NBA players may need to stay away from their families until September

The NBA has suspended games since March 11 due to the coronavirus pandemic. After a long roller coaster ride, a plan was laid out by Commissioner Adam Silver on Friday about restarting the season on July 31. The plan involves teams playing in a single location in Orlando, Florida. However, players are sceptical if their families will be allowed to join them.

To ensure everyone's safety, NBA players, coaches, trainers, and all other personnel necessary to broadcast empty arena games will be quarantined in a single location. They will eat, sleep, play games, and train without going out until the season is over. The NBA did say that it will include players' families, but players do not believe that their families can join them right away.

According to Bleacher Report, discussions within the league are leaning towards allowing the families to join players only once several teams have been eliminated from the season, thus reducing the people needed in the bubble.

There is also the issue of testing kits. If 30 teams with their staff, families, and on-site technical and security teams are to be included inside the bubble, at least 10,000 testing kits would be needed. At the moment, with the coronavirus situation worsening in some places, resuming the NBA is not a priority for the US Health Department to allocate such a large amount of resources. Family members would also be subjected to the same strict safety protocols the bubble would impose on all participants.

The league resumption would also mean that some teams will be eliminated early, depending on the official format the NBA decides by next week. Four to six teams can go home within a month after the restart.

There are also four format proposals on the table ranging from directly going to the playoffs using current standings, to playing all previously postponed games with new elimination formats.

There is no final decision on any of the policies for the NBA restart. By next week, it is expected that the NBA Board of Governors and team owners will decide on the format and the official restart date of the games. Other logistical issues, such as the inclusion of family members, will most likely be settled on a later date.