OKC Thunder: Decision on season start expected today

With the OKC Thunder in the midst of their offseason, they and all NBA teams await a decision on when the 2020-21 season will start.

OKC Thunder fans have been in limbo awaiting the decision on when the 2020-21 NBA season will begin. Fans are anxious to fill in their calendars as are we at Thunderous Intentions as the start date will then offer up the free agency moratorium as well as training camp and a presumptive small preseason period.

The Board of Governors and the National Basketball Players Association met this past Friday, October 30th, and once again elected to postpone the decision to allow for further discussion. This was the fourth such extension the partners have undertaken.

In fairness, this isn’t a simple choice and the two stakeholder groups have different priorities and that fact has created more roadblocks. In turn, this also impacts the current Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA)  which either side can terminate if desired.

Each side’s opinions are relevant and yet they can be cycled down to one word – for the BoGwho want the December 22nd start date, it’s “money” and for the NBPA who prefer the Martin Luther King Jr. start date of January 18th, it’s “rest”.  In the latter situation, however, there are a number of teams who would be happy to start sooner.

Decision on NBA 2020-21 start date expected today

More from Thunderous Intentions

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• 3 OKC Thunder players who can step up in Aleksej Pokusevski’s absence
• Aleksej Pokusevski sidelined approximately 6 weeks with ankle injury
• Damian Lillard does not fit with the OKC Thunder

Eight teams haven’t played since mid-March, six haven’t played since the playoffs began in mid-August and another eight teams left the Disney bubble at the end of the first round.

The majority of those clubs exited in August but the OKC Thunder and Utah Jazz left in the early days of September having pushed their first-round series the distance.

This offseason for Sam Presti is particularly busy for the executive vice president and general manager of the OKC Thunder.

Filling the vacant position of a head coach for the squad sits atop his priority list. While he meets with potential candidates so much of how the season will align depends on this start date decision.

No doubt, Chris Paul the NBPA president is actively involved in these talks just as he was in the planning and negotiations to finish the season in the Disney bubble.

Cross your fingers we learn that decision today so efforts can be made to fill in our calendars