Summary

The 2019-2020 NBA season, like many other things during the year 2020, was put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Fortunately, the season was able to resume later in the year for teams which were close to or had already qualified for the playoffs. A majority of teams’ seasons were cut short, giving them one of the longest off-seasons in NBA History to rest, recover, vacation, spend time with family, etc. while the rest of the teams were given the opportunity to play beyond the regular season for a chance at a championship. While getting a chance to play in the NBA playoffs is an impressive achievement, the 2019-2020 playoffs came with a large burden on players. Teams who were in the playoffs, more specifically the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat (who made it to the championship), had the shortest off-season in NBA History- around 72 days, whereas in the previous offseason, players were given double that time for recovery. Teams who didn’t make the playoffs in the 2019-2020 season were given a 287-day off-season. For this project, I aim to compare the best NBA players’ statistics and performance based on the 2019-2020 season, which consisted of a normal offseason beforehand, to the statistics of the 2020-2021 season, which consisted of the shortened or extended off-season depending on whether the team made the playoffs or not. Coming off a non-typical year which saw the NBA season cut short due to COVID, I am looking to see if there were positive or negative differences in player performance from the extended or shortened off-season.