No one said the NBA bubble was going to be easy.
The Sacramento Kings are learning the hard way about just how difficult it is to attempt to reboot a season four months after shutting it down. From coronavirus testing, to NBA protocols, to injuries, the Kings have faced adversity, although they do have a few players on the mend.
Jabari Parker returned to practice last week after finally clearing his COVID-19 testing. He only recently began the contact portion of the workouts and head coach Luke Walton is hopeful he can play minutes in the team’s first scrimmage on Wednesday.
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SIGN UP HERE We are still learning about the coronavirus and it seems like every player’s body handles the illness differently. Buddy Hield blew straight through protocols and was ready to roll shortly after the Kings arrived in Orlando.
Parker had a different experience. While he didn’t feel symptomatic, he did struggle to pass consecutive days of tests, which is part of the NBA’s protocol.
“I really stayed low key, stayed to myself, like you’re supposed to and that lasted for like five days and I retested,” Parker said on Monday. “It came back negative, but with the NBA, you have to test negative twice in a row. It took me a while to test twice in a row. I was building the antibodies and still trying to get it out of my system.”
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According to the Kings’ forward, he tested positive in mid-June, but wasn’t completely cleared until July 12. From there, he had to quarantine in the team’s hotel before joining the players on the court.
Alex Len is back with the team as well, but he’s nowhere near ready to compete after a long stretch with coronavirus. Like Parker, the 7-footer struggled to pass consecutive tests. In fact, he continued to test positive for more than three weeks.
“I tested positive on [June] 22nd, I think it was, then it was like 24 days in a row I was testing positive,” Len said. “I was quarantined for over three weeks and then finally I got two negative tests and I was finally able to travel.”
Where Parker was asymptomatic and Hield had very mild symptoms, Len had additional struggles.
“Two weeks in I started having symptoms, like no smell, no taste, I had a little bit of chest tightness,” Len said. “I wasn’t scared or nothing, but I had some symptoms.”
This is one of the issues with the coronavirus. One player can feel fine and keep up with his physical fitness and training. Another can feel the effects for weeks, which puts him behind on multiple fronts.
The Kings will take a cautious approach to Len’s recovery and he’s already gone through a battery of tests to make sure he is ready for the activity level that lies ahead.
“I’m feeling pretty good, I’ve just got to get my body back in shape,” Len said. “Most important thing is that my lungs are fine, my heart is fine, we did some testing on that. Everything is good, I’ve just got to get my body back in shape.”
Parker and Len both joined the Kings at the trade deadline in a swap with the Atlanta Hawks. Parker has seen game action in just one game, but when the NBA went on hiatus, Len was a valuable member of the team’s rotation.
Len’s size and defensive capabilities are a plus for the Kings and if he’s healthy enough to play, they will need him during the eight game sprint to the finish line.
Sacramento has one more player in the NBA’s coronavirus protocol in forward Harrison Barnes.
“Harrison is still in Sacramento, nothing new,” Walton said. “I talked to him yesterday, he’s feeling good and he’s just waiting to pass through that protocol so he can come join us here in Orlando.”
In his original press release announcing his positive test, Barnes stated that he was “primarily asymptomatic,” which could be a very good thing for the Kings. If he’s been able to workout and continue to prepare for the season in the same way that Hield did, then he may be able to hit the ground running.
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The problem that we have with this illness is that there is no telling how the virus will attack each individual person. Again, Len was asymptomatic for two weeks before developing a rash of symptoms.
Hopefully that isn’t the case with Barnes, but the team has to be prepared for multiple scenarios and they really can’t bank on a player being ready, whether it is for this weekend or the first round of the playoffs beginning in the third week of August.
Due to HIPAA rules, the team is not allowed to release medical information on players. The Kings can’t even divulge whether Barnes is asymptomatic or not.
On Monday afternoon, the NBA released their latest results, which showed promise. Of the 346 players tested in the bubble, zero came back positive. The league’s protocols, at least early on, seem to be working.