This is written by Troy Brown Jr from the Wizards. Much of what he says
could easily be true of the Cavs as well:
This is such a strange season, though. The schedule is condensed, so we have more back-to-backs and there are times when we’re playing five games in seven nights. Sometimes, we’re playing the same team back-to-back in the same city, like in baseball. It’s like you’re playing a mini series against that team. It’s pretty crazy, and this is new to all of us.
Also, there are
way fewer practices this season. That’s a big difference. We’re playing so much that it’s impossible to fit in practices. And not only does the schedule limit practice time, sometimes our practices will get canceled because the COVID-19 test results are running late or they have to shut down the facility or something. We don’t do walkthroughs anymore either. In a normal year, if we played the Nets in Brooklyn, we’d do a walkthrough on the morning of the game. But we aren’t doing those on game-days this season. You get used to a certain routine in the NBA, but it’s all thrown off this year.
I do think the lack of practice time and the condensed schedule have impacted the on-court product. This season, it feels like a lot of teams are going on big winning streaks or long losing streaks. Some teams have continuity and great chemistry, so they aren’t affected as much and they’re rattling off long winning streaks. (Teams like the Jazz, Sixers, Lakers, Clippers, Nuggets and Grizzlies fall into this category). Other teams have a lot of young players and new guys that are trying to get acclimated and develop chemistry, so this season has been hard. For these teams (including my Wizards), we badly need that practice time to get everyone on the same page and fix issues and teach the young guys. Instead, we’re trying to correct mistakes and work out the kinks on the fly
during games, which is difficult.
And not only are we missing the opportunity to build chemistry in practices, we can’t hang out together and bond with each other off the court like we would in a typical season due to the NBA’s COVID protocols. If this was a typical year, we’d all be going out to eat as a team and hanging out at each other’s houses and so on. This season, we can’t do those things. (To be clear, I think limiting those off-court interactions is the right call by the NBA in order to keep everyone safe, but there’s no question it affects our ability to build chemistry too).