New plan: Trade Kyle Lowry to the Pelicans for future considerations to trade back Kyle Lowry.
How Do NBA Players Come Back to Work? It’s His Job to Figure It Out. – WSJ
Yves has a motto taped on the wall above his home desk: “Be prepared to execute our standards in a new normal.” That was his team’s philosophy even during the last days of the old normal. In the first week of March, Thunder senior facilities manager Johnny Shults secured two cases of cleaning wipes and one 55-gallon drum of disinfectant spray, which St. Yves said he probably wouldn’t have been able to buy a day later.
A quick look inside the Thunder’s practice center reveals logistical challenges lurking pretty much everywhere. When he swept the building, St. Yves counted 17 refrigerators, or 17 potential homes for a highly contagious virus. The more he walked around, the more vectors he noticed. The racks of balls, the shelves of towels, the containers of gum—they were all “community touchpoints,” as St. Yves now calls them.
The plan that St. Yves devised for the team’s return eliminates the most popular community touchpoints by situating eight tables around the courts to give the players their own personal space for drinks (water or Gatorade, cold or room temperature), basketballs, towels and their favorite brand and flavor of gum.
The locker room is another problem. The bottles of soap that were luxuries two months ago now appear to be liabilities. The faucets and toilets might have to be touchless. The showers alone are worthy of epidemiological study.
Even getting into the building requires a surprising amount of strategy. Some employees swipe ID cards when they get to the office. Thunder players scan their fingerprints. Or at least they did. Suddenly their fingerprint readers have the appeal of a subway pole. “We’re researching thermal imaging cameras,” St. Yves said. “And we may end up eliminating doors altogether.” They have already identified four doors they can open to circulate fresh air, and St. Yves ordered screens that arrived this week.
What ‘The Last Dance’ has taught us about Michael Jordan, and the 2019 Raptors – The Athletic
And that brings me back to Leonard, and, in a way, the 2019-20 Raptors. I want to be clear in saying there was no obvious divide between the star and his teammates last season. It was not the closest-knit team I’ve ever seen, and there was some fairly open grousing after the fact about the perception that the Raptors were Kawhi and Those Other Guys that understandably emerged as Leonard was bailing out the Raptors in the Philadelphia series. But there seemed to be an understanding of why Leonard received different treatment than the rest of the players. It was not an ideal way to build chemistry, but egalitarianism is a pipe dream in professional sports in the best of situations.
The Raptors were able to put any squabbles behind them on the way to the championship. But it was not a perfectly harmonious ride.
“I’m having a lot of fun,” Fred VanVleet said in late February of this year, prefacing his comments by saying, “I’m going to try to avoid a headline.”
“I think last year presented its own challenges and the championship made it mean something at the end, it kind of washed away all of the sins,” VanVleet continued. But we’re having a lot of fun, just growing. … I think we’ve got three or four guys averaging seven more points than they did last year, so that’s enjoyable, right? Who knows what we’ll do at the end, but for now, I think just staying in the moment, enjoying every day, enjoying the journey, just being the tight-knit group that we have is fun. It’s still hard, it’s tough, but going through it with your brothers, that’s what makes it all worth it.”
It is hard to have a really good team without massive power imbalances in the NBA, just because of the power that superstars wield. That does not mean that power imbalances are necessarily fatal; instead, they just make the day-to-day of things more angsty. LeBron James is one of the greatest players of all time and is a beloved teammate, at least on the floor, in a way Jordan never was. However, each season James plays is layered with stories of people — team executives and coaches who are technically above him in a franchise’s power structure, teammates and other employees — walking on eggshells to please him. Such is the nature of having James on your team. Ethan Strauss, my colleague at The Athletic, has a new book for sale called, “The Victory Machine”. It details how hard it is to not only build a winner, but also to maintain one, with the need to satisfy so many outsized egos acting as a constant stressor on the organization.
Games: 19
Jordan played against the Raptors 12 times with the Bulls and seven times with the Wizards. He went 10-2 against the Raptors as a member of the Bulls and 3-4 against the Raptors as a member of the Wizards.
One of Toronto’s wins against Jordan and the Bulls came in the 1995-96 season when Chicago set the NBA record with 72 wins in the regular season.
Averages: 20.5 points (43.6% FG, 46.2% 3PT, 84.3% FT), 6.2 rebounds, 4.1 assists per game
Fun fact: Jordan has a lower scoring average against only one team in his Hall of Fame career. That team? The Bulls, who he averaged 16.2 points against over six games.
Highest scoring game: 38 points
Jordan scored 38 points on two occasions against the Raptors. His best all-around performance came on Nov. 7, 1995, when he led the Bulls to a nine-point victory with 38 points (13-for-19 FG) to go along with five assists, four rebounds and four steals.
Lowest scoring game: 2 points
Jordan failed to score in double figures in three of the seven games he played against the Raptors with the Wizards. His lowest scoring affair came on Dec. 15, 2002, when the Raptors held him to two points on 1-for-9 shooting from the field.
Jordan still made an impact, however, dishing out nine assists and pulling down eight rebounds in Washington’s win.
Ranking the Bottom 10 sneakers in NBA history
4. Warner Bros. Big Country
Speaking of “Space Jam,” Warner Bros. became so NBA-obsessed that the movie studio decided to enter the sneaker game (no, seriously). Their two big signees were Glen Rice and Bryant “Big Country” Reeves. Rice soon departed for a Nautica deal (no, seriously), so Reeves, a 7-foot Vancouver Grizzly out of Oklahoma State, became the face of the WB brand. The shoe itself looked like the biggest, whitest version of the kicks one finds in the wire bin at the back of your local discount store, the kind you buy because you need something to wear that you don’t mind getting dirty while you’re doing yardwork. That’s pretty much perfect, because these days, Reeves is retired and working his cattle ranch in Oklahoma. We can only hope that as you read this, he’s on a tractor wearing a pair of red-clay-caked WB Big Countrys.
Five Past Shooting Guards Who Would Have Dominated the NBA in 2020 – The Ringer
Tracy McGrady
Career (938 games, 1997-2013): 19.6 points, 5.6 rebounds, 4.4 assists, 1.2 steals per game, 43.5% FG, 33.8% 3FG, 74.6% FTI know it’s not the first thing I should think about when I think about Tracy McGrady. My brain should probably flash to 13 Points in 35 Seconds, or the night he hung 62 on Washington, or the time he became the controlling owner of Shawn Bradley. But for the past few years, whenever I have cause to think about T-Mac, I think about a small story from the 2013 NBA Finals.
McGrady was, at that point, essentially an ornament on a Spurs team led by franchise legends Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, and Tony Parker. He hadn’t played at all during the 2012-13 season, instead going overseas to play in China for the year, but San Antonio signed him on the final day of the regular season to add another veteran for the playoff run; he saw just under 18 minutes of playing time through the first three rounds. But when the time came for the Spurs to take on the Miami Heat, coach Gregg Popovich suddenly called on McGrady to play an important role. Namely, the role of LeBron James on San Antonio’s scout team.
It seemed funny, when you first heard it: a 34-year-old reduced by age and injuries, years removed from his peak, tasked with mimicking the movements and monstrousness of the game’s most singular star. But then you thought about it for a second, and you remembered what T-Mac was—a spring-heeled giant wing who for years had an argument as the most gifted and versatile scoring threat on the planet, whose playmaking feel and court vision might not have approached LeBron’s level but never got quite as much credit as they probably deserved.
NBA draft big board: Latest top 80 prospect rankings – Sports Illustrated
16. Aaron Nesmith, G/F, Vanderbilt | Sophomore
Height: 6’6” | Weight: 215 | Age: 20 | Last Rank: 19Unfortunately, Nesmith’s season was cut short by a foot fracture, but he did put together a pretty convincing 14 games, in which he hit a remarkable 52% of his threes on 115 attempts. He’s one of the better pure shot-makers in the draft, can attack a closeout fairly well, and is competent if not jaw-dropping from an athletic perspective. If Nesmith’s shooting plays up in an elite capacity, which it could, the rest of his game should accessorize that skill pretty well, and he has a chance to at least be an average defender. His ability to catch and shoot under duress and off movement is a pretty rare, and capable floor spacing tends to come at a premium. He’ll likely land somewhere in the middle of the first round as long as his medical checks out.
17. Tyrell Terry, PG, Stanford | Freshman
Height: 6’2” | Weight: 160 | Age: 19 | Last Rank: 23Terry has a case as the best pure shooter in the draft, with an offensive skill set that points to real long-term upside as his body matures and he adds strength. His compact release and feel for moving the ball around the perimeter made him dangerous right away at Stanford, and he finished well around the rim, particularly for a guy his size. He stands to improve creating shots for himself and others off the dribble, but he’ll be able to play on and off the ball, and profiles as the type of talent worth investing in early and developing. Terry will get targeted defensively given his size, but if his shooting keeps progressing and he fills out, at least some of those concerns should be mitigated. He’s an obvious first-round talent who flew under the radar for much of the season, and a particularly intriguing fit for guard-needy teams that can pair him with a bigger playmaker.
There is only one player in NBA history that has played 22 seasons: Vince Carter.
It should come as no surprise then that he’s had his fair share of teammates over the years. 261 of them to be exact if we’re only including the ones he actually played alongside.
Carter made his NBA debut on Februay 5, 1999 against the Boston Celtics. The leading scorer in that game? Kevin Willis who at the age of 36 went for 28 points and 16 rebounds. To give you an idea of how long Carter has been in the NBA, Willis himself debuted in the fall of 1984.
The four players that Carter appeared alongside the most during the 2019-20 season are De’Andre Hunter, Trae Young, Kevin Huerter and Cam Reddish. At the time of Carter’s NBA debut with the Raptors, Hunter had not yet turned two, Young and Hurter had not yet turned one and Reddish was not yet born.
Take a minute and reflect back on his time with the Raptors, Nets, Magic, Suns, Mavericks, Grizzlies, Kings and Hawks. Can you name his top 20 teammates?
Raptors could have answer by end of week on whether practice facility can reopen: Tory | CP24.com
In an interview with CP24 on Wednesday, Mayor John Tory said that Raptors officials have been working with the municipal and provincial governments on a proposal that would allow the OVO Athletic Centre to be among the NBA facilities permitted to reopen, though he cautioned that a final decision is yet to be made.
“The discussions have been going well because the Raptors have been very, very cooperative in understanding completely the challenges we face with the public health side of this and also from the standpoint of public perception in terms of being allowed to be open when everybody else isn’t,” he said. “The circumstances that they are asking to be open in is so limited that I think people will understand and I think the fans will be very happy that our people will be able to do a little conditioning because they have been off for quite some time.”
ESPN is reporting that the NBA plans to allow some team facilities to reopen on Friday after pushing their original plan to allow facilities to reopen by May 1 back a week.
The network has said that formal team practices will continue to be prohibited, as will any other activities in which players and staff members need to be closer than 12 feet apart.
“The issue really wasn’t whether things had improved enough at this time, it was what use were they planning to make of that facility and the proposal that was put forward to us is for very limited use by a very limited number of staff,” Tory said. “It is under very active consideration.”