NBA teams dealing with long layoff
The NBA’s general managers talk to each other often. Usually, they just discuss trades. And they converse with skepticism.
Lately, though, these teams have exchanged ideas more openly. While the NBA will resume its season for 22 teams on July 31 at a quarantined sports complex outside Orlando, the Atlanta Hawks, Charlotte Hornets, Chicago Bulls, Cleveland Cavaliers, Detroit Pistons, Golden State Warriors, Minnesota Timberwolves and New York Knicks are left on the sideline.
“We were all in the same boat trying to help each other,” Hornets general manager Mitch Kupchak told reporters in a conference call. “We have been spending a lot of time together with the league. The league has indicated a willingness to work with us and try to create some structure because of the huge layoff during the offseason.”
The NBA might be willing to work with those teams. Those eight teams might be willing to work with each other. And Kupchak revealed that the NBA indicated it will inform teams in “the next week or so” on the offseason format.
“Our expectation is the league is going to let us do something,” Cavaliers coach J.B. Bickerstaff told reporters in a conference call. “I can't imagine that they would allow us to go eight months without doing anything with our guys.”
Yes, it is indisputable that those teams would suffer without playing since March 11 when the NBA suspended the season because of the coronavirus and Dec. 1, when the 2020-21 season is scheduled to begin.
The eight teams could be involved in a mini-camp so they can play in competitive games, shake off rust and further develop their players. With the Golden State Warriors fielding All-Stars that have either missed parts of the season (Draymond Green), most of it (Stephen Curry) and all of it (Klay Thompson), though, there is zero chance they would trot those players out in glorified exhibitions this summer.
“We're not interested in a summer league,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said in a conference call with reporters. “I definitely understand that a lot of the teams involved are younger and are more interested in getting game action for their players. But we're in a different space, and people understand that. We'd be more interested in practice time.”
It seems more realistic that the other teams would be more interested in a summer mini-camp. Atlanta (Trae Young, Cam Reddish), Charlotte (Devonte Graham), Chicago (Zach LaVine, Lauri Markkanen), Cleveland (Collin Sexton, Darius Garland), Detroit (Luke Kennard, Bruce Brown, Svi Mykhailiuk), Minnesota (D’Angelo Russell,) and New York (R.J. Barrett) all have promising young talent. But Atlanta (Jeff Teague), Chicago (Otto Porter Jr.), Cleveland (Tristan Thompson, Andre Drummond, Matthew Dellavedova) and New York (Taj Gibson) also have a handful of notable players who will either become free agents or hold player options for next season.
“This is where it gets tricky,” Hawks general manager Travis Schlenk said on a conference call with reporters. “They are going to have a different view in taking part in scrimmages or games with free agency looming over them.”
And there will be another thing complicating matters. While those teams were out of playoff contention, the NBA also wanted to alleviate safety concerns surrounding the coronavirus so it did not include every team in the resumed season.
It's always possible a mini-camp or intrasquad scrimmages could become a ratings draw for a sports-starved audience, but it hardly would match the television revenue the NBA will salvage with the rest of the teams. It will allow 22 of them to play eight regular-season games either to sneak into the 16-team postseason or improve their seeding. (Those six teams that failed to qualify and the eight already out would comprise the lottery teams.)
But the NBA could face the same logistical headaches for a summer minicamp.
They would have to find another bubble site that could keep all teams safely in quarantine. They would have to ensure adequate testing for everyone. They would have to make varying travel arrangements.
Given Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns lost his mother to COVID-19, no one could blame him or any other player feeling wary of that risk.
“In previous offseasons, we could easily hop on a plane, go see a guy, spend a week with him and stay in a hotel,” Bickerstaff said. “But now what does that look like?”
It looks like a mess. The NBA and the players union still have to sort out the final logistics on the resumed season in Orlando. The National Basketball Players Association is still negotiating with the league to change the date of next season (Dec. 1) since the last possible Finals game (Oct. 12) would leave for little time to rest.
For now, all teams are keeping their practice facilities open for individual voluntary workouts, while adhering to social distancing and sanitary requirements. Teams could be cleared to hold full practices at their facilities by the end of June. That way they can at least ensure all of their players are in one location. In other words, Young should no longer be tempted to play in a summerleague game as he did recently in his Oklahoma hometown.
“We’re able to see why this proposal is important -- our guys want to play,” Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce said in a conference call.
“You respect the fact that guys want to play and are looking for reasons to play and ways to play. But we’re trying to educate them on needing to be smart and explain this is why we want our players in Atlanta.”
Once that happens, perhaps at least some of the teams could participate in a mini-camp.
“We definitely need to get our team together for a period of time,” Kerr said. “I don't know for how long, but we definitely need to be together and have some practice sessions.”
How many? That, along with the logistics, remain the unknown.