Pilchard
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What are people's predictions for when next season starts?
Was thinking MLK Day, but that might be too optimistic if the owners are set on getting at least some fans into the arenas.
The first step before dates can be set for making trades, signing free agents and setting a league schedule is the NBA and NBAPA agreeing to salary cap and related basketball related income figures that allows NBA teams to start assembling their rosters for next year. Right now, the only date set is the NBA Draft for November 18. NBAPA Head Michelle Roberts previously predicted that the league and the association to agree on the cap and BRI figures by December 1:
We can’t go much beyond (December 1) for (free agency),” Roberts said. “We had a projected BRI (basketball-related income), which I think teams appropriately planned for. I don’t think we can deviate much from where we projected the cap to be.
Those negotiations would also include agreements on the schedule for next season. The only public statements issued about the start of next season also came from Roberts:
The latter part of January, February makes sense (as the earliest possible starting date),” she told Charania. “If it’s later than that, if we have a terrible winter because the virus decides to reassert herself, that’s fine.”
Sounds like an MLK weekend starting date might be the goal, but the start may actually be later than that. BTW, one NBA scheduling idea for next season has proposed NBA teams playing two game series, like baseball does in two, three or four game series during the season. That would reduce travel and perhaps give the NBA some ability to compress the season as the NBA may want the season to creep into October again, where TV rating suffer because of the other sports options.