Hornets personnel fearing COVID-19 may skip upcoming group practices

Though Hornets player attendance at the team’s practice facility has reportedly been strong, pending free agents and players who are not currently in Charlotte or are concerned about COVID-19-related health risks might not participate in upcoming group practices, per Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer. Bonnell notes that many players becoming free agents in mid-October could be reluctant to participate. Also, some players might not be in Charlotte or might choose not participate over health concerns.

The NBA and NBPA agreed to let each of the so-called “Delete Eight” — the eight league-worst teams who missed out on the Orlando restart — to hold voluntary skill and conditioning sessions plus scrimmages at their facilities, with mandated campus living arrangements, from September 21 to October 6 after a weeklong quarantine. Teams are allowed to invite five players who were with the team’s affiliated G-League club during the 2019-20 season.

Backup center Bismack Biyombo, earning $17M this season, is the costliest free agent who is definitely coming off Charlotte’s books in October. Bonnell tweets that Biyombo’s fellow 2020 free agents on the roster, Dwayne Bacon and Willy Hernangomez, will most likely be advised by their representatives to either not participate at all or only partake in a limited amount of activities to avoid injury ahead of new potential contracts.

There’s more out of Charlotte:

• Bonnell anticipates (Twitter link) that, among the prospective G-League players who may join the team’s fall offseason practices, Greensboro Swarm regulars Kobi Simmons, Joe Chealey and Ray Spalding seem most likely to get an opportunity to join the Hornets.
• Hornets president of basketball operations and general manager Mitch Kupchakanticipates the Hornets to be able to select a “special” player with the No. 3 pick in this year’s NBA draft, according to the Charlotte Observer’s Rick Bonnell in another piece. Lamelo Ball, James Wiseman, and Anthony Edwards headline this year’s draft class.
• Kupchak noted last week that the Hornets, as a rebuilding team coming off a 23-42 record, would not be big players in free agency during the offseason.