replacement players (James Ennis, Shaquille Harrison, Langston Galloway, and Wenyen Gabriel).

That’s a total of nine players, but it’s certainly possible that at least a couple of them are dealing with injuries or have been placed in the protocols in recent days — the Nets haven’t had to publicly update their injury report since their last game.

The next game on Brooklyn’s schedule is a December 25 showdown with the Lakers in Los Angeles. While both teams have been decimated by injuries and COVID-19, the NBA will presumably do all it can to avoid postponing what was supposed to be one of its marquee Christmas Day matchups.

Cody Zeller To Be Reevaluated Next Week

December 21st, 2021 at 9:33am CST by Luke Adams

The Trail Blazers announced on Sunday in a press release that Cody Zeller (small fracture of right patella) is making progress in his recovery and increasing his on-court activity. However, he’s still unavailable for the time being and will be reevaluated in a week.

Blazers Notes: Billups, Cronin, Lillard, Struggles, Zeller

December 19th, 2021 at 2:47pm CST by Rory Maher

Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups and interim GM Joe Cronin have an interesting shared history, according to Jason Quick of The Athletic. Billups and Cronin were high school opponents in 1994, when they competed for the Colorado Class 6A state championship.

Billups was the star of George Washington High and led his team to a 71-67 victory over Cronin’s Horizon High. Billups had 31 points and nine assists in the title game, while Cronin had 22 points and 15 rebounds in defeat.

After Cronin joined the Blazers as an intern in 2006, he was quickly promoted to scouting assistant, and later assistant director of scouting and salary cap analyst. While Billups was playing in the NBA, he noticed Cronin’s name in Portland’s front office department and was dying to know if it was the same person he’d competed against many years before, per Quick.

“I was 10 years into my NBA career, and I was looking at the front offices around the league, and I see Joe Cronin’s name,” Billups remembered. “And I wondered to myself: Is that the Joe Cronin? So I started asking questions. And I wanted to see a picture. I wanted to see if this was actually Joe.”

However, Cronin was always on the road scouting, so Billups never got confirmation that it was the same person he knew from high school until he interviewed for the head coaching job over the summer.

“When this opportunity came up, and I was talking to Neil [Olshey], I was like: ‘Where is Joe? I need to see Joe. I need to make sure this is the same dude,'” Billups said.

Billups finally saw Cronin on a Zoom interview and recognized him immediately, 27 years later, Quick relays.

Here’s more from Portland:

Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated takes a close look at the relationship between Billups and star point guard Damian Lillard. “We’re forming a bond more so than anything else, it’s just like we always sit and talk over everything. And that’s something that’s fun to have,” Billups said.
Lillard gave a speech to the Blazers last Monday imploring them not give up on the season, Quick writes for The Athletic. “This is the moment a lot of teams choose to just pack it in and say, you know, it’s tough, we are this many games under .500 and we haven’t been playing great … and they just fold and become one of those bottom teams,” Lillard said he told the team. “And I just said that’s not who we are … it’s not the situation we want to be in, but we dig. We dig out and find a way, and we are going to do that once again.”
In a separate article, Quick explores what has gone wrong for the Blazers this season and how they can try to climb out of the hole. They currently have a 12-18 record, 11th in the West.
Backup center Cody Zeller has suffered a small right patellar fracture (broken kneecap), the team announced on Dec. 11. In the release, the Blazers said he’ll be reevaluated in one week, but an update on his recovery timeline has yet to be posted. Zeller is having a solid season for Portland, averaging 5.1 PPG and 4.6 RPG in 24 games (13.3 MPG).

Windhorst’s Latest: Pacers, LeVert, Blazers, Simmons, Fox

December 17th, 2021 at 2:45pm CST by Luke Adams

Based on the whispers he has heard around the league, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst views Caris LeVert and Myles Turner as more likely trade candidates for the Pacers than Domantas Sabonis, he said on the latest episode of his Hoop Collective podcast. Although Sabonis has frequently been mentioned alongside LeVert and Turner in reports on Indiana’s potential trade chips, Windhorst hasn’t heard much chatter about the All-Star center.

During Friday’s episode of the Hoop Collective podcast, Windhorst spoke at length to ESPN’s Tim MacMahon about the report on the Mavericks that MacMahon published earlier this week, which included details on how the relationship between Luka Doncic and Rick Carlisle became frayed. Interestingly, Windhorst suggested that LeVert could perhaps relate to Doncic, stating that the Pacers swingman and Carlisle have not had the “greatest partnership” so far this season.

Here are a few more interesting tidbits shared by Windhorst during his podcast:

Windhorst heard from one executive who said that the Trail Blazers, since their front office shakeup, have created the impression they’re willing to listen to inquiries on anyone except Damian Lillard.
According to Windhorst, there are multiple execs around the NBA who believe that when the Sixers eventually trade Ben Simmons, at least one of the Kings, Timberwolves, and/or Rockets will be involved, either as Simmons’ destination or as a third team in the deal. As Windhorst explains, those three teams’ front offices are run by executives who previously worked with Daryl Morey.
Although reports earlier this year suggested that De’Aaron Fox was expected to be off-limits in any Kings trade talks, MacMahon has gotten the sense that the point guard is no longer considered untouchable. According to Windhorst, Fox came to camp this fall 15 pounds heavier than he was when the season ended last spring.