The NBA and NBPA have extended today's deadline for either side to serve notice on terminating the collective bargaining agreement until Friday, November 6th.

Both sides are continuing to negotiate a number of issues ahead of the 20-21 season and are expected to maintain a dialogue over the weekend.

The main issues for the sides to come agreement on are when the season will start and the percentage of salary that will be withheld to players in escrow.

The NBA would like to begin the season on December 22nd, while the players have pushed for a January 18th start date.

The NBA and union have essentially agreed to a salary cap of $109 million for the 20-21 season.

The NBA may offer the NBPA a 50-game season if the players maintain their position of wanting the season to start on Martin Luther King Day on January 18th. The league is pushing for a 72-game season beginning on Christmas Day.

Because compensation for players adheres to a regular season schedule, a 50-game season would mean a significant reduction in revenues.

The NBA's 72-game model beginning on December 22nd calls for approximately 14 games per month through May, followed by the playoffs through mid-July prior to the start of the Olympics on July 23rd.

The NBA's television partners do not want the 20-21 season to extend past mid-July.

A resolution is expected by next week given the condensed timetable that will be required with either start date.

With several issues still to be agreed upon, Malcolm Brogdon said that he "absolutely" expects Friday's deadline for the NBA or the National Basketball Players Association to opt out of the collective bargaining agreement to be pushed back

Brogdon is a vice president in the NBPA.

"The way talks are going, this is a super-complicated issue, and there's a lot to balance. [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."

One significant issue is determining when the season will begin as the players are pushing back on the league's proposal of a Dec. 22 start. Another possibility is to begin on Martin Luther King Day in mid-January.

"I think those are the two options," Brogdon said. "We're either going to start MLK Day, which I think a lot of the players are leaning towards, or we're going to start the 22nd, Christmastime. But the huge difference is revenue. Revenue, and trying to get the season back on track to start in that September-October range. So I think calculations are being done on both sides on how much revenue would be lost for each potential date, and we'll have to come to some type of agreement and go from there."

The salary cap for the 20-21 season is expected to be $109 million with the luxury tax line at $132 million, multiple sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic.

Michele Roberts revealed to The Athletic that the NBA and NBPA are close to agreement on the salary cap and tax.

If the league were to keep the salary cap as a percentage of basketball related income, it would likely be approximately $90 million. The NBA and NBPA are artificially smoothing the cap in order to protect teams from exorbitant luxury tax payments and also to help the 2020 free agency class sign deals with future earnings tied to a percentage of the cap more aligned to what the figure would have been if not for the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The NBA and NBPA have a deadline of Friday for either side to serve notice to terminate the collective bargaining agreement, but Michele Roberts told The Athletic that the players will review the league's proposal and does not anticipate a decision on the Dec. 22 start to the season by the end of the week.

“The union and the players are analyzing all of the information and will not be rushed,” Roberts told The Athletic. “We have requested and are receiving data from the parties involved and will work on a counterproposal as expeditiously as possible. I have absolutely no reason to believe that we will have a decision by Friday. I cannot and will not view Friday as a drop dead date.”

Both sides can extend negotiations beyond the Friday deadline.

“This summer, up through just two short weeks ago, our players accepted the challenges posed by and risks to their personal health and safety in order to save our season. Separated from their communities and their families, these men lived in isolation for months. Each day could have been met with the news that this awful virus had invaded their space and they were exposed to likely infection. They stayed the course, followed the protocol and, as a result, were able to deliver fabulous competition and completed the season able to crown a champion. It has been reported that those efforts generated an additional $1.5 billion dollars of revenue to be enjoyed by the players — and the team owners.”

The NBA is proposing a 72-game season amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic that is getting worse in most parts of the United States.

“The players are now being asked to re-pack their bags and head back to camp in a little over a month. The prospective loss of revenue largely forms the basis of this proposal. Since its receipt a week ago,  the NBPA  — as is our practice — is reviewing and assessing the proposal and its underlying thesis. We will do so as expeditiously as practicable. Our focus will also include an analysis of any relevant health and safety implications. Simultaneously, we will be addressing these issues with our players. And, while we are all anxious to resolve these and other substantive issues outstanding between the parties, we plan to proceed at a pace that provides our players ample opportunity to determine the best way to proceed.”

The gaps between the NBA and NBPA center around the Dec. 22nd start date as well as the player escrow and total revenue situation. 

The NBA and NBPA are negotiating methods of artificially inflating the 20-21 salary cap to keep it around $109 million.

If the NBA and players were to link the salary cap to overall league revenue using its normal formula, it would have fallen to around $90 million.

Those discussions on the salary cap and luxury tax are at the core of what needs to be decided to finalize a revised collective bargaining agreement. The two sides must also agree to an escrow system to account for the anticipated shortfall.

The union is having its own internal discussions with its membership considering spreading the hit over multiple years to not put one subset of players at a disadvantage. 

The NBA's revenue for the 19-20 season dropped by just 10 percent to $8.3 billion due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The balance of the finances included an $800 million loss in gate receipts and a $400 million loss in sponsorships and merchandise. 

The NBA also believes there was a $200 million "net negative impact" from its splintering of a partnership with China following Daryl Morey's Tweet supporting Hong Kong a year ago.

The NBA bubble in Orlando recouped $1.5 billion in revenue that would've been lost without restarting the season. The bubble cost the league $190 million, which was $10 million more than originally estimated. 

The league is projecting a 40 percent loss in overall revenue, or approximately $4 billion, if the 20-21 season advances without fans and accompanying gate-night receipts. 

A substantial factions of NBA players, including many of its stars, are pushing for the 20-21 season to begin on Martin Luther King Day on January 18th instead of the currently proposed start date of December 22nd.

Under the players' preferred plan, free agency would begin on December 1st, which would give free agents substantially more time to negotiate their contracts.

The league believes there would be $500 million in additional revenue during the 20-21 season if it begins the season before Christmas Day, which would also allow for a return to the NBA's normal calendar for the 21-22 season.

The salary cap for the 20-21 season is expected to be no less than $109 million, according to the messaging teams have received from the league office.

"The teams I've talked to have said the cap will be no lower than $109 million," said Bobby Marks on The Lowe Post. "That's what they've been assured. It could be $111 million.

"When it comes to 21-22, teams are using $115 million as the number right now. I think that's potentially going to be higher because I think revenue for 21 and 22 gets back to some type of normalcy. And that will certainly have what the league will use as a projection."

Unlike most seasons, the cap won't be an accurate representation of projected BRI.

The NBA and NBPA are widely expected to agree to revised collective bargaining agreement this week, which is their deadline to start the season by mid-December.

"I don't really think the players have much of a leveraging point here," said Brian Windhorst on his podcast. "They're probably going to have to agree to this.

"In talking to people on the league side this past week, they didn't act like getting the players to agree was going to be that big of a stumbling block. I'm sure some people are going to be upset, but I'm not sure what they can do about it."

The start of the season will take place 72 days after Game 6 of The Finals featuring the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat.