In June, Detroit Pistons coach Dwane Casey pondered how detrimental nine months without organized basketball would be for the development of his young players.
That’s the reality the Pistons were facing, as their season ended March 11. The 2020-21 season is slated to begin in December, at the earliest. Such a long period without playing high-level basketball could be bad for any player, but particularly young players who are working to find their place within the league.
Casey suggested that the league find a way to get the Pistons, along with the seven teams who weren’t invited to Orlando, back in action. This week, he got his wish.
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Tuesday evening, the NBA announced a program to get those eight teams back on the court for inter-market, voluntary group workouts. Those workouts will include practices and scrimmages, which are currently not allowed for nonbubble teams under the NBA’s new pandemic-related restrictions.
Casey has been impressed by the level of play within the Orlando bubble and has noticed several young players flourish. Nuggets rookies Michael Porter Jr. and Bol Bol have thrived, along with Blazers second-year guard Gary Trent Jr. and others.
“If you notice all the games down in Orlando, a lot of the young players have flourished and blossomed and come along,” Casey told reporters Wednesday. “That’s something we’ve missed out on. Hopefully this will give us the opportunity for guys to go competitively five-on-five, three-on-three, whatever the number is to get some competition because that’s so important for the growth, especially for a kid like Sekou (Doumbouya), going into his second year.
“And again, the bubble situation has almost offered the young players down there the look of going into their second years as a pro as the first year continues.”
The inter-market workouts, scheduled to take place from Sept. 14 until Oct. 6, will require teams to establish a bubble-like environment within their cities. Teams will stay in a hotel together, and the “campus,” as the league is calling it, will also include all of that team’s facilities to limit travel and outside contact.
The workouts are voluntary, rather than mandatory. Casey said it’s unlikely that the Pistons’ veterans, Blake Griffin and Derrick Rose, will participate. But he’s strongly encouraging their young players, including Doumbouya, Luke Kennard, Svi Mykhailiuk and Bruce Brown, to attend.
“Hopefully with the young guys, it’s voluntary-but-mandatory,” he said. “I expect most, or all of the young players to participate.”
Casey initially hoped the league would find a way for the so-called “Delete Eight” teams to play against each other. At this point, it appears to be too great a challenge. The NBA reportedly considered bringing those teams into the Orlando bubble, but it was untenable.
Casey isn’t complaining, though. He said the Pistons are already devising ways, within NBA rules, to stay active once the workouts end.
“We’ll take it,” he said. “We want to be greedy. From a coaching standpoint, I would love to have been able to go against Cleveland and Chicago. I’ve been in contact with those coaches. We couldn’t get it done but we’re very happy and we’ll take what we can get. Again, we would love to have had an eight-team format, whatever.
“Once this is over with we’ll continue with one-on-one work,” he continued. “I don’t know, nothing’s been said about another bubble after this because, again, we don’t know when the season’s going to start up again after the playoffs are over with. We have to get as much work in as we possibly can to be ready when it’s December or January or whenever it is.”
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