The NBA's return, or at least the process to get back on the court, seems to be nearing. According to ESPN, NBA teams are anticipating a return to play guidelines from the league office around June 1.
Suns forward Frank Kaminsky is a player representative and has been on many of the calls between the league and the NBAPA.
"There's a lot of hope out there, and it would be kind of a crushing blow at this point if it didn't happen," Kaminsky said. "Everyone in their mind knows that eventually, hopefully pretty soon, that it's going to resume, so I think everyone's starting to prepare for that reality."
What the NBA season would look like when it returns is still being discussed. Ideas have reportedly ranged from a playoff play-in tournament to a 70-game regular season, meaning just five more games for the Suns
"I think everyone's kind of realized basketball being taken away, how important it is, how privileged and lucky we are to play," Kaminsky said. "After this long time, longer than any of us had been away from the game, being able to go out there and play just one single game, I know we're all going to go give it our all."
Brooklyn Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie responded to a tweet saying that practice will start on June 21, with the five regular-season games beginning July 15 in a bubble city. Las Vegas and Orlando have long been the front-runners to host a neutral site NBA return, with Walt Disney World reportedly emerging as the favorite.
"I'll go to Saturn to play basketball at this point," said Kaminsky. "I'll go pretty much anywhere. You tell me where to be, and I'll be there ready to play."
Kaminsky is working his way back from injury and has been one of the Suns players participating in the voluntary workouts at Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
"It's definitely weird coming into the arena and getting your temperature checked every single day. That's definitely different. Having to come in with a mask on, go to your spots, you know, pretty much just kind of try to stay away from people as much as you can and then also get workouts, you know, it's definitely weird."
Kaminsky said it would take at least a couple of weeks to get players back up to speed. ESPN has reported that a return could include a two-week recall of players to their team's city for quarantine, followed by one-to-two weeks of individual workouts and then two-to-three weeks of a formal training camp.
If there are only five games remaining in the regular season, the Suns would be returning with no chance at the playoffs as they currently trail the 8th-seed by six games. The possibility to see this group return healthy and playing together is exciting enough for Kaminsky, who has a team option on his contract this summer.
"I came here for the opportunity to play with a lot of the guys that are on this team, Deandre being one of them, and I didn't really get the opportunity to do that this season," he said. "I really want to play in the system and the style with the guys that we have on this team."
