With the National Basketball Players Association voting Thursday night to tentatively approve the long-rumored December 22nd start date for the 2020-2021 regular season, it finally seems safe to start talking about the upcoming NBA season.
While there are still many questions to be answered for both fans and the players themselves, our Mavs staff is getting together to share some of our initial thoughts about the news.
What do you think is the biggest pro of the announced start date? Biggest con?
Dylan Duell: I think it sets up what will be some of the most exciting NBA coverage in history with the approximately two weeks between the NBA draft on November 18th and the start of training camps on December 1st. Really all of the most juicy NBA transactions occur within a couple weeks of each other in July anyway, but with this set-up, we don’t have to spend multiple months speculating what these big moves will mean on the court, and instead we’ll get to see them play out on the court within a few weeks.
A big con is that it leaves so little time for all of the logistics that go along with player movement, plus there’s a freaking global pandemic that’s more or less worse than it was when the league stopped down back in March. With all of these exterior factors, could it limit teams’ interest in making big moves and could it really be several weeks into the season before we see most teams at full strength?
Michael Mulford: I mean, we get NBA basketball a lot sooner than we thought, so that’s the biggest pro, right? The offseason news cycle will be so different in how condensed it will be. Usually, it’s in the middle of the summer when only MLB is going on. Now, we’ll have the draft, free agency, training camp, and the start of the season all in a month’s cycle. If we thought the NBA offseason was crazy before, it’s about to get buck wild and I cannot wait to be glued to Twitter even more than I already am.
The biggest con has to be the readiness of the players. Of course, half the league hasn’t played since March when the league took its hiatus so those teams are itching to compete. For the bubble teams, specifically the teams who went far into the playoffs, the layoff for them is considerably shorter than your usual offseason. The Lakers and Heat will have two months off. The fairness in that is certainly in question but they’re professionals and this is about the money and TV deals more than anything else.
Reese Konkle: I think for many people, the most fun part of the NBA is its offseason. Typically, that plays itself out over the course of a couple months, but this year we’re going to get all of that player movement in a matter of days and weeks. It will be hectic, bordering on chaotic, but the news cycle churning at that clip is nothing but fun for NBA fans.
The downside you might see is an awfully quick return to play. For a couple teams that played deeper into the postseason, that’s less than a two month turnaround. However that is likely a bit overstated, considering teams had a nearly five month break from basketball before the bubble took shape. Take the Mavericks for example. They played a total of 14 games in the bubble (eight regular season, six postseason). That would mean over the course of about nine months that team will have played only 17% of a typical NBA season. Not a significant number at all and likely why the NBAPA approved the proposal.
What is the biggest question you still have about how the season will work logistically?
Duell: The season is shortened to 72 games, but the regular season length still is disproportionately shorter in terms of actual days/weeks/ months. Instead of November-ish to April, it’s December to May 16th. There are going to be positive tests. There are going to be games that get postponed and need to be re-scheduled. As we’ve seen in MLB and the NFL, there’s no avoiding that. It probably won’t totally derail the season, but it’s just something that the league will have to deal with. It doesn’t seem like they really allowed adequate time for these things to come up and affect the schedule.
I would suggest they think about only having a 60-65 game schedule over the same amount of time. If nothing happens? Then there’s just more time for the players to be healing from imminent injuries between games. This isn’t going happen though because of money, of course.
Mulford: Starting the season in December certainly brings up questions regarding having fans due to COVID continuing to linger and spread. The bubble was nothing short of an absolute success with the lack of positive cases. We’ve seen what COVID can do regarding affecting play with the MLB and NFL, which you have to imagine the NBA has taken note. But, it seems inevitable that positive cases will happen without being in a bubble so how the league decides to hinder that with mandatory protocols, extended roster spots or a “practice squad”, we shall wait to see.
Konkle: I wonder about how things will go regarding COVID and it’s impact on the schedule. One thing we’ve seen in the NFL is postponements and the re-shuffling of the schedule to accommodate teams dealing with some cases and/or an outbreak.
Here’s the caveat: NFL teams play one game per week. And they also have one bye week. These two things give the league flexibility in how it can deal with Covid and the possibility of rescheduling games, a luxury the NBA does not have.If the bubble was any indication though, the league and it’s people are more than cut out for this. And I think fans should trust them on it, but there will undoubtedly be some hurdles along the way.
How do you think the shortened season schedule affects a team like the Mavericks, if at all?
Duell: It really depends on the moves they make over the course of this month. If they end up making a major trade for another star-level player and it removes several of their incumbent role players, then the beginning of the season could be a bit choppy with a new roster figuring itself out likely without Kristaps Porzingis for a little bit.
If their offseason is modest and just adding players from the draft and the mid-level exception, I think they’ll be perfectly fine at the beginning of the season. We’ve seen how a Mavericks team minus Porzingis can keep its head above water thanks to an MVP candidate in Luka Doncic.
Mulford: The fast start in December with a shortened season can definitely affect the Mavericks in negative fashion. Kristaps Porzingis’ status after having surgery on his knee is unknown so his potential availability for the start of the season could be up in the air. Outside of KP, the potential of adding new players to the roster gives such a shorter time period to gain a chemistry for the team. With less games, potentially no KP, and a sped up offseason, it seems as the Mavericks could be at a disadvantage at the beginning of the season. In a bloodbath that is the Western Conference, any disadvantage, no matter how small, can negatively affect your playoff hopes.
Konkle: I think the most obvious concern would be KP’s health and availability. We were never given a timetable for his return and all we really know is that he had successful surgery. Given what the injury was, the earlier start could cast serious doubt on him being available by the opener, something the Mavericks might not be able to afford in a shortened season. It will be worth keeping an eye on as the team looks to lock in a playoff spot in the ultra-competitive West.
You could also run into issues of continuity with roster flux and things of that nature. Many experts have hinted that the Mavs might be a team to shuffle some things around with the roster, but ultimately that’s something all teams will deal with. It’s hard to see that as some disadvantage heading into the 2021 season.
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