It’s official: The NBA is coming back Dec. 22.
The NBA and the National Basketball Players Association announced Monday night that they’ve struck a deal on rules for this coming season, setting the stage for what will be a frenzied few weeks before games resume.
Teams will play a 72-game schedule, which will be revealed in the coming weeks. The league said a new system will be used to ensure that the split of basketball-related income continues, one of the many details that had to be collectively bargained with the union because the current agreement between the sides had a great deal of language that needed reworking because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Negotiations with free agents will be allowed to begin at 6p.m. on Friday, Nov. 20, with signings permitted starting at 12:01p.m. on Nov. 22 – an extraordinarily fast window for the NBA, which typically has about a week spanning the start of talks and the beginning of signings. But with training camps this year beginning Dec. 1, both sides evidently feel there isn’t a need to draw out the process any longer than necessary.
Many rosters could be considerably reshaped by then, with trades likely to be permissible again in the coming days – the exact details there still being worked out – and the NBA draft set to take place Nov. 18. Player and team options likely will be settled around that same time. Free agency starts two days after the draft, with around 100 players set to be unrestricted.
The salary cap and tax level will remain unchanged. The cap was $109.14 million this past season, with the tax level at $132,627,000. The real numbers will be affected by the schedule – last year’s numbers were based on the standard 82-game season, a threshold that won’t be reached this year.
For the NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers and Eastern Conference champion Miami Heat, it will be the shortest offseason in NBA history – with seven weeks separating the end of the NBA Finals and the planned Dec. 1 start of training camp.
But for the eight teams that didn’t make the restart bubble at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Florida this summer, it has been a marathon offseason, with none of those teams – Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, Charlotte, Golden State, Minnesota, New York and Detroit – having played since the second week of March. The NBA shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic on March 11, then took 22 of its 30 teams to Disney to resume the season in July.
The NBA coming back with shorter 72-game season
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The NBA coming back with shorter 72-game season
- A new system will be used to ensure that the split of basketball-related income continues
- Negotiations with free agents will be allowed to begin at 6p.m. on Friday, Nov. 20
Dejected Inter return to Scudetto charge as Juve lick their wounds
- Inter are 10 points clear at the top of Serie A
- Juventus’ hopes of reaching next season’s Champions League could be hit hard in Rome on Sunday night
MILAN: Inter Milan return to their bid to reclaim the Serie A title with Saturday’s visit of Genoa after a humiliating exit from the Champions League at the hands of Bodo/Glimt.
A 5-2 aggregate defeat, with losses in both legs, to the Norwegian minnows has left questions not only about Cristian Chivu’s debut season in the Inter dugout but also about Italy’s place in the contemporary football landscape.
Inter are 10 points clear at the top of Serie A, but on Tuesday night the division’s best team were undone by prosaic attacking and an inexplicable individual error from Manuel Akanji which effectively ended the tie.
The aftermath has been despondent and blunt, with the Gazzetta Dello Sport’s Wednesday front page simply saying “no excuses” after a historically bad result for one of the world’s most important footballing nations.
Chivu’s backhanded compliments to Bodo/Glimt also rang hollow, as he said that their only playing four matches in the last three months, all in the Champions League, was a factor in Inter’s defeat.
“They had a lot more energy than us, but that’s the Champions League for you. Let’s move on,” said Chivu.
While Inter flopped on the European stage, they have dominated domestically this term with just two points dropped in their last 14 league matches.
And will be heavy favorites to at least keep their distance from Milan with their derby coming up next weekend.
Juventus’ hopes of reaching next season’s Champions League could be hit hard in Rome on Sunday night following their own painful elimination on Wednesday night.
Luciano Spalletti’s players came close to a stunning comeback against Galatasaray but left themselves with too much to do after a 5-2 thumping in the first leg, and a trip to Roma is another difficult test.
Juve trail fourth-placed Roma and champions Napoli — in third ahead of their match at Verona — by four points and are on a run of four defeats in their last six matches in all competitions.
“We still have a lot to play for in the coming months, but you can see that the team is there,” said Juve icon Giorgio Chiellini, now a club official.
“We’ve had some slips and obstacles but we’re growing.”
Lurking a point behind Juve are Como and Atalanta, with the latter at Sassuolo still basking in the glow of a stunning comeback against Borussia Dortumund and a place in the last 16 of the Champions League.
Player to watch: Gleison Bremer
The Brazilian is by far Juve’s best defender and their collapse in Istanbul last week came soon after he had to be substituted with a thigh injury in the first half.
His return from a mercifully short lay-off will be key for Juve’s chances at Roma who have the division’s second-best home record and are gaining momentum under Gian Piero Gasperini.
Juve showed on Wednesday that they are a goal threat but Bremer will need to plug a leaky defense at the Stadio Olimpico.
Key stats
10 — Inter’s points lead at the top of the division
40 — the number of points Inter have collected in their last 14 matches
Fixtures (times GMT)
Friday
Parma v Cagliari (1945)
Saturday
Como v Lecce (1400), Verona v Napoli (1700), Inter Milan v Genoa (1945)
Sunday
Cremonese v AC Milan (1130), Sassuolo v Atalanta (1400), Torino v Lazio (1700), Roma v Juventus (1945)
Monday
Pisa v Bologna (1730), Udinese v Fiorentina (1945)
