In a normal year, this Saturday would have been an important day for NBA executives. In case you haven’t noticed, this is not a normal year for the NBA.
Saturday is when college practices begin, and when NBA types would have been in attendance. With the players locked out and the first two weeks of the season canceled — and more games threatened — all routines are in turmoil.
“The next big thing we’ll miss are the college practices. That is something you always do,” said one NBA general manager who speculated there would be “some sort of season, but I have no idea [in terms of] length.”
Since the lockout took effect July 1, teams have not been allowed contact with their players “so you don’t know what they’re doing,” a different GM said, noting, “Young players will be hurt by this because they won’t have the normal break-in time. Teams with veteran guys should have an advantage when — if — we get back.”
Execs and scouts obviously still can attend college games — as long as they pay their own way.
“Not going to practices hurts,” another team executive said. “Sometimes, you can get more out of a practice than a game. From solely the basketball side, I would say we’re out of 80 percent of what we would normally be doing.”
As Nets coach Avery Johnson said during several appearances in the past month, coaches around the league pretty much are in review mode.
“I’m watching video. Everything for me is about last year, what happened in games, what happened in practice, how did we have shootarounds,” Johnson said recently. “You just continue to grind and grind about how to make what we do travel-wise, practice-wise, shootaround-wise, game-wise much more efficient, even not knowing parts.”
Assuming there is a season, getting those parts in place will be as hectic as 1999, when the last lockout ended. In a normal year, there is a moratorium when teams can speak to free agents. Team execs doubt there will be any such period if a deal is reached.
“If there’s a new CBA,” another team GM said, “it’ll take two weeks to write it up so the guidelines are set. There won’t be a moratorium after that.”
One of the other execs summed it up, saying, “No matter what, you’re going to have a lesser time to sign so there will be a priority on getting things done in a really short period. Some teams only have five, six guys under contract. They are going to be in a rough way. But that’s down the road. I’m really concerned because of the systemic issues. It seemed like they were getting close, then . . .”
Several executives expect the entire original schedule to be scrapped and contingency schedules put in place. Canceling the first two weeks created imbalances everywhere. The Lakers lost eight games, the Knicks seven, the Nets six. Plus, a lot of tentative travel plans made will be scrapped. Most hotels were booked on a contingency basis.
Team websites have been operating with a lot of business news — the Nets, for example, have provided blow-by-blow updates of the Brooklyn move. Teams can feature past players, but not current team members, and are using a lot of team history for website content. The Knicks’ website contained stories on the 1969-70 championship team, along with a profile of Harry Gallatin.