Report: NBA Targeting Dec. 11-19 for Preseason; Teams to Play 3-4 Games
The NBA is targeting a December 11 start to the preseason with teams playing either three or four games, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium.
Clubs can reportedly request which amount of games they prefer, but each team must host at least one home game before the regular season tips off December 22.
The league is already facing it's shortest offseason in the history of the four major North American sports leagues, according to Elias Sports Bureau, with just 71 days between the end of the NBA Finals and the start of the regular season.
According to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, NBA officials and the players association came to an understanding that any further delay to the 2020-21 season would create financial hardship for the league that would require longer-term solutions to balance out, potentially impacting the salary cap as well as the split of basketball-related income.
Training camps are scheduled to open December 1 in preparation for a 72-game regular season. That crunch already has training staff concerned for the safety of the players.
"It's going to be especially challenging to not only get ready to play Dec. 22 or whatever, but to maintain that for a period of four or five months," one head athletic trainer of a Western Conference team told ESPN's Baxter Holmes.
The NBA has yet to release the 2020-21 season schedule but, per Wojnarowski, it hopes to conclude its 2020-21 postseason by July, allowing players to participate in the 2021 Summer Olympics.
