For Hoops Junkies, The Dog Days Are Here

It’s August – arguably the worst month on the calendar for the hoops junkie.

The NBA playoffs ended two months ago, the 2017-18 season begins two months from now, and the college and high school seasons begin even later than that.

The NBA Draft was held in late June followed by the Orlando, Utah and Las Vegas Summer Leagues, which gave us a chance to see the league’s future stars featured in a structured setting.  July 1st marked the start of an active free-agent signing period.

Now, that we’ve reached mid-August, the WNBA and local pro-am summer leagues are winding down, most of the top NBA free agents have made their commitments and other players are making deals overseas instead of waiting for an NBA training camp invite that may or may not come.

Already weary from dodging a blitz of unfounded, one-sided trade rumors on slow news days, season predictions before rosters have been finalized, and the occasional hit from the police blotter, the hoops fan nonetheless awaits the unveiling of the complete 2017-18 NBA schedule, the presentation of which will surely highlight the 6 to 8 teams that will dominate the national television coverage and the individual match-ups that make those games attractive.

We already know the five-game national television schedule for Christmas Day 2017, which will tip off with a matinee game involving the New York Knicks.

Mercy.

The NBA is clearly doing its part to encourage family togetherness on Christmas Day.

The NBA training camps open in late September, and we’ll likely hear about how most of the teams want to “run more”,  or spent the first day or two of camp “emphasizing defense”, and we’ll learn how many how many guys 6’10” and over spent the summer working on their three-point shot.

Sigh.

The NBA preseason begins in early October, then it’s smooth sailing from there as the regular season begins October 17.

In the meantime, we’ll try to find a Eurobasket contest on the tube or just lace ’em up ourselves and head to the local park to launch some threes 15-footers (those of us over 40 will try not to get injured while doing it) just to get off the couch for a minute.

Basketball has come a long way in approaching “year-round” status, but has yet to reach the offseason equivalent of baseball’s Hot Stove League.

We’ll get there.