Brogdon thinks NBA, NBPA will extend CBA opt-out deadline
Indiana Pacers guard Malcolm Brogdon believes the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association will once again agree to extend the deadline for either party to deliver notice about opting out of the current collective bargaining agreement.
"The way talks are going, this is a super-complicated issue, and there's a lot to balance," the 27-year-old said on ESPN's The Jump on Thursday, according to ESPN's Tim Bontemps. "(There's) a lot of minds working on this collaboratively, on both sides.
"So it's going to take some time. I don't think a few weeks, but I think it will take at least a few more days."
Brogdon serves as a vice president on the NBPA's executive committee.
Oct. 30 is supposed to be the final day the league or players association can give 45 days' notice to terminate the current CBA. However, that deadline has already been pushed back several times as the sides negotiate amendments about the structure of the upcoming season.
The current CBA came into effect in July 2017 and is valid through the end of the 2023-24 season, but the agreement includes a "Mutual Right of Termination" provision which either side can now trigger due to the wide-ranging financial impact and remaining uncertainty linked to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The NBA and NBPA coming to terms on several amendments - including changes to the season calendar and how much of the players' salaries are kept in escrow to hedge against the financial uncertainty lying ahead - remains the largest hurdle standing between the league and determining when the 2020 offseason and the 2020-21 campaign can begin.
The NBA has reportedly hoped to give the players at least two months' notice before the start of the next season, but even if the sides were to agree today, the league office's preferred start date around Dec. 22 is only 53 days away.
A substantial number of players reportedly want the season to start closer to Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Jan. 18. However, the downsides of this date are the risk of missing out on the typically high viewership around the December holidays and potentially forcing NBA players to sit out the rescheduled 2021 Olympics in Tokyo.
The only upcoming major event with a definitive date on the current NBA calendar is the 2020 draft, set to take place on Nov. 18.