ESPN’s Brian Windhorst on the NBA’s plan to return to basketball

ESPN reports that whenever the NBA is cleared to resume, teams could have a 25-day window to prepare.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver has stated that the league will not begin to consider a potential restart to the 2019-2020 NBA season until May 1st, but the league is formulating a plan for teams to get back into action should medical experts clear the league to resume play.

The NBA season was suspended on March 12th, and with no one able to accurately predict when it will be safe for players to get back on the court, the delay is already causing scheduling issues for the upcoming NBA Draft and the 2020-2021 season. NBA teams reportedly want the league to delay the draft until after the current season has fully concluded, which means we could see a draft occur in August or later.

Hypothetically, even if conditions were different and teams were able to return to work, we wouldn’t see games for a month. According to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, the NBA is considering a 25-day preparation window where players would be able to work out individually, and then move into a team training camp before games take place.

“They’re spending a lot of time getting a back to basketball plan ready. They hope they get to use it. And talking to executives and trainers around the league, what they’re looking at is a 25-day return to basketball window, hopefully at some point they can enact it. An 11-day series of individual workouts, where there’d be social distancing for a period of time, and then hopefully if the clearance comes that they can play 5-on-5 basketball, a 14-day training camp.”

Windhorst also reports that teams are worried about potential injuries whenever the season resumes, as many players do not have access to a court and have not been able to practice due to the crisis.

 

“They are really concerned about injuries on players. Some people I’ve seen compare this to the lockout back in 2011, but that’s just not accurate because a lot of these guys aren’t playing basketball. Yeah if you have a great house with a beautiful indoor gym, or you have access to something like that you are playing by yourself, maybe, but in the lockout these guys were playing exhibitions and stuff. The trainers and medical personnel are really worried if there’s a restart that there could be injuries, even in the practices leading up.”

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