Portland Trail Blazers small forward Trevor Ariza will not participate in the NBA’s upcoming restart in Orlando, Fla., according to a report from ESPN‘s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Instead, Ariza has committed to a one-month visitation window with his young son.
Wojnarowski reports that Ariza is involved in a custody case regarding his 12-year-old son and that the mother chose to grant a one-month visitation that overlapped with the period in which Ariza would be quarantining in Florida.
Ariza’s Trail Blazers currently sit in ninth in the Western Conference, 3.5 games out of a playoff spot. Two other teams — the New Orleans Pelicans and Sacramento Kings — are also three games out, but Portland has a slight edge given that they’ve played two additional games.
Each team that’s heading to Orlando for the season restart has eight regular season games remaining to improve their position.
Portland will have to try to do so without Ariza, who was traded midseason from Sacramento and started all 21 games he played with the Trail Blazers. In that span, Ariza averaged 11 points, 4.8 rebounds and two assists per game while shooting 40 per cent from 3 pt. range.
Earlier on Monday, Washington Wizards general manager Tommy Sheppard confirmed that Davis Bertans will sit out the playoffs as well.
The NBA regular season is scheduled to return on July 30 at Walt Disney World, with 22 teams competing to determine seeding for the playoffs.
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