It was just over three weeks ago when Luka Doncic's trainer was misquoted when discussing the Dallas Mavericks star's physique. "Not in top shape yet" was the translation, missing a key qualifier. So when Doncic addressed reporters last week for the first time in nearly three months, he was immediately asked about the state of his physical shape.

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Jul6,2020
It was just over three weeks ago when Luka Doncic's trainer was misquoted
when discussing the Dallas Mavericks star's physique. "Not in top shape yet"
was the translation, missing a key qualifier. So when Doncic addressed
reporters last week for the first time in nearly three months, he was
immediately asked about the state of his physical shape.
"He said, like, 'game shape,'" Doncic said. "I know what shape I'm in. I think I'm
in good shape, and I'll just get better until Orlando games start."
Good shape vs. game shape is an important distinction. And as teams prepare
for actual game play, trainers are juggling conflicting priorities: ensuring the
safety of the players and staff by following the protocols outlined by the league,
even though it limits the ramp-up for players in a truncated season restart.
EDITOR'SPICKS
SomeNBAstaffsstrugglewithgoingtoFlorida
ConcernrisesaroundNBAwithFloridavirusspike
BaxterHolmes
ESPNSeniorWriter

3. "We never envisioned a four-plus-month layoff with no contact," said one
performance coach for a team heading to the Orlando bubble.
The prognosis is about as good as can be expected: So far there are few horror
stories of players falling so far out of shape that it would be impossible to
recover in time. Boston Celtics coach Brad Stevens said his players look good
physically "and have clearly worked hard to prepare as well as they can." One
Western Conference athletic training official said, "It's not like all of them have
just been sitting on their couch the whole time."
And multiple general managers said the pressure to not let down their
teammates or appear out of shape when play resumed would motivate players --
particularly with a large national television audience tuning in.
Individual workouts have been useful. One performance coach for a team not
headed to Orlando said that this window has allowed coaches to drill down on
minute details in a player's skill development -- something they aren't typically
able to do this early in the summer. But the ability to transition from individual
to group workouts remains critical, according to athletic training officials across
the league. What is difficult to replicate in individual workouts, compared with
group workouts, is basketball rhythm and game shape.
Physical therapist Fabrice Gautier, who has worked with dozens of NBA players
in recent years, pointed out that biking, rowing, lifting and various exercise
classes are functional but only to a point. "Imagine not playing 5-on-5, not
getting hit, not getting hit in the air and landing -- all those little details that are
so critical to your brain, [to] your central nervous system."
Celtics guard Kemba Walker hit on this theme recently with reporters: "You
could do all the running you want, but basketball shape is just so different."

4. The deceleration, change in direction and unanticipated movements when
playing off a teammate or opponent and how the mind and muscles react to
those stimuli are the variables that can't be reproduced in training and
individual workouts, one head athletic trainer said.
So coaches and training staffs have made do with the few solo basketball
workouts that can help players with tendon conditioning: cutting, jumping
exercises, start-stop motions. They focus on on-ball skills training -- shooting,
ballhandling, individual player moves -- all to try to get creative given the limits
of individual workouts.
That's not to say there haven't been players who have participated in pickup
games. LeBron James and Ben Simmons have been seen on social media
working out together. Buddy Hield recently got a few runs in at the Skinz
League pro-am in Oklahoma City.
"You're in la-la land if you don't think these guys have played pickup games,"
said T.O. Souryal, who was the Dallas Mavericks' team physician for 22 years
and served two terms as the president of the league's association of team
physicians.
Souryal noted that concerns about injuries are common after any length of time
off, especially as players head into training camp. "We are always concerned
when players come back from a long layoff because of the possibility of injuries,
hamstring, calf, ruptured Achilles," he said. And he wouldn't be surprised to see
such injuries in the first few games back in Orlando.
Despitetheextendedlayoff,playershavestayedinshapeandarereadytogo.Butgettingintogameshape
willrequiretherhythmsofgroupworkouts. SteveMitchell/USATODAYSports

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Because players are largely in an age and health range that places them at a
lower risk for severe issues from the coronavirus, multiple athletic training
officials on teams headed to Orlando said that, for the moment, they're more
concerned with injuries tied to the long layoff and lack of group workouts.
Souryal noted that the culture of year-round basketball among modern athletes
leads them to be in better overall condition. Gautier also mentioned that a
contributing factor to injury in recent years -- frequency of travel -- would not
figure into the bubble environment.
"That could be a game-changer," Gautier said.
So as teams make their way to Orlando and intersquad scrimmages start on
July 22, trainers are balancing the restrictions on larger workouts while trying
to mitigate the potential for game-shape-related injuries as much as possible.
"It's an impossible mathematical equation," the head athletic trainer said. "It's
impossible."
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