The NBA's return could look very different according to Dr. Stuart Phillips of McMaster University.
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00:00Hey everyone, Aaron Rose here from Sports Illustrated.
00:09The COVID-19 pandemic has truly forced the NBA into uncharted waters.
00:14It'll be almost five months between NBA games by the time the season returns on July
00:1831st.
00:20There are so many questions about what play will look like when things return, so I spoke
00:24to Dr. Stuart Phillips, a kinesiology professor at McMaster University, about what he thinks
00:29play could look like.
00:31I think, yeah, it's going to be different.
00:34You're going to see some probably mistakes that you wouldn't have otherwise expected.
00:41You're going to see some rust.
00:42You're going to see some miscommunication.
00:44You might see a few teams stumble that you would have thought maybe would do better than
00:49they did, and maybe this is the year for the surprise or somebody to kind of rise out of
00:55nowhere.
00:57The biggest concern is a potential spike in injuries.
00:59You know, there's a tremendous difference, I think, between being in good physical shape,
01:05which I'm sure these guys have sort of preserved through their workouts that they've been doing,
01:09and what we call, you know, either game shape or match shape, you know, something that allows
01:14you to endure the type of day-to-day, minute-to-minute pressures as well, along with the physicality
01:22of the game.
01:23Most of these guys are going to be unprepared for that.
01:26As for who will be the most adversely affected by the hiatus, Phillip says it will come down
01:31to age and preparation.
01:33Younger players are able to rebound a little bit better from either injury or maybe the
01:39day-to-day grind, whereas some of the vets maybe take a little bit longer, but then maybe
01:44it speaks a little bit to preparation.
01:46I don't think a lot of rookies come in with an idea of what it takes to get prepared for
01:51the season, whereas maybe the vets do.
01:54So it might be evened out in the long run.