NBA Reportedly Has Proposed Date for End of 2020 Finals and Beginning of Next Season

A decision on the resumption of the 2019-20 NBA season is expected to be announced as soon as Thursday. This comes along with news that surfaced Tuesday suggesting that the NBA will call Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. their official home for the resumed campaign. Just hours later, we have proposed dates for the end of the playoffs, the offseason schedule, and the start of the 2020-21 campaign.

According to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, this plan maintains that Game 7 of the NBA Finals would take place on Oct. 12., while the NBA Draft and free agency will take place in sequential order later in the month.

ESPN story on October 12 timeline as a last possible date for a Game 7 of NBA Finals in model of 22-team return-to-play format: https://t.co/Au1hCilVyo
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 2, 2020

Notably, there's no guarantee under this roadmap that the 2020-21 season starts in time for Christmas Day.

In regards to the playoff format, the league and the Board of Governors are still negotiating how to go about it. Up to this point, the NBA has pushed for a 22-team format that will include regular season games, a play-in structure, and playoff games, with a tentative start date of July 31. The participants would consist of the 16 teams currently holding a playoff spot, plus the six teams that are no more than six games outside the eighth seed in their respective conferences.

The teams that fall in the latter category include the New Orleans Pelicans, Portland Trail Blazers, Sacramento Kings, San Antonio Spurs, Phoenix Suns, and Washington Wizards.

The NBA is “moving towards” a vote on Thursday that would resume the season in Orlando with 22 teams. The 16 current playoff teams would be invited, along with the Spurs, Kings, Pelicans, Blazers, Wizards, and Suns.
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) June 1, 2020

Commissioner Adam Silver is set to present this proposal formally on Thursday, which will require three-fourths of the 30 NBA owners in order to approve before it's submitted to the players association. Even before the big day, sources told Woj that the return-to-play plan is expected to be "overwhelmingly" approved.

Nearly three months of basketball from late summer into the fall? We're in!