The Los Angeles Lakers and J.R. Smith are finalizing a contract for the remainder of the season.

Smith and the Lakers have been discussing a deal since Avery Bradley opted out of the NBA's restart.

Smith last played in the NBA in 2018.

Smith worked out for the Lakers in February before the team signed Dion Waiters.

The NBA released its schedule for the rest of the 2020 regular season starting on July 30th in Orlando.

The season will resume with a Friday doubleheader featuring the Jazz vs. the Pelicans and Lakers vs. the Clippers. 

All regular season games will take place between July 30th and August 14th.

The remaining schedule is below (in Eastern time):

Thursday, July 30
Utah vs. New Orleans, 6:30 p.m.
LA Clippers vs. L.A. Lakers, 9 p.m.

Friday, July 31
Orlando vs. Brooklyn, 2:30 p.m.
Memphis vs. Portland, 4 p.m.
Phoenix vs. Washington, 4 p.m.
Boston vs. Milwaukee, 6:30 p.m.
Sacramento vs. San Antonio, 8 p.m.
Houston vs. Dallas, 9 p.m.

Saturday, Aug. 1
Miami vs. Denver, 1 p.m.
Utah vs. Oklahoma City, 3:30 p.m.
New Orleans vs. LA Clippers, 6 p.m.
Philadelphia vs. Indiana, 7 p.m.
L.A. Lakers vs. Toronto, 8:30 p.m.

Sunday, Aug. 2
Washington vs. Brooklyn, 2 p.m.
Portland vs. Boston, 3:30 p.m.
San Antonio vs. Memphis, 4 p.m.
Sacramento vs. Orlando, 6 p.m.
Milwaukee vs. Houston, 8:30 p.m.
Dallas vs. Phoenix, 9 p.m.

Monday, Aug. 3
Toronto vs. Miami, 1:30 p.m.
Denver vs. Oklahoma City, 4 p.m.
Indiana vs. Washington, 4 p.m.
Memphis vs. New Orleans, 6:30 p.m.
San Antonio vs. Philadelphia, 8 p.m.
L.A. Lakers vs. Utah, 9 p.m.

Tuesday, Aug. 4
Brooklyn vs. Milwaukee, 1:30 p.m.
Dallas vs. Sacramento, 2:30 p.m.
Phoenix vs. LA Clippers, 4 p.m.
Orlando vs. Indiana, 6 p.m.
Boston vs. Miami, 6:30 p.m.
Houston vs. Portland, 9 p.m.

Wednesday, Aug. 5
Memphis vs. Utah, 2:30 p.m.
Philadelphia vs. Washington, 4 p.m.
Denver vs. San Antonio, 4 p.m.
Oklahoma City vs. L.A. Lakers, 6:30 p.m.
Toronto vs. Orlando, 8 p.m.
Brooklyn vs. Boston, 9 p.m.

Thursday, Aug. 6
New Orleans vs. Sacramento, 1:30 p.m.
Miami vs. Milwaukee, 4 p.m.
Indiana vs. Phoenix, 4 p.m.
LA Clippers vs. Dallas, 6:30 p.m.
Portland vs. Denver, 8 p.m.
L.A. Lakers vs. Houston, 9 p.m.

Friday, Aug. 7
Utah vs. San Antonio, 1 p.m.
Oklahoma City vs. Memphis, 4 p.m.
Sacramento vs. Brooklyn, 5 p.m.
Orlando vs. Philadelphia, 6:30 p.m.
Washington vs. New Orleans, 8 p.m.
Boston vs. Toronto, 9 p.m.

Saturday, Aug. 8
LA Clippers vs. Portland, 1 p.m.
Utah vs. Denver, 3:30 p.m.
L.A. Lakers vs. Indiana, 6 p.m.
Phoenix vs. Miami, 7:30 p.m.
Milwaukee vs. Dallas, 8:30 p.m.

Sunday, Aug. 9
Washington vs. Oklahoma City, 12:30 p.m.
Memphis vs. Toronto, 2 p.m.
San Antonio vs. New Orleans, 3 p.m.
Orlando vs. Boston, 5 p.m.
Philadelphia vs. Portland, 6:30 p.m.
Houston vs. Sacramento, 8 p.m.
Brooklyn vs. LA Clippers, 9 p.m.

Monday, Aug. 10
Oklahoma City vs. Phoenix, 2:30 p.m.
Dallas vs. Utah, 3 p.m.
Toronto vs. Milwaukee, 6:30 p.m.
Indiana vs. Miami, 8 p.m.
Denver vs. L.A. Lakers, 9 p.m.

Tuesday, Aug. 11
Brooklyn vs. Orlando, 1 p.m.
Houston vs. San Antonio, 2 p.m.
Phoenix vs. Philadelphia, 4:30 p.m.
Portland vs. Dallas, 5 p.m.
Boston vs. Memphis, 6:30 p.m.
New Orleans vs. Sacramento, 9 p.m.
Milwaukee vs. Washington, 9 p.m.

Wednesday, Aug. 12
Indiana vs. Houston, 4 p.m.
Toronto vs. Philadelphia, 6:30 p.m.
Miami vs. Oklahoma City, 8 p.m.
LA Clippers vs. Denver, 9 p.m.

Thursday, Aug. 13
Washington vs. Boston, TBA
Portland vs. Brooklyn, TBA
Sacramento vs. L.A. Lakers, TBA
Milwaukee vs. Memphis, TBA
New Orleans vs. Orlando, TBA
Dallas vs. Phoenix, TBA
San Antonio vs. Utah, TBA

Friday, Aug. 14
Philadelphia vs. Houston, TBA
Miami vs. Indiana, TBA
Oklahoma City vs. LA Clippers, TBA
Denver vs. Toronto, TBA

J.R. Smith has emerged as a leading candidate for the Los Angeles Lakers to sign as a replacement of Avery Bradley on their roster.

Smith last played in the NBA during the early part of the 17-18 season.

Bradley decided to opt out of the NBA's restart plan on Tuesday evening.

Avery Bradley has decided to opt-out of the NBA's return-to-play plan in Orlando.

Bradley has been a leader of a players' coalition with Kyrie Irving voicing concerns about the NBA's restart.

Bradley's decision is largely due to the well-being of his six-year-old song, who has a history of struggling to recover from respiratory illnesses. It is unlikely Bradley's son would have been medically cleared to enter the bubble.

Bradley was a key part of the Los Angeles Lakers' rotation this season.

Bradley is estimated to lose $650,000 by sitting out the return of the season.

DeMarcus Cousins has received interest from multiple teams for the NBA's return-to-play plan in Orlando, but he will sit out to continue his rehab in preparation for the 20-21 season.

Cousins tore his ACL last offseason after signing with the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Lakers waived Cousins in February to sign Markieff Morris.

The New York Knicks have received permission from the Los Angeles Lakers to interview Jason Kidd.

Kidd is currently an assistant coach with the Lakers.

The Milwaukee Bucks fired Kidd as head coach midway through the 17-18 season.

Dr. Karida Brown has joined the Los Angeles Lakers as Director of Racial Equity & Action. Dr. Brown will create a curriculum to help the Lakers staff enrich their knowledge on today’s most urgent topics, as well as helping to identify ways the team can be more active and efficient in creating change. 

Dr. Brown is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in both the Department of African American Studies and the Department of Sociology at UCLA. She earned her Ph.D. in Sociology from Brown University in 2016, and an M.P.A. in Government Administration from the University of Pennsylvania in 2011. She currently serves on the boards of The Obama Presidency Oral History Project and the Du Boisian Scholar Network.

“We are very happy to have Dr. Brown join the team,” said Lakers COO & President of Business Operations Tim Harris. “She will play a key role in implementing educational programming on race and racism for our employees and helping us focus on racial equity in our day-to-day functions, as well as empowering the organization to identify ways to be more active participants in affecting real change.” 

An oral historian, Dr. Brown is a Fulbright Scholar, and her work has been supported by national foundations such as the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Hellman Fellows Fund. She is recognized for her work writing back into history the lives, stories and experiences of black people around the world. She is the author of two books, Gone Home: Race and Roots through Appalachia (UNC Press, 2018) and The Sociology of W.E.B. Du Bois: Racialized Modernity and the Global Color Line (co-authored with José Itzigsohn, NYU Press, 2020). Dr. Brown is working on her third book, Separate and Unequal, which focuses on the history of racially segregated education systems and its enduring legacies on racial inequality in present day education.

Los Angeles Lakers players said that there was "no divide" within the team amid discussions of if and when the season should resume.

"Still have some time to figure things out as a league and as a team," a player told Dave McMenamin of ESPN.

Avery Bradley and Dwight Howard were part of an 80 person call on Friday night that voiced their opinion against resuming the season amid nationwide unrest.

Howard also released a statement saying that basketball "isn't needed at this moment."

The Lakers were concerned that Howard planned to sit out the rest of this season.

Howard's agent Charles Briscoe said his client has yet to decide whether to play again this season as he is not thinking about the game. 

"Basketball is just a sport, at the end of the day. But what's going on with people dying in the streets, that's something real. That statement, it had nothing to do with sports. It had everything to do with racism and social injustice," said Briscoe. 

Danny Green said that 80% of the NBA's plans for a bubble in Orlando are figured out, though there are still logistical concerns around the hotel situation. 

"It’s very up in the air right now. There are still a lot of moving parts. We’re trying to figure that out. We have 80 percent knowledge of how Orlando is going to be. There are still moving parts to figure out, which teams are going to stay where, how they’re going to do it and how they’re operating in the bubble.

"Right now, the bubble doesn’t seem as effective as they would like or as lenient as we would like. We’ll have to figure it out," Green told Mark Medina of USA Today.

Green added that the biggest talking points moving forward revolve around who will be allowed in hotel areas.

"The biggest concern is for most teams is hotels, who is staying where, the space, friends and family visiting, seeing how they are going to quarantine them, if we’re going to be quarantined and for how long if we leave the bubble. How often testing is going to be?"

Dwight Howard released a statement echoing Kyrie Irving's sentiment that the NBA should not resume its season amid nationwide unrest.

"I agree with Kyrie (Irving). Basketball, or entertainment period, isn’t needed at this moment, and will only be a distraction. Sure it might not distract us the players, but we have resources at hand majority of our community don’t have. And the smallest distraction for them, can start a trickle down effect that may never stop. Especially with the way the climate is now. I would love nothing more than to win my very first NBA Championship. But the unity of My People would be an even bigger Championship, that’s just to (sic) beautiful to pass up," wrote Howard.

Howard was one of several players who opposed the season returning during a call on Friday night that featured 80 NBA and WNBA players. 

Howard's statement is below:

I agree with Kyrie (Irving). Basketball, or entertainment period, isn’t needed at this moment, and will only be a distraction. Sure it might not distract us the players, but we have resources at hand majority of our community don’t have. And the smallest distraction for them, can start a trickle down effect that may never stop. Especially with the way the climate is now. I would love nothing more than to win my very first NBA Championship. But the unity of My People would be an even bigger Championship, that’s just to (sic) beautiful to pass up. What better time than now for us to be focusing on our families. This is a rare opportunity that, I believe, we as a community should be taking full advantage of. When have we ever had this amount of time to sit and be with our families. This is where our Unity starts. At home! With Family!! European Colonization stripped us of our rich history, and we have yet to sit down and figure us out. The less distractions, the more we can put into action into rediscovering ourselves. Nations come out of families. Black/African American is not a Nation or Nationality. It’s time Our Families became their own Nations. No Basketball till we get things resolved.