NBA, NBAPA Agree On December 22nd Start For 2020-21 Season
Nov 6, 2020, 8:12 AM | Updated: 8:12 am
(Photo by Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images)
(Photo by Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images)
The Players Association has agreed to begin the season during Christmas week–just a little over six weeks away
For teams in the National Basketball Association, it’s time to get to work.
According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, the NBA Players Association voted on Thursday night to approve a tentative plan to begin the 2020-21 regular-season on December 22nd.
The season will be shortened by 10 games, running from December through May for a total of 72 games.
With training camps scheduled to begin in about three weeks and the NBA Draft coming up on November 18th, discussions have been opened between both sides regarding lifting the trade moratorium and beginning the free-agency period ahead of schedule.
Per Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the NBAPA would like to open up free-agency as soon as possible after the NBA Draft to accommodate player movement with such a short window to the opening of training camps on Dec. 1st.
After news broke of the agreement, the NBAPA released the following statement:
There are more negotiations to be had regarding the contracts of the players and rises in the escrow withholding on players’ salaries.
Wojnarowski released the following information on the salary negotiations:
The NBA and NBPA have discussed significant rises in the escrow withholding on players’ salaries to account for the severe losses in league revenue during the coronavirus pandemic. The sides are working toward spreading out the players’ losses over multiple seasons so the players don’t take such a substantial financial hit in one year.
Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN,
While the NBA and Players Association work out the financial logistics, the players and team personnel now have just a few weeks to prepare for the beginning of the season.
With the draft in less than two weeks and free-agency to follow, there will be a lot of movement around the league–and the moves will happen fast.
Teams will want to open up training camp with little-to-no questions surrounding their respective rosters. This means for a team like the Sacramento Kings, a lot of decisions will need to be made:
- Who will they select with the 12th pick in the NBA Draft?
- Will Buddy Hield be traded?
- Does Monte McNair want to bring back Bogdan Bogdanovic?
- Player Option: Jabari Parker ($6 million)
- Team Option: Nemanja Bjelica ($7 million)
The season is approaching and the clock is ticking.
Time to get to work.
