LA Clippers fans should hope the league votes for a December 22 start.
We still don’t know when the 2020-21 NBA season will begin. We might soon, though. According to The Athletic, the league is poised to vote before the end of this week on an official start date with most signs pointing towards December 22. Yesterday, Adrian Wojnarowski confirmed that the league would vote on Thursday. This is good news for fans of the LA Clippers.
Outside of selfishly just wanting basketball back on television to distract them from everything else happening in the world, Clipper fans should be excited to get the season underway sooner, rather than later.
Why?
It’s simple. This team needs as much time as possible to gel. There will undoubtedly be new additions to the team via trades or free agency. Head coach Ty Lue said he thinks that on the court chemistry was one of the team’s biggest issues last season, especially in the bubble. With Marcus Morris and Reggie Jackson joining the team right before the league suspended play, they never got a real chance to work with the team. Then, players had to come and go from the bubble for various reasons, giving no chance of continuity.
If the season does start on December 22, 72 games will likely be played. This is only ten less than a regular season and will be more than enough time for Ty to install his system while the players build up that much-needed chemistry.
The restart also gives the Clippers a chance to quickly put the harsh end of last season behind them quickly. Having an extended offseason might have allowed them to dwell on blowing a 3-1 lead but if they start training camp in just mere weeks, there won’t be enough time to even think about it.
Sure, with more back-to-backs being likely, Kawhi Leonard and Paul George might rest more often. Still, 72 games are more than enough to account for that rest while also getting this team where it needs to be. We’ll have LA Clippers basketball back in no time.