Warriors’ Steve Kerr OK with starting season earlier
Count Warriors head coach Steve Kerr among the supporters of moving up the start of the NBA regular season.
“I can’t remember who first proposed it, but I think it makes perfect sense,” Kerr said Monday at Oracle Arena before his team routed the Pacers.
There is a “strong likelihood” that players will pursue a new collective bargaining agreement this offseason, a deal that would include moving up the start of the 2017-18 season by a week to 10 days, according to a recent ESPN report.
To accommodate that change, the league would shorten the preseason schedule from an eight-game maximum per team to five or six games.
Tipping off the regular season in the Oct. 15-20 range, rather than the Oct. 25 date that marked the start of the 2016-17 season, would allow schedule-makers to limit the back-to-backs and four-games-in-five-night stretches teams typically endure.
The Warriors play 17 back-to-backs and one set of four games in five nights this season.
The Warriors’ home matchup with the Pacers held special significance: