Michele Roberts, executive director of the National Basketball Players Association, is in the process of speaking with NBA players to lay out the details on proposals for the restart of the 2019-20 season, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.
NBA spokesperson Mike Bass confirmed Saturday the league has held discussions with The Walt Disney Company to move games to the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida. Play would tentatively resume in late July.
While Bass' statement represented progress, nothing has been made official.
One of the biggest questions is how many franchises would actually be involved in any resumption.
Although the Golden State Warriors are the only team mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, many will sensibly argue Golden State's fellow cellar dwellers stand to gain little from playing out what's likely to be an abbreviated regular season.
ESPN's Brian Windhorst said Monday on Get Up! the NBA could fast forward right to the postseason. Along with that, the league may abandon the traditional conference format and seed the teams No. 1 through No. 16 (0:57 mark):
Inviting only 16 teams to Orlando would make sense since it would limit the potential spread of the coronavirus. The season would end more expediently as well, thus mitigating the consequences for the start of the 2020-21 campaign.
However, Windhorst, along with colleagues Bobby Marks and Tim Bontemps, explained onThe Hoop Collective Podcasthow player compensation is tied to the regular season.
Players are already receiving less money on their paychecks due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The cancellation of games would mean potentially losing a portion of their salaries completely.
As much work as the NBA has done to lay the groundwork for its return, a number of logistics remain unresolved.
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