Raptors need to make call on 2020-21 home

Canada's team facing busy three weeks as NBA gears up for late-December tip-off

Little by little, the picture for the upcoming NBA season is coming into focus.

Following a vote by NBA player reps on Thursday, the league has the go-ahead to build a 72-game season that begins on Dec. 22.

Still to be worked out is what percentage of their pay each player will be taking home for games in a shortened season and the very significant step of establishing guidelines to keep the coronavirus from hijacking the campaign.

A Dec. 22 start would necessitate that training camps open around Dec. 1. That leaves teams three weeks to conduct the annual draft (set for Nov. 18), sign free agents, and make trades.

It's rushed, no question.

But if you're the lone NBA team outside the U.S. borders, things are rushed and then some.

The ongoing Canada-U. S. border closure means the Toronto Raptors aren't sure where they'll even conduct their training camp, let alone play out the abbreviated season.

Their first choice, of course, would be to hold their training camp locally and then play their 36 home games at Scotiabank Arena.

The issue isn't just the closed border, but also the mandatory 14-day quarantine that awaits anyone who enters Canada.

In order for a visiting NBA team to enter Canada, they would first need a special exemption from the Canadian government to do so, and then access to a rapid COVID test that's still being tested in Canada.

If you recall this past summer, the Toronto Blue Jays attempted to obtain the same exemption to allow teams from the U.S. to play them at Rogers Centre.

That attempt failed, forcing them to play their season out in Buffalo.

There's no question our knowledge of the virus, how it spreads and how to keep it from spreading has come a long way. But in the midst of a second wave of the pandemic, it seems unlikely the government will provide exemptions.

Again, we don't know that to be fact. That's just some amateur tea leaf reading.

In any event, to hold training camp in Toronto would require Raptors players to return to the city by mid-November to accommodate the 14-day quarantine period before camp.

For the restart in the bubble in Orlando, the Raptors had their entire contingent congregate in Fort Myers, Fla., where they spent 16 days in camp before making the trek north to Orlando by bus.

The Raptors incurred huge expenses and put in ridiculous amounts of planning in order to avoid that 14-day quarantine period that would have been necessary had they held their training camp in Toronto.

Again, without a plan to play at home that would require a government sign-off, it makes almost no sense to hold training camp here.

In the past few weeks there have been no shortage of reports about where the Raptors could end up playing.

Suggestions have included Louisville, Ky. (quickly shot down) and Kansas City — which has an NBA-ready arena (T-Mobile Center) and is hoping to lure a team to move there or the league to expand there. New Jersey's Prudential Center, home for the Nets for two seasons before they moved to Brooklyn, has also been brought up.

Once again, you have an NBAready arena in place and you're joining four other NBA teams situated within a small area, which would cut down dramatically on travel. The New York Knicks, Brooklyn Nets, Philadelphia 76ers and Washington Wizards are all within a bus ride of each other. With the Raptors in Newark, N.J., the NBA would have five teams within a 4½-hour driving radius.

Other potential landing spots are said to include Tampa, Fla., Nashville, and of course Buffalo, but the team hasn't confirmed an interest in any of these locations.

What we do know is that a decision is going to have to be made soon — probably by the middle of the month, or draft day at the latest.

If a special exemption from the government allowing teams into Canada to play games doesn't come (and really that only happens if COVID-19 rapid testing makes its way to Pearson International Airport) then the Raptors are going to have to make a call on a new home for the 2020-21 season.

Which means a very busy November for everyone in the NBA will be that much busier for the Raptors.