It’s time to mark your calendars — the Golden State Warriors could be making their long-awaited return to the court on Dec. 22.
On Thursday, the National Basketball Players Association voted to approve the league’s plan for a Dec. 22 opening day with a 72-game season, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania and ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Along with a slate of games on Christmas day, the Dec. 22 start date will give the NBA the ability to end the season in time for the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
The league believes that a Dec. 22 start that includes Christmas Day games on television and allows for a 72-game schedule that finishes before the Summer Olympics in July is worth between $500 million and $1 billion in short- and long-term revenues to the league and the players, sources said.
After closing out a run of games in the Orlando Bubble with the Los Angeles Lakers championship in the NBA Finals on Oct. 11, the league will have a quick turnaround time for the start of the new season. While it may be a fast return to the court for some teams, the Warriors were one of eight teams not invited to the league’s trip to Disney World.
The last time the Warriors suited up for a game was before the league suspended play due to the coronavirus pandemic on March 10 against the Los Angeles Clippers. The opening of the 2020-21 season is expected to see the highly-anticipated return of Klay Thompson after an 18-month layoff from the knee injury he suffered in the 2019 NBA Finals.
Before training camps are set to begin on Dec. 1, the NBA has a whirlwind offseason schedule starting with the draft on Nov. 18. Once the Warriors are off the clock with the No. 2 overall pick in the NBA draft, Bob Myers and Steve Kerr will have to quickly turn their attention to the free agency period.
With no official date for the start of free agency, the league could open the player movement window right after the draft night, per Wojnarowski.
According to Wojnarowski, once the NBA and players reach a formal agreement on an amended collective bargaining agreement, the league will lift a moratorium and reopen business for pre-draft trades.
The league and players are still negotiating financial terms of an amended collective bargaining agreement, and those talks are expected to extend into next week, sources said. Once a formal agreement is reached, the league will lift a moratorium and reopen the league for business on trades prior to the draft.
Once movement and trades are open for business, the Warriors will have the opportunity to use their $17.2 million trade exception from last offseason’s Andre Iguodala deal with the Memphis Grizzlies.
While there are still several boxes to check off before the start of the 2020-21 season, the Golden State Warriors finally have a potential gameday circled on their calendar for the first time in eight months.
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