NBA Schedule

NBA Announces In-Season Tournament Schedule, Tiebreaker Procedures

August 15th, 2023 at 2:26pm CST by Luke Adams

After previously announcing the dates and groups for its inaugural in-season tournament, the NBA today announced the schedule for the group play portion of the tournament, which will begin on November 3 and run through Nov. 28.

The group play games will take place on four Fridays and three Tuesdays during November. The NBA put out its schedule by date in addition to a schedule by team.

Each Friday will feature a nationally televised doubleheader on ESPN, while TNT will nationally broadcast doubleheaders on Tuesday. NBA TV will also air a pair of tournament games on the afternoon of November 24, prior to ESPN’s doubleheader.

The quarterfinals will take place on December 4 and 5, with the semifinals to follow on Dec. 7 and the final to be played on Dec. 9. The higher-seeded teams will host the quarterfinal matchups, while the semifinals and final will take place in Las Vegas.

The NBA also revealed a few other crucial details about the in-season tournament, including the tiebreaker procedures for determining group winners and wild card teams. The following tiebreakers will be used, sequentially, to determine group winners, seeding among group winners, each conference’s wild card winner, and the overall conference rankings for the tournament:

Head-to-head record in group play (if applicable)
Point differential in group play
Total points scored in group play
2022/23 record
Random drawing

Because the in-season tournament games (except for the final) will count toward a team’s regular season record, the 22 teams that don’t advance to the quarterfinal stage of the in-season tournament will play regular season games on December 6 and 8, with each club getting one home and one road game. According to the league, a “formulaic approach” will determine the matchups in those games — it will be based on the overall standings of the in-season tournament.

Those extra regular season contests will primarily be intra-conference matchups, though a pair of inter-conference games will be necessary, since there will be 11 teams in each conference that don’t make the knockout stage of the in-season tournament.

The losing teams in the quarterfinals will face one another in a pair of intra-conference games on Dec. 8. Additional regular season contests won’t be needed for the clubs that advance to the semifinals and final.

The full regular season schedule for the 2023/24 season will be announced this Thursday, per the NBA (Twitter link).

Celtics-Lakers, Bucks-Knicks Among 2023/24 Christmas Day Games

August 10th, 2023 at 8:25pm CST by Tristan Tucker

The full Christmas Day game schedule is now known thanks to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). As usual, the holiday features five games, including a matchup between the rival Lakers and Celtics in Los Angeles.

Additionally, the Knicks host the Bucks, the Sixers and Heat play in Miami, the Mavericks and Suns square off in Phoenix, and the Nuggets host the Warriors.

Both the Celtics and the Lakers are expected to be title contenders next season. The Lakers revamped their roster, while the Celtics did the same. Boston made a huge switch-up when they moved longtime Celtic Marcus Smart in a trade that brought in Kristaps Porzingis. By moving Smart, the Celtics committed to playing a bigger lineup, with Porzingis, Al Horford and Robert Williams all expected to have major roles. The Celtics also lost Grant Williams but added Oshae Brissett to help fill the void.

The Bucks and Knicks are both interesting players in the Eastern Conference. Milwaukee fell to the Heat as the No. 1 seed last year, but brought back the majority of their roster, including Brook Lopez to a two-year, $48MM deal and Khris Middleton to a three-year, $98MM deal. Jae Crowder also re-signed. Robin Lopez and Malik Beasley joined Milwaukee in free agency while the team drafted Andre Jackson Jr. and Chris Livingston.

New York didn’t have many moves to make in free agency, with most of their roster under contract. Josh Hart recently extended with the Knicks and they brought in Donte DiVincenzo, who will be squaring off against the team who drafted him. While the Knicks might not end up winning the chip, there’s thought that they improved on a roster that was the No. 5 seed last season.

The Heat and the Sixers may look vastly different by the time Christmas rolls around. Both teams are facing trade requests, but on different sides. Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard asked Portland a trade, with Miami as his preferred destination. There’s no telling when or if the Heat and Lillard will unite. If they do, the Heat immediately become one of the best teams in the NBA, pairing Lillard with Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler. If not, they’re likely worse off. Even though they added Josh Richardson, Thomas Bryant and Jaime Jaquez Jr. to their roster, the Heat lost Gabe Vincent and Max Strus, two key playoff contributors. The Heat did make the NBA Finals last season but did so after scraping past the play-in tournament.

Meanwhile, the Sixers saw James Harden request a trade out of Philadelphia and reportedly express a desire to be sent to the Clippers. That hasn’t happened yet, and Harden remains a member of Philly. There’s a chance the Sixers could bring Harden to camp and into the season, but it would be surprising if he was a member of the team by the time Christmas arrives. The Sixers won 54 games last season but losing Harden would hurt. Their best move this season has been to re-sign Paul Reed, but they have no avenue to adding additional talent and any Harden trade to the Clippers is unlikely to bring back a star return. That means an even bigger plate for last year’s MVP Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and Tobias Harris. Additionally, Patrick Beverley and Mohamed Bamba signed with the Sixers this offseason.

Any matchup between the Sixers and Heat is of note, considering Butler’s history in Philadelphia and the unofficial rivalry between the two teams.

The Suns added a new star to their roster while the Mavericks kept their co-star this offseason. While Dallas finished last year outside of the playoffs after trading for Kyrie Irving, the Mavericks doubled down on his pairing with Luka Doncic by signing him to a new three-year, $120MM contract. Dallas fleshed out the rest of the roster by adding Grant Williams, Seth Curry, Richaun Holmes and Derrick Jones Jr. while drafting Dereck Lively II and Olivier-Maxence Prosper.

The matchup between the Suns and Mavericks features a battle between former Nets teammates Kevin Durant and Irving.

We went over the new-look Warriors and defending-champion Nuggets in a previous story.

Charania revealed the opening day matchups earlier today, which likely means the full schedule will be revealed sometime in the near future.

Nuggets Host Lakers, Warriors Host Suns On Opening Night

August 10th, 2023 at 4:39pm CST by Tristan Tucker

Four heavyweights in the Western Conference will play on opening night of the 2023/24 season, according to Shams Charania (Twitter link). The defending-champion Nuggets will host the Lakers on Tuesday, October 24, while the Warriors host the Suns. Both matchups will be aired on TNT.

The Nuggets and Lakers squared off in the Western Conference Finals last season, with Denver winning via sweep before going on to win the NBA Finals. Denver’s roster is similar to last season’s. The Nuggets lost Bruce Brown and Jeff Green, though Green only averaged 4.1 points in 17.2 minutes in the playoffs last year. Losing Brown is huge, but Denver has several players who can help take over with larger roles, such as Christian Braun. Denver also drafted Julian Strawther, Jalen Pickett and Hunter Tyson while adding Justin Holiday in free agency.

While the Lakers lost to the Nuggets last year, they only lost one game by double digits. Their average margin of defeat was by six points. Los Angeles moved quickly to bring back several key rotation pieces from last year’s team, such as Austin Reaves, D’Angelo Russell and Rui Hachimura. While they lost the likes of Dennis Schroder, Malik Beasley and Lonnie Walker, the Lakers brought in multiple free agents, including Gabe Vincent and Taurean Prince. Los Angeles also drafted Jalen Hood-Schifino in the first round.

Both the Warriors and the Suns made it to the second round last season, but both teams opted for major offseason shake-ups. The Suns made headlines when they acquired three-time All-Star Bradley Beal to their roster, giving them one of the most top-heavy and expensive teams in the league. Phoenix was active in the opening days of free agency, re-signing Josh Okogie, Ish Wainright and Damion Lee, while bringing in a multitude of minimum-contract players, like Yuta Watanabe, Eric Gordon and Keita Bates-Diop.

The Warriors also turned heads when they traded young scorer Jordan Poole in a move to acquire Chris Paul, who had been involved in the aforementioned Beal deal, from the Wizards. The Oct. 24 matchup marks Paul’s first against the Suns since the trade. Paul spent three seasons in Phoenix.

While rumors circulated about Draymond Green potentially moving on in free agency or Jonathan Kuminga being traded, both players remain on the team (Green courtesy of a new four-year, $100MM deal). Golden State brought in Cory Joseph and Dario Saric in free agency and drafted Brandin Podziemski and Trayce Jackson-Davis, both of whom could play their ways into rotation spots.

More schedule news will trickle in in the coming weeks. The Christmas Day games, as well as other marquee matchups, are typically leaked before the full schedule release, which happened on Aug. 17 last year.

NBA, NBPA Reach Tentative Deal On New CBA

April 1st, 2023 at 5:32am CST by Luke Adams

The NBA and the National Basketball Players Association reached a deal on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement early on Saturday morning, according to statements from the league and the players’ union.

The official announcements are light on specific details, simply stating that the new agreement is tentative and still needs to be ratified by the players and team owners. The NBA and NBPA said that they’ll announce more details once the new CBA is official.

However, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN and Shams Charania of The Athletic, who initially broke word of the agreement, have already shared several of the most interesting changes in the new CBA.

According to Wojnarowski, the NBA and NBPA agreed at the last minute to push back the Friday, March 31 deadline for either side to opt out of the current CBA, since they felt they were closing in on an agreement. A few hours later, a tentative deal was in place.

The new CBA will begin in 2023/24 and will cover the next seven years, with a mutual opt-out after year six, Wojnarowski adds.

Here are some of the most notable ways the NBA will change in the new CBA, as reported by Wojnarowski and Charania:

In-season tournament

An in-season tournament could show up on the NBA schedule as soon as the 2023/24 season, if all the details are hammered out in time, according to ESPN. The first round of the tournament will be part of the regular season schedule, with the top eight teams advancing to a single-elimination event in December. The “Final Four” will be played at a neutral site — Las Vegas is among the cities receiving consideration.

It sounds like the plan is for NBA teams to have 80 regular season games scheduled as normal, with some of those games serving as the first round of the in-season tournament, per Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press (Twitter link). The leftover games for the teams that don’t make the single-elimination portion of the tournament would be scheduled at a later date, while the two teams that make the final of the tournament would ultimately end up playing 83 games.

Prize money for the in-season tournament would be $500K per player, reports Charania (Twitter link).

Second tax apron

The NBA’s current “tax apron” is set a few million dollars above the luxury tax line. For instance, in 2022/23, the tax line is $150,267,000 and the tax apron is $156,983,000. Teams above the tax apron aren’t permitted to acquire players via sign-and-trade, use more than the taxpayer portion of the mid-level exception, or use the bi-annual exception.

In the new CBA, the league will implement a second tax apron that’s $17.5MM over the tax line, per ESPN. Clubs whose team salary is above that second apron will no longer have access to the taxpayer mid-level exception in free agency.

As Wojnarowski points out, that means taxpayer MLE signings like Donte DiVincenzo (Warriors), Joe Ingles (Bucks), Danilo Gallinari (Celtics), and John Wall (Clippers) wouldn’t have been permitted last summer, given how far those teams were over the tax line.

This changes will be “eased into” the salary cap over the next few years, according to ESPN’s report. Wojnarowski adds that there are expected to be new spending opportunities in free agency and on the trade market for non-taxpaying teams, though there are no details yet on how those new opportunties will work.

Minimum games-played requirement for postseason awards

As expected, the NBA will set a minimum number of games played for players to qualify for postseason awards, including MVP, Rookie of the Year, and All-NBA. That minimum will be 65 games, though it will come with some “conditions,” says Wojnarowski.

The ostensible goal of this change is to reduce teams’ generous deployment of “load management.” It will have the added effect of helping to simplify the criteria for award voters.

Bigger first year-raises on veteran contract extensions

Under the current CBA, a veteran who signs a contract extension can receive up to 120% of his previous salary in the first year of a new deal — or 120% of the NBA’s average salary, if he’s earning less than the league average.

The new CBA will increase that limit to 140% of the player’s previous salary, per Wojnarowski and Charania. It’s unclear at this point whether players earning less than the league average will also be able to make up to 140% of the average NBA salary in the first year of a veteran extension.

This rule change could benefit players like Jaylen Brown, OG Anunoby, and Domantas Sabonis, who will be eligible for extensions but who are earning well below their market value and likely wouldn’t have agreed to an extension that features a 20% first-year raise (40% may still not be enough in some cases, but it at least should increase the odds of a deal).

Extra two-way contract slot

Teams will be permitted to carry three players on two-way contracts in the new CBA rather than two, according to Wojnarowski and Charania. That will result in 90 league-wide two-way slots instead of just 60.

Drug testing

Players will no longer be tested for marijuana under the new CBA, tweets Charania. The process of phasing out marijuana testing has been ongoing for a few years. Random marijuana testing was a part of the current CBA, but the NBA and NBPA agreed not to resume those tests during the 2020 bubble in Orlando and has stuck with that policy ever since.

More details on the new CBA will likely be reported in the coming days and weeks as the league and the union work on formally ratifying the new agreement and getting it in place in time for the coming offseason.

And-Ones: Dunn, Thompson, Expansion, Rest Problem

February 20th, 2023 at 4:22pm CST by Rory Maher

Kris Dunn has been competing in the G League this season in the hopes of receiving a promotion to the NBA. According to Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report (Twitter link), Dunn is receiving call-up interest and has signed with a new agent, Bernie Lee of Thread Sports Management.

Through 20 regular season games (29.7 MPG) with the Capital City Go-Go, Washington’s affiliate, the former No. 5 overall pick is averaging 16.2 PPG, 5.4 RPG, 5.3 APG and 2.6 SPG on .522/.412/.755 shooting. A defensive stalwart, Dunn played 14 games for Portland last season.

Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

Ausar Thompson of the Overtime Elite league has won the regular-season MVP award, an OTE representative tells ESPN’s Jonathan Givony (via Twitter). Thompson, who is projected to go No. 5 overall by ESPN in the upcoming draft, is averaging 15.3 PPG, 6.8 RPG, 5.4 APG, 2.3 SPG and 1.1 BPG, per Givony.
Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame chairman and former NBA owner and executive Jerry Colangelo thinks the time is right for the league to add a couple more teams, writes Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports. “Personally, I do. OK, I do,” Colangelo told Yahoo Sports. “And I think you just hit on a couple of markets that make the most sense, (Seattle and Las Vegas).” Colangelo says there’s enough talent in the NBA for 30 more standard roster spots. “The stars continue to come,” Colangelo said, per Goodwill. “(Mikal) Bridges in Brooklyn, he gets 45 in his (third) game. That’s a new (star). I don’t worry about, ‘Well, how are you going to populate these new teams?’ There’s plenty of talent and more stars on the rise.” Colangelo went on to explain that he believes the game is in “great shape” due to the global interest in basketball. Commissioner Adam Silver has stated multiple times that expansion won’t be considered until the new media rights deal is negotiated following the ’24/25 season.
The Associated Press’ Tim Reynolds queried 48 players, coaches, owners and executives to see if the NBA should change current the 82-game, 170-day schedule to address the problem of star players resting throughout the season. The results were completely mixed, with 40% saying they’d go along with what the league deems best, 35% saying they want no changes, and 25% wanting change. “I think if you want to get the best player availability, shortening the season may be in the best interest of everybody involved,” Denver coach Michael Malone said. “But that’s also a lot of money being lost — TV games, money. Let’s not forget: This is a business.” Some believe expanding the 174-day schedule by a week or two and eliminating back-to-back games would help, but there’s there’s clearly no easy solution to the issue, as Reynolds notes.

Postponed Wizards-Pistons Game Forces Three Schedule Changes

February 6th, 2023 at 8:22pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The NBA has announced three scheduling changes in the aftermath of last week’s postponed Wizards–Pistons game, according to a press release from the league.

Detroit was delayed in Dallas after losing to the Mavericks on Jan. 30. The Pistons were unable to return home until Thursday, one day after they were scheduled to play Washington.

That Wizards-Pistons game will be made up on March 7.

In order to ensure no team has to play three games in three nights, the Wizards’ March 6 home game against the Bucks has been moved to March 5. The Pistons’ home game against the Trail Blazers, which had been scheduled for March 7, will now be played on March 6.

NBA Postponing Wednesday’s Pistons/Wizards Game

February 1st, 2023 at 11:11am CST by Luke Adams

The NBA is postponing Wednesday night’s game in Detroit between the Pistons and Wizards, according to Omari Sankofa II of The Detroit Free Press (Twitter link).

The Pistons played the Mavericks in Dallas on Monday night and have been unable to travel back home since then due to a winter storm, as well as plane issues and other logistics, tweets James L. Edwards of The Athletic.

According to Edwards and Sankofa, the Pistons were still in Dallas as of 11:00 am Central time today, with tonight’s game just seven hours from tipping off, so a postponement became necessary.

A date for the rescheduled game remains up in the air. As Sankofa notes (via Twitter), the Pistons and Wizards are off Thursday, so it could theoretically be played one day later. However, both teams already have games scheduled for both Friday and Saturday, making a Thursday matchup (which would result in a back-to-back-to-back) far less practical.

The NBA was forced to postpone dozens of games during the last two seasons for COVID-related reasons and typically rescheduled them for weeks or months later. This is the first time in 2022/23 that the league has had to postpone a game.

Community Shootaround: 72-Game Schedule

January 21st, 2023 at 11:00pm CST by Arthur Hill

Fans who attended Friday’s game in Cleveland to watch Stephen Curry‘s only visit of the season left the arena disappointed. Not only did the Cavaliers lose to the Warriors, but Curry sat out the game for load management along with Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Andrew Wiggins.

Golden State was coming off an intense Finals rematch with the Celtics the night before. Curry, who recently returned from a shoulder injury, logged 43 minutes in that overtime game. Thompson, Green and Wiggins each played at least 36 minutes, so it was in the team’s best interest not to push them on back-to-back nights.

“I feel terrible for fans who buy tickets expecting to see someone play and they don’t get to see that person play,” coach Steve Kerr told reporters, including Tom Withers of The Associated Press. “It’s a brutal part of the business. It’s why I’m going to continue to advocate for 72-game seasons.”

Kerr believes a reduced schedule would cut down on injuries and create a better overall quality of play. It would also result in fewer games where fans pay big money for tickets and wind up seeing the league’s top stars in street clothes.

“You take 10 games off the schedule, it always feels like with 10 games left in the year everybody’s sort of had it anyways,” Kerr said. “That creates enough rest where we don’t have to have some of these crazy situations. I think you’d see way fewer games missed from players.”

The pace of modern NBA games is placing a greater strain on players, points out Mike D. Sykes II of USA Today. In the 1990s, there were only 93.7 possessions in an average game, but that number has risen to 99.27 in the 2020s. The increase in three-point shooting also means there’s more of the court that defenses have to cover, so players are constantly in motion.

Fewer games would mean less wear and tear on players, which should result in a higher quality of competition every night and a better chance that teams will be at or near full strength for the playoffs.

Of course, there are revenue concerns that would come with a shorter season, which may prevent league officials from ever considering such a change. A proposed mid-season tournament could help mitigate that, but the league and the players union have yet to agree on the specifics of how that tournament would work.

A shortened season would also result in fewer games being available for television and streaming, which would be a major issue as the NBA negotiates its next broadcast deal. The current contract expires after the 2023/24 season, and the league is hoping to top $75 billion with its next TV package.

We want to get your opinion. Do you agree with Kerr that the league would be better off with a 72-game season? And do you believe it’s realistic? Head to the comments and give us your feedback.

NBA Announces Start, End Dates For 2023/24 Regular Season

November 30th, 2022 at 5:58pm CST by Rory Maher

The NBA informed teams on Wednesday that the 2023/24 regular season will begin on October 24, 2023, and end April 14, 2024, Shams Charania of The Athletic reports (via Twitter).

The ongoing ’22/23 regular season opened on October 18 and will conclude April 9, so next season’s start and end dates will be pushed back nearly a week.

According to Charania, the league also told teams that if and when a proposed in-season tournament is approved, the initial regular season schedule would have 80 games per team instead of the standard 82. In that scenario, the remaining games would be scheduled once eight teams advance to a single-elimination format.

As Charania reported in September, the in-season tournament would have cup games running through November, with eight teams advancing to knockout stages in December. All of the games would be part of the regular season schedule, and the finalists would each have one extra game.

In short, the remaining two games for the 22 teams that don’t advance to the single-elimination rounds would be finalized once the cup games conclude, possibly at the end of November.

The in-season tournament has yet to be finalized and still needs to be approved by the NBA and the NBPA before it can be implemented, but obviously the league is targeting next season for its initial run.

NBA Announces 2022 Preseason Schedule

August 25th, 2022 at 3:59pm CST by Rory Maher

The NBA recently released its full 2022 preseason schedule, featuring 70 games from September 30 to October 14. In addition to all 30 NBA teams, a couple of international clubs will also participate in two games apiece: Maccabi Ra’anana of Israeli National League, and the Adelaide 36ers of the Australian National Basketball League.

The schedule tips off on September with the Warriors facing the Wizards in Japan at the Saitama Super Arena, while the Clippers face Maccabi at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle.

Several nationally televised games are on tap:

October 4: Detroit at New York, followed by New Orleans at Chicago (TNT)
October 6: Miami at Brooklyn, followed by the Timberwolves at the Lakers, with the latter taking place at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (ESPN)
October 12: Brooklyn at Milwaukee, followed by the Timberwolves at the Lakers (ESPN)
October 14: Denver at Golden State (ESPN2)

With All-Stars like Zion Williamson and Ben Simmons set to return in 2022/23 after missing all of last season, the Pelicans and Nets will be interesting teams to watch. The same goes for the Clippers (Kawhi Leonard) and Nuggets (Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr.), though Denver’s duo falls more in the “rising stars” category, as neither player has been named an All-Star yet.

Of course, it’s not a given that all of those players will participate in the preseason.

The Hawks and Timberwolves will also be intriguing to monitor, as they both made major trades in the offseason. All-Star guard Dejounte Murray is now on Atlanta, while three-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert is on Minnesota.

The full schedule can be found right here for those curious about the preseason action.

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