NBA commissioner Adam Silver and the league office informed the Board of Governors that July 31 is a target date for return of the season.
This date gives the league roughly two months to finalize its Disney proposal and get players back to individual workouts.
The NBA discussed four competition scenarios on the Board of Governors call:
- 16 teams: Directly to playoffs
- 20 teams: Group/stage play
- 22 teams: Games to determine seeding, play-in tournament for final seed(s)
- 30 teams: 72-game regular season, with play-in tourney
The third plan with 22 teams is a scenario where teams that are within six games of a playoff spot would be invited to compete in regular season games, according to ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne.
That plan would include the following teams from the Western Conference: Portland Trail Blazers, New Orleans Pelicans, Sacramento Kings, San Antonio Spurs and Phoenix Suns.
That plan would only include the Washington Wizards from the Eastern Conference.
Most team owners expect Silver’s plan to resume the season to be announced within the next week.
