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For the past week it seems like the NBA has been ramping up their efforts to get the season back on track after taking nearly two months off due to the coronavirus outbreak.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the NBA will begin issuing guidelines to teams on June 1st that would allow them to begin getting players to start practicing in a group environment.
Via ESPN
NBA teams are expecting the league office will issue guidelines around June 1 that will allow franchises to start recalling players who’ve left their markets as a first step toward a formal ramp-up for the season’s resumption, sources told ESPN.
Teams expect a similar timeline from the league on when they’ll be allowed to expand individual workouts already underway with in-market players to include more team personnel, sources said.
On Twitter, Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie appears to have leaked a potential date for the NBA to return as July 15th.
That’s just practice… I heard those last 5 games at bubble site start July 15th. https://t.co/EsF3omehYQ
— Spencer Dinwiddie (@SDinwiddie_25) May 21, 2020
NY Times NBA insider Marc Stein seems to be hearing the same thing as Dinwiddie from his sources.
Many around the league have been buzzing about the same rough timeframe described in this tweet … practices that would launch one month from now … with an NBA season resumption date in the July 15 range … https://t.co/iHFoPniNGI
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) May 21, 2020
It also appears that the season will take place in Orlando at the Walt Disney resorts.
The NBA has Orlando/Disney World as a clear frontrunner for return-to-play site for resuming 2019-20 season, sources tell me and @sam_amick. Orlando has gained significant seriousness among other cites such as Las Vegas.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) May 20, 2020
Despite Dinwiddie’s tweet, Adam Silver has reportedly not yet made a final decision on when the NBA will return and won’t make one for a few weeks.
Via The Athletic
The prospect of players fully training in mid-June and playing by mid-July has been the most popular and possible scenario discussed. NBA commissioner Adam Silver told the Board of Governors on May 12 that he aims to decide on the season in two-to-four weeks, and that he wants to wait as long as he can to make final decisions.