P.J. Tucker, Isaiah Hartenstein, and Bruno Caboclo were the first members of the Houston Rockets to return to team facilities at Toyota Center, according to Mark Berman of Fox 26 Houston.
Monday was the first day for the Rockets (40-24) to welcome back players since the NBA’s March 19 decision to shut down all team facilities amid the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Tucker is the team’s starting center and most reliable defender, while Hartenstein and Caboclo are reserve options behind him.
Because the closure of team facilities to players effectively lasted two months, many Rockets players are not currently in Houston. In other words, for those who have yet to report to Toyota Center, it’s not that they aren’t working out — they’re just working out where they are.
For example, after retreating to his offseason home in Los Angeles, Russell Westbrook has been seen on camera going through intense workouts. James Harden is in Arizona, where he played in college.
The NBA began letting teams reopen facilities on May 8, if permissible by local regulations. But the Rockets waited until May 18 to comply with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s phased reopening plan, which called for the reopening of gyms and indoor sports facilities in the second phase.
For now, team facilities are only open on a limited basis for individual player workouts under strict physical distancing protocols, and not for any sort of conventional group practice. Head coaches, such as Mike D’Antoni in Houston, are not yet allowed to attend.
But that could change in the weeks ahead, with recent media reports citing positive momentum for the NBA’s potential restart at a neutral location (without fans) later this summer.
The timeline for returning to traditional contact practices is unknown, though The Ringer reports that the NBA hopes to have all players back in their usual cities by early to mid June to potentially start training camps.
