The NBA proposal for a 22-team season restart has been approved

The NBA’s Board of Governors has approved the new proposal and play will be restarting with 22 teams at the end of July.

The NBA’s proposal to resume the 2019-20 NBA season with 22 teams at Orlando’s Walt Disney World, first reported by The Athletic’s Shams Charania, has officially been approved. A return to play is on track for July 31. Teams will reportedly begin a training camp in their home cities on June 30 and travel to Orlando on July 7, allowing a quarantine window before play actually resumes.

Who makes it into the playoffs in this new NBA proposal?

The 22 teams would include the eight teams who are currently in playoff position in each conference along with six additional teams who will participate in a regular-season slate and have a chance to play their way into playoffs. Each team will play eight regular-season games after which playoff position would be determined like this:

"If the ninth seed is more than four games behind the eighth seed, the eighth seed earns the playoff spot; if the ninth seed is four or fewer games behind, then the eighth and ninth seed will enter a play-in tournament that is double-elimination for the eighth seed and single-elimination for ninth. ESPN first reported the league was working on 22-team models."

In an unexpected wrinkle, the playoff structure means an unbalanced conference slate from the returning teams. Washington is the only team from the Eastern Conference with a realistic shot of playing their way in. The other five non-playoff teams who will be headed to Orlando are all from the Western Conference — Phoenix, Portland, Sacramento, New Orleans and San Antonio.

What does this mean for the rest of the NBA calendar?

Along with the announcement of this proposal being approved, several other dates were locked in. The NBA Draft Lottery will be held on Aug. 25. The last possible date for the NBA Finals will be Oct. 12. The NBA Draft will be held three days later on Oct. 15. Free agency will open three days after that, on Oct. 18. The league will then target Nov. 10 for opening training camps for the 2020-21 season, with Dec. 1 as a potential opening night.