NBA, NBPA Reach Agreement For Upcoming Offseason

Buckle up NBA fans, starting next week the league is setting its engine to ludicrous speed and whizzing into the 2020 offseason.

The NBA and National Basketball Player's Association reached an agreement in principle for how to proceed with the upcoming offseason, the two sides announced Monday night.

According to the deal, offseason action will start next Wednesday, Nov. 18 with the NBA Draft. Then it'll be right the free agency negotiations period starting on Nov. 20, with free agency officially opening on Nov. 22. A month later, the league will tip-off a 72 game regular season starting on Dec. 22.

The league also announced next season's salary cap which will stay at $109.14 million, a drop of about $16 million from the pre-pandemic salary cap projection of $115 million, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. The league will also have a Tax Level of $132.627 million for next season, though teams' Tax payments will be reduced in proportion to any Basketball Related Income (BRI) decreases.

For example: If Golden State used the $17.2M trade exception and revenue decreased by 30%, they could save close to $50M.

This will help out the Warriors, Boston, Brooklyn and Philadelphia plus possibly a team like Milwaukee. https://t.co/uxII5oQXzl
— Bobby Marks (@BobbyMarks42) November 10, 2020

It's going to be a very quick turnaround for draft picks and free agency signees who will join their new teams on Dec. 1 for training camp and the lead up to the season.

The condensed 72 game season should take the regular season right up to the start of the 2021 Olympics which are scheduled to start on July 23 in Tokyo, The Athletic's Shams Charania reported. While this should be good news for men's basketball at the Olympics, the Canadian Men's National Team still has to qualify for the Games and it's unlikely NBA players would be available to participate at the FIBA Qualifiers in Victoria, B.C. on June 29.