The NBA's restart continues on Sunday, starting with Grizzlies @ Raptors from 6pm on Sky Sports Action
Sunday 9 August 2020 10:54, UK
T.J. Warren and Gary Trent Jr aren't elite players but they have made headlines at the NBA restart inside the league's campus at Disney's Wide World of Sports complex. BBL legend Mike Tuck considers why this has been the case.
Reports coming out of the bubble have suggested the players are revelling in the secure environment created by NBA commissioner Adam Silver. Excellent sight lines at each of the three bubble arenas have been praised by players.
Has the absence of fans and in-game crowd entertainment allowed the players to perform with even greater focus?
The first week of seeding games proved that anyone can star on a given night - or in Indiana Pacers forward T.J. Warren's case, multiple nights. Warren scored 119 points in his first three Pacers appearances inside the bubble, including a 53-point outing against the Philadelphia 76ers.
And he is not the only one. Trent Jr, a previously unheralded Portland Trail Blazers reserve, has drained 28 three-pointers in five games inside the bubble. He is pushing for a place in Portland's starting line-up and is making a major contribution to the Blazers' push for the playoffs.
We asked Sky Sports NBA analyst Mike Tuck to share his thoughts on why fringe players like Warren and Trent Jr have thrived in the bubble thus far...
I don't think the bubble environment is the only reason for some of the big-scoring performances we have seen in the first week of seeding games. For me, there are many different factors.
The playing space is smaller than an NBA arena which will feel cosier for the players, like being in a practice gym all these guys grew up playing in.
For shooters, the sight lines and depth perception build into that. You don't have a vast space behind the basket full of screaming fans. In terms of your eyesight, it's a lot easier to focus on the basket when there is a flat surface, say, 30 feet behind the hoop.
I enjoy playing in big arenas. I like the atmosphere and the vibe when you walk in. I've played at the O2 in London, at Kansas University and at other NBA-sized arenas. The Emirates Arena in Glasgow is an indoor track arena that holds about 10,000 people. There is loads of space behind the basket but no fans so the depth perception there is really strange and something you have to adjust to.
There is also the fact that everyone is on a level playing field. No one is travelling for games and everybody has been in their hotel rooms for weeks now. Every player is coming to the game from the same comfortable place. No one has just got off a plane. No one has only had five hours sleep the day before a game.
The players are showing up and playing on the same floors in the same arenas. There is no home advantage and there are no fans - 18-20,000 people screaming at you or cheering you on. That's a huge factor. Less noise means more communication with your coaches. It also creates more of a pick-up game vibe with everybody on a level playing field.
All of that plays into why we have seen lesser-known guys like Warren step up with huge performances so far. Mentally, they are in a great place and don't have the normal regular season pressure on them.
Warren is one of those guys who is much more comfortable in the campus-type environment in Florida. He hit nine threes in that 53-point performance against Philadelphia. Before he got to the bubble, he had hit 69 in 61 games! He's the first Pacer to score 50 or more since Jermaine O'Neal had 55 in a game in 2005.
It's great that the bubble is creating stories like this.
Will Warren keep it going? Teams will start scouting him and adjusting but he had two 30-point games to follow up that 53! Once you build momentum, you become very hard to stop unless teams throw double-teams at you and force someone else to beat them.
