Miami Heat: Details begin to emerge on potential return of NBA season

The Miami Heat, nor the entire NBA, has played a single game since March 11th. The hiatus may be nearing an end though as re-opening details begin emerging.

The Miami Heat haven’t played a game since March the 11th. While the entire league has been on a hiatus since then due to the coronavirus pandemic, there were teams who didn’t even play that night.

After almost two and a half full months of being away from the court and play, things are possibly starting to look up. Amid reports of the league beginning to lay out a possible clear return plan, details surrounding these plans have started to emerge.

As we touched on some time ago, one of these details that we’ve seen might just have a positive impact on the Miami Heat. According to Shams Charania and Sam Amick of The Athletic (subscription required), when the season does begin, Orlando has a great chance to host the situation. Here are a few of his exact words.

"Orlando’s Walt Disney World Resort is the clear frontrunner to become the NBA’s playing site to resume the 2019-20 season amid the coronavirus pandemic, sources told The Athletic.The NBA is in serious discussions with Disney about the property, which has gained clear momentum over cities such as Las Vegas, sources said. It remains unclear when the games would begin, but multiple sources say 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."

While that again, may be good for the Miami Heat specifically because of proximity to their actual home, it’s good for the league and the rest of us fans in general. Locking in facilities means that the proverbial ball is indeed rolling to get back to NBA basketball. Those aren’t the only details we’ve heard though.

While the word has been that places such as Las Vegas or Orlando were good possibilities for resumption locales because they could be the optimal places to create a “Bubble City” for the players, a place that they don’t leave and that no one enters except those that are there with NBA provision, that isn’t necessarily all true either.

While the goal is more than likely to limit the further spread of infection in general to the players and people that need to be there to help facilitate the games, they seem to have a plan in place to let the players move about a bit. That’s at least the word you get from this Jared Dudley statement, from a report by ESPN’s Dave McMenamin.

"“You will be allowed to leave,” Dudley said Wednesday on a video conference call with reporters, citing conversations he has been privy to with NBA commissioner Adam Silver and National Basketball Players Association executive director Michele Roberts. “Now just because you leave, if we’re going to give you that leeway, if you come back with corona, you can’t play.”"

That makes total sense. While again, the goal is to stop the spread of the virus and keep it away from those involved with the games, they don’t want to keep the players trapped. However, as Dudley put it, you have to test everyone involved that leaves the locale before they can be readmitted in order to stop the further spread if a case does emerge.

Those are good things to know, but with this knowledge, you’re probably wondering when further word will be sent down. Good thing then, because that’s just what we have for you. Here are details answering that question, from a report by Adrian Wojnarowski and Zach Lowe of 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."

Ah, it’s so refreshing. Although we don’t have NBA and specifically, Miami Heat basketball back yet, it’s good to have a sense that it’s on the way.

March 11th was a long time ago, especially when there haven’t been any live contests of any sort going on, nevertheless something as exciting as watching the Miami Heat versus Indiana Pacers rematch that was set to occur just after the hiatus began.

While we are glad that the move was made, as safety is the most important thing, don’t kid yourself. We were all anticipating the second part of “T.J. Warren v. Jimmy Butler“. You know you were.

Have no fear ladies and gentlemen, as we just might get it and in the playoffs nonetheless. We’ll keep our eyes peeled for the latest on the return of one of our favorite forms of entertainment, NBA and Miami Heat basketball.