Inside phase 1 of the NBA season’s second training camp

Coaches have on face masks and gloves on during rebounding drills. Only a certain amount of people are allowed on the court at the same time.

Players schedule their time in the gym, weight room and training room to make sure not too many people gather together. The Sacramento Kings been gone for months and now are moving back into one of the highest levels of athletics in a time when one of the most basic elements of sportsmanship could be an issue €“ shaking hands. Wearing masks, bringing in their own workout clothes and a new process for making sure their shoes they use don’t go outside the arena is all part of it.

This is the new norm for the beginning stages of this NBA season’s second training camp in the age of the coronavirus.

Sacramento Kings head coach Luke Walton said the team has three top priorities for the team right now leading into the Orlando eight-game tournament:

1. Making sure everyone is comfortable
2. Making sure everyone is healthy
3. Getting skill work and conditioning in

€œPhase 1 is let’s get to Orlando as close as possible with a close group that is healthy and ready to pick up that intensity of play and contact once we’re cleared to do so,€ Walton said.

Recently, the Kings strength department ran a conditioning test with the players and everyone checked out pretty well, Walton said.

€œYou’re never in basketball shape unless you are playing five-on-five real basketball so we know that we’re not there, but part of it is we just want to make sure we’re giving our guys the best chance of not getting hurt early on and it feels like our guys are in a good place with that,€ he said.

Individual workouts are allowed to become mandatory now, and Walton said that change won’t really matter for them because most of the Kings players were showing up to the optional ones. This week will be about individual workouts, watching film, conditioning, the weight room and getting the players’ bodies right before everyone embarks on the journey to Orlando on July 8, where the “real€ training camp begins.

The players are under no pressure to go if they don’t feel comfortable, Walton said.

“I’m very open with our players and I’ve made it very clear that no judgement, no pressure, totally understandable if players or staff choose to opt out of going. We’re totally in support of those decisions, and not a single player has come to me with that concern,€ Walton said. €œMy understanding is that everyone on our team is good with it and excited about it.€

De’Aaron Fox discussed the new environment and what’s ahead.

€œIt’s different. I mean it’s crazy, the world that we are living in right now, but life is all about adapting so that’s what we’re doing right now and I feel good about being able to get back on the court and work out, and be able to see some of the guys,€ Fox said. €œI’m enjoying the process and I’m ready to play whenever we start.€

Some staff may not have the opportunity to choose to opt-in to going. The Kings have to decide on a limit of 35 people to go to Orlando, including training staff, coaches and players. Walton has spent a lot of time deciding who will be on this list.

“Everybody is struggling with it because we know how hard it is and how much of a commitment everyone makes to work in this league, and now, this a chance to be part of the playoffs or try to get into the playoffs and you are having to tell people that they can’t go,€ Walton said. €œAnd at least for us and some of the other head coaches I’ve talked to, everyone wants to be a part of this and so it’s a challenge as far as finding that right mix between the training staff, and the coaching staff and players.€

The Kings have had three players test positive for the virus: Buddy Hield, Alex Len and Jabari Parker. Walton said all three players have reported doing much better and are undergoing testing every other day, following protocols of the NBA. The Kings either send medical staff to them or conduct a testing process where they don’t get out of the car at the facility for the test.

€œYou don’t want anyone to get sick, but if you are trying to find the bright side, if you test positive now, you’re most likely, from what I can tell, you will be ready to play by the time games come around in Orlando,€ Walton said.

Walton said he spoke to Parker, who may have violated NBA protocols by reportedly being in public after testing positive for coronavirus, about being out in public. He told him that even though he has been cleared to end his self-isolation, the team still can’t have him, or anyone who gets sick, doing hard physical work until a later date when they are cleared again by doctors. Parker, as well as everyone on the team has been reminded to wear face masks and be socially responsible for everyone they come in contact with.

Between the list of 35 people, getting the players comfortable with this new format for professional sports, isolation, testing, no fans in attendance and everything else, it’s all very different.

For every team participating in Orlando, it is a starting over point for the season, but Walton said it is a much different starting over point for the teams on the cusp of the playoffs than it is for the teams already locked in. The top teams in each conference will be using the eight games to prepare for the playoffs and aim to be peaking when the playoffs begin.

“We have to find a way to create that chemistry and be peaking from day one of the eight-game season,€ Walton said.

With so much change in how a team plays and even communicates with one another, you have to wonder how much different this new season is going to look and feel. Hopefully, everyone stays healthy.