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Originally Posted by thehef
Are they going to do bubble-ball for the first 40 games, or are they planning empty arenas until then? (Haven't really followed NBA closely since prior to the bubble.)
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Playing in their own arenas. It is up to the individual states and teams to decide on fans.
The NBA is a bit more cautious than other sports so it would not surprise me if all 30 teams did no fans until the break and then took a look at the state of the virus.
Neither the league or the players wanted to do the bubble again. It was hard on the players mentally. And the league did not want to do it since it cost them so much money. I heard that it cost the NBA as much as one million dollars a day. As much as $150 million for the entire bubble.
After over a decade of huge growth the league is almost out of cash reserves.
The only team sport that is going to try another bubble is I think the NHL. And that is because of the mixture of American and Canadian teams and the Canadian government does not want American teams entering their country without a 10 day quarantine which is not possible with sports.
The Raptors and teams that play the Raptors may get exemptions if the quality and accuracy of rapid tests improve.
If not, then a few cities have already shown high interest on hosting the Raptors for the season. Kansas City and Nashville are thought to be the two leaders at the moment.
Finally, to cut down on travel, teams will only play in conference. i.e we will not see the Lakers and Heat play one another.
Also teams may take longer road trips.
For example, Denver might take a 3 week road trip and play both LA teams 4 times in 7 days. Then play Golden State twice home and home and then finish at Golden State with two games.
That would mean they would not need to travel to California at all for the rest of the season.
Teams would do similar things against the Texas teams, New York-Philly teams and Florida teams.
Finally, I am not sure, but I suspect the NBA will allow expanded rosters and ease the rules on 10 day players and two way contacts.
Positive COVID cases are inevitable no matter how careful teams and staffs are. I would think teams more than ever would shuttle players back and forth between G-League and NBA to keep players fresh and if a player tests positive and you need a quick replacement for a few weeks.
Other more experimental ideas would be to go back to letting all teams amnesty one player contract again and having the buyout market be the entire season.
We will see the details over the next week or so. We are very quickly coming up on the draft and I don’t think the rookies will get a “summer league”
That will put them behind the 8 ball already.