COVID stuff - To bubble or not to bubble, positive tests, etc.

[MarxyLebronist]

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Lots to talk about already, including the number of positive tests from week 1 and the penalties in store for teams moving forward.

Lakers were proactive about staying shut down, crowd-wise, and are acting calmly and responsibly so far by all accounts.
The Toronto-Tampa Bay thing is super interesting, especially since it takes away a clear regional bubble plan. Perhaps it also predicts the likely bubble pivot location for Atlantic teams after the first round of game cancellations and other problems in January. It sort of shines a light on the risks the NBA is mitigating now after such a perfect bubble approach for last season. Some of the info coming out today from Woj and others makes it sound really difficult to keep players and others safe. So much to consider and work around, wow.

I am wondering about how much consideration was actually given to at least some regional bubble scheduling, and what it could look like. Sac seems like an ideal Western Conf spot actually, given moderate rurality and excellent, controllable travel access compared to Bay Area, LA, and even PDX maybe. OKC would be another maybe, and then the Florida campus could be run back since it was already beta tested to great effect.

I am also wondering about resistance to the idea. Bluntly: I suspect certain teams desperately in need of new arena revenue, like the Bucks and a Warriors ownership trying to control narrative with their plan of action for larger crowds, by touting their supposed medical expertise, pushed hard against the more responsible and manageable approach.

I promise it's incidental that Sac has some logical reasons for being a good regional campus arena site, but that is also a new arena whose owners probably really need it to start paying off. Milwaukee and Sac have more public money on the line obviously, so it's even more important that they pay off. Admittedly, I wish neither had been thrust upon their communities, like Memphis and others that should not have been permitted. But we're here, and profit sharing from bubble scenarios can still be worked out.

Then there is the issue of publicizing or not publicizing the players who have it. Malik Monk's name is out there, Mo Bamba is out there. Other teams are carefully guarding names- not sure of the rationale in all cases. We all get the privacy issues, and some teams may have a lot to lose PRwise for seeming irresponsible. And now, given my own contact with folks who are suffering in terrible ways, and my own current situation of awaiting test results and living with someone with comorbidities, I'm pretty much like: it's their business, leave it alone, focus on whether or not this can be pulled off for us all to have some basketball enjoyment while the world is pretty rough out there.

So, rather than just start off with spin, I was hoping for a thread to discuss the matter as folks are interested throughout the season. It's also really important to try to help all the folks out of work because of arena shut downs, yes. And a final thought, maybe obvious to folks, is that a bubble loses a lot of team infrastructure, familiar and confidential practice and training workspace, and more with a multi-month relocation. But given that the new league restrictions basically are going to look like the California-level closure set up, best I can tell (restaurants will not be ok soon enough, right?), we're headed to something besides teams flying all over the country even for the currently proposed schedule first half. Right?

[MarxyLebronist]

Quick note on Sac, which I didn't intend to be a strong opinion on where/how: the new arena is actually in a pretty congested part in the heart of the town. Arco was a much more manageable off-the-beaten track spot (so ugly and terrible though lol). Nowhere is safe, I realize, and securing adequate lodging, eating, and training spots somewhere with a pro quality arena and media production facility near enough for player travel would be the idea. Can't imagine how to help with family contact issues though. I certainly will not be relocating to work for months on end away from my household. How impossible. Is Staples a candidate for something like this? They had playoff baseball successfully in LA after all.