What does the 2020-2021 Season Look like?

NomarsFool

Member
SoSH Member
Dec 21, 2001
8,157
Cross posting from the GH thread. I think they almost have to look at a shorter season. The season is going to start at least a few months later than usual, and I don't think they want to have the playoffs be going to much deeper into the summer than normal. I don't know the right number, but I'd think somewhere around 60-70 games would be plenty to establish playoff seedings.

This is going off-topic, but it's interesting to me how in the early days of baseball restarting there were a bunch of covid issues, but that seems to have diminished (although honestly I don't pay much attention to baseball at all anymore). The NFL isn't doing a bubble, and they seem to be fine. So, what will be the NBA approach to start the season? I think there will be a significant push not to have it be in a bubble.
 

scottyno

late Bloomer
SoSH Member
Dec 7, 2008
11,304
For reference, the 2011-12 NBA season started on December 25th, ended only a few days later than normal, and played 66 games. They could push the playoffs back into August and schedule a full season if they really wanted to, assuming they can start by around new years.
 

jon abbey

Shanghai Warrior
Moderator
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
70,713
Don't they have to play at least 70 games to fulfill TV contracts? I thought that was a big issue with the startup this year.
 

the1andonly3003

New Member
Jul 15, 2005
4,371
Chicago
Don't they have to play at least 70 games to fulfill TV contracts? I thought that was a big issue with the startup this year.
I really wished they could use a shortened season to get creative, maybe implement that Cup/tournament format. Use this to create a new product with a new TV rights up for bid in future years
 

lexrageorge

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 31, 2007
18,096
Cross posting from the GH thread. I think they almost have to look at a shorter season. The season is going to start at least a few months later than usual, and I don't think they want to have the playoffs be going to much deeper into the summer than normal. I don't know the right number, but I'd think somewhere around 60-70 games would be plenty to establish playoff seedings.

This is going off-topic, but it's interesting to me how in the early days of baseball restarting there were a bunch of covid issues, but that seems to have diminished (although honestly I don't pay much attention to baseball at all anymore). The NFL isn't doing a bubble, and they seem to be fine. So, what will be the NBA approach to start the season? I think there will be a significant push not to have it be in a bubble.
The NFL is currently dealing with its first true outbreak, so the jury is still out as to gauging the NFL's success.

I'm not at all convinced the players are going to want to start a regular season in a bubble. I don't think the owners want it either. I do think there's a good chance that the league will need to play at least its early season games without fans, however. It's a difficult future to predict, so it's best to have a number of contingencies in place for various scenarios.

One idea I heard thrown about is to have teams play a more MLB-like schedule, where they are in one city for a couple of games. It also would not surprise me if the league cut down the number of inter-conference games to reduce the travel a bit. Perfect will not be achievable, so compromises are going to be the reality.