On July 11, 2016, Tim Duncan officially announced his retirement after playing 19 seasons, winning five NBA championships with the San Antonio Spurs.[2]
On July 25, 2016, Sasha Kaun officially announced his retirement after playing one season in the NBA, winning 1 NBA championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers.[3]
On July 26, 2016, Amar'e Stoudemire officially announced his retirement from the NBA after signing a symbolic contract with the New York Knicks so he could officially end his 14 season career as a NBA player,[4][5] and went to play in Israel.[6]
On September 23, 2016, Kevin Garnett officially announced his retirement after playing 21 seasons, winning one NBA championship with the Boston Celtics.[7][8]
On September 26, 2016, Paul Pierce officially announced that the 2016–17 season will be his last after playing 19 seasons, winning one NBA championship with the Boston Celtics.[9]
On October 20, 2016, Elton Brand officially announced his retirement after playing 17 seasons.[10]
On November 1, 2016, Ray Allen officially announced his retirement after playing 18 seasons, winning two NBA championships with the Boston Celtics and the Miami Heat. Prior to announcing his retirement, he did not play since the end of the 2013–14 season.[11]
On November 25, 2016, Kevin Martin announced his retirement from the NBA after playing 12 seasons.[12]
Free agency
Free agency negotiations began on Friday, July 1, 2016. Players can sign starting on July 6, after the July moratorium ended.
On April 14, 2016, Sam Mitchell was relieved of his interim head coaching duties as the coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves after the last game of the season, allowing them to look for a part-time coach.[13]
On April 19, 2016, Earl Watson would remove the interm coach tag he had last season and would be the coach of the Phoenix Suns for the next three years.[20][21]
On April 20, 2016, the Timberwolves agreed to sign Tom Thibodeau to be their head coach and president of basketball operations. He was previously an assistant coach for the team from 1989 to 1991.[22][23]
On April 25, 2016, the Lakers did exercise their option on Scott's contract for the following season, deciding to pursue a new coach. His 38-126 (.232) record with the team was the worst of any of the 16 coaches who had led the franchise for at least two seasons.[24][25]
On April 26, 2016, the Washington Wizards hired Scott Brooks to be their head coach.[26]
On April 29, 2016, the Los Angeles Lakers hired Warriors Coach Luke Walton to become their new head coach. Walton led the Warriors to a 24–0 start in the 2015-16 season when Steve Kerr was sidelined.[27]
On May 5, 2016, despite making the playoffs, Pacers' president Larry Bird announced that Frank Vogel's contract would not be renewed, citing a need for a new voice to lead the players.[28][29]
The preseason began on October 1, 2016 and ended on October 21, 2016.
Regular season
The regular season began on Tuesday, October 25, 2016. Christmas Day games will be played on Sunday, December 25, 2016. The regular season will end on Wednesday, April 12, 2017. The schedule was released at 6:00 p.m. ET on August 11, 2016.[38]
The 2017 NBA Playoffs will begin on April 15, 2017. In May 2017, ESPN will air the Western Conference Finals and TNT will air the Eastern Conference Finals. The season will end with the 2017 NBA Finals which will begin on June 1, 2017 on ABC.
On November 22, 2016, the Detroit Pistons announced that the 2016–17 season will be their last at The Palace of Auburn Hills and would be relocating to the new Little Caesars Arena in Downtown Detroit beginning in the 2017–18 season,[45] the first time since 1961 that both the Pistons and hockey's Detroit Red Wings will share a venue.
Media
This will be the first season of the new nine-year U.S. television contracts with ABC, ESPN, TNT, and NBA TV.
In Canada, rights are divided between the TSN and Sportsnet groups of channels and NBA TV Canada. These rights are of indefinite duration, as NBA TV Canada is owned by the Toronto Raptors' ownership group, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, which in turn is controlled by the parent companies of TSN and Sportsnet (Bell Canada and Rogers Communications, respectively). TSN and Sportsnet each have rights to 41 Toronto Raptors regular season games and over 100 other regular season games,[46][47] and are expected (as in 2015–16) to share coverage of NBA All-Star Weekend, and split coverage of the playoffs and the NBA Finals. NBA TV Canada will carry 105 additional regular season games,[48] plus replays of other games carried on TSN and Sportsnet.
Uniforms
On May 12, 2016, Utah Jazz unveiled new uniforms.[49]
The 2016–17 NBA schedule features a historic low of "back-to-back" games, along with teams playing four games in a five day stretch.[53] It was the first schedule created with a new optimization computer program[54] that the NBA described at the MIT Sport Analytic Conference.[55]
The season also will see the league's timing systems, including the official game clock and shot clock united for the first time under a long-term sponsorship and equipment deal with Swiss watchmaker Tissot; the deal includes the prominence of the Tissot logo on each court game clock/shot clock unit, which was redesigned to be both more clearly visible by spectators and with materials in the number elements that are more "see-through" than the previous Daktronics models.[56]
On October 25, LeBron James recorded his 43rd career triple-double in a win against the New York Knicks, becoming the first player since Jason Kidd in 2006 to post a triple-double on Opening Night.[57]
On October 26, Anthony Davis scored 50 points in a 102–107 loss to the Denver Nuggets, becoming just the fourth player in NBA history to score 50+ points on Opening Night.[58]
On October 29, Russell Westbrook registered the first 50-point triple double since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1975 in an overtime win against the Phoenix Suns, recording 51 points, 13 rebounds, and 10 assists—the 3rd highest point total ever in a triple-double.[59]
On November 1, James Harden recorded 41 points and 15 assists in a loss against the Cleveland Cavaliers. The next night, Harden scored 30 points with 15 assists in a win against the New York Knicks, becoming the first player to register at least 30 points and 15 assists in back-to-back games since Magic Johnson in 1986–87.[60]
On November 4, DeMar DeRozan scored 34 points in a win against the Miami Heat, becoming the first player since Michael Jordan in 1986 to score 30+ points in the first five games to start the season.[61]
On November 7, Stephen Curry made 13 three-pointers against the New Orleans Pelicans, setting a new NBA record for most three-pointers made by a player in a single game, breaking the previous record of 12 shared by Curry himself, along with Kobe Bryant and Donyell Marshall.[65]
On November 11, LeBron James scored his 27,000th career point in a win against the Wizards, becoming the youngest player in NBA history to reach that milestone (31 years, 317 days).[66]
On November 18, the San Antonio Spurs defeated the Los Angeles Lakers, giving Spurs coach Gregg Popovich his 1,099th career victory as head coach, passing Larry Brown for seventh place all-time in coaching career wins.[67] He'd record his 1,100th career victory as head coach three days later against the Dallas Mavericks.
On November 23, Kevin Love scored 34 points in the first quarter of a win against the Portland Trail Blazers, setting an NBA record for most points scored in the 1st quarter, and second most in any quarter. Love finished the quarter 11-of-14 from the field and 8-of-10 from three, shattering the franchise's old record for both points and 3-pointers in a quarter.[68]
On November 25, the Houston Rockets set an NBA record by attempting 50 three-pointers in a 117–104 win against the Sacramento Kings, breaking the previous record of 49 set by the Dallas Mavericks in 1996.[70]
On November 29, the Houston Rockets scored at least 10 3-pointers in their 17th consecutive game, setting an NBA record.[72]
On November 29, in all six games, the team with the worst record ended up winning, making it only the second time in NBA history that's happened this late into the season (January 7, 1969).[73]
On November 30, Russell Westbrook scored his fourth straight triple-double and in doing so became the first player since Oscar Robertson in 1961–62 to average a triple-double into the month of December.[74]
