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NBA reportedly won’t open practice facilities before May 8

The NBA is suspending its plans to re-open select practice facilities by at least a week.

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Lakers All Access Practice Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images

Last week, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reported that, beginning May 1, some teams would be permitted to re-open their practice facilities for individual workouts. The news came shortly after Georgia Governor Brian Kemp announced that gyms and other businesses that had been deemed non-essential in Georgia were going to re-open within the week, so, in theory, the Atlanta Hawks would be able to practice at their local gym and — if granted permission by the league — their team practice facility.

While there’s been no indication that the state plans to go back on its plans to re-open this week, the NBA no longer plans to make select team facilities available on May 1, according to a report by Shams Charania of The Athletic.

Even if the date wasn’t pushed back, the Hawks reportedly planned on keeping the doors to their practice facility closed for a little while longer:

Ultimately, that doesn’t change much for the Los Angeles Lakers, who are in a state with some of the country’s strictest stay-at-home orders. In California, the stay-at-home order won’t be lifted until at least May 15.

What will temporarily hurt the Lakers, though, is the NBA’s decision to prohibit players from working out at facilities outside of their respective teams’ facility:

Does that mean players with full-sized courts in their houses won’t be able to use them anymore? That’s doubtful. The people this applies to are the players that have recently been granted access to a private facility like Danny Green. According to Green, LeBron James and Anthony Davis were trying to make sure everyone had a similar gym they could go to.

Additionally, the NBA planned on accommodating players in more restrictive states, according to Wojnarowski’s report from Saturday:

In markets in which more restrictive governance of stay-at-home orders remain in place, the NBA is telling teams the league will work with franchises to help find alternative arrangements for their players, sources said.

Now, Green will have to go back to square one, which, from what we know, involved him laying in his bed and shooting a ball at the ceiling. No, seriously.

There’s no doubt that teams are itching to get back onto the court — especially teams like the Lakers that are expected to contend for the title this season — but the more cautious the league is about its plans to return, the sooner it will be able to resume play. In other words, if the NBA wants to reach the light at the end of the tunnel, it can’t take its foot off the gas just yet.

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