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The wait is over ... the NBA is officially back! Well, in about two months, but basketball is returning!
On Thursday, Adrian Wojnarowski reported that the NBA’s Board of Governors voted to approve the league’s 22-team format to restart the 2019-2020 season in Orlando. The vote was 29-1, with Portland being the lone team who voted against the 22-team format.
The Clippers will remain as the No. 2 seed, and play an eight game schedule leading up to the playoffs. Here’s what their schedule will look like:
vs. Brooklyn
vs. New Orleans
vs. Dallas
vs. Denver
vs. Phoenix
vs. Brooklyn
vs. Indiana
vs. Sacramento
Per The Athletic, the NBA season would resume on July 31, with Game 7 of the NBA Finals scheduled for October 12. There are going to be eight regular-season games to determine the playoff seeding and, possibly, a play-in tournament for the No. 8 seed.
Here’s more information, per Shams Charania. Some notable takeaways from this are that training camp begins June 30, with the players traveling to Orland a week later. In addition, they’re preparing to have the 2020-2021 season begin on Dec. 1. Less than a two month offseason!
Sources: The NBA informed the Board of Governors of scheduled dates:
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 4, 2020
- Training camp: June 30, July 7 travel to Orlando
- 2019-20 season: July 31
- Free agency: Oct. 18
- 2020-21 targets: Nov. 10 training camp, Dec. 1 opening night (can remain fluid)
As Sabreena noted the other day in her article, here’s how the potential seeding can impact the Clippers.
The Clippers are currently 5.5 games back of the Lakers for the no. 1 seed in the Western Conference so they would need to finish five games better to overtake their crosstown rivals (i.e. going 7-1 while the Lakers went 2-6). That seems unlikely. However, there remains a possibility that one of the teams below the Clippers could catch them for the no. 2 seed; the Nuggets are only 1.5 games back right now.
In addition, the NBA also announced the date of the draft lottery and the NBA Draft. The lottery will be on Aug. 25, with the draft taking place on Oct. 15, shortly following the conclusion of the NBA Finals.