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Lakers Fast Break- Celebrating 300 episodes with Stone Hansen and Boomer Perrault!

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We celebrate 300 episodes with not only one but TWO special guests on today’s program! Stone Hansen from lines.com (Formerly Draftsite.com) and the UpsideSwings podcast is back to talk about the Lakers, the recent changes with the Celtics, and who has caught his eye heading into the NBA Draft for his mock drafts! We talk where Davion Mitchell, Kai Jones, international prospects Alperen Şengün, Josh Giddey, and who the Lakers might pick on our latest Lakers Fast Break podcast! PLUS our first original guest Boomer Perrault from Healthy Movement Blueprint joining us. We talk about what has happened since our last conversation including “The Bubble”, the passing of Kobe Bryant, the Lakers Championship, and what the team may choose to do in the off-season right here on the Lakers Fast Break Podcast!

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Don’t forget to Subscribe to our shows and leave us that 5-Star Review with your questions on Apple Podcasts or e-mail us at lakersfastbreak@yahoo.com!

Presented by our friends at Hoop Heads Podcast Network, ThriveFantasy, NBA Draft Junkies, lakerholics.com, Pop Culture Cosmos, the novel Congratulations, You Suck (available for purchase HERE), and Retro City Games!

Could the NBA’s Restart in a Bubble Be Blueprint for Life in Pandemic Future?

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What happens if life as we know it becomes a dystopian battle against a parade of ravaging pandemics? Could bubble communities like the NBA is trying to create to finish their suspended season become a way of life?

A future plagued by pandemics is not far fetched considering the damage coronavirus has caused worldwide. Now we hear coronavirus has begun mutating and a virulent form of swine flu could be the next pandemic. Europe has already shut its doors to visitors from the United States and states like New York are already effectively banning travelers from other states suffering rapid spread of Covid-19 by requiring quarantining.

My son’s father-in-law owns a large winery outside of Sacramento with the acreage and facilities to harbor dozens of extended families and friends in a safe and isolated residential bubble possibly for months or even years. While he’s not what would be considered to be a survivalist, he’s already started to enhance security systems, stockpile provisions, and prepare contingency plans for a move there should the current situation worsen.

What’s next? Could the gated communities of the future evolve into the bubble cities of the future? As crazy as it sounds, bubble communities as an idea could actually make sense in a dystopian future dominated by plague. Coronavirus may not be as lethal as originally thought but it’s given us more than we can handle and the next pathogen could be a more lethal and deadly threat than nuclear war, climate change, or overpopulation.

It’s a frightening thought to think life as we once enjoyed it could never come back but we’re all now in the process of creating our own personal bubbles to stay safe be it with family or friends or a combination of both. The programmer from India who is working with me to build the new Lakerholics website lives in a form of isolated bubble in Southern India that includes multiple extended families and close friends and associates.

Maybe the NBA’s Orlando bubble experiment will become a model not only for professional sports but also for groups of people who want to recreate the old normal in groups larger than just immediate family and friends.

How NBA’s Season Restart Plan Could Suggest Blueprint for Future Seasons

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With the coronavirus pandemic exploding and endangering the future of professional sports in America, the NBA has embarked on an ambitious experimental season restart that could transform the future of the league.

Hoping to salvage the 2019–20 season, the NBA league has finalized an innovative plan to resume the season with 22 of 30 teams playing 8 regular games followed by a play-in tournament for the final two playoff spots. Whether this plan can save the season will depend on how successful the league is at keeping their players, coaches, and team staffs safe by isolating them in a bubble at Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports in Orlando.

What’s certain is the league desperately needs this experiment to work as the revenue earned by finishing the season and playoffs could be critical with the prospects of fans attending live games next season now in doubt. Just as important, there are several components of the season restart plan that could portend solutions the league could deploy to salvage the next season and help it recover from the financial crisis caused by the pandemic.

Even before the coronavirus suspension, the NBA had been struggling with reduced ticket revenue and TV ratings because of a surplus of unattractive game matchups and Daryl Morey’s controversial comments about China. Commissioner Adam Silver had already been looking at novel ideas to boost league interest and revenue, including a midseason tournament, two more expansion teams, and play-in tournaments for the final playoff spots.

One of the most controversial decisions in the league’s plan to finish the regular season was limiting play to just the 22 teams with the best records, which has resulted in much improved matchups for the 8 game schedule. While criticized by the 8 teams who were left out, fan interest and TV ratings for these games could skyrocket due to the matchups, which is a result the league should work to replicate for future regular seasons.

If the enhanced regular season matchups and the play-in tournament are successful at creating more interest, the NBA should consider deploying a similar strategy for second half of next year’s regular season and playoffs. The league already wants to create some form of midseason tournament to divide the season into two halves and it makes sense use that tournament to create more attractive game matchups for the second half of the season.

For example, the NBA could divide the season in half with 30 teams playing each other in the first half and a midseason tournament determining 16 ‘A’ teams and 14 ‘B’ teams who would play against each other the second half. The top 5 teams in each conference would get byes as ‘A’ while the other 6 teams would be seeded and play a 7-game series to determine whether they would be ‘A’ or ‘B’ teams in their conferences for the season second half.

The 16 ‘A’ teams would only play against each other for the second half of the season, which would create more attractive and competitive games and increase live ticket sales and raise television ratings on the major networks. The 14 ‘B’ teams would also only play against each other the second half of the season but the top 2 ‘B’ teams and bottom 2 ‘A’ teams in each conference would compete in a play-in tournament for the final two playoff spots.

This is just one idea how the NBA could restructure future regular seasons and playoffs to improve competition, sell more tickets, and raise TV ratings by expanding playoff opportunities and creating more attractive matchups. If the league’s season restart plan is successful, it could be a blueprint how the NBA could improve its product and chart a course to regain momentum lost due the China crisis, coronavirus pandemic, and diluted matchups.

That’s why the season restart experiment planned for Orlando is so critical for the league. The NBA not only needs the revenue finishing the regular season and playoffs will generate but also the blueprint it could portend.

Can Lakers Survive Coronavirus and the Bubble and Win a championship?

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The Lakers title hopes face three challenges: surviving a coronavirus forced suspension of the season, surviving an untested bubble in the epicenter of a pandemic, and then winning an NBA championship with a depleted squad.

After comfortably beating the Bucks and Clippers in a weekend sweep that catapulted them to the top of the league power rankings, the Lakers seemed poised to roll through the playoffs and win their 17th NBA championship. But that was a ‘then’ rudely replaced with a ‘now’ dominated by a growing pandemic, cratering economy, and protests of racial injustice forcing the league and players to seriously question whether to resume the season.

That confluence of events has already led Davis Bertans, Trevor Ariza, and Avery Bradley to decide not to join their teammates in Orlando. By the end of the day, others players like Dwight Howard may also decide not to play. Meanwhile, teams and players are complaining the bubble is too limited or too restrictive, worrying about getting injured or catching Covid-19, and questioning the optics of a bunch of black NBA players locked in a bubble.

Let’s look at the first challenge the Lakers must survive to win their 17th championship. Could rising numbers of new Covid-19 cases in Florida or players testing positive derail plans to resume the season and playoffs? While that’s possible, the financial repercussions for the league and the players would be disastrous. The networks would cancel all TV contracts, the NBA would void the CBA, and both sides would lose billions.

While conditions could worsen over the next two weeks, the realistic chances the NBA will cancel their current plans to resume the season are slim and none. We may see changes but there’s too much at stake to cancel. The league is counting on the bubble to protect the players from contracting the virus and testing to enable them to control its spread. Even players who have tested positive like Nikola Jokic should have time to recover and play.

As for complaints about the bubble, the league still has a couple of weeks to work with the players and Disney World workers to resolve their concerns. Expect an expanded bubble to protect more players, workers, and families. The stakes are so high the league will spend whatever it needs to satisfy all of stakeholders necessary for the resumption of the season and the playoffs to happen. The adverse impact of cancelling the season will demand it.

Once the challenges of coronavirus and the bubble have been resolve, the Lakers will get their opportunity to win their 17th championship, though without guard Avery Bradley and maybe even center Dwight Howard. While Bradley and Howard were integral contributors during the regular season, the Lakers have able guard replacements for Avery and already plan for Anthony Davis to play increased minutes at center going forward.

So while the Lakers would certainly have preferred to have Bradley on the roster, his or Dwight Howard’s absence would not be enough to prevent the Lakers from reaching their goal and winning their 17th NBA championship.