Official: Agreement reached for "Delete-Eight" teams to conduct group workouts in market
On August 18, the NBA and NBPA announced that they finalized an agreement on a program for the eight teams not included in the bubble in Orlando to begin voluntary group workouts at their respective team training facilities, so long as the players and staff reside in their own bubble-like environment optimized for the safety of all involved. Each team's "campus" will include all living accommodations necessary, as well as all team facilities. To help ensure the achievement of an acceptable level of safety, the agreement includes an in-depth health and safety protocol for teams to adhere to while running these group workouts.
The workouts are scheduled to take place from September 14 to October 6, and will involve group training activities - these may include "practices, skill or conditioning sessions and intra-squad scrimmages, and the continuation of daily COVID-19 testing." These workouts are voluntary, and have potential to include up to five players who were on G League teams last season (that are not currently signed to a team).
So long as this plan advances as planned, it seems that Tom Thibodeau, Johnnie Bryant, Kenny Payne, Mike Woodson, and the rest of the Knicks' coaching staff will be able to begin their work with the team's roster on September 14th, 2020. With new team president Leon Rose at the helm, it is believed that the roster next season will be quite different from this year's - in part due to the expectation that the rotation will include a rookie selected in the lottery of the 2020 NBA Draft. The Knicks coaches will certainly have a chance to flex their developmental muscles when it comes to working with the team's young players - and they'll get this time from mid-September to October to start doing so.
