It’s official: NBA season to open Dec. 22
The Miami Heat now have definitive numbers and dates when it comes to the NBA’s pandemic-influenced plans for the delayed start of the 2020-21 season.
The NBA has announced the regular season will open on Dec. 22, just 71 days after the 2019-20 season ended with the Heat’s Game 6 loss in the NBA Finials to the Los Angeles Lakers. According to Elias Sports Bureau, it is the shortest turnaround between seasons for the NBA, NFL, NFL or Major League Baseball.
In addition, the league announced that free agency will open at 6 p.m. on Nov. 20, two days after the NBA draft, with negotiations allowed to begin at 6 p.m. that day. The free agent signing period will commence at 12:01 a.m. on Nov. 22.
The free-agency period is particularly significant for the Heat, with the contracts of Goran Dragic, Jae Crowder, Derrick Jones Jr., Meyers Leonard, Solomon Hill and Udonis Haslem all expiring at the conclusion of last season.
The timing of free-agency also leaves center Kelly Olynyk with a decision on his $12.2million 202021 player option one day before the start of the negotiating period.
While a formal schedule of dates for the preseason has yet to be set, training camps open Dec. 1, with exhibitions to follow.
Because of the delayed start, and with apparent hopes of a returning to amore traditional October-April regular season in 2021-22, the league reduced the 2020-21 schedule fromthe standard 82 games to 72. The Heat played73 regular-season games this past season, one resumed in a quarantine bubble type of setting at Disney World after a four-month shutdown due to the coronavirus outbreak.
The NBA and National Basketball Players Association agreed to a salary cap of $109.140 million and a luxury-tax level of$132.627 million for 2020-21, numbers teams had been anticipating, ones that mirror those from last season. The league and union also announced that in subsequent seasons, the salary cap andtax level will increase by a minimum of three percent and a maximum of 10 percent over the prior season. Thatwould put the 2021-22 salary cap between $112.4 million and $120.1 million.
The revised projections for 202122, while lower than initially anticipated, would still leave the Heat positioned for a major free-agent addition in the 2021 offseason. The free-agent class that offseason could include Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, Victor Oladipo and LeBron James, among others.
As for the coming season, the NBA announced a formula to ease the luxury-tax burden for teams that had been anticipating higher capand tax thresholds for2020-21. The Heat were nominally into the luxury tax this past season, with the latest allowance making it possible for Micky Arison to greenlight the Heat again operating in the tax this season. The league has yet to announcing COVID-19 protocols for the upcoming season, which is planned for teams’ home arenas.