On Saturday, Los Angeles Lakers guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope told reporters that he had been ordered by court to stay in California for a period of 25 days in relation to his guily plea to a DUI in Michigan while he was still a member of the Detroit Pistons.
After Caldwell-Pope plead guilty in May, the NBA suspended Caldwell-Pope for the first two games of the 2017-18 NBA season, but the new restriction guarantees that the shooting guard will miss a minimum of six games related to this incident. In addition to the game in Cleveland, Caldwell-Pope will be unable to travel with the team to Houston (twice) and Minnesota in the coming weeks.
"For me, this is new," Lakers coach Luke Walton said following Saturday's practice, sharing that he was not notified in advance that Caldwell-Pope would miss Thursday's game.
Walton added, "There's still some legal stuff that they're doing still, so I'm not going to comment on specifics."
After Walton, Caldwell-Pope took time to speak with reporters and provide further details on his updated situation.
"My restriction is only California," a typically soft spoken Caldwell-Pope said at the team's practice facility in El Segundo. "That was part of the agreement with the court that we came up with."
Caldwell-Pope said that the original plan was for him to leave New York, travel to Detroit for the legal matter and meet the team in Cleveland before Thursday's game against the Cavaliers. However, the court put in the new restriction and Caldwell-Pope flew directly back to California to adhere to the court's decision.
"With the court situation, we came up with the agreement that I still get to carry on with my season but only in the state of California for the 25-day restriction that I have," Caldwell-Pope said. "I was blessed that I was able to continue to play ball."
Caldwell-Pope said that the restrictions would not have any impact on practice time.
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The 24-year-old said, "It was very disappointing to me, as well. As far as my teammates, I feel like I let them down, as well the coaches, the organization."
The Georgia-native said that he did not know about the possibility of the restriction changing, nor did he provide any long term outlook on the situation.
Caldwell-Pope concluded, "For right now, it is what it is."
