Around the NBA: Teams reporting to Orlando bubble

22 teams in Playoff contention are arriving in Orlando this week to have mini-camps, scrimmages, and soon, resume the 2019-20 regular season.

Teams began to arrive in the Orlando “bubble” yesterday and will continue this week until all 22 remaining squads are present and ready to begin training camps and scrimmages. Upon completion of health screenings, players will be allowed to participate in group workouts that will serve as a condensed training camp.

All teams will play in three scrimmage games from July 22nd through the 28th. Then, what is essentially week 22 of the NBA regular season will resume starting the 30th. With fewer games and not all teams in attendance, the NBA is referring to this stretch as “seeding games.”

The final of these seeding games would be any necessary “play-in” games between close 8 and 9 seeds, which would take place August 15th and 16th. The Playoffs begin August 17th and will be a typical slate of 16 teams divided by conference, all playing best-of-seven series until the Finals, which would conclude no later than October 13th.

Though all the above dates are clear, the country is still in a fluid pandemic state amidst the coronavirus (covid-19) issues. Several players have already opted out due to illness, the possibility of illness, or fear of infecting loved ones. At this time, most of the impact players that have announced they will not be attending are doing so due to injury/rehab concerns such as Bradley Beal and Victor Oladipo.

So, it is unclear whether or not the above plan will go on without issue. Continuous health screening and safety measures will be firmly set in place. Players (or faculty and staff) in Orlando that are diagnosed with covid-19 will be removed from the bubble and must quarantine for a minimum of two weeks while the team plays its schedule as normal.

For additional details concerning this return to play, check out the info here at NBA.com

Undoubtedly, this will be an NBA Playoffs to remember. We can only hope that all involved remain healthy and safe. Things may not continue as planned, but we appreciate the opportunity to watch some top-level hoops once again. For continued coverage, keep it locked here and follow along with us on Twitter.