Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the 2020-21 NBA season will look much different than in past years.
We already know many dates have been altered, with the season starting Dec. 22 as opposed to October. According to Hawks general manager Travis Schlenk, who met with the media Monday to discuss Wednesday’s draft, the schedule release also may go differently this year.
The transition from draft to free agency to training camp to preseason games to the first regular season game has been considerably condensed.
When asked about the unique circumstance, Schlenk said the league could release the first half of the schedule and allow a period of time for makeup games, since some games may be postponed if teams have players who test positive for the coronavirus. The league has not made an announcement.
“Starting with the draft, through free agency, through training camp, through the preseason games, we still don’t have all the protocols yet from the league on everything that we’re going to have to do, just to try to get through the season,” Schlenk said. “Obviously we know we’re only playing 72 games instead of 82 games. They’re only going to release the first half of the schedule to us, not the full schedule at once; they’re going to have a break in the middle of the schedule to make up any games that may have to be made up due to illnesses.
Schlenk said the travel could look very different, and teams may try to play more than once during a road trip. However, nothing is official until the league announces dates and protocols.
“The travel’s going to look more like a baseball model, like if we go to Charlotte to play the Hornets, we’ll go up there and we’ll stay three days and play two games to try and limit the travel,” he said.
Allowing time for some makeup games makes sense, given the level of uncertainty about getting through a 72-game season without playing inside a bubble.
Per Schlenk, there are discussions around players limiting contact/interactions while on the road, as well as other day-to-day logistics.
“There’s just a lot of up in the air,” Schlenk said. “Talks about the number of people that can travel with the plane, are you taking the broadcasters, all those things are up in the air. The number of people that are allowed into the practice facility, we’re kind of a split facility right now. We have the players, trainers and coaches on one side, and we have the other front office staff on the other side of the building and we do our best not to have those two different groups intermingle.
“As we’re testing all those folks every day, keeping the rest of us away. So it’s going to be a wild year and we’re all going to be adjusting on the fly.”
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