The Raptors confirmed today in a press release that select players and staff members are traveling to Fort Myers, Florida to prepare for the resumption of the 2019/20 season. According to Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca (Twitter link), most Raptors players are already in Florida or are en route.
Although NBA teams aren’t expected to report to the league’s campus at Walt Disney World for training camps until around July 7, the Raptors are headed to Florida early in order to get their international travel across the U.S./Canada border out of the way. Training in Toronto would have put the team at risk of being subject to a longer quarantine period once they traveled to Orlando in July.
According to today’s announcement, the Raptors will remain in the Fort Myers area until going to Disney in July. While the press release doesn’t mention it, the expectation is that the team will use the Alico Arena in Florida Gulf Coast University as its practice facility for the time being, per an earlier report from Shams Charania of The Athletic.
No group workouts will be permitted until teams report to Disney next month, so for now, the Raptors will continue to conduct individual workouts. Players and staffers are expected to remain at their hotels, leaving only for workouts and other “essential activities,” as Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca notes (via Twitter).
Orlando Women’s Pro soccer team just had 10 positive covid tests (6 players and 4 staff). They withdrew from the playoffs as a result. Is this the NBA’s future? Without contact tracing, I think that this will happen at some point during the NBA restart.