Warriors to bring back Jordan Bell.
Toscano-Anderson’s solid play rewarded
The Warriors are planning to sign forward Juan Toscano-Anderson to a multiyear contract and bring back former center Jordan Bell on a two-way contract as soon as next week, league sources confirmed with the Bay Area News Group.
Toscano-Anderson, who has emerged as a key rotation piece and potential building block, has played this season on a two-way contract that will expire this summer. By converting him to a standard 15man roster spot, Golden State will lock up a versatile forward who can help when the team aims to return to title contention next season.
In 48 games, the 28-yearold Castro Valley high school product is averaging 5.4 points, 4.2 rebounds, 2.6 assists in 19.9 minutes this season. Toscano-Anderson has been able to play without the 50-game maximum and practice limits of the two-way contract when the league lifted those restrictions for this coronavirus pandemic-stricken season.
Once Toscano-Anderson’s deal is converted and Bell passes through the league’s coronavirus testing protocols, the Warriors plan to sign Bell into the vacant two-way spot.
The Warriors are also likely to fill the 15th and final roster spot before the end of the season, according to a league source.
Bell’s presence will help bolster a frontcourt that is without center James Wiseman (knee surgery) for the rest of the season and forward Eric Pachall, who has
missed more than a month with a hip injury and does not have a timetable for a return.
Since being released by the Warriors in 2019, Bell, 26, has played with the Timberwolves, Grizzlies and Wizards. Most recently, he played seven games for the Erie BayHawks in the G League bubble, where he averaged 17.6 points on 80.6% shooting, 9.3 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 1.3 steals and two blocks. Bell, a second-round pick who was acquired by the Warriors in the 2017 draft, averaged 3.9 points on 57% shooting, 3.1 rebounds and 1.4 assists in two seasons in Golden State.
This series of deals would put Golden State in adherence with the league’s 14-player roster minimum, which they must meet by next Thursday, May 13.
The Athletic was first to report that the Warriors will sign Toscano-Anderson and Bell next week. LEE REVEALS POSITIVE COVID DIAGNOSIS >> Guard Damion Lee tested positive for COVID-19 despite receiving a vaccine, he said before Thursday night’s game. There is no timetable for his return.
Lee tested positive for COVID-19 two weeks ago after receiving the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in early March. According to Lee, he was told he was one of 6,000 “breakthrough” cases among the more than 100 million Americans vaccinated to test positive post-vaccine.
None of the other dozen Warriors players or staffers who received the vaccine have tested positive.
Although Lee said he doesn’t know how he contracted the virus, he acknowledged it happened at some point during Golden State’s five-game trip from April 1421. After games in Oklahoma City, Cleveland, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington D.C., Lee tested positive upon his return to the Bay Area and quarantined at his home.
“It felt like I was hit by two cars at once,” Lee said when describing his symptoms, which also included body soreness, brain fog and loss of appetite. He said those symptoms have mostly subsided.