The NBA is slowly trickling out information on what the upcoming season is going to look like. While there are still tons of unknowns about how the 2020-21 campaign will function, the league did announce its preseason slate, which will commence next month. And on Saturday, the NBA laid out its key dates for the preseason, regular season, and playoffs.
Here’s how things will shake out, per a release from the league:
Dec. 1-5: Individual player workouts, Media “Week”
Dec. 6: Group player workouts begin
Dec. 11-19: Preseason games
Dec. 22, 2020 — Mar. 4, 2021: First Half of Regular season.
At this point, the league will hold an All-Star break from March 5-10. While the NBA has announced that it will move Indianapolis’ turn as the All-Star hosts to 2024, there is word that it plans on doing something during this period. Here is how things will shake out from there:
Mar. 11 — May 16: Second Half of regular season
May 13-15: Class of 2020 Hall of Fame Enshrinement
May 18-21: Play-In Tournament
May 22 — July 22: 2021 NBA Playoffs
This would, of course, let the league achieve its state goal of ending the year in time for the Summer Olympics, which are currently scheduled to begin on July 23, 2021. There are still plenty of outstanding questions even beyond the slate of games, particularly on things like the trade deadline.