Subscribe
Follow Us
The NBA announced the indefinite suspension of the 2019-20 NBA season after Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for the coronavirus (COVID-19). It's unclear just when the season will resume, if it resumes at all, though the current expectation is play will pick up at some point.
This suspension is completely understandable, even if it's all a bit chaotic. The league is focusing more on the health and well-being not only of its players, but of all team employees and the fans as well.
Nonetheless, there's no denying that this suspension will have a domino effect on a number of NBA dates that will likewise need to be rescheduled.
End of the 2019-20 NBA Season
The current suspension will be at least two weeks but will almost certainly be longer and could go on for months. The Chinese Basketball Association had a 10-week layoff due to COVID-19.
Based on the official schedule of the NBA for the 2019-20 season, the playoffs are scheduled to start on April 18, with the NBA Finals scheduled to finish no later than June 21. A 10-week delay in the season's schedule would mean we wouldn't have the NBA Finals until mid-August, although the league could look to tweak things in order to finish the season sooner. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban says he wouldn't be surprised if games go into August.
NBA Lottery and NBA Draft
June 25, 2020 is the original schedule of this year's NBA Draft, with the NBA Draft Lottery set to happen on May 19. The lottery date might not change that much depending on when the season resumes and when the playoffs begin, but the draft won't happen until whenever the season is over. The silver lining here is that it gives teams more time to assess their draft strategy.
Article Continues Below
NBA Free Agency
Last season, the moratorium opened on June 30, with teams able to officially sign players on July 6. This will obviously need to be moved this year, assuming a long delay. This could be an interesting test case to have free agency before the draft, but that seems unlikely at this time.
While this year's class is nowhere near last season's talent-wise, there are still potential significant free agents this term. Guys like Toronto Raptors guard Fred VanVleet, Cleveland Cavaliers big man Andre Drummond, Gordon Hayward of the Boston Celtics, and San Antonio Spurs swingman DeMar DeRozan will be given more time to mull over their options.
Start of the 2020-21 NBA Season
This is where it gets tricky. Will the league opt to shorten the offseason in an attempt to normalize the schedule of the 2020-21 season? The 2019-20 regular season began on Oct. 22, which means that if this were the case this year, the four-month summer break would be drastically reduced, and then there's the matter of the Olympics. What type of effect would this have on the players?
The NBA could look to push the start of the 2020-21 campaign back to around Christmas like in 2011-12, but that would bring its own set of complications for next season. This all depends on how the 2019-20 season plays out.
Trade Deadline
It's going to be hard to imagine the NBA pushing for an October tip-off for the 2020-21 regular season. Any delay in the same would also translate to a shift in the trade deadline, right? This year, the deadline was on Feb. 6, which gave teams a good three and a half months to assess their current roster and respective trade options. Anything shorter than this might result in some rather haphazard decision-making. In 2011-12, the trade deadline was in mid-March.
At the end of the day, this is all just speculation. The above scenarios give us a good idea of how this mandated suspension will affect the league moving forward, but until anything is made official, all we can do is wait and hope for the best.
