The NBA and the National Basketball Players Association have finalized an agreement that will allow the eight teams who were not invited to Orlando to conduct voluntary group workouts at their team facilities, according to a league press release.
The teams will each reside in a campus-like environment under controlled conditions. The agreement includes comprehensive health and safety protocols.
The workout program is scheduled to take place Sept. 14–Oct. 6 and will be implemented in phases. The first phase, which will be held Sept. 14-2o, will consist of voluntary individual workouts at team facilities and the commencement of daily COVID-19 testing for all players and staff planning to participate in group workouts.
The second phase will occur from Sept. 21–Oct. 6. It will consist of group training activities in market, which may include practices, skill or conditioning sessions, and intra-squad scrimmages. Daily coronavirus testing will continue during that phase and each team will create its own campus-like environment in its home city.
The “campus” will include the team’s facilities and private living accommodations for all participating players and team staff. In order to participate in group training activities, players and team staff must remain on the campus.
In addition to players under contract with the team, each of the eight teams may also include up to five players who are not currently under an NBA contract, but who were under an NBA G League contract and assigned to the team’s NBAGL affiliate this season.
Discussions about organized team activities (OTAs) – including group workouts and scrimmages – for those eight clubs have been ongoing for weeks. There was plenty of speculation that the teams would convene at one site but obviously both the league and NBAPA decided it would be easier and safer to keep the teams in their home cities.
The Warriors, Timberwolves, Cavaliers, Hawks, Pistons, Knicks, Bulls, and Hornets were the eight teams left out of the restart.