The Whiteboard: Buckle up for the NBA’s nonstop offseason roller coaster

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NBA fans, rejoice! You’re about to enjoy a nonstop flurry of offseason moves segueing directly into the start of a brand new season over the next 4-5 weeks.

NBA writers, despair! Based on the upcoming league calendar that’s turned Thanksgiving and Christmas into an unstoppable wave of draft, free agency and trade maneuvers, you might as well wish your families happy holidays now.

As ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Tim Bontemps reported Monday night, the league is set to kick off free agency at 6 p.m. ET on Friday, Nov. 20, with signings allowed to be made official at 12:01 p.m. ET on Sunday, Nov. 22.

The start of free agency, of course, comes just two days after the 2020 NBA Draft on Nov. 18 and only 10 days before players are expected to report to their respective teams for training camp on Dec. 1.

Furthermore, Wojnarowski reports that the league is expected to open the NBA’s transaction window 2-3 days prior to the draft (so Nov. 15-16) for trades, contract opt-ins/outs, etc.

Finally, according to Bontemps, the salary cap and luxury tax line will remain the same as last season, set at $109.1 million and $132.7 million, respectively.

So just to sum up, with today being Nov. 10, here’s what to expect from the NBA in the next few weeks:

• In 5-6 days, the trade window will open and contract opt-ins/outs will begin
• In 8 days, it’s the NBA Draft
• In 10 days, free agency kicks off
• In 12 days, agreed-upon deals can be made official
• In 21 days, training camp starts
• In 42 days, the new season will be underway

Phew. Inhale, exhale.

From a fan perspective, this is, of course, extremely exciting. While the 2020 NBA Finals just wrapped up less than a month ago, the NFL and NCAA football are the only major American sports leagues playing right now. The NBA’s offseason is always exciting, but fans are going to be treated to a full week or two of complete nonstop action between trades, draft shenanigans and free agency signings.

From the players’ perspective, or at least for those who participated in the bubble and made it deep into the playoffs, the mental, physical and emotional toll of getting back to work this soon must be grating, without even considering the stress of living in a bubble, taking daily COVID-19 tests, dealing with the stress we’ve all felt in quarantine and being at the forefront of calling attention to Black Lives Matter and social justice and all the positive (and negative) attention that comes with it.

The non-playoff teams are raring to start. The Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat probably feel like Jimmy Butler during Game 5 of the Finals.

It is completely impossible to predict how much activity we might see in the upcoming offseason. The salary cap remaining level is great news for teams at or near the luxury tax, given the NBA’s financial losses after the China debacle and league shutdown in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

However, it will be interesting to see how the current state of the world (moving one’s family across the country in the middle of a pandemic that’s spiking again within a one-week timeframe frankly doesn’t sound very appealing) and the league’s salary cap itself (teams won’t have extra space like they normally would, and this summer’s free agency class was already lacking in top-tier talent) affects players’ and teams’ decision-making. Maybe it has no effect at all, but role players lacking serious suitors might be more comfortable opting into their player options or re-signing on short-term deals to revisit a more open market in 2021 free agency, when the pandemic and league’s financial problems will be under better control.

Of course, a relatively boring free agency period is not usually the norm. And even if that were the case this year, with teams playing it conservative and opting for continuity in a stunted offseason and shortened buildup to the regular season, there will be very little time for anyone to be bored thanks to a truncated two-week window squeezing in an avalanche draft-night deals and trade activity. Keeping track of it all may prove to be more difficult than any year in recent memory with the warp speed those Woj Bombs and Shams notifications will be traveling at.

That, of course, is without factoring in the flurry of news we’ll eventually receive about the NBA’s new protocols for the upcoming season, like how exactly travel will be reduced over the course of a 72-game season; how frequently testing will occur; what happens when a player contracts COVID-19 with a more rapid-fire schedule than the NFL; guidelines and potential restrictions for players who won’t be operating inside a bubble anymore; what each team’s schedule will actually look like; how many fans will be allowed to attend games; what the social distancing and testing protocols will look like for those fans … you know, the mere trifles that will ultimately determine whether the 2020-21 campaign is relatively successful or a colossal, coronavirus super-spreading failure.

So strap in, NBA fans! Basketball and its constantly churning news cycle haven’t been gone for very long, but they’re about to be back with a vengeance here very soon.

#OtherContent

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Finally, The Ringer takes a look at the 10 biggest questions heading into the 2020 NBA Draft.