Stage one a success ... now for the big experiment
The Raptors are getting ready to decamp and head into the NBA bubble at Disney World.
Two weeks of individual work is behind them, but most importantly the team has come through two weeks in the coronavirus-hotbed otherwise known as Florida reportedly without incident.
According to head coach Nick Nurse everyone is healthy.
On Thursday, they will make their way north to Orlando and enter the NBA campus as the third wave of three groups arriving to take over the Sports Park area of the grounds for the next three months and finish this 201920 season once and for all.
Once there, they immediately go into a mini-quarantine in their respective hotel rooms that will last between 36 and 48 hours depending on the amount of time it takes them to provide consecutive negative tests for the coronavirus.
At that point, the chains come off, but only to the extent that they will be allowed 5-on-5 drills for the first time since early March when the NBA shut down.
Those inside the bubble will still practise social distancing and follow the hand-washing and mask-wearing protocols they've been doing for months, but basketball as they know it will become a little more familiar to them.
The team's two-week stay in Naples with workouts a half hour north in Fort Myers was deemed a success by Nurse.
“Well, first and foremost, we've been safe and done well there. That's been good,” Nurse said. “We're not going to count any chickens, that's for sure. I think as each day of testing that goes by, you've got a bit of anxiety to get that e-mail at night from the doc and see what the results are, so, first and foremost, that's been good.”
On the court, what he has seen has also been good.
It's been strictly individual on-court work to this point — one player per basket, no more than four on the court at any one time — but Nurse is confident the team got as much as they could have out of the situation given the circumstances.
“We've been solid,” he said. “I really like the individual work that especially a lot of our young guys have gotten I think it's been way more consistent. I mean, when you're not flying and playing and games interrupting and there's late flights where you need a day off the next day, it's just been, it's just been a consistent block of work, both in the weight room and on the court.”
Nurse pointed out that having the team all together in one place for these past two weeks has also allowed them to control things like their food intake and nutrition.
And while one would normally expect a group of wealthy young athletes to somewhat bristle at their sudden lack of freedom, Nurse hasn't sensed much of that at all.
“They've had great attitudes,” he said. “I haven't sensed hardly any boredom or whining or ‘not another day of one on zero work.' I've sensed great energy, great professionalism. The vibe in the gym, even though it's different, has still been pretty good. We still got our music playing and you look across the floor and guys are working and sweating and getting better so it's been probably a pleasant surprise and a pleasant experience so far.”
But now the grand experiment begins. Take 22 teams and put them in a confined space for up to three months. What could go wrong?
Well, the correct answer is anything and everything, but the league is hoping all the preventative measures they have taken to prevent an outbreak within the bubble will be sufficient.
Having seen the success the Raptors had with that in their own little experiment in Naples/fort Myers, Nurse is even a little more optimistic that the league can pull off their own return-to-play successfully than he was two weeks ago.
“Let's not get over-confident but let's say slightly more confident,” Nurse said of this feelings going into Orlando. “Me, it feels like we are in a safe environment. I mean we are going a long ways out of our way to make it extra safe as we should. I think that contributes to it. We really are in the hotel. We are confined. We are away from everything. There is cleaning all over the place. Everyone is wearing masks. We go to the gym and there's cleaning and we come back. It feels really safe. That's good.
“I would imagine we go in there (to Orlando) and I think the early stages or days of the Disney thing are critical,” he said. “Getting a whole bunch of testing done and getting kind of to a point there. Again I think it will all be done at a really high level and remain fairly safe. I hope I'm right. Again this is no time to say … you really don't know, but I would say I feel much more safe than maybe I thought I was going to be … maybe.”
Like most rational thinkers, Nurse knows speaking definitively on what lies ahead is a fool's game.
LOWRY LOOKING ‘AWESOME’
Outside of a few comments about his golf game, talk of Kyle Lowry and how he has fared over these past couple of weeks as the Raptors reconvened in southern Florida has been all but non-existent.
Nurse strongly suggested to reporters on Friday that no one need worry about his veteran point guard.
“Yeah he is looking awesome. I mean like really awesome,” Nurse said, emphasizing the awesome. “He is really working hard.
“He comes into camp always in great shape, full of energy and feisty and all that stuff and he is,” Nurse continued. “He's going at it. He's working extremely hard very early in the morning in all facets — his conditioning, his shooting. He's good. He looks good and his workouts have been excellent.”
It's no secret that Lowry is the straw that stirs the Raptors, more this season than ever.
As he goes, so goes the team. We might not have said that a year ago with Kawhi Leonard on the roster, but there's no debating that now.