Phoenix Suns: Everything we know so far about return to play

The Phoenix Suns may have some more basketball to play this season after all. Here is everything we know thus far about the NBA’s return to play.

Things are happening! At least rumors are. News and hearsay have been swirling around NBA Twitterverse over the past 48 hours, so much so that it can be a little dizzying to keep up with. So, I’ve done my best to collect the most salient of talk, try to make sense of it, and figure out how it might affect the Phoenix Suns.

First and foremost, it appears the answer to, “The NBA hiatus is over, what are you going to do next?” is the same as the answer to, “You just won the Super Bowl, what are you going to do next?”

Going to Disney World!

Barring some major change, it appears as if the bubble environment in which the NBA will engulf itself will be the happiest place on Earth. It makes sense why the NBA chose Disney World. They wanted a confined location and, well, it’s a small world, after all.

But seriously.

Shams Charania and Sam Amick of The Athletic reported Orlando has gained significant seriousness among cities considered, which also includes Las Vegas. Who knows. Maybe Vegas will be a bubble location too, but Disney is all but certain to be one of them.

A Disney source confirmed as much to Keith Smith:

"“[Disney World is] confident we’ll be hosting the NBA in some fashion. It may not be the entire league, but we believe the NBA will be here to at least finish part of their season. Still hurdles to cross, but we are preparing as if that is the case.”"

No word on who the Disney source is, but lets it isn’t Pinnochio. This is probably a good time to announce that if Disney World is the location for NBA, expect to see much more (and probably cornier) Disney character jokes.

It won’t be in person, but Phoenix Suns fans may get to see their team play a few more games after all.

So, Disney. Cool. What else?

According to Keith Smith once again, the league has an interest in including all 30 teams:

"“The NBA has said they’d still like to have all 30 teams involved. Getting to the 70 game mark to fulfill most RSN contracts is a pretty big motivating factor. NBA would also like some form of ramp-up before the playoffs.”"

If 70 is the magic number for adequate revenue recoup, the Phoenix Suns would have at least five more regular-season games left to play, considering they have already 65, but depending on how the schedule works out, it could mean be a few more in order for all teams to get up to 70.

Would the Phoenix Suns even want to do this? If they only play 70 games, they are mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, so participating is an unnecessary health risk.

Tell that to Frank Kaminsky. He said he is ready to go to Saturn if it means playing basketball, and while I am not an astronomer, Saturn feels, ahem, astronomically more unhealthy than Disney World.

Alright so Disney World. Maybe all 30 teams. But when?

July. Sometime in July seems to be the answer. According to Woj, expanded workouts could resume in early June, and games in the bubble could start in the middle of July.

You might be thinking, wait, how secluded with this bubble really be?

More from Valley of the Suns

According to a former Phoenix Suns player with strong opinions, Jared Dudley, not very. Every team has a Dennis Rodman, he says, and while they might not have green hair, they aren’t going to do well stuck in a hotel room for months. So, players are going to have some leeway, but if they come back with the coronavirus (and there will be frequent testing), they’ll have to be quarantined and unable to participate in any basketball activities.

Dudley also said this latitude would not extend to stars like LeBron James and Anthony Davis. They are too valuable to the Lakers to lose for the playoffs because they couldn’t resist riding Space Mountain.

To summarize, after months of telling ourselves the Phoenix Suns season is over, in an extreme Lloyd Christmas voice, “So, you’re saying there’s a chance.”

The first of June may very well be the magic date when we find out where, when, how, and who the NBA will return.