Fernando Medina / NBAE via Getty Images, file

With the NBA lockout in place, Eddy Curry can't visit teams to audition for a spot, NBCSports.com contributor Ira Winderman writes.

Then there is a third group of players, perhaps the most significant group of players, impacted by the early stages of the lockout, those recovering from offseason or late-season injuries.

Take Josh Howard, who is in the midst of offseason knee rehab. Not only is he barred, by lockout rules, from continuing to work with the Wizards' training staff, but he has to complete his rehab as an impending free agent. It is one thing for an interested team to consult the Wizards before the resumption of free agency for an update. It is another to attempt to get similar insight from a party less familiar with NBA demands.

Taken further, even if Kobe Bryant didn't opt for his unusual course of treatment in Germany, he could not have attempted anything close, or anything at all, with the Lakers' training staff during this lockout.

For that matter, the last thing Greg Oden needs at this stage is a divorce from the Trail Blazers' training staff and the team facilities that essentially have become a second home.

Then there is a fourth, non-player, group that suffers a setback each day the lockout drags on, even the opening ones: recently named head coaches, a group that soon enough will include new entries in Detroit and probably Minnesota.

Even veteran coaches appreciate the significance of offseason bonding with players, when the pressure is off and the dialogue does not come amid benchings, losing streaks or intense media inspection. It is why Philadelphia's Doug Collins hit the road in the days leading to the lockout, for a final round of face time.

It is something Mark Jackson with Golden State, Dwane Casey with Toronto, and the impeding coaches in Detroit and Minnesota will lose out on by not being positioned as early as, say, the Lakers' Mike Brown.

It is easy to minimize the influence of the lockout in July for a sport that does not play for real until the final week of October.

But to say there is no significance of these early days of the lockout is to ignore the very careers the lockout already is impacting.

Ira Winderman writes regularly for NBCSports.com and covers the Heat and the NBA for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. You can follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/IraHeatBeat .

More news

Andrew D. Bernstein / Getty Images Contributor

Heat rally to force Game 7

PBT: LeBron James took over the 4th quarter, Ray Allen hit a huge three to force OT and the Heat survived to force a Game 7.

PBT: Allen gives Heat exactly what they expected

Headlines

• Label

PBT: After blowing lead, can Spurs rebound in Game 7?

PBT: Watch Bosh's big block to end Game 6

PBT: Mike Miller makes 3-pointer with one shoe

PBT: Judges rules Iverson did not kidnap children

Posnanski: The baffling and brilliant Manu Ginobili

PBT: Unheralded Green could steal NBA Finals MVP

PBT: Rivers reportedly reconsidering Clippers deal

PBT: Danny Green sets Finals three-pointers record