Philadelphia 76ers: Will a Preseason 2.0 Happen in Orlando?
Soon, the Philadelphia 76ers will be back to conclude the 2019-2020 NBA season. After the league shut down for suspension back in March, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver kept the door open for a possible return this summer. And after a 29-1 vote in favor of bringing the season back on Thursday, pro basketball plans to make a return to the hardwood floor on July 31st at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.
A lot will have to go into the restart of the NBA, however. The 76ers and the other 21 teams involved won't just jump right back into playing games. Lately, teams have had the opportunity to open up their practice facilities so players could voluntarily participate in individual workouts for the time being. Later on this month, though, the training camp 2.0 portion of the restart will ensue.
Then in July, all of the teams with a chance of making the NBA Playoffs will fly out to Florida to continue practicing and eventually get started on returning to conclude the season. Initially, it seemed like going straight to the playoffs was a strong possibility, but the NBA wanted to play out eight regular-season games before heading into the postseason in order to make it fair for the team's outside of the bracket fighting for a roster spot.
In addition to the eight regular-season games, it seems the NBA is trending towards having preseason 2.0 as well. According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, the NBA plans to play 2-to-3 exhibition games before the regular season.
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During that time, players and coaches can get used to the strange environment of not having fans in attendance while also getting back into game shape without mistakes potentially costing them any losses. Then will come the regular season, which will offer the 76ers an opportunity to improve their rank within the Eastern Conference.
Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for Sports Illustrated. You can follow him on Twitter: @JGrasso_
