Report: Under new CBA, next season's opening night could be Oct. 15
Great news if you hate back-to-backs or care about player health
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1 min read
Details of the NBA's next collective bargaining agreement keep trickling out, and the latest news from ESPN's Marc Stein is encouraging: The 2017-18 regular season could begin as early as Oct. 15, a full 10-day bump from this year. If you about player health at all, then this opportunity to reduce the number of back-to-back games is a nice step in the right direction.
From ESPN:
League sources say there's a strong likelihood that the start of the 2017-18 season will be moved up a week to 10 days, which is yet another measure aimed at redfucing the number of back-to-backs teams face over the course of 82 games.
We're hearing that Opening Night next season is likely to fall in the Oct. 15-20 range, which would be achieved by shortening the preseason schedule from its longstanding eight-game max per team to five or six exhibition games.
The 2016-17 NBA season, to cite the most recent example, tipped off Oct. 25. Starting a week-plus earlier would give the schedule-makers even more wiggle room to cut down on the number of back-to-backs and four-games-in-five-nights stretches clubs endure.
NBA teams are scheduled to play an average of 16.3 back-to-backs this season, down from 17.8 in 2015-16.
Honestly, unless you're a big fan of preseason basketball -- is anybody a big fan of preseason basketball? -- there is no downside to this. If this is indeed what happens, then the league deserves kudos for taking a small financial hit with the loss of some exhibition games.
Also in Stein's report: the new labor agreement could let teams extend players' contracts after the second year of their rookie deals. The example he uses: the Minnesota Timberwolves could theoretically offer Karl-Anthony Towns a maximum contract extension this summer. This specific rule change doesn't seem that consequential, given how rare it is for a player not to sign a rookie extension, but it would be interesting if it was a part of a broader set of rule changes that give teams more opportunities to extend players' contracts rather than letting them hit free agency.
The new CBA is expected to be announced between now and Dec. 15.
