Although coronavirus cases in the State of Florida continue to rise, the NBA is moving forward with its plan to resume its season on July 30 at Walt Disney World, and one of the things that we’ve known for quite some time was that the league’s disruption would impact the league’s calendar, including the beginning of the 2020-21 season.
Typically, the NBA Finals conclude by the second week of June with the NBA Draft typically taking place between June 20 to June 25.
With the Finals potentially concluding sometime in the second week of October, though, the league’s draft and offseason would have to occur at some later point.
On Saturday, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski got some fresh intel with respect to the 2020-21 offseason, which will begin as soon as the NBA Finals conclude in October. According to his report, the 2020 NBA Draft will take place on October 16, just four days after Game 7 of the 2020 NBA Finals would be played.
Source: NBA Draft will be on October 16, with early entry deadline on August 17.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 20, 2020
Additionally, Wojnarowski reported that free agency will begin on October 18, just two days after the draft will take place. Free agents will then be able to officially sign new contracts on October 23 after the league has established settled its books from the 2019-20 season and established its salary cap for the 2020-21 season.
Source: Free agency opens on October 18 still, with moratorium period on deals October 19-23.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 20, 2020
In what obviously comes as no surprise, the offseason is extremely abbreviated. Typically, there is at least a week between the conclusion of the NBA Finals and the draft, and another week between the draft and July 1 — the date free agency begins. Summer league begins shortly thereafter and runs simultaneously with the busiest days of the free agency period, which usually dies down by July 10.
Most of the league enjoys at least six weeks of downtime between team activities and training camps begin in September.
Unfortunately for the league’s personnel, it doesn’t appear that anyone will have that luxury this season.