Fan Duel Toronto Raptors

Morning Coffee – Tue, Apr 28

An act of God, eh? 

An act of God, eh?

Lakers returned $4.6 million they received from loan program intended to help small businesses – CBSSports.com

“The Lakers qualified for and received a loan under the Payroll [sic] Protection Program,” the Lakers said in a statement to ESPN. “Once we found out the funds from the program had been depleted, we repaid the loan so that financial support would be directed to those most in need. The Lakers remain completely committed to supporting both our employees and our community.”

The program, which was established as part of the $2.2 trillion CARES Act and launched on April 3, enables small businesses to apply for and receive loans to cover employee salaries and other expenses. As a business with about 300 employees, the Lakers were eligible for a PPP loan, which is forgivable so long as the recipient spends 75% of the amount on payroll and doesn’t fire anyone.

The PPP ran out of money after less than two weeks, leaving many mom and pop businesses without the assistance they sought. Some of those loans went to high-profile companies with strong relationships with commercial or private banks, who were able to simplify the application process for their clients.

How NBA reopening practice facilities ties to CBA’s force majeure clause – Sports Illustrated

For a league that has teams in 21 states plus the District of Columbia and the Province of Ontario, a patchwork system of laws is highly disruptive. The NBA and its 30 franchises operate best when the same set of laws and regulations apply across the board. For now, relevant laws and regulations are jumbled. As Chris Mannix writes, that dynamic could conceivably provide a competitive advantage to certain teams.

Still, the NBA can make reasonable, science-based projections. In that sense, the NBA is just like a university, software company, retail store, restaurant or some other enterprise forced to limit operations and banish employees on account of the pandemic. Like other employers, the NBA is strategizing a plan to become fully operational as soon as it is sensible. And just like other employers, the NBA can’t make certain projections with the pandemic. It can only use its best judgment, which is why the league describes May 8 as a possible, but hardly guaranteed, date.

While safety is the most important consideration for restarting NBA games and practices, the economics of the situation are hard to ignore. The NBA and the National Basketball Players’ Association have negotiated a near-term pay arrangement for players, most of whom are paid on a 12-month basis. Players will be paid in full on May 1, but beginning on May 15, 25% of each player’s salary will be kept in escrow. Depending on the duration of the league’s lockdown, these pay reductions could increase in size over time. Whether players eventually recoup salary dollars that are escrowed will hinge on whether all or some of the postponed 2019–20 regular season and postseason games are rescheduled or canceled.

Arturas Karnisovas Hires 76ers’ Marc Eversley To Be New Bulls General Manager

New Chicago Bulls executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas has made his first major hire, tabbing Philadelphia 76ers senior vice president of player personnel Marc Eversley to become the first African American general manager in Bulls history. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski broke the news overnight just hours after Episodes 3 and 4 of The Last Dance aired.

Karnisovas had previously come to agreements with J.J. Polk to be an assistant general manager and Pat Connelly to be vice president of player personnel.

Eversley joins the Bulls after spending four years in Philadelphia. He was hired by Bryan Colangelo in 2016 as vice president of player personnel and was given a senior title in 2018 after Colangelo was fired for his infamous Twitter burner account scandal.

Eversley also has ties to Colangelo from their days with the Toronto Raptors. Colangelo hired Eversley away from Nike to be a player development assistant in 2006, and the executive also held assistant general manager and vice president of college scouting roles in Toronto. Eversley became the vice president of college scouting for the Washington Wizards in 2013 before heading to Philadelphia in 2016.

Raptors Mailbag: Free agents, 2021 scenarios, Toronto as a destination and more – The Athletic

What are the odds Fred VanVleet is a Raptor next year? Are they going to be able to afford him? Especially if they want to have a shot at Giannis Antetokounmpo.

I know this answer sucks, but it’s really, really hard to know until we see how the salary-cap implications of all of this are going to play out. Teams are operating with a number of path contingencies right now because there just isn’t much clarity.

To paint in very broad strokes, there are three tunnels this could go down. There’s an optimistic scenario where the hit isn’t that bad, the league is able to finish the playoffs and the salary recapture the league and union have agreed to beginning May 15 is enough that the subsequent 2020-21 cap impact is minimized. There’s a pessimistic scenario where the losses are greater than the salary recapture can account for, the 2020-21 season is affected, and all of the impact is felt in a shrinking of the 2020-21 cap, with a spike back to normalcy in 2021. And then there’s some moderate ground in terms of impact and with the league and union agreeing to try to smooth the impact out over 2020-21 and 2021-22 so there isn’t a drop-and-spike scenario creating chaos like in 2016. There are then underlying wrinkles to all of those scenarios. There are a lot of possibilities here.

And that’s all before considering how this changes preferences at the team and player levels. VanVleet, for example, sounds more open to the idea of a shorter-term deal and re-entering a better market later than he would have otherwise. The Raptors, possibly denied their title defence, could see their priorities shift toward maximizing 2020-21, especially if a certain star free agent signs a super-max extension that changes the 2021 market. Meanwhile, an already limited pool of VanVleet suitors could get thinner and hold less competitive purchasing power.

‘Stay tuned:’ Tory says Raptors officials have reached out about possible reopening of practice facility | CP24.com

Mayor John Tory says that he has had some preliminary discussion with Toronto Raptors officials regarding the reopening of their practice facility.

The NBA ordered the closure of all team facilities on March 19 but ESPN is now reporting that the league is set to permit the reopening of some facilities on Friday but only in locations where government have loosened stay-at-home restrictions.

In an interview with CP24 on Monday morning, Mayor John Tory said that he has been in touch with Raptors President Masai Ujiri and General Manager Bobby Webster about the status of the team’s practice facility on the Exhibition grounds but is leaving the final decision to public health officials.

He said that the discussions so far have mostly revolved around how the Raptors would operate while ensuring physical distancing protocols are followed.

“We are seeing if we can work something out and we will try our best to do that obviously but there is many precautions that need to be taken into account and many details that have to be sorted out,” he said. “We want to make sure that on the one hand and most importantly we keep everybody safe , including the players, coaches, staff and everybody else, but on the other hand that our team doesn’t fall into a situation where they are at a disadvantage.”