A cautious start to NBA season, as camps open amid positives

first day of NBA training camp is supposed to be accompanied by brimming optimism, a time for players and coaches all taking those first steps toward what y hope is a championship.

It was tempered this year.

first preseason camps of coronavirus era opened Tuesday, with teams limited for first few days to individual sessions with one coach and one player at one basket, all of this starting to happen as pandemic continues raging and more and more Americans are testing positive — including at least three NBA players in recent days.

“I’m very concerned if we can pull this off,” Philadelphia coach Doc Rivers said.

He probably isn’t alone.

Golden State general manr Bob Myers said two Warriors have tested positive, meaning that club won't start individual workouts until Wednesday and won't have a full-scale practice until Monday. Washington coach Scott Brooks said Wizards have one player who tested positive. And Orlando coach Steve Clifford said Magic center Mo Bamba — who tested positive several months ago — is still “a ways away” from being ready to play again.

“I don't think this is unexpected," Myers said. “Kind of proves that protocols and testing are working. ... That's all per NBA protocols, which I'm learning a lot about."

Rivers, ting how virus is becoming a major issue for college football and NFL in terms of getting games played, said effect on an NBA team losing a key player or two for even a short period could essentially wreck a season.

“In football y play once a week and y have 1,000 players, so when you miss three or four players, you can still get away with it,” Rivers said. “If we miss three or four players, we’re in trouble, especially with amount of games. We’re playing three and four games a week. So, if one of our guys or two of our key guys get virus and y miss 10 days, 14 days, that can be eight games in a 72-game season. That can kck you out in playoffs.”

Wizards didn’t say what player tested positive, though Brooks said player has yet to be around team in Washington and that “everybody else is ready to go.” Warriors also didn't reveal who had positive tests, citing league rules and privacy policies. Bamba was diagsed with COVID-19 on June 11, played sparingly in Orlando’s first two games at Walt Disney World during NBA’s restart re this summer, n sat out rest of season for additional testing.

“Right w, we’re hoping that he can get healthy eugh to get back on floor,” Clifford said. “He’s going to be able to do some of things early in camp, but he’s going to be limited. He’s had kind of a tough stretch here in terms of how much he’s been able to do. We have to be prudent and make sure we’re moving along with him in an intelligent manner.”

Players and coaches are being tested daily and that is likely to be plan for throughout season. Protocols that league sent to teams late last week suggested that, in many cases, it would take at least 12 days for a player to be able to return to play after testing positive for coronavirus.

league had positive tests once players entered restart bubble over summer. But w back in real world, with travel and hotels and airplanes back in mix, San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich said challenge will fall on individuals to do right things.

“Here, people are coming in and out, it'll be much more difficult and discipline will have to be even greater," Popovich said. “But I think understanding is, to make it work, we have an even greater responsibility than we had in Orlando. league made it easy for us in Orlando, in my opinion, and as we all kw did a great job. But here, a lot more of onus is on individuals and teams."

NBA is working with BioReference — a company that also handled testing in bubble, at league’s expense of about $140 per test — for standardized league-wide testing, and that company will likely have personnel traveling with teams this season to handle testing on road. league has said that its testing program does t impact BioReference’s nationwide testing capabilities or use public health resources in a time where more and more Americans are seeking testing.

“I’m pretty comfortable with it,” Boston coach Brad Stevens said. “As we saw with bubble, NBA crosses every ‘t’ and dots every ‘i.’ y have been great communicating with all of us ... and I’m looking forward to hopefully getting toger and starting practice soon as a group.”

Some teams will be able to start those group practices — and 5-on-5 sessions — Friday. Most or NBA clubs will be able to start Sunday. Injuries will be a worry, as will conditioning, but daily testing numbers seem like y'll overshadow everything.

“As a coach, you want to go in with your team concerns being more basketball,” Rivers said. “And I think every coaches’ concerns right w are probably n-basketball.”

Im credits: AP