The Houston Rockets are joining the list of NBA teams re-opening their practice facility for individual workouts. Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reported Rockets president Daryl Morey said the team will officially re-open its facility on Monday.
The Houston Rockets are re-opening facility for voluntary workouts on Monday, @dmorey says.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) May 16, 2020
The NBA has encouraged teams to explore the option so as to ramp up basketball activities in the event the 2019-20 season can resume amid the coronavirus pandemic.
League officials said May 8 would be the earliest teams could re-open, and put in place a series of protocols with respect to sanitization and social distancing (via NBA.com):
The following restrictions would apply:
- No more than four players would be permitted at a facility at any one time.
- No head or assistant coaches could participate.
- Group activity remains prohibited, including practices or scrimmages.
- Players remain prohibited from using non-team facilities such as public health clubs, fitness centers, or gyms.
Some teams have been operating under the notion their season is already over, particularly if the NBA chooses to proceed right to the playoffs. Of course, the Rockets are firmly in the middle of the playoff picture.
The Rockets (40-24) were in sixth place in the Western Conference prior to the suspension of play. However, they were just one game back of the fourth seed and 2.5 games behind the Denver Nuggets for the third seed.
The Rockets won each of their first five games coming out of the All-Star break, but they subsequently lost four of their next five.
It remains to be seen when (or if) the NBA can resume its season. However, the Rockets will re-open as they look to see whether their small-ball brand of basketball will be successful moving forward.
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