We’ve known for a short while that the NBA’s players approved the league’s proposal to begin the 2020-21 season on Dec. 22, but things became real on Monday when the players union and the commissioner’s office released a joint statement announcing that the entities had formally agreed to revise the league’s collective bargaining agreement to address the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.
In short, the CBA contains provisions that allow either side to terminate it in the event of certain occurrences, one of which is a pandemic. In other words, the league and the players union could have failed to come to an agreement as to how they would apportion the losses that the league is expecting to endure as a result of playing two truncated seasons without the full economic benefit of allowing fans in the building.
Fortunately, any conflicts related to that have been smoothed over; the NBA and NBPA released a joint statement on Monday announcing that they’ve settled their differences and will present them to the league’s Board of Governors for formal ratification. That ratification is a mere formality, and now, we can rest assured that the 2020-21 season will begin on Dec. 22. Training camps will begin on Dec. 1.
In addition, here are some other important facts, some of which have recently been finalized:
- The 2020 NBA Draft is scheduled for Nov. 18;
- Teams can begin negotiating with free agents at 6:00 p.m. ET on Nov. 20;
- Teams can begin signing free agents on Nov. 22 at 12:01 p.m. ET;
- The salary cap for the 2020-21 season is $109.14 million, while the luxury tax threshold is $132.62 million;
- Each team will play 72 games.
While there have been reports that the truncated 2020-21 season could feature a play-in tournament between the seventh, eighth, ninth and 10th-seeded teams in each conference, the release announcing the changes didn’t mention it.
With respect to the Thunder, the team is still looking for a head coach, still believed to be pursuing trades of its veterans and have been thought to be a potential destination for LaMelo Ball.
Somehow, the NBA continues to be the gift that keeps giving.