More than five months have passed since the NBA’s non-bubble squads got to play organized basketball, and it appears those teams are finally nearing an agreement with the Players’ Association to form a clean site in their home markets that would allow them to resume five-on-five practices and full-team training as soon as next month.
Initially, these eight non-bubble teams were in talks to put together their own bubble in some host city, but those talks fell through. The compromise, as reported by Shams Charania of The Athletic, appears to be a strict public health regimen in teams’ home markets.
Sources: The NBA and NBPA are in serious talks on in-market bubble program in September for the eight franchises that were not part of Orlando restart, with framework:
– Daily testing
– One week of individual workouts
– Two weeks of group practices
– One hour of 5-on-5 per day— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) August 14, 2020
Since about June, players have been able to access team training facilities for physical therapy and medical attention, as well as individual shooting and workouts, but have been forced to physically distance from coaches and teammates. By paying for daily testing, the league will be able to create for these teams a modified “bubble” where they can be safer coming into close contact with one another.
As Adrian Wojnarowski noted, the absence of Summer League is being felt particularly strongly by young, building teams.
The discussions for the eight teams left out of Orlando restart continue to center on in-market workouts starting in September, sources tell ESPN. Those teams remain anxious for chance to get teams back in gym during long hiatus — especially with no summer league.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) August 14, 2020
So while it will be nice for recovering players like Klay Thompson and Steph Curry to get up and down the court after a long break, it’ll be equally, if not more, important for a lottery team to continue building player chemistry and installing their system, even if it does appear to be for only three weeks.
