Report: NBA hoping to start training camps in early to mid June

The league hopes to have all players in their teams’ cities in early to mid June in order to begin training camps, Kevin O’Connor reports.

With the NBA allowing its teams to reopen facilities to players for individual workouts as soon as today, part of the motivation is reportedly to ramp up safety plans for a larger “training camp” operation in June.

“By opening doors now, the league is broadcasting to teams that it’s time to figure out how to create safe conditions for players to practice and ramp up for the possibility of playing games — which was outlined in a 19-page memo sent to each team,” The Ringer‘s Kevin O’Connor writes.

The Houston Rockets likely aren’t opening their doors at Toyota Center until Monday, May 18 ⁠— in part due to Texas regulations, and also because most players aren’t physically in town. They could potentially ask government officials for some form of exception, if needed, but it’s not worth it if most players aren’t even there to take advantage.

But the NBA is hoping that its policy shift will incentivize players to return to their teams’ cities, which would enable a quicker return to play — if and/or when the league deems it safe to do so. O’Connor explains:

Sources say the NBA is hoping that all players, coaches, and staffers will be in their respective teams’ cities by early-to-mid-June in order to begin training camp.

O’Connor says waiting until June has an additional benefit by allowing the NBA to learn from the experiences of other sports leagues. He explains:

By that point, the NBA will be able to learn from the experiences of other sports leagues. The NFL announced its schedule on Thursday night. MLB is expected to present players with a proposal next week. The PGA Tour is planning on resuming play in June. Around the world—from the KBO in South Korea to the Bundesliga in Germany—some sports plan to be in full swing by June. Waiting will allow the NBA to avoid the bad optics of being the first league to reopen, and give it more information about what worked, what didn’t work, and whether resuming play is even possible.

Should the season resume, O’Connor reports that games would likely be held at a neutral “bubble” site, such as Las Vegas or Orlando. But after a layoff of multiple months in length, players will likely need some form of training camp to acclimate themselves back into game shape, just as they do before the start of each new NBA season.

It appears the plan is for those camps to occur in each team’s city prior to reporting to a chosen neutral site for games. That would minimize the time that players, coaches, and staffers are away from home.

But for that plan to work, officials with each team need to develop an appropriate safety plan at their own facilities, and that’s what the league hopes to push forward by reopening on a limited basis in May.

The 2019-20 season has been on hold since March 12 due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in the United States. Teams were ordered to close their facilities to staff and players a week later.

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