The NBA's plan to resume the 2019-20 season amid the COVID-19 pandemic is starting to take shape.
There are still plenty of details and logistical issues that need to be worked out, but a step forward was taken over the weekend when NBA spokesman Mike Bass said Saturday the league has entered into exploratory conversations with The Walt Disney Company on a single-site plan for resuming its season in Central Florida in late July.
Games would be played at Disney's ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, which is located near Orlando. The 255-acre complex includes multiple arenas that could host games simultaneously, which for the Miami Heat is just a three-and-a-half-hour bus ride or short flight away from AmericanAirlines Arena.
"The NBA, in conjunction with the National Basketball Players Association, is engaged in exploratory conversations with The Walt Disney Company about restarting the 2019-20 NBA season in late July at Disney's ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Florida as a single site for an NBA campus for games, practices and housing," Bass said. "Our priority continues to be the health and safety of all involved, and we are working with public health experts and government officials on a comprehensive set of guidelines to ensure that appropriate medical protocols and protections are in place."
While the NBA is hoping to complete the season in Central Florida this summer, the league is still uncertain about the regular season and playoff structure it will use. It's also unclear if all 30 teams will be included in the season's resumption, but the hope is to limit each participating team's traveling party to mitigate any possible spread of COVID-19.
According to ESPN, the NBA is considering a step-by-step plan for a resumption of the 2019-2020 season that includes an initial two-week recall of players into team markets for a period of quarantine, one to two weeks of individual workouts at team facilities and a two-to-three week formal training camp before games begin by the end of July. This timeline could begin in the coming days, with teams reportedly expecting the league to advise them to start recalling players to their markets around June 1.
The NBA has a board of governors call set for Friday, which is expected to provide further clarity on the plan to resume the season.
According to Shams Charania from The Athletic, the NBA recently sent a survey to its 30 general managers regarding competition formats for the remainder of the season.
Among the formats under consideration, according to Charania, are heading straight into the playoffs based on the March 12 standings, expanding the postseason either through a play-in tournament to determine the final playoff seeds or replacing the first round of the playoffs with a group stage, and finally resuming the regular season with all 30 teams playing the same number of games. Scrimmage games prior to any restart is also a possibility, and the survey also asked general managers if they preferred a 72- or 76-game regular season.
In addition, Charania reported the survey also featured two different playoff formats: the traditional Eastern Conference/Western Conference bracket or reseeding all teams without regard to conference. And Labor Day, Sept. 15, Oct. 1, Oct. 15 and Nov. 1 were listed as options for the last possible date to finish the playoffs.
"Most likely it's going to have to be a tournament situation. I don't think it's realistic to really see if we can pick up where we left off," veteran Heat forward Udonis Haslem said during a recent appearance on ESPN's Now or Never. "We can't finish out everything. But I definitely think there needs to be a pre-period before we jump right into the playoffs to get guys acclimated to being back into the season, helping prevent injuries moving forward."
The NBA season has been suspended since March 11, as the Heat entered the hiatus with the fourth-best record in the Eastern Conference at 41-24.
Based on the current standings, the Heat would face the fifth-seeded Indiana Pacers in the first round of the playoffs if a traditional 16-team East/West bracket was used.
If all teams were reseeded regardless of conference, the Heat would be the No. 8 seed based on the current standings behind the No. 1 Milwaukee Bucks, No. 2 Los Angeles Lakers, No. 3 Toronto Raptors, No. 4 Los Angeles Clippers, No. 5 Boston Celtics, No. 6 Denver Nuggets and No. 7 Utah Jazz. Under a 16-team playoff system regardless of conference, the Heat would be matched up against the No. 9 Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round of the playoffs.
As many across the NBA wait to learn the next steps toward resuming the season, teams have been allowed to welcome players back to their training facilities for voluntary individual workouts, albeit under strict league guidelines, since May 8. The Heat began allowing players on May 13 to participate in voluntary individual workouts at the team's AmericanAirlines Arena practice facility.
Fourteen of the Heat's 17 players under contract are in South Florida and available to participate, which includes the team's two two-way contract players Kyle Alexander and Gabe Vincent.
The only three Heat players who have quarantined outside of South Florida _ Jimmy Butler, Andre Iguodala and Solomon Hill _ have not returned to Miami yet as they wait for more concrete details on the NBA's plan for the remainder of the season, according to multiple league sources. Butler, Iguodala and Hill are in California.
The framework _ at least most of it _ for an NBA return is expected to be figured out over the next two weeks, with conversations between NBA officials, executives and players ongoing.
"I definitely tell guys that we have this little period where we can go in and do these voluntary workouts, take advantage," Haslem said during his ESPN appearance. "Hit the ground running. If the season comes back, we want to hit the ground running."
