Will 76ers Return This Year? NBA is Reportedly Working on a Plan

Early on last week, it sounded like the NBA was leaning more towards canceling the season as opposed to making a return. In the words of ESPN's Brian Windhorst, there was a lot of pessimism going around, and it sounded like the league was 'angling' towards wrapping things up and calling it a year.

But a week later, Windhorst is reversing his report. As he made an appearance on SportsCenter this past week, Windhorst revealed that not only has the NBA kept hope alive, but the league has been making a collaborative effort with executives and trainers by implementing a 25-day return plan for basketball.

"They're spending a lot of time getting a back-to-basketball plan ready," Windhorst said. "They hope they get to use it." While having only 25 days to get into basketball shape after spending months off without access to a training facility isn't exactly ideal for the players, the league doesn't have too many options at this point.

If and when the NBA gets a greenlight for return by medical officials, players could have an 11-day window of individual workouts, followed by a 14-day training camp containing five on five team scrimmages, according to Windhorst.

Just because the NBA is discussing a plan upon returning, doesn't mean that basketball is guaranteed to be back this year, though. As NBA Commissioner Adam Silver mentioned last week, he won't have any idea if they will resume this year or not just yet and doesn't plan to know until at least May 1st.

Regardless of the unknown, at least the Philadelphia 76ers and the rest of the league know there's progress towards wrapping up the 2019-2020 season. And if the NBA doesn't come back, you can't say they didn't try.

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for Sports Illustrated. You can follow him on Twitter: @JGrasso_

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