Coronavirus: NBA could condense 2020-21 season

New York, June 10: Atlanta Hawks general manager Travis Schlenk said the 2020-21 NBA season could be condensed following the coronavirus pandemic.

The COVID-19 crisis forced the 2019-20 NBA campaign to be postponed in March, but the league is set to restart at Walt Disney Resort near Orlando, Florida in July.

The NBA has confirmed plans for 22 teams to relaunch the season, with a tentative resumption date of July 31.

Atlanta (20-47) will not travel to Walt Disney Resort as Trae Young and the Hawks were second from bottom in the Eastern Conference and out of the playoff picture at the time of the postponement.

"I can't thank Hawks fans enough."

- @camreddish on fans’ impact this seasonpic.twitter.com/Trx4XbN72J
— Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) June 10, 2020

Looking ahead to next season, Schlenk said the campaign could be condensed in order to allow the league to remain as close to the current schedule as possible.

"Because of this circumstance, I think the league wants to stay as close to its original schedule as possible," Schlenk told reporters on Tuesday (June 9).

"There's a lot of different reasons for that – the college season, the draft and how all of that plays out. So that's why they've laid out a timeline where it would be a very quick turnaround from the NBA Finals to the start of the season.

"If you're going from the middle of October to starting the season [on] the 1st of December, if you are one of the teams in the Finals, that's quick.

"But they want to try to stay as close to the historical timing as possible. So I don't think this is something you'll see stick. They've talked to us on one of our GM calls that it might be a condensed schedule next year. More so than in the past.

"As you know, there's been a big drive to avoid back-to-backs and certainly four in five nights, but we might find ourselves in a situation next year where it would be much more condensed."