Teams begin to descend on Disney World for restart
Practice facilities in the NBA have been open for a couple of months, with one major element missing from them.
No team has had an actual practice yet.
Most of the work that has gone on in those buildings during the NBA’s shutdown has been voluntary, and all of it has been of the individual variety — one player working at one basket with one ball. That changes starting Thursday, when the first handful of teams at the Disney complex will be permitted to have fullfledged practices again.
“Every day will be an adventure, a little bit of, ‘OK, here’s where we are today, this practice will reflect this, tomorrow’s practice might be totally different,’” Houston coach Mike D’Antoni said. “And that’s what makes it interesting. It makes it fun. But it’s a little bit like a training camp. Every year you know you lay out all these grand plans and about the third practice you go, ‘Ooop, they’re out.’ ”
The teams that arrived at Disney on Tuesday, assuming quarantines are completed and other issues haven’t popped up, will likely be permitted to practice sometime Thursday. More teams arrive today and Thursday, so their first practice sessions, in theory, would be as early as Friday and Saturday respectively.
Teams will be assigned a three-hour window and be able to run practice on a pair of sideby-side courts, with training and weight rooms nearby. Disney staff will clean and disinfect everything after one team leaves, preparing it for the next team to arrive.
“Just like with probably everything the league is doing, I think it’d be wise to have a degree of flexibility sprinkled in with everything that you’re planning, a degree of being able to either back off or turn it up a little bit, either way,” Milwaukee coach Mike Budenholzer said. “But to be honest with you, that happens a lot even in the normal season. There’s a plan for the first practice and we’ll see how it goes.”
Players haven’t even been allowed to play 1-on-1 yet at team facilities, per the rules of the individual workouts. That all changes at Disney, where teams will be able to practice for about two weeks before a series of three scrimmages commence on July 22.
The season resumes on July 30. Players have said throughout the shutdown that having only three weeks of actual practice to get ready for game action may not be enough — but that’s what the league ultimately decided the schedule would allow. WIZARDS’ BEAL, NETS’ DINWIDDIE TO MISS REST OF SEASON >> Washington Wizards leading scorer Bradley Beal and Brooklyn Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie won’t take part in the restart of the NBA season, two significant absences in the Eastern Conference playoff race.
Beal is out because of a right rotator cuff injury; Dinwiddie announced that he is still testing positive for coronavirus and won’t participate.
Washington, Orlando and Brooklyn are the three teams left in the chase for the final two playoff spots in the East Conference. If the Wizards finish within four games of whichever club finishes eighth, then two games will be played to determine the No. 8 seed.