Thunder Can't Work Out at Team Facility

Thunder players will have to work out on their own without going to the team facility. The NBA sent a memo to all 30 teams, which says to shutdown team facilities to players and staff till further notice.

I reached out to the Thunder to see if there was space for players to work out if they didn't have a gym at home. The Thunder has not returned those messages.

Earlier this week, the association was allowing players and staff into team facilities with a protocol that included a temperature check, one player per basket, and one player in the weight room at a time.

News broke on Thursday that Celtics guard Marcus Smart has tested positive for COVID-19 the Thunder were in Boston on March 8th, which was the last game they played before the hiatus. The Thunder released a statement saying that players and staff have all tested negative for coronavirus.

Once optimistic about the NBA continuing its season, the Lakers’ Jared Dudley is how very doubtful. https://t.co/tonvB0VWNR
— Chris Broussard (@Chris_Broussard) March 20, 2020

Members of the Lakers, 76ers, and Nuggets have also tested positive for COVID-19. Adam Silver is laying out three options the league will have if it chooses to come back this year.

One is to come back with fans in the arena, another is to play fan-free, and the third option would be to have a group of players play in a charity event. As more players test positive, the longer the NBA will be forced to postpone its return.

One major issue facing Sliver is what to do about the Olympics. If the NBA can come back by mid-June, chances are the finals would be played in August.

As of now, the Olympics would start July 25th, and Steve Kerry says he and Greg Popovich are preparing as if they will play. "There's no sense of whether things are going to be delayed or anything... "We're all kind of wondering what's going to happen, and so is the rest of the world."

The International Olympic Committee says, "The IOC remains fully committed to the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, and with more than four months to go before the Games, there is no need for any drastic decisions at this stage."

Trail Blazers donating $1.4M towards COVID-19 relief efforts to assist game night employees, per team. This includes paying part-time Rose Quarter employees for nine postponed Trail Blazers games.
— Chris Mannix (@SIChrisMannix) March 20, 2020

The easy solution if the Olympics and playoffs were to overlap is just allow Team USA to take players whose teams have been eliminated. Of course, if the Thunder were to make it to the conference finals, that would mean Chris Paul would be out, while Lou Dort and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander would be able to play for Team Canada.

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