LOS ANGELES – The LA Clippers have sent workout equipment to their players' homes to use and stay in shape amid the NBA's hiatus due to the coronavirus. Teams and their players have not been able to participate in any workouts over the last few weeks. The NBA has ordered facilities to shut down indefinitely in accordance to the NBA's as well as the national social distancing guidelines.
One Clippers player confirmed the workout equipment was sent and added that the team is also using the video conferencing service, Zoom, to coordinate workouts together, keep in touch, and continue building chemistry. Shams Charania of The Athletic had the report of teams using Zoom first.
Teams and their players have not been able to participate in any activity other than individual workouts in their homes. That means unless a player has a basketball court of some kind at home, players aren't doing much of any on-court work with a basketball.
The Commissioner Adam Silver and the NBA's Board of Governors are in talks regularly for updates on when the league could possibly look at returning. There have been talks about a potential May return, but that's looking very unlikely after President Donald Trump and his staff announced an extension of the stay-at-home recommendations until at least April 30th.
The best case scenario, at least right now, appears to be a return to play in June in empty arenas. There's also a good chance that upon return, games will be played in only a handful of cities as opposed to around the nation, which would require traveling.
In an Instagram Live conversation with Stephen Curry, Dr. Anthony Fauci addressed when he thought the NBA could return.
“We can start thinking about getting back to some degree of normality when the country as a whole has turned that corner and starts coming down.”
The Clippers were in the midst of one of their best seasons in franchise history. They'd compiled a 44-20 record through 64 games, and were just starting to peak both on the court as well as health-wise as the latter part of the season began. They only played 11 games when fully healthy, winning 10 of those. They also went 20-5 when both Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, and Patrick Beverley played.
It'll be interesting to see when, or even if, the season picks back up, especially considering the highly anticipated postseason that was coming up.
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