Former Portland Trail Blazer Cliff Robinson has passed away at age 53.

Robinson played 19 seasons in the NBA with the Blazers, Suns, Pistons, Warriors, and Nets.

Robinson, who played in the 1994 All-Star Game, averaged 14.6 points and 4.6 rebounds in 1,380 career games.

"He was our first great player. He came from a difficult background in Buffalo, I watched him evolve as a man. ... He was a good man, had a great career, and was instrumental in a lot of the great things that happened at UConn," said Jim Calhoun. 

The Washington Wizards have made re-signing Davis Bertans a priority in free agency, but they're expected to have competition from rival teams.

The Atlanta Hawks, New York Knicks and Phoenix Suns are expected to pursue Bertans, sources tell Chase Hughes of NBC Sports. 

The Hawks will have the most cap space in the NBA.

Washington will be able to go over the cap to re-sign Bertans by owning his Bird rights. League sources expects Bertans to sign for $15 million to $20 million per season.

Fred VanVleet is expected to be one of the NBA's most coveted free agents this offseason. VanVleet re-signed with the Toronto Raptors in 2018 on a two-year, $18 million deal as a restricted free agent. VanVleet will be an unrestricted free agent this offseason. 

Sources that spoke with Shams Charania of The Athletic indicated that the Detroit Pistons, New York Knicks and Phoenix Suns are expected to pursue VanVleet in addition to Toronto. 

Bobby Marks of ESPN reported in December that VanVleet could command $25 million to $30 million per season in free agency. 

VanVleet averaged a career high 17.6 points, 3.8 rebounds, 6.6 assists and 1.9 steals in 35.7 minutes per game.

Monty Williams has been named the NBA Coach of the Seeding Games with 20 of 21 first-place votes.

Terry Stotts received the other first-place vote and finished. Jacquie Vaughn finished in third place.

The Phoenix Suns went 8-0 in the seeding games.

The Portland Trail Blazers, Memphis Grizzlies, Phoenix Suns and San Antonio Spurs continue to fight for the eighth and ninth seeds for the Western Conference play-in.

Portland (Brooklyn), Memphis (Milwaukee), Phoenix (Dallas) and San Antonio (Utah) each play their final seeding game on Thursday.

The below scenarios will determine the seeding. 

Portland eighth seed: A win, or losses by Memphis, Phoenix and San Antonio

Portland ninth seed: Loss, combined with two losses from Phoenix, San Antonio or Memphis

Memphis eighth seed: A win and a Portland loss

Memphis ninth seed: A win, or losses by Phoenix and San Antonio

Phoenix eighth seed: A win, combined with losses by Memphis and Portland

Phoenix ninth seed: A win, combined with a Memphis or Portland loss

San Antonio eighth seed: A win, combined with losses by Memphis, Phoenix and Portland

San Antonio ninth seed: A win, combined with two losses from Portland, Phoenix or Memphis

Deandre Ayton missed his COVID-19 test on Sunday and was retested on Monday morning. 

Ayton's test came back negative and he can rejoin the Phoenix Suns.

The Suns are playing the Oklahoma City Thunder in an afternoon game on Monday. 

Hall of Fame guard Paul Westphal was diagnosed with brain cancer.

Sportswriter Mike Lupica reported the news in a tweet.

The 69-year-old was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2019.

Westphal, who averaged 15.6 points throughout his career, coached the Suns to the 1993 NBA Finals.

Westphal has a career coaching record of 318-279. 

Draymond Green will be fined $50,000 for violating the league's anti-tampering rule for his comments he made on "Inside the NBA" about Devin Booker.

"It's great to see Book playing well and Phoenix playing well. But get my man out of Phoenix. It's not good for him, it's not good for his career. Sorry, Chuck, but they've got to get Book out of Phoenix. I need my man to go somewhere where he can play great basketball all the time and win because he's that type of player," said Green on the show.

"Maybe," responded Green when Ernie Johnson asked him if he was tampering.

Booker responded to Green's comments, saying that Suns fans deserved to see a winner.

"Since I've been in Phoenix, we haven't had the win success that we had, but the support's been there. And this is what we owe to the fans, we owe to the organization."