Steve Kerr supports NBA moving up start of regular season

Steve Kerr supports NBA moving up start of regular season 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 night before Golden State’s game against the Pacers at Oracle Arena. There is a “strong likelihood” that the new collective bargaining agreement — the deadline for which is Dec. 15 — will include moving the start of the 2017-18 season up 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 exhibition games. Kicking off the regular season in the Oct. 15-20 range, rather than the Oct. 25 date that marked the start of the 2016-17 NBA season, allows schedule-makers to limit the stretches of back-to-backs and four-games-in-five-nights teams weather. The streak, which started Dec. 18, 2012, against the then-New Orleans Hornets, is the longest such stretch the Warriors have had since Oracle Arena’s capacity increased from 15,025 to 19,596 before the 1997-98 season. The Warriors’ home matchup with the Pacers holds special significance: