The NBA is pushing for a Dec. 22 start date to the 2020-21 season, The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported Friday. This targeted season would be 72 games instead of the traditional 82.
The league also wants to have some sort of play-in tournament for the final playoff spots, similar to what took place in the bubble when the Portland Trail Blazers and Memphis Grizzlies had a play-in game to decide the eighth seed.
Assuming the season and playoffs are generally the same length as a normal NBA season, which goes from the middle of October through the middle of April and then the Finals end in mid-June, the league schedule could look like:
- Regular season begins: Dec. 22
- Regular season (adjusted for 10 fewer games) ends: mid-to-late May
- Finals end: mid-July
If scheduled properly, the season would be over by the time the Olympics begin. The 2021 Games are scheduled to take place from July 23 to Aug. 8.
Additionally, such a season would largely remove TV competition with the NFL. A normal NBA season has three months that coincide with football, while this schedule would be about a month and a half.
The league hopes to allow teams to play at their home stadiums this season instead of using another bubble.
The National Basketball Players’ Association would need to approve this deal.
One issue is that this offseason is insanely short. The NBA draft is scheduled for Nov. 18. Free agency is expected to begin late November or Dec. 1, according to The Athletic’s John Hollinger. This takes months off a typical offseason, when free agency begins early July.
But this isn’t a typical offseason, and in order to preserve some normalcy for the 2021-22 season, adjustments may need to be made to this one.