One of the complaints from players about the “bubble” concept for restarting NBA play was how long they could be essentially stuck in a hotel away from home. From training camp deep into the Finals, players could spend three months in this “bubble.” While their family would be there and the players could go outside the hotel/resort property (and get tested on re-entry), that’s still a long time to be away from home.
One way to shorten that time: Have teams conduct their return training camps in their practice facilities, then travel to the bubble city or cities — still most likely Las Vegas and/or Orlando — for the games themselves. It’s something Marc Stein of The New York Times Tweeted about.
Among NBA return-to-play scenarios being discussed, league sources say, is a template calling for teams to conduct Training Camp 2.0 in their own practice facilities before heading to one or two centralized sites to resume play, with Orlando and Las Vegas still vying for games
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) May 19, 2020
If every team facility is open by next month when Commissioner Adam Silver has to make his decision, there is some real logic to this. The bigger the bubble and the longer it exists, the harder it is to maintain. Plus, players want to be home as much as possible. Having teams host their own training camp helps with both of those issues.
Silver and his deputies have a decision tree put together, guiding their next steps. It considers a lot of things, including how the battle against the coronavirus is going in states and cities where the NBA is contemplating congregating for games. The idea of training camps hosted by teams factors into it. Right now, everything remains on the table, the league could go a lot of directions, but more and more it looks like a restart of the season is coming.
The first question is where will the training camps be hosted?