Friday is a sort of deadline for the NBA’s planning for next season: It’s the final day either the owners or the players can opt-out of the Collective Bargaining Agreement and force it to be renegotiated — it has been pushed back three times, now to Oct. 30. That made Friday the day we expected some clarity on the salary cap for next season and the start date and length of said season.
Unless both sides agree to push that deadline back. Again.
Which is what Malcolm Brogdon — players’ union vice president — expects them to do. Brogdon was on ESPN’s “The Jump” and told Rachel Nichols he expects the sides to agree to extend the deadline (via Tim Bontemps at ESPN).
Malcolm Brogdon gave a good assessment of where things stand with the start of next season — the players would prefer a January start, but there’s reported to be an extra $500 million to be made starting before Christmas.
With the 2020 NBA Draft coming Nov. 18 and free agency starting not long after — exactly when depends on the season start date — the owners and players can’t push this decision back very far.
Just don’t expect any decision on Friday, other than to give themselves more time to make a decision.