The NBA is proposing a midseason tournament beginning in the 21-22 season.

"I think it certainly, of all the big proposals, the one that has been met with the most skepticism from teams." said Zach Lowe. "It centers around 'Is anyone going to care about this? Are we, teams, going to care about this?'

"I get that. What is in it for them and the NBA, as you said, is counting on the organic momentum of this as long as it sticks around for long enough, it will sort of by default come to mean something. I guess that can be true? I actually sort of believe in that kind of organic momentum for events and things like that."

Lowe also pointed out how the All-Star Game has had increased apathy from players over the past few seasons.

The NBA and NBPA are finding common ground on a post-Thanksgiving tournament window that would extend into mid-December.

The NBA had previously proposed a late January-February tournament that would culminate with a Final Four during All-Star weekend. The idea faded fast due to concerns from both the union and team executives.

The NBA has been hesitant about shoehorning tournament games onto the Christmas Day schedule, but they would compete with the NFL playoffs in January and the NCAA tournament in March.

Adam Silver has been driving the in-season tournament cup modeled after European soccer.

The NBA is engaged in serious discussions with the National Basketball Players Association and broadcast partners on sweeping and dramatic changes to the league calendar.

Potential scenarios include a reseeding of the four conference finalists, a 30-team in-season tournament and a postseason play-in.

These scenarios would include shortening the regular season to no less than 78 games.

The discussions are progressing with the hopes of bringing a vote to the April meeting of the board of governors and incorporating them for the 21-22 season.

The league is working to make sure the loss of revenue for teams and players with a shortened regular season would be break even or better initially, with significant financial windfalls in the long term.

The NBA left Seattle in 2008 and there has been little progress in a return outside of the failed relocation of the Sacramento Kings.

Adam Silver has consistently said expansion is not on the table for the NBA in the short-term, while no teams are currently in danger of a potential relocation.

Golden State Warriors CEO Rick Welts, who is a native of Seattle, was asked whether the NBA might return to the city within the next five years.

"I sure hope so. If there's one thing that I could wish for our league structurally, I think it would be to get a team back to Seattle," Welts told NBC Sports' Tom Haberstroh on the "Habershow" podcast. "It's obviously a really personal issue for me. I know what that team meant to that city -- bringing the first professional championship to Seattle.

"It's an amazing market. A lot of the future of the world is being envisioned there. It's got a vibrant community that would really support an NBA team coming back."

Welts was director of public relations for the Sonics in 1979 when they won the NBA title.

"But the path is problematic," Welts said. "The good news is the NBA's business is really successful right now, and that means we have 30 teams operating without anyone feeling like they're in a market where they can't support NBA basketball.

"And the owners -- I would say probably to their credit -- have shown no interest. And the league hasn't really promoted any expansion agenda. So how do you get a team there? I don't think I'm going out on a limb to make the prediction that the next team -- the next new market in the NBA -- will be Seattle. But the path on how we get there is pretty murky right now."

The NBA has hired outside legal counsel as they continue to fight Spencer Dinwiddie's attempt to convert his contract into a digital token. The NBA wants to find a common ground with Dinwiddie on the idea, but they could subject him to penalties such as contract termination or suspensions without pay and fines if he goes through with his investment vehicle as currently constituted. 

“At the request of Spencer Dinwiddie and his advisors, we have reviewed a number of variations of their digital token idea,” Dan Rube, the NBA’s Executive Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, told The Athletic. “All of the ideas presented would violate collectively bargained league rules, including rules prohibiting transferring a player’s right to receive NBA salary, gambling on NBA-related matters, and creating financial incentives to miss games.”

The NBA initially said Dinwiddie couldn't assign his salary as a third-party transfer, but he owns the company handling the investment plan.

During a second meeting, the NBA said the issue is Dinwiddie's $12.3 million player option for 20-21.

Dinwiddie and the NBA are now at a stalemate with his third-year player option now being considered a "token" toward gambling. 

The question of load management has been of the major storylines to start the NBA season. The Los Angeles Clippers have rested Kawhi Leonard in back-to-back games on national television on multiple occasions.

Jeff Zucker, who is chairman of WarnerMedia News & Sports and oversees Turner Sports, was asked about the weak ratings of the NBA to begin the 19-20 season.

“I think the combination of injuries and sitting out has been an issue, and I think that’s a concern, and hopefully that will get addressed over time," said Zucker. "I think the league has some influence over teams and I would like them to exert that influence."

The NBA has national television deals with Turner Sports and ESPN worth $2.66 billion per year through 24-25. The current deal was finalized approximately two years before the expiration of the prior contract.

Adam Silver has defended the practice of load management and the NBA has also considered shortening the season.

NBA leadership continues to monitor trade negotiations between the United States and China with the belief a resolution both sides find agreeable would help soothe its own relationships with their most profitable foreign market.

China's state-run CCTV has not aired an NBA game through the season's first three weeks, but games have returned to Tencent with the exception of the Houston Rockets. Nobody around the league could offer an approximate timetable for when their impasse with China would be resolved. NBA and CCTV officials have maintained communication.

The Rockets have lost more than $7 million in revenue this season from cancelled Chinese sponsorship agreements and nearly $20 million overall when terminated multiyear deals are calculated, according to sources.

Many executives said they would like the NBA to develop guidelines for dealing with China and other politically sensitive topics.

David Falk believes the NBA's standardization of contracts for rookies has created a culture of corruption since there's less agents can do to differentiate themselves.

"It’s changed dramatically since I got in," said Falk. "When I was in law school looking for a job, it was a tiny business. Today it’s huge, expanding into sports betting, virtual reality, analytics. Now you have to do more than negotiate a deal. You have to be a marketer and a corporate consultant. I never took a marketing course but being a marketer is something I had to learn. It’s something I truly love: negotiating the business side of basketball.

"Now it should take 30 seconds to do a rookie deal because they put a scale, a maximum in. It’s taken the imagination out of being an agent for 75 percent of what I do. Because of that standardization, if you will, it’s created a high level of corruption. It’s hard to differentiate. There’s money paid to induce players to sign someplace. There’s money paid to train players. It’s unfortunate. I’m not mad. I just don’t like it. I’ve had my run.

"If given the chance, I wouldn’t pay Zion (Williamson) a penny. He’s a great player and, from what I can tell, a terrific young man. But $1 or $1 million, it’s the same. At FAME, we don’t recruit. We don’t support AAU programs, anything going on in today’s environment. The NBA Players’ Union has done a poor job policing the rules and illegal inducements. They haven’t lifted a finger to address it. It’s the Wild West. You’re almost better off having no rules. I have great respect for the woman (Michele Roberts) running it. But they’ve been almost negligent. I always shoot for the stars and play by the rules. So all this change has opened up a whole new career for me."

Tech companies like Facebook and Twitter have cooled their interest in broadcasting sporting events.

Amazon, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube competed for the right to show NFL games on Thursday in 2017 and the industry began to anticipate the possibility of those tech giants routinely bidding for games.

Bidding from tech companies hasn't materialized in the years since then.

“There’s no shortage of sports content across social networks, but the behavioral data shows consumption tends to be in a shallow way. They don’t lend themselves well to long-form content consumption,” said Phil Stephan, director at sports marketing agency Two Circles. “Users don’t engage with content for longer than a few minutes, and this will be a hard behavior to break if they look to push long-form live content on their platforms.”

Facebook director of global sports partnerships Peter Hutton said his company has no plans to place any big bids on sports rights in the near future.

Over-the-top companies like Amazon Prime, Disney and Dazn are slowly testing the waters with rights seemingly at their zenith considering the future of cable companies in a cord cutting era.

All 30 NBA teams have been formally reminded by the league office that team owners, front office executives, coaches and other employees must keep the text from all contract-related communications with players and agents for one full year, sources initially told Marc Stein of the New York Times.

Shams Charania of The Athletic added more details with topics that must be preserved such as current or potential player contracts, transactions, potential endorsement or investment opportunities, the player's fit or future with the current or new team, as well as training, health and wellness.

The memo is part of the NBA's mission to reduce tampering.