NBA 2019-20 Season Return-to-Play Tentative Schedule

The 74th season of the National Basketball Association began on October 22, 2019. It came to an abrupt halt in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic on March 11, 2020. The last game was played on February 16, 2020, the 2020 NBA All-Star Game, with Team LeBron emerging the winners. Originally, the playoffs were scheduled to begin from April 18 and the finals slated to end in June. But, the playoffs got suspended because of the COVID-19 outbreak and until then the NBA has played almost 63 to 67 games.

The play will return to the fields on July 31, 2020, per the NBA Board of Governors' proposal. With this, the NBPA approved this 22 teams-proposal to restart the game on June 5. According to this plan, 22-teams will be playing eight additional regular-season games, which will decide the playoff seeding. In the end, the post-season tournament will be played by 16 teams entering the tournament. With only the Portland Trail Blazers voting against the 22-game proposal, the vote was 29-1. Along with the league, the National Player’s association is working out of the final plan.

In a statement, Adam Silver, the NBA commissioner, said, “The Board's approval of the restart format is a necessary step toward resuming the NBA season. While the COVID-19 pandemic presents formidable challenges, we are hopeful of finishing the season in a safe, and responsible manner based on strict protocols now being finalized with public health officials and medical experts. We also recognize that as we prepare to resume play, our society is reeling from recent tragedies of racial violence and injustice, and we will continue to work closely with our teams and players to use our collective resources, and influences on address these issues in very real and concrete ways.”

According to this recent plan, all the season’s remaining games will be played at Disney World, Orlando, at the single site. This has never happened in the entire history of the NBA — when in each conference the final postseason seeds have had a play-in format. In addition to this new development, another important consideration in the new 22-game format is the schedule. With such a long gap, the league has to consider adjusting not only the schedule for this season but also for the upcoming 2020-21 season’s schedule.

Let’s have a sneak peek into the key dates for the remainder of the season:

June 2020

June 15: International players returning to markets

June 21: All players report

June 22: Beginning of Coronavirus testing 

June 30: Training camps begin

July 2020

July 7: Moving to Orlando

July 31: 2019-20 season begins

August 2020

Aug. 16-17: Play-in tournament

Aug. 18: Round 1 of postseason begins

Aug. 25: NBA Draft Lottery

September 2020

Sep. 1: Round 2 of postseason begins

Sep. 15: Conference Finals begins

Sep. 30: NBA Finals begins

October 2020

Oct. 12: Preparations for Game 7 of the NBA Finals (if required)

Oct. 15: NBA Draft

Oct. 18: Start of free agency

November 2020

Nov. 10: Training camps for 2020-21 season begin 

December 2020

Dec. 1: Opening night for 2020-21 season 

According to this tentative schedule, the teams playing the 2019-20 NBA finals are going to be at the disadvantaged end with only a few days left for recovering, before starting with the Training camps for the 2020-21 season. The four months off because of the coronavirus pandemic, and then beginning training camps without enough breaks can have a negative impact on their bodies in the next season. As far as this season is concerned, the teams still have two months to get in shape as idle for the postseason. However, the league will have to be prepared for everything, given the apprehensions because of the pandemic. For now, the league is already done with the planning phase and is ramping up for return-of-the-play.