I will warn you now — those marquee Christmas Day NBA opening day games are going to be sloppy.
Same with the likely dozen games to follow the next day and a lot of the games over the next month or so.
Teams are going to have a 16-day training camp and just two preseason games, reports John Schuhmann at NBA.com. The dates and games are not yet know, but if you are wondering who your team will play in those couple exhibition games, pull out a map and see what teams are nearest and you pretty much have your answer.
Early on expect veteran teams that have not seen a lot of turnover — Spurs, Celtics — to get off to fast starts because they should be smoother early. However, how the legs of those veteran teams will hold up as a condensed schedule drags on for months remains to be seen.
We’re just saying, it’s not going to be a year for a lot of pretty basketball, and that will start on opening day.