NBA calendar: season, playoffs, Draft and more

The best basketball league in the world, the NBA, is played between October and June, but before, during and after that period there are numerous key dates and deadlines that are vital when it comes to understanding the NBA calendar. Through this page we intend to explain the development of the entire competition with the most important days that every fan should know.

When does the 2023-24 NBA season start?

La 2023-24 NBA season will begin on October 24, 2023 and will end throughout the month of June 2024, dates within what has been common in the league for decades. It will be the second campaign in five years that will not be affected in any way by the coronavirus pandemic at the calendar level after suffering a four-month break in 2019-20, starting 2020-21 two months late and having reduced by one month the summer break 2021-22.

What are the key dates on the NBA calendar for the 2023-24 season?

The key dates for the 2023-24 NBA calendar are the following:

• NBA Market 2023: On July 1, 2023, new contracts and transfers began to be agreed upon.
• NBA Summer League: between July 7 and 17 in Las Vegas.
• 2023 preseason: At the end of September the training camps will open for all teams. On September 27, training will open for teams that play preseason games away from the United States; On October 2, the rest of the teams will begin training.
• 2023 preseason matches: Between October 5 (Abu Dhabi Games) and October 20, each team will play between 4 and 6 games.
• Start of the 2023-24 NBA season: el October 24 The regular season of 82 games per team will begin with 1.230 games that can be streamed on NBA League Pass.
• Home 'NBA Tournament': On November 3, 2023, the first games of the new NBA tournament will begin, which will be played between November and December. All will count for the regular season except the grand final.
• NBA game in Mexico: Atlanta and Orlando will play in Mexico City on November 9.
• Semifinals and final 'NBA Tournament': The semifinals will be held on December 7; on December 9 the final. All three games will be played in Las Vegas.
• NBA Christmas Day 2023: five special matches on December 25.
• NBA game in Paris: Chicago and Detroit will play in Paris on January 11, 2023.
• NBA Martin Luther King Jr. Day: multitude of matches from early in the day on January 15, 2023.
• All-Star 2024: It will be held in Indianapolis between February 16 and 18, 2024.
• Season break: between February 16 and 21, 2024 there will be no regular season.
• Second part of the season: from the 22 of February of 2024.
• Final regular season: April 14, 2024.
• Play-in tournament to access playoffs: between April 16 and 19, 2024.
• NBA 2024 playoffs start: 20 April 2024.
• NBA 2024 Final Dates: from June 6, 2024 to June 23, 2024.
• Draft 2024: June 27 2024.

What's new for the 2023-24 NBA calendar?

The main novelty of the 2023-24 NBA calendar is the introduction of a new competition, the so-called 'NBA In-Season Tournament', which is like an NBA Cup. The thirty teams in the league will play against each other divided into six groups starting November 3 throughout the month. The winners of those six groups and the two best will compete in the quarterfinals that will leave us with four semifinalists.

Well, both the semifinals (December 7, 2023) and the final (December 9, 2023) will be played in Las Vegas and after that last game we will know which is the first champion team of the 'NBA Cup'.

All games in the 'NBA Cup' will count towards the regular season classification except for the final, a game that will not count since that will be the only additional game that will be played this season compared to what has been common for decades. That is, the finalists of the 'NBA Cup' will play 83 games between October and April compared to 82 games for the rest of the teams.

Three changes that were made to the 2022-23 NBA calendar

1. There will be no parties on election day. As part of the league's efforts to promote social justice, the league has decided not to schedule any games for Tuesday, November 8, election day in the United States. This decision aims to encourage all fans to go vote. As a result, the thirty teams in the league will play the day before. It is a rarity for the NBA to leave calendar days without games. Typically, since the regular season begins, there are games every day except for two: Christmas Eve and the day of the NCAA final.

2. Less travel. Another goal that the NBA has is to reduce the number of trips teams make to play in order to preserve the health of the players. During the 2022-23 season, no less than 88 away games will be held without the visiting team having traveled between those games. The jump is notable since in the 201-22 season there were 53 games of this type and in 2022-23 there will be 88. Of those 88 games, 55 will be achieved by playing the same two teams in the same city twice in a row and the other 33 They will come from games played in New York against the New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets consecutively.

It has also been possible to reduce the number of back-to-backs —two games played in two nights— from 13,5 per team last season to 13,3 in 2022-23. Since the 2014-15 season there has been a reduction of 19,3 back-to-back to the current 13,3.

3. NBA Rivals Week. For the 2022-23 season, the NBA has introduced another novelty called "NBA Rivals Week" in order to attract more public attention. Classic and contemporary rivalries between teams and players will be used by the league to schedule eleven eye-catching duels over five days, between January 24 and 28. There will be clashes between Heat and Celtics, Lakers and Clippers, Nets and 76ers, Warriors and Grizzlies, Mavericks and Suns, Warriors and Raptors, Knicks and Nets and, of course, between Celtics and Lakers as an end to the party.

When is the NBA calendar published?

Whether you are planning a trip to the United States to see your favorite team or because you simply want to know when your team will play the 82 games of the season, you will have to wait until August begins to find out the details of each season. The NBA usually waits until the first or second half of August to publish its schedule.

On those dates, the NBA indicates with a first communication the most interesting games of the first four days of the course as well as the clashes on Christmas Day, one of the most important days for the League for decades. Days later the League finishes communicating the entire calendar.

NBA preseason dates

Until well into September the NBA has no official movement. The preseason usually lasts just over three weeks in which teams play between five and eight games. In 2019 the NBA reduced the length of the preseason and the number of games in it in order to extend the length of the season.

The NBA preseason is usually used to delve into tactical and physical work with the players since once the official course begins, training is very limited due to the lack of time available between trips and games. In preseason the NBA also usually organizes games in countries in Europe, Asia and some cities in America that are not used to watching the NBA.

Regular season schedule length

The NBA season usually begins in mid-October, 10 days earlier than was usual until 2016. The desire of the competition leaders to give more breaks during the season meant that the regular season could start earlier while maintaining its completion date in mid-April.

Between those two periods there is just over 175 days for each team to play 82 games. Yes, each NBA franchise ends up playing a game practically every other day considering that during the All-Star game the games stop for a week.

During the first days of competition in October, the League schedules matches of great media interest, pitting the leading teams against each other with the aim of capturing the attention of the greatest number of fans. In the following list you can see the most important key dates of the Regular Season such as special days or deadlines related to the transfer market.

NBA playoffs and Finals schedule

The playoffs, the playoffs for the title contested by 16 teams - 8 from each conference - usually begin in mid-April and extend for a period of approximately two months until the conclusion of the NBA Finals, which are always played in June between the Eastern Conference champion and the Western Conference champion.

• Mid April: usual start date of playoffs.
• April May: delivery of the NBA awards, as Defender of the Year, Rookie of the Year or MVP.
• Early June: Start of the NBA Finals.

Draft, market and Summer League

Once the Finals conclude and a new winner is part of the NBA champions list It gives way to a period of frenetic activity in the NBA that has a lot of interest for the fan: the draft, the awards and the entire signing period. The draft is held first, usually in New York, a city in which the NBA organizes a gala to choose 60 players who have not been part of the League until that moment, mostly young people from university.

Subsequently, every July 1, the signing and transfer period begins in which all teams remodel their squads with new signings of free agents or agreeing on transfers with other teams.

• End of June: celebration of the NBA Draft.
• 1 July: Start of the signing and transfer period.
• Beginning of July: Start of the Las Vegas Summer League.

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More information

• The NBA Cup: schedule, groups, format and playoffs.
• How to watch the NBA online in League Pass.
• The NBA champions list, all the champions in history.