While shelter-in-place restrictions are easing up in some locations, NBA teams in those areas are still likely to wait until next week to open up their practice facilities, Marc Stein of The New York Times tweets. The Magic, one of the teams in a state where restrictions have been loosened, have not committed to opening up yet, telling Stein that they want to reopen as smoothly as possible.
Before anything happens, the NBA must officially allow facilities to reopen, which is still expected to take place on Friday. Even with facilities open, there are specific guidelines teams must follow, such as having a maximum of four players in any facility at once. Only one player can be at a basket at a time. Participation in the facilities will be voluntary, meaning players may not even take the opportunity to use the facilities.
The league is set on attempting to finish the 2019/20 season, even if it means extending the campaign to September.
“Our league has decided that we’re going to try to get in as much of our season and playoffs as the data will allow us to,” Magic CEO Alex Martins said. “We’ll play as late as Labor Day if we have to and we’ve been having initial discussions about even delaying the start of next season based on trying to get as much as this season in as possible.”
It would be so big for Orlando to make it as the 8th seed in the playoffs this year.
I can’t wait to see which players got fat / out of shape during the layoff.