As most of the NBA’s practice facilities have been reopened for individual training, the New York Knicks, located in the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, have been wary of calling players back to New York to prepare for a possible resumption of the program. 2019-2020.
According to an ESPN report, the Knicks are waiting to find out if the NBA will require all 30 teams to return to action under a plan that has taken hold in the past few weeks to complete the season in Orlando, Florida, using the Walt Disney World resort facilities.
Former Knicks manager David Fizdale recently suggested that teams outside the playoffs should not be forced to put their players at risk of traveling and complete a symbolic number of regular season games.
The Knicks are currently the sixth worst team in the NBA, which counts for two reasons: one, it seems rather useless to force the organization to send a group of people to a remote place to play insignificant games; and two, for lottery calculations, question the incentive that the Knicks must field a competitive team if victory hurts their chances of getting a higher choice.
The final details to resume the season have yet to be finalized, so everything is fluid. Indeed, a play-in tournament is being considered that would technically put the Knicks in the playoffs, or at least in a tournament for the right to do the traditional 16-team playoff format. However, such a proposal seems unlikely to happen.
While many believe that the NBA prefers to limit the number of teams that have to return to play this season, no final decision has been made according to ESPN.