Five players with Alabama basketball roots are eligible to keep playing after the NBA’s 2022-23 regular season ended on Sunday.

With Herb Jones (Hale County, Alabama) and Kira Lewis Jr. (Hazel Green, Alabama), the New Orleans Pelicans qualified for the play-in tournament.

JaMychal Green (St. Jude, Alabama) with the Golden State Warriors, Davion Mitchell (Auburn) with the Sacramento Kings and Isaac Okoro (Auburn) with the Cleveland Cavaliers play for teams preparing for the NBA playoffs, which tip off on Saturday after the play-in tournament determines the seventh and eighth seeds in each conference.

Okoro missed the Cavaliers’ final six regular-season games because of a left-knee injury. Cleveland coach J.B. Bickerstaff is hoping to have Okoro back in the lineup when the Cavs open their best-of-seven first-round series against the New York Knicks at 5 p.m. CDT Saturday. ESPN will televise the game.

“It’d be huge for us,” Bickerstaff told Nate Ulrich of the Akron Beacon Journal on Sunday about the possibility of Okoro returning for the postseason, “especially you watch his matchups defensively and what he’s able to do and how he can contain the ball and defeat screens and pick-and-roll, which you’re going to see a bunch of.

“Obviously, we’ve missed him, and he’d be a big boost to us because there’s just so many small things that he does for our team so that other guys just don’t have to do it, and he’s just willing to do those things over and over again even though they are so difficult.”

The Cavaliers are seeded fourth and the Knicks fifth in the Eastern Conference playoff field.

The play-in tournament begins on Tuesday, when the seventh-seeded team in each conference’s playoff lineup will be decided. The Atlanta Hawks visit the Miami Heat at 6:30 p.m. in the East and the Minnesota Timberwolves visit the Los Angeles Lakers at 9 p.m. in the West. TNT will televise the games.

While the winners of those games advance to the NBA playoffs, the losers play again on Friday for the No. 8 seeds against the winners of Wednesday night’s games.

On Wednesday, the Chicago Bulls visit the Toronto Raptors at 6 p.m. in the East and the Oklahoma City Thunder visit New Orleans at 8:30 p.m. in the West. ESPN will televise the games.

Green and Mitchell will be on opposite sides of a first-round series, which tips off at 7:30 p.m. Saturday when the Warriors visit the Kings. ABC will televise the game.

Sacramento is seeded third and Golden State sixth in the Western Conference playoff field.

Sixteen players from Alabama high schools and colleges played during the NBA’s 2022-23 regular-season:

· Boston Celtics guard JD Davison (Calhoun, Alabama) averaged 1.6 points, 0.8 rebounds and 0.9 assists in 12 games. Although the Celtics are the No. 2 seed in the East, Davison is not eligible for the postseason roster because he played for Boston on a two-way contract that allowed him to get most of his action with the Maine Celtics of the NBA G League. Davison averaged 13.2 points, 4.5 rebounds and 7.7 assists in 44 games with Maine, and he scored 27 points in its G League playoff loss.

· Sacramento Kings guard Keon Ellis (Alabama) averaged 1.5 points, 0.5 rebounds and 0.4 assists in 16 games. Although the Kings are playing in the postseason, Ellis is not eligible for the postseason roster because he played for Sacramento on a two-way contract that allowed him to get most of his action with the Stockton Kings of the NBA G League. Ellis averaged 16.1 points, 5.1 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.5 steals in 35 games with Stockton.

· Golden State Warriors forward JaMychal Green averaged 6.4 points, 3.6 rebounds and 0.9 assists in 57 games, with one start.

· New Orleans Pelicans forward Herb Jones averaged 9.8 points, 4.1 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.6 steals in 66 starts.

· Utah Jazz center Walker Kessler (Auburn) average 9.2 points, 8.4 rebounds, 0.9 assists and 2.3 blocks in 74 games, with 40 starts. Kessler led the NBA’s rookies with 20 double-doubles, and his .720 shooting percentage is the second-highest in NBA history for a player with at least 400 shots in a season.

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· Detroit Pistons forward Braxton Key (Alabama) had four points and one rebound in three games. Key spent most of the season with the Delaware Blue Coats and helped them win the NBA G League championship. Key averaged 14.7 points, 7.8 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 1.7 steals and 1.1 blocks in 43 games for Delaware.

· New Orleans Pelicans guard Kira Lewis Jr. averaged 4.6 points, 1.3 rebounds and 0.9 assists in 25 games. Lewis worked his way back from a torn anterior cruciate ligament and a grade-2 medial collateral ligament sprain in his right knee sustained on Dec. 8, 2021. He made his 2022-23 season debut with New Orleans on Dec. 13.

· Sacramento Kings guard Davion Mitchell averaged 5.6 points, 1.3 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 80 games, with nine starts.

· Los Angeles Clippers guard Xavier Moon (Central-Coosa) had seven points, three rebounds and five assists in four games. Although the Clippers are the No. 5 seed in the West, Moon is not eligible for the postseason roster because he played for Los Angeles on a two-way contract that allowed him to get most of his action with the Ontario Clippers of the NBA G League. Moon averaged 20.1 points, 4.0 rebounds, 5.2 assists, 1.6 steals and 1.0 blocks in 48 games with Ontario.

· Orlando Magic forward Chuma Okeke (Auburn) averaged 4.7 points, 3.6 rebounds and 1.4 assists in 27 games, with eight starts. An injury affected another season for Okeke, as a knee injury required arthroscopic surgery, and he played in only nine of Orlando’s final 64 games.

· Cleveland Cavaliers forward Isaac Okoro averaged 6.4 points, 2.5 rebounds and 1.1 assists in 76 games, with 46 starts.

· San Antonio Spurs guard Josh Primo (Alabama) averaged 7.0 points, 3.3 rebounds and 4.5 assists in four games. Primo’s season came to an abrupt end when he was waived by the Spurs on Oct. 28. Reports indicated San Antonio released Primo after multiple allegiations that he exposed himself to women, and the Spurs and Primo were sued by Dr. Hillary Cauthen, the team’s consulting psychologist. Those lawsuits have been settled.

· Utah Jazz guard Collin Sexton (Alabama) averaged 14.3 points, 2.2 rebounds and 2.9 assists in 48 games, with 15 starts. Hamstring injuries kept Sexton off the court for chunks of the season, and he played in only one of Utah’s final 22 games.

· Houston Rockets forward Jabari Smith Jr. (Auburn) averaged 12.8 points, 7.2 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 79 starts. Smith scored in double figures in 19 of the final 20 games of his rookie season and posted half of his season total of 16 double-doubles during that span.

· Charlotte Hornets forward JT Thor (Auburn) averaged 3.8 points, 2.2 rebounds and 0.5 assists in 69 games, with eight starts. In Charlotte’s final eight games of the season, Thor averaged 10.1 points and 4.4 rebounds.

· Portland Trail Blazers forward Trendon Watford (Mountain Brook) averaged 7.4 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 62 games, with 12 starts. Watford missed the first eight games of the season, but he averaged 14.5 points per game in his final eight games of the season.

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.