NBA Notebook: What would revamped NBA calendar look like?

It was only two months ago when one NBA executive was publicly making the pitch at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference for an NBA regular season calendar that kicks off at Christmas instead of in the middle of the NFL regular season in October.

“A big piece is you don’t have to reinvent the wheel to enhance ratings,” Hawks CEO Steve Koonin said back in March of the idea. “Sometimes, moving away from the competition is a great way to grow ratings. If King Kong is at your door, you might go out the back door, rather than go out the front and engage in a hand-to-hand fight with King Kong.

“Many times, at the start of the NBA season, we are competing with arguably the best Thursday Night Football game with the NBA on TNT, our marquee broadcast, and we get crushed and we wonder why. It’s because at the beginning of the season, there’s very little relevance for the NBA. The relevance is now. That’s when people are talking about it…”Let football have its time. Let’s have our time, and let’s go after it.”

The idea created some interesting debate in NBA circles at the time about a potentially dramatic shift in an NBA calendar that had been consistent for decades. Weeks later, amid the coronavirus pandemic, the prospect of a revamped calendar is quickly turning into a reality for the NBA.

Weeks after Koonin’s suggestion, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.com reported on Friday that the delayed start to next season was discussed in great depth at the Board of Governor’s meeting on Friday. The reasons for the shift make plenty of sense, at least on a temporary basis: The NBA hopes to complete the 2019-20 season at some point later this summer or fall. That timeline could stretch into potentially September or October to complete a potential 2019-20 postseason and will force a delayed start to the actual NBA offseason in the fall assuming games are safe enough to be played. Assuming NBA Free Agency and the NBA Draft are held at some point in September or October, starting the NBA season around Christmas would allow for a reasonably abbreviated offseason and an opportunity for guys to rest up rather than potentially play a 100+ game grind for Finals participants on the heels of 20+ potential games in the postseason.

For next year, however, the calendar shift may be just as financially motivated for the league than anything else. The longer the season is delayed, the greater chance there may be to have some kind of protocol or vaccine in place which would allow fans to safely attend games again at NBA arenas. That would provide crucial additional revenue for teams to help minimize losses caused by the pandemic.

So what exactly might this all look like over the course of a 12-month NBA calendar? And could it have long-term staying power beyond the pandemic? Let’s explore:

2020-21 calendar

December 2020: NBA training camps begin
The league has traditionally played four preseason games in recent years but that could be reduced amid a cramped calendar.

Christmas 2020: Regular season debuts with a five-game nationally televised slate
The NFL will be finishing up the regular season at this point of their calendar (assuming no delay due to coronavirus), giving the NBA just one month of overlap with the NFL on the sports calendar as opposed to three months with an October start.

Early April 2020: NBA Trade Deadline/All-Star Weekend
This is simply pushing these events two months back from their usual spots which aligns well with the rest of the sports world’s calendar. I don’t think the NBA would like to have any big events during March Madness and this shift allows for that. Should be no conflict with the NFL Draft either.

June 2020: End of the regular season/Start of the postseason

Early August 2020: NBA Finals

Late August 2020: NBA Draft

September 2020: Start of NBA Free Agency and ‘Fall League’
This will be an intriguing dynamic from the NBA’s perspective, having their hot stove season go up against the start of the NFL campaign. From an interest level perspective, it feels like the league benefitted from having these events in July in recent years with little else of consequence on the sports calendar in the middle of the summer. Would the sports world give NBA free agency as much attention at the start of the NFL season? Given that there isn’t much money at stake (TV ratings) at play here in going up against the NFL, just simply how much attention the league gets in the media cycle, it shouldn’t be a serious concern.

Would a new schedule have staying power?

This will be the big question for the league in 2021 assuming this calendar occurs in loosely this form. Will the NBA stick with this format for the foreseeable future? Or will the league go with a shortened offseason leading into 2021-22 (regular season starting in November?) that would allow for the necessary rest for players and a gradual shift over the following two years back to the normal setup of an October start with the NBA Finals concluding in June. Comments from the NBA on the matter make that far from a certainty, but it sounds like it will largely dependent on TV ratings over the long-term.

“We certainly have no issue with reconsidering the calendar,” NBA league executive Evan Wasch said back in March. “You have to think about the other stakeholders. They need to get more comfortable with the Finals in August, rather than June, where traditionally the household viewership is a lot lower. But the flip side of that argument is there hasn’t been a lot of premium content in that window, which explains why viewership is lower. We’re open to that … there’s no magic to [the season going from] October to June.”

All of these issues are clearly small potatoes right now in the big picture but the situation is going to force the NBA to start thinking about more outside the box ideas faster than ever before. One small idea floated months ago may end up being the new norm in a matter of months.

Other NBA News and Notes

—Wolves GM Gersson Rosas publicly noted how Malik Beasley and Juancho Hernangomez will be a priority for the Wolves in free agency after being acquired at the trade deadline. Beasley has been a standout since his arrival in Minnesota, averaging 20.7 PPG in an expanded role.

—Nets GM Sean Marks wouldn’t rule out a potential return of Kevin Durant to the floor this season if play is resumed. Durant is approaching the 11-month mark since suffering a torn Achilles so he will have over a year of rehab by the time games are expected back in July or August. Brooklyn is currently sitting in the No. 7 seed in the East, slated for a first-round matchup with the Raptors.

—Celtics assistant GM Mike Zarren held a townhall with season ticket holders on Friday. One interesting nugget relayed by Marc D’Amico of Celtics.com revolves around how the Celtics will handle the fallout of the pandemic from a financial and roster management perspective. “Another good question is, ‘What happens to the salary cap if revenues go way down, and how does that get handled by the league and the union?’” he asked. “We just don’t know. The summer is always the busiest time for the front office, and we’ve got a bunch of draft picks we can trade for players, for example. So I can’t wait to hear from the league on exactly how they’re going to handle this.”

—As expected, the Bulls have officially hired former Sixers VP of player personnel Marc Eversley as their new general manager. He will assist new team executive VP Arturas Karnisovas in the revamped Bulls front office.