Adam Silver on when the next NBA season could start

The Golden State Warriors are in San Francisco for their pandemic mini-camp, but it looks like they won’t play any meaningful games until next year.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver discussed the league’s plans moving forward during an interview with CNN, and said: “his best guess” is that the next regular season will not begin until 2021.

Silver adds that the NBA’s goal is to get in a standard 82-game season. The commissioner said the league’s original plan of beginning the regular season in December felt “a little bit early to me,” and with new information coming to light about the coronavirus, he thinks pushing the start into the new year is the better option.

It was interesting to hear that Silver is hoping to have fans in attendance when the next season begins, but added that it is a fluid situation. He said the NBA keeps an eye on how the other professional sports leagues are proceeding with allowing fans in their arenas and stadiums. A final decision will be made later this year.

“But there’s still a lot that we need to learn in terms of rapid testing, for example,” Silver said. “Would that be a means of getting fans into our buildings? Will there be other protections?”

The NBA already pushed back the 2020 draft to Nov. 18, which gives the league and NBPA enough time to figure out the salary cap and luxury tax figures for the 2020-21 season. The pandemic’s economic fallout has robbed the league of roughly 40% of its revenue without fans in the building.

When do you think the next NBA season will start? Do you think fans will be able to attend Warriors games in January if the league starts early next year?