New normal: Roster chaos
Here’s what the Magic injury report looked like Sunday: Six players out because of virus-related problems, another sidelined while he completes the process of getting cleared from a protocols stint, and another six players out with injuries.
Yes, that’s 13 players — from one team.
“You expect the unexpected,” Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said.
Such is the norm around the NBA right now, after yet another day of adding more names to the health and safety protocols list. By late afternoon Sunday, the number of players disclosed by teams as being in the protocols was up to 111 — the real number, considering some teams had yet to update injury reports, was believed to be higher. And some teams were stuck simply trying to piece rosters together just to try and play.
The Warriors’ Draymond Green was the latest big name added to the protocols list on Sunday, less than 24 hours after his team beat the Suns in what was the best game on the league’s five-game Christmas lineup.
The numbers may continue to rise, now that the league’s expanded testing for players who haven’t received booster shots started Sunday and will continue into early January.
“This is the reality of this association now,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.
The Raptors played the Cavaliers on Sunday with eight players: four on regular contracts, four signed to hardship deals. The Raptors have 10 players unable to play for virus-related reasons and hadn’t
played for more than a week.
But the schedule said they were playing Sunday, so they showed up to play Sunday.
“We haven’t done a thing since our last game,” Raptors coach Nick Nurse said about 90 minutes before tip-off.
In Chicago, where the Bulls just had 10 players go through protocols and are now without coach Billy Donovan as he navigates them, it had been pointed out that Lonzo Ball was the lone player to appear in every game for the team so far this season.
That streak is about to end: Ball is one of three players on the latest list of Bulls in the protocols.
“Y’all jinxed me,” Ball tweeted.
The Grizzlies saw their protocols list grow to five Sunday. The Spurs — one of the few teams that hadn’t had a player in protocols right now — had their run of luck on that front end when Dejounte Murray was added to the list, and the Hawks added John Collins to their already-jammed list.
The figure of those in the protocols doesn’t even include coaches and staff who are sidelined by virus-related concerns, which almost always means a positive test.
The Heat played the Magic on Sunday with assistant coaches Caron Butler and Chris Quinn not on the bench, and head trainer Jay Sabol dealing with protocols as well.
“It’s a crazy virus. It really is,” Spoelstra said. “... We just have to stay the course. The business is still moving forward. It’s thriving. Everyday life is still moving forward. But you have to have the appropriate level of precautions and awareness as well.”