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Report: NBA will not allow non-bubble teams to hold mandatory summer OTAs | Bleacher report

John Bazemore / Associated Press

Eight of the 30 NBA teams will not be invited to Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, to end the 2019-20 campaign, which is expected to restart on July 30 after a five-month suspension due to the COVID-19 pandemic. .

This raises the question of how these teams will slow down the competitive basketball tide between March 11, when the season was suspended, and December 1, when the NBA is looking to start the 2020-21 season.

Those teams seemed to be holding mandatory offseason activities this summer, but the NBA and NBPA broke that plan, for Marc Berman of the New York Post:

“The eight teams not involved in the Orlando restart were pushing for mandatory organized team activities to compensate for the loss of the Orlando restart. But the NBA and its association of players will not allow any of them to be mandatory, according to sources.

“Some teams – not the Knicks – have lobbied to organize a one-site summer championship tournament with the eight teams, but Orlando’s massive COVID-19 protocols are too complex to be implemented for random teams, sources said.

NBPA director Michele Roberts noted concerns about the safety of those OTAs in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic during a conference call on Friday:

“Candidly, although I appreciate that there will be a little layoff, I think there are some things these teams can do to convince the kids that they aren’t playing. [benefit] from their not getting involved in Orlando. But unless we could in any way replicate the protocol that was established for Orlando, I would be – now I am tame – suspicious. “

Berman wrote that there would be a problem with players practicing the facilities and returning home as usual, which would be a stark contrast to the bubble-like environment that players will find themselves in during their stay in Florida. , where fewer Disney World staff members will actually be quarantined by the general population.

The NBA has invited 22 teams to end the 2019-20 campaign: the top eight in the Eastern and Western Conferences and the six teams in six playoff games in both conferences.

By virtue of the fact that this year they do not fall into either category, the Chicago Bulls, Charlotte Hornets, Cleveland Cavaliers, Detroit Pistons, Atlanta Hawks, New York Knicks, Minnesota Timberwolves and Golden State Warriors are unlikely to play a regular season game. at least until December 1st.

That would mean almost nine months without organized basketball in significant matches for the players of those teams.

The Knicks, in particular, were looking to make a week-long minicamp with their younger players in the hopes of giving them time to work with them before November 6, when 2020-21 should begin. The New York coaching position is currently vacant.

The NBA has not yet rejected the idea of ​​teams that train informally while practicing appropriate rules of social distancing, although those sessions should be voluntary and follow “strict guidelines” for Berman.

Meanwhile, individual players can train alone in the team’s facilities with the COVID-19 restrictions in place.

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