Austin Rivers has left the bubble due to an urgent family matter

hopefully everything is ok. His immediate family is about 20 mins away from the bubble, unless it's something outside of that which would likely include Doc

 

Shams also tweeted he is expected to be back this weekend, so it doesn't appear there would be any question of a positive test being hidden (unless it's through various layers of course lol)

 

If he tested positive, wouldn't the reaction be less of a "Chicken Little" situation? Like, couldn't he just quarantine himself in a specific location inside the bubble until he tests negative instead of having to leave the bubble completely? Play it off as though he's nursing an injury that occurred in practice or something?

Not sure what the rules are for a player that tests positive after having tested negative. Since there was a tweet about how all the NBA players on site recently tested negative, this is concerning. Rivers isn't patient zero and/or the tests are not sensitive enough.

 

Hope everything turns out fine. At least it said urgent family matter and not urgent medical matter so thats something.

 

Weekends already here.

 

FMITA, so close to having everyone healthy and ready to go lol. Hopefully his fam is alright, strange that Doc hasn't left too though..

 

That's the chatter I've seen on twitter as well. Pat Bev, Montrezl, Zion, and now Rivers? And no reports of Doc Rivers also leaving?

Really hope of course it's not the case. Don't want MDA to be tempted to run an even tighter rotation....

 

Bev left bc his close friend passed away a few days ago. The trolls are terrible. Life doesn’t stop just bc they’re in the bubble. Things happen to them and their close ones just like anyone of us

 

I thought this at first, but keep in mind the league is reporting their positive test numbers. They just boasted about 0 positive cases in 350 tests like 4 days ago...I guess the NBA could be deliberately lying about their testing numbers, too, but that would be a much much bigger conspiracy.

I don't know any details about the other three, but Pat Bev left because one of his close freinds, who was a high school teammate, was shot and killed.

 

LOL first thing you think is the rotation

 

Did Doc leave the bubble?

@cybersex

 

We will never be 100%.

 

On topic - Wishing Austin the best for his family. I doubt it's COVID, but giving well wishes regardless

 

Yeah man , I’m gonna at least wait until the first quarter to start complaining ... although now thinking about it , I am starting to get worried about our rotation .

jk ... kinda . The rotation is gonna be a huge strategic decision for every team right now . With a short runway , how do you get players ready to play . Will the teams best player still be trying to play 40 minutes in a playoff game ? If so they are gonna have to get ready for it otherwise effectiveness isn’t gonna fall off a cliff .

will teams adapt a different strategy going in (planning to play more guys so individuals can play less minutes and keep intensity up) ? A team strategy like that isn’t that viable usually because you’re playing bench players vs a conditioned Lebron etc .. but , if lebron can only play 25-30 minutes at a high level then a team playing more spurs style can be really good this year .

it’s a pretty exciting question actually . MDA is gonna get a pass from me unless he goes 7 deep the entire time . Which, I think he will not . We have enough guys that he’s proven he will play if circumstances dictate it . I think we might see ourselves running one of the deeper rotations .

oh one final thing . I haven’t seen our schedule yet (I know it’s out there) but we might consider playing a guy heavy minutes one game and then giving them the next game off (they can do cardio in the pool if they want to ) many teams would have given players games off or reduced minutes before the playoffs anyways . It will be trickier to work that approach in , but if you want guys to both A. Be 100 percent for the playoffs and B . Have games with heavy minutes already under their belt so as to achieve conditioning ... then you might treat this regular season more like pre-season football.

Alternatively , you might have an opportunity to rest in the “playoffs”

this bubble experiment is perfectly wacky

sorry to derail thread. Hope rivers can return and has good fortune with his family situation

 

His family is in Orlando.