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The Washington Wizards are officially in their offseason and are preparing for the 2020 NBA Draft where they will pick ninth. But the next draft will be pushed back a bit further from October 16, the date it was originally moved to from its traditional June timeframe.
On Wednesday, the NBA officially announced that the 2020 Draft will be moved a second time to Wednesday, Nov. 18. It will be televised on ESPN. This came after an earlier report by Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium that the league planned on moving the date back.
NBA’s league office informed Board of Governors today that the 2020-21 season won’t begin earlier than Christmas Day, sources tell @TheAthleticNBA @Stadium. Nov. 18 Draft date, 20-21 start date remain fluid.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) September 10, 2020
There’s another date that Charania referred to in the tweet above, specifically on the start of the 2020-21 season. At the time of the season restart last July, the league was hoping to start on Dec. 1, but now it’s looking like the season will start after the 2021 calendar year.
This possible delay makes sense for two reasons. First, the teams in this year’s finals were at risk of not having much of a break before the following season. But second, a projected second wave of coronavirus is supposed to hit in the late fall and winter. It may be better to delay the season a bit to increase the chance of fan attendance. Since the league continues to lose a lot of money due to the fact that there are no fans at games, this could be a way to mitigate that.