With just five days until their first preseason game, Tom Thibodeau embarked on his initial full practice session as the new coach of the Knicks. And maybe the fact that there were no notable issues, injuries or halting of workouts is a small victory.
Across the country, the Portland Trail Blazers were announcing that they were shutting down their practice facility temporarily after having three positive COVID-19 test results within the organization over the last four days. So on Day One for Thibodeau, a minor success came in simply getting through the day.
That might be as important as anything right now with just a handful of days to try to blend the pieces of a newly constructed roster into his system without a player at least 30 years old on the team.