What to do with 8 also-rans?
As top 22 teams enter Orlando bubble to compete for playoffs, remaining franchises, stars sit idle
Two goals drove the NBA to conceive of the Orlando bubble that will host the league’s restart later this month. The first was crowning a champion, and the second was generating television revenue to help offset substantial losses caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic.
In weighing the health risks and potential financial rewards, the league concluded it didn’t need eight teams to achieve the objectives. The Knicks, Bulls, Warriors, Pistons, Hawks, Cavaliers, Timberwolves and Hornets were all left out of the NBA’s plans, allowed to stay home rather than trek to Disney World for games scheduled to begin July 30.
Dumping those eight made sense. All were significantly out of the playoff picture, a few had stars nursing injuries, and others were simply playing out the string. “It feels like the end of the season for our team,” Warriors Coach Steve
Kerr said all the way back in April.
But as the top 22 teams head south this week with the coronavirus threat showing no signs of abating, those eight also-rans are left wondering what comes next. The 2020-21 season is tentatively scheduled to begin in December, so teams that don’t participate in the restart would go nine months without competitive basketball — more than double the length of a typical offseason. Executives and coaches from multiple teams in this group have worried, both publicly and privately, that the long layoff could put them at a disadvantage.
“We were hopeful to be granted the opportunity to continue the season to further the development of our young team in meaningful basketball games and also feed off the positive momentum we had built prior to the league shutdown,” Cavaliers general manager Koby Altman said in early June. “Collectively, our players want to compete at the highest level.”
Those feelings have deepened because the Orlando teams will soon be able to hold group workouts once they are in the bubble, while those left behind will remain barred from holding team activities at their practice facilities. Players are getting itchy during the layoff — with some turning to unauthorized summer games — and teams are pondering next year’s competitive landscape.
The NBA held a conference call Thursday with seven of the eight teams to discuss various options for their return to play. Possible solutions included a tournament to be held in a second bubble in Chicago, head-to-head events between smaller groups of teams and a reopening of practice facilities for intrasquad workouts and scrimmages. Any finalized proposal that surfaces from conversations among these eight teams must be approved by both the NBA’s board of governors and the National Basketball Players Association.
The NBA’s extensive health protocol for the Orlando bubble ran 113 pages and mandated conditions that would be expensive and difficult to replicate in a second bubble. Players in Orlando must go through an extensive quarantine, live in restricted hotels and play in gyms that are painstakingly disinfected to reduce the risk of virus spread.
Justifying those costs with LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo present to attract television audiences is an easy sell. Maintaining that standard for teams largely filled with younger, less-proven players is much tougher. Even so, the NBPA will surely fight for the same level of protection for its members, whether they are returning to work in Orlando, entering a second bubble or participating in group activities at team practice facilities.
Chicago would be a natural choice for a possible second bubble; it has hosted the NBA’s annual draft combine and was the site of this year’s All-Star Weekend. The NBA used DePaul’s Wintrust Arena, which is adjacent to a full-size hotel, for multiple events in February, including a secured community service event with former President Barack Obama.
Some team executives, though, question whether a second bubble makes sense. If numerous players are opting out of playing in Orlando, why would established stars on the eight teams staying back, such as Stephen Curry and Blake Griffin, show up to a second bubble?
If the playoffs will dominate television interest and the non-Orlando stars won’t show up to a second bubble, will fans care about watching what happens there?