NBA Notebook: Five storylines to watch from opening weekend of NBA restart

The start of the NBA bubble kicked off officially this week, with 22 teams now safely arrived in Orlando and finished with their mandatory two-day quarantine. So far there have been no positive cases recorded in Orlando, according to the league, although several players have delayed their trip into the bubble after testing positive for COVID-19.

Our initial impressions on the signings, x-factors and other elements in play for Orlando.

1. Kemba Walker’s knee injury may be the biggest x-factor in the bubble among contenders: While plenty of other big names (Ben Simmons, Paul George) have talked about benefitting a great deal from the extended time off over the past four months, the same can’t necessarily be said yet for Walker, who will likely start on a minutes limit when the seeding games begin, with the hope it can be lifted.

The continuous situation that Walker is dealing with here — on a knee that already has had three surgeries on it over the course of his basketball career — signals a reality that Dr. Jessica Flynn predicted back in February when his initial arthritis came to light.

“Long-term, I look at an injury like this as something that Kemba Walker will continue to manage throughout his career. He may have flare-ups from time to time. As arthritis gets worse, the flare-ups could become more common, but every athlete and every knee is different. If the knee ever flares up and does not respond to conservative treatment then surgery could be a possibility down the road, but there is no sign that that is a concern currently.”

While Walker has been one of the more durable players in the NBA throughout his career, those heavy minutes combined with his smaller frame and knee history make this a situation that the Celtics are going to have to handle carefully. For as much of the focus is on the present in the NBA bubble, losing Walker at any point during his next three seasons with the team is going to be a devastating blow given his monumental cap hit. With the NBA cap situation looking to hold or even decline over the next year or two due to revenue losses, there will be very limited ways for the C’s to contend without the All-Star point guard at his best.

From that standpoint, Orlando provides a unique opportunity for the Celtics and Walker. Walker was at his best during the first two months of the regular season this year before knee woes popped up and that’s a situation that the training staff will have to try to replicate with the added buffer of what was essentially a full offseason of rest before the offseason. Walker may no longer be able to handle a 36 minute per game load over a full NBA season (I’d expect him to be treated like Al Horford was in regards to minutes starting next year) but getting him right now gives him a chance to be at his best in the playoffs, something that won’t necessarily be possible at the end of an 82-game grind in future years.

We haven’t seen Walker at his best yet alongside peak Jayson Tatum (February player of the month) and a healthy Celtics core at all in 2019-20. That group has a higher ceiling than we anticipated at the beginning of the season. If Walker can come close to his own All-Star form, the C’s top-heavy roster should be able to give any team in the NBA a stiff test.

2. Nets seem to be holding tryouts for next season with their free agent signings: After an avalanche of withdrawals from Orlando by the Nets due to coronavirus and other injury factors (DeAndre Jordan, Spencer Dinwiddie, Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Wilson Chandler, Nic Claxton), the Nets have loaded up their young roster with journeyman veteran free agents for the Orlando bubble. After more than a year away from the NBA, Jamal Crawford will take the court for his ninth NBA team in Orlando and should get plenty of opportunity on a team now devoid of backcourt creators without Irving and Dinwiddie. The 40-year-old Crawford will make what is an otherwise lackluster Nets team an intriguing watch in Orlando and is close with a number of veterans on the squad. The same holds true for veteran forward Michael Beasley, who also inked a deal with Brooklyn last week. The Beasley signing is especially curious since he will have to sit out five seeding games due to a drug suspension from last year. Durant is close friends with the former No. 2 overall pick and this will likely be an audition for the scoring-minded forward for what will be a revamped Nets squad next year.

3. Victor Oladipo is still working out with the Pacers in Orlando: We already wrote about the former All-Star opting to play it safe by sitting out for the Pacers in the bubble last week. However, not only did Oladipo make the trip down with his teammates to Orlando, but he’s working out fully in practices so far, according to head coach Nate McMillan.

“He is playing with all 3 teams,” McMillan said. “We are not approaching it as if he’s not playing. We are putting him out there. There are no restrictions for Vic.”

All of this begs the following question from me: Could Oladipo still consider playing at some point during the process if he has a change of heart or physically feels up to it? The Pacers were not able to sign a replacement player for him (since he’s still with the team) so there should be no barrier to him simply changing his mind about playing if he physically feels up to it. This likely won’t happen (Oladipo has plenty of reason to still sit out) but is probably the easiest path to take for the athletic guard if he was still on the fence heading into Orlando. Saying he was going to play and then pulling out once he got down to Orlando would be a bad look. The opposite path would be a nice boost for the team. He should have a better sense of where he is physically after a couple of weeks of practice down there in a 5-on-5 setting (something that hasn’t happened yet), so this could be worth monitoring.

4. All NBA head coaches will take part in the Orlando bubble: This was a bit of a question mark in the lead up to the NBA restart, as there were a few notable head coaches (over age 65) that likely fell into the high-risk portion of the population for COVID-19. However, those names (Gregg Popovich, Alvin Gentry, Mike D’Antoni) were cleared by independent physicians to take part regardless.

“If this bubble works, I’m safer here than I would be in Texas,” Popovich said. “And since the decision was made to do this to start the season again, under these circumstances, with all the precautions, what a great opportunity.”

Head coaches won’t be required to wear a mask on the sidelines during games, but most assistants in practice have been spotted so far wearing a mask and gloves while working out individual players.

5. Late star arrivals on the Rockets to Orlando could loom large: It’s not clear yet whether the early absences of James Harden and Russell Westbrook to Orlando are health-related or not, but it will provide an interesting wrinkle among contenders in the bubble.

“I hope it’ll be sooner than later,” D’Antoni said of his stars' arrival. “I don’t think it will be too many days, so it’ll work itself out. Some things you can’t control totally, but in a few days they’ll be here. And you know what, we can get good work in, and these are all veterans. I mean obviously they’re going to miss a couple practices. It’s not ideal. But it’s going to be good. We’ll be ready. It won’t set us back.”

While Harden and Westbrook may have completely understandable reasons to delay their arrival, both will have to go through an extended quarantine period before they can work out with the team. That may leave the Rockets with just a week’s worth of workouts as a full team before the seeding games get going on July 31st.

The Rockets are stacked with veterans, as D’Antoni alluded to, but a lot of those names were added midseason via buyouts or trades (Robert Covington, Jeff Green, De’Marre Carroll). A quick ramp-up period for teams was going to be tough enough in the two-week windowm but when you cut that time in half, the Rockets could be behind other squads in fitness and cohesiveness when the seeding games roll around. Houston remains just 1.5 games ahead of the Mavs for the No. 7 seed, so a first-round date with the Lakers or Clippers may end up being the punishment if the Rockets struggle out of the gate.