Getting Raptors back home an NBA key

Adam Silver and the NBA hope they have put the pandemic behind them.

For a season and a half they have tiptoed through protocols hoping to keep the COVID-19 virus at bay. For the most part they have been successful.

The hope is for a return to normalcy in the coming 202122 season, that the days of three COVID tests a day are over for good and the focus can return slowly to the game on the floor and not the precautions that have to be taken to keep the game even operating.

Perhaps the most obvious sign that the game as we know it is back to normal will come right here in the Toronto area code.

The Toronto Raptors were the only team unable to play the 2020-21 season in their home venue, a casualty of a closed border that forced the Raptors to uproot for the season and move their entire operation to Tampa.

The league commissioner was asked pointedly about Toronto returning home to the Scotiabank Arena and despite his wide scope of responsibilities, he had to admit that situation remains unclear.

“I know on behalf of Larry Tanenbaum, who is the governor of the team and happens to be the chairman of the board of the NBA, he's very hopeful that Ontario will open up and that they will be able to have the team back in Toronto,” Silver said. “I know it's incredibly meaningful to the team. I think there was that additional burden placed on the Raptors more than any other team by having to relocate for the season.

“But we are hopeful the team will be back if things continue as we're seeing in Canada right now.”

And while that may be of most interest to the fan base, the biggest question on the minds of those around the NBA were the increasing number of injuries. Were they a product of the condensed and compressed schedule?

Silver said the answer remains elusive.

“Putting aside the specific data for a second, I have no doubt that the additional stress, again physical and emotional, on (players) contributes to injuries,” Silver said. “None of it is an exact science. It's something that even PRE-COVID, as you all know, we were very focused on at the league. We put people in place to focus exclusively on injury prevention. Precisely why we have the injuries we do is still unclear to us. It's something that we'll continue to study in the off-season.”

The idea of load management or rest as a potential solution to the rash of injuries have denied the game many of its stars at the most crucial part of the season. On that list: Anthony Davis with the Lakers, Jamal Murray with Denver, Kawai Leonard with the Clippers to name just three.

Silver pointed out that `resting' was up 100 per cent this season over last season and the injuries have continued to grow.

“The issue which we're trying to get to the root of is does resting work, frankly?” Silver asked “Does load management work? And there's different theories out there on it. What's most surprising, as I said, it's not just about injuries up this season; we have seen this upward trend for several years. And you would like to believe that with the investment, the level of sophistication, the number of doctors, the amount of analytics we look at, the data that we collect that we couldn't in the old days, that putting the pandemic aside, we would have seen improvements. We haven't seen that yet.”

On other matters, Silver did have some more definitive responses.

On expansion, Silver said while the issue did get discussed as the league shut down a year ago, March through June, the idea that it could magically offset the financial losses of the pandemic is not an accurate one.

“We'll continue to look at it. I mean, I've said this many times before, we're certainly not suggesting we're locked at 30 teams. I think at some point it will make sense to expand, but it's just not at the top of the agenda right now.”

The good news from a bottom line standpoint for the league was their projected losses of 40 per cent of their revenue over the course of the pandemic is not quite as bad as first thought.

The league's ability to bring fans back into arenas late in the season and into the playoffs has dropped those projected losses closer to 33 per cent according to Silver.