NBA Targeting July 31 For Return To Play
NBA commissioner Adam Silver and the league office informed the Board of Governors on today’s conference call that July 31 is the tentative target date for a return to play, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
That target date doesn’t tell us exactly when the NBA would want its season to end, since we don’t know how many games will be played once the season resumes. However, a typical postseason requires about two months from start to finish, so it appears as if the league is comfortably playing through August and September.
According to Charania (via Twitter), the NBA discussed four potential return scenarios on today’s call with team owners. Those scenarios were as follows:
- Bringing back 16 teams and advancing directly to the postseason.
- Bringing back 20 teams and using a play-in pool that would involve a group stage.
- Note: The Trail Blazers, Pelicans, Kings, and Spurs would likely be involved in this scenario in addition to the playoff teams.
- Bringing back 22 teams and playing regular season games to determine seeding. A play-in tournament would then be used to determine the final playoff teams.
- Note: The Suns and Wizards would be added to this scenario, as ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne tweets.
- Bringing back 30 teams, completing a 72-game regular season, then conducting a play-in tournament for the final playoff teams.
Within each of those scenarios, the NBA could tweak the details and go in a few different directions. For instance, even something a solution as simple as advancing to the postseason with the current top-eight seeds in each conference could involve reseeding those teams from one through 16, regardless of conference.
It seems like a safe bet, however, that the format the league eventually lands on won’t stray too far from one of those four options. Marc Berman of The New York Post tweets that returning with 24 teams is believed to still be on the table as well, so that may be a variation of the third option listed above.
According to Charania (via Twitter), that fourth and final option – with all 30 teams returning to play – looks like the least likely outcome. Charania reports that Hornets owner Michael Jordan advocated on today’s call for player safety and not asking players to return for meaningless games — that viewpoint has been voiced by at least one superstar player as well. So unless all 30 teams get a chance to make the playoffs, which seems like a long shot, the NBA is unlikely to bring them all back.
The NBA and NBPA are expected to further deliberate in the coming days, with Silver potentially bringing a proposal back to the Board of Governors for a vote next week.
Board Of Governors Meeting Unlikely To Yield Final Plan
The NBA’s Board of Governors remote meeting with commissioner Adam Silver on Friday is not expected to result in finalized plans for the resumption of this season, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski tweets.
This speaks to the difficulties of getting everyone around the league to agree on a format and guidelines to restart the season. A wide range of options have been considered, varying from having all teams return to action to just the 16 clubs currently holding playoff spots.
Talks on incorporating the three most serious plans remain ongoing with the teams and the National Basketball Players Association, Wojnarowski adds, without specifying that trio of options.
Players Association executive director Michele Roberts has been conducting team-by-team conference calls with players this week, spelling out the various formats, as well as the financial implication of those options.
Orlando has emerged as the likely place where games will be conducted.
Latest On Potential Resumption Of NBA Season
The NBA has a number of important conference calls scheduled for this week as it continues to discuss the possible resumption of the 2019/20 season.
According to Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer, the league’s advisory/finance committee will have a call on Wednesday to talk about potential plans. Meanwhile, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski says a call with the league’s general managers will take place on Thursday. A Board of Governors call is scheduled for Friday, as previously reported.
According to Wojnarowski, the NBA may present a recommendation to its team owners on Friday, but that’s not guaranteed, since the league believes it still has some time to further deliberate. Sources tell ESPN that the possibility of games resuming in August – rather than July – remains a possibility for the NBA.
As the NBA continues to preach patience, NBPA executive director Michele Roberts has started to push for a resolution to the league’s deliberations. Roberts, who plans to speak with players from all 30 teams over the next week to determine how they feel about the NBA’s reopening plans, tells ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne that players overwhelmingly want to play, but need details on what it will look like.
“It’s time. It’s time,” Roberts said. “It’s been two and a half months of, ‘What if?’ My players need some level of certainty. I think everybody does.”
Roberts added that she doesn’t think the players’ union would necessarily need to conduct a formal vote on an NBA proposal when it arrives, since the NBPA has stayed in constant communication with the league, which has a pretty good sense of how its players are feeling.
“If we thought we needed a vote, we would. If we’re ratifying a CBA, we need a vote,” Roberts told Shelburne. “But our preferred method is talking to people or just having them talk to us. Then if we get a sense of what the sentiment is then we can move forward. We talk to our players and figure it out.”
Here’s more on the NBA’s plans:
- There’s no strong consensus among NBA teams and executives about what the league’s return to play should look like, according to Wojnarowski. For instance, the idea of all 30 teams participating has “lost momentum,” but “still has a significant lobby.” Teams like the Hawks, Cavaliers, and Pistons are interested in resuming play, per Woj, who notes that some young, rebuilding squads are wary of taking the summer off and having a nine-month layoff before the start of next season.
- On the other hand, there’s some ambivalence among lottery-bound teams about returning, particularly if they have no path to the postseason, Woj writes. Damian Lillard has publicly expressed this sentiment, as we relayed this morning. Commissioner Adam Silver is also prioritizing player safety and is wary of the possibility of subpar basketball if all 30 teams are brought back — the combination of the long layoff and stars on lottery teams sitting out could create a “bad television spectacle,” notes Woj.
- Some agents are also hinting to GMs that their free-agent-to-be clients may not want to jeopardize their stock by playing poorly in a brief return this summer if there’s no path to the playoffs for their teams, according to ESPN’s report.
- One starting player on a lottery team offered the following assessment, according to Woj: “If we don’t show up, we lose more money. We are already in the hole. And what message does it send to the public, the teams, the players that we are OK with 10-to-14 teams not playing. We already have a competition problem in the league. … My thing is: Play 30 teams for as many games as possible for the money, or go straight to the playoffs.”
- According to O’Connor, Silver is interested in trying something different with this year’s playoffs because he wants to boost interest and appeal to casual fans at a time when all eyes will be on the NBA’s return. O’Connor lays out, in detail, the possibility of turning the first round of the postseason into a World Cup-esque “group stage,” which is something the NBA has discussed — we’ll have much more on that concept in a story coming later this afternoon.
Silver Wants Best-Of-Seven Playoff Series If Season Resumes
One of the many topics discussed by the NBA in the 10 weeks since COVID-19 shut down the 2019/20 season is the possibility of adjusting the playoff format if the season resumes. Reducing the number of games per series or even shifting to more of a tournament-style postseason could significantly cut down on the amount of time players and teams would have to remain in a “bubble” location to complete the season.
However, appearing on ESPN’s Get Up this morning (video link), Adrian Wojnarowski stressed that commissioner NBA Adam Silver continues to prioritize a best-of-seven format for playoff series, assuming the season can resume.
“Adam Silver wants to have seven-game series in the playoffs,” Wojnarowski told Mike Greenberg. “He doesn’t want to have shortened series early on. He wants to try to legitimize the champion as much as he can.”
While it seems inevitable that some NBA fans and observers will attach an asterisk to whatever team wins the 2019/20 title, maintaining that best-of-seven format would at least ensure that this year’s winner doesn’t make it through the playoffs under entirely different circumstances than usual.
Of course, the end of the season – again, assuming it can be completed – will still be very atypical. As Wojnarowski noted on Get Up and during a Wednesday appearance on ESPN’s SportsCenter (video link), the NBA still hopes to bring back all 30 teams – or as close to 30 as possible – this summer, and may need to provide some sort of incentive to convince those lottery-bound teams to return.
One of the biggest ongoing conversations around the league is how many clubs will be invited to the NBA’s “bubble,” how many will have an opportunity to make the playoffs, and what a potential play-in tournament for the final postseason spot or two could look like.
As Woj pointed out during both of his TV appearances, the league will have to walk a fine line as it attempts to make things fair for teams like the Mavericks and Grizzlies, who comfortably hold the Nos. 7 and 8 seeds, while potentially incentivizing a return for current lottery teams by putting those playoff spots up for grabs.
Players Leaning On Silver’s Judgment For Potential Restart
The trust between NBA players and Adam Silver has made him the driving force behind the possible resumption of this season and sorting out all pandemic-related issues, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN details.
Unlike the often contentious relationship between MLB players and baseball commissioner Rob Manfred, the spirit of cooperation in the NBA has put Silver in a position of reshaping the NBA during the pandemic. That’s why most players are willing to finish the season and owners are sold on testing while remaining cautious on bringing back fans, despite the financial implications.
The league is examining ways to have fans in arenas at 15% to 20% capacity, Wojnarowski continues. Most teams are studying how to get fans into premium seating arrangements and safely distance them when fans are officially allowed to return on a limited basis.
The large revenue issues have not been lost on players, thanks to their willingness to accept Silver’s blunt assessment of the current situation. The star players are on committees engaging with the league office and even thanked Silver for getting on a conference call with them last week, Wojnarowski adds. That’s a big reason why the players didn’t balk at having 25% of their paychecks withheld, beginning on Friday.
NBA Will Likely Need To Restructure CBA Amid Pandemic
During Adam Silver‘s call with NBA players on Friday, many near-term questions were presented, but there was a shortage of definitive answers as the league aims to resume its 2019/20 season. Silver stressed the need for testing and how it will expand as players return to practice facilities. Additionally, more information was provided in terms of travel, training camp and the 2020/21 season.
All of that doesn’t even scratch the surface of the financial impact the league will endure. With the season suspended in March, there have been no NBA games for two months and if they do resume, there is no guarantee fans will be allowed, potentially for all of 2020.
Per ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link), the NBA was projecting $8 billion in revenue for the current season and $8.4 billion in 2020/21. However, those projections were in place before the coronavirus outbreak. As Silver noted, having fans in the stands for all games equates to 40% of the NBA’s revenue.
If the league moves forward with fan-less arenas, which may be limited to one or two locations at least for the rest of 2019/20, the loss of revenue will essentially force the league to restructure the current collective bargaining agreement. The league has already cut back salaries of employees, including players, while teams evaluate paying non-laid off or furloughed employees on a month to month basis.
Three-Week Minimum Anticipated For Training Camp
Commissioner Adam Silver believes a three-to-six week ramp-up period would be needed in order to resume the season, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic.
Silver was asked about the length of training camp during a conference call with players on Friday. A minimum of three weeks has been discussed around the league, Silver replied, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).
With Silver indicating that no decision regarding the resumption of the season needed to made this month, that would suggest that play would resume no earlier than July.
The league is taking baby steps toward getting players back into training facilities. The NBA has given the go-ahead for teams to allow players back into their usual facilities under heavy restrictions. Only the Cavaliers and the Trail Blazers were able or willing to unlock their facilities on Friday, displaying the cautious approach many franchises and players have adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic, Marc Stein of the New York Times reports.
Larry Nance Jr., Kevin Love, Cedi Osman and Ante Zizic showed up at the Cavaliers’ practice facility. Nance spent approximately 90 minutes taking shots and doing weight work, while the others spend their time at separate baskets. All the players were subject to temperature checks before being allowed in the facility.
“They did a really good job of making sure we all felt great about being there,” Nance told Stein. “They could make it at 4 in the morning and I would be there.”
Other players around the league don’t share Nance’s enthusiasm. During the conference call with Silver, Thunder guard and Players Association president Chris Paul expressed the concerns of some players that they felt pressure to work out at their teams’ facilities, Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports tweets. Silver reiterated that the workouts are optional and advised Paul to follow up with the league if any players had issues with their respective teams during the reopening of the facilities.
Silver To Players: Restart Likely To Be Held In One Or Two Cities
Commissioner Adam Silver told players in a conference call on Friday that it would be safer to restart the season in one or two “bubble” cities, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski tweets.
Las Vegas and Orlando are the main options to resume to play in both conferences, though Silver has received inquiries from numerous city officials about hosting the remainder of the season, Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports tweets.
A decision to resume the season doesn’t have to be made this month or at the beginning of June, Wojnarowski adds. If the NBA tries to finish the season, there’s no expectation that fans will be in the stands, Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets. Silver cautioned the players that there will always be a measure of risk until a vaccine is developed for the novel coronavirus.
There’s also the possibility that fans will not be allowed in the arenas next season until a vaccine is readily available, Wojnarowski relays in another tweet. That will obviously impact finances, since the league generates approximately 40% of its revenue through fans attending games, Silver told the players. The league is working on creative ways with its TV partners to deliver the games to audiences, Wojnarowski adds.
There is real concern on both sides about the financial hardship caused by the pandemic. Michele Roberts, the executive director of the Players’ Association, broached that subject on the call with Silver. Silver said that the CBA “wasn’t built for an extended pandemic,” calling it “the greatest challenge” of our lifetime, according to Wojnarowski (Twitter link).
Silver is hopeful of conducting seven-game series for each playoff round, particularly if there is no travel involved, according to Wojnarowski. The commissioner also told the players that he believes the owners unanimously want to resume the season, despite the fact that there might be some financial advantages to canceling if there will be no fans in the seats (Twitter link).
Latest On NBA Teams, Players Returning To Work
NBA teams have been given the go-ahead to begin opening up their facilities on Friday, but they will face restrictions. Among them will be the team’s head coaches not being allowed to participate or observe players workouts, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.com (Twitter link).
Teams will be able to designate up to six assistant coaches or player development personnel to provide supervision of player workouts, Woj adds.
The Cavaliers, Nuggets, and Blazers all plan to reopen facilities on Friday. Other teams are expected to follow suit next week.
Commissioner Adam Silver and NBPA executive director Michele Roberts will host an all-player call on Friday as well, Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com reports. The call is intended to be an open forum for players to address any concerns and ask questions, Shelburne writes.
NBA Remains Optimistic About 2019/20 Season Even With Further Delay
The overwhelming majority of high-level executives remain encouraged and optimistic that the NBA will resume this season, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.com.
Commissioner Adam Silver has maintained a strong relationship with the National Basketball Players Association as all parties aim to return to basketball. Still, there are many hurdles to overcome in order to resume the season.
Silver previously said that no decision will be made before May 1. That doesn’t mean the commissioner will be making any announcements on Friday, though there’s a bit of restlessness within the league to come to a decision sooner than later, Woj notes.
The MGM Grand in Las Vegas is one of several suitors pitching a plan to host the league. Vegas could potentially also host the WNBA by providing three adjacent hotels for teams to stay at. Disney World in Orlando, Florida remains an option that is gaining momentum. Another proposal would see games played in “pods” across different regions.
Having fans in the stands is probably out of the question. Having cameramen may not be needed either, as sources tell Wojnarowski that the teams could rely on robotic cameras with new, innovative angles of the contests.
TV analysts could potentially call games from remote locations. The current discussions have included keeping teams at a 30-to-35 person head count, including players.
There is some support for the 2020/21 season to begin in December and run through July or August, as a way of resuming the 2019/20 season without dramatically hindering the league’s ability to complete the full ’20/21 calendar. There’s also the understanding that the further the NBA pushes this season back, the higher the chances of having fans in the stands at some point.
The NBA is still sorting out scenarios, but Silver may have to push forward with a decision without the backing of everyone. One GM told Woj that “it’s hard to lead by consensus in a crisis.” Silver may have to simply act in what he feels are the best interests of all parties, even if there are some that have different preferences.
Testing for the coronavirus is another issue. Silver has insisted that he couldn’t allow for the NBA to utilize all the available tests and – according to Woj – has instituted a mandate stating that if a player wasn’t showing symptoms, he shouldn’t be tested. Woj reports that the league would have to reverse course on that and that it would take approximately 15,000 tests to complete the season. While the NBA can afford to pay a private company to make those tests, it would be problematic for the league if they’re not widely available to the American public.
It’s nearing two months since the league suspended its season and the urgency to come to a solution continues to rise.