It's official! NBA 2019-2020 resumes on July 31

22 teams are expected to play out the rest of the season.

On Friday, the NBA Board of Governors approved the resumption of the 2019-2020 season amidst the coronavirus pandemic. The return date has been set for July 31, wherein 22 teams would be invited to the Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, to finish the remainder of the season and crown a champion.

The 22 teams would be composed of the 16 teams (eight per conference) currently holding playoff positions in their respective conference. The remaining six teams are squads who are six wins or fewer behind the eight seed.

In the Eastern Conference, only the Washington Wizards qualify to play for the remainder of the 2019-2020 season, being 5.5 games behind eight-placed Orlando Magic.

In the West, the Portland Trail Blazers (3.5), New Orleans Pelicans (3.5), Sacramento Kings (3.5), San Antonio Spurs (4.0), and the Phoenix Suns (6.0) are qualified to play in the new format. They are most likely the six teams that would be invited to continue the season.

According to the NBA website, the season would restart with "seeding games" for all squads, including "the possibility" of a separate tournament to determine the 8th seed of each conference. Once the eight teams per conference and their order are set, the traditional conference-based format best-of-seven series would be played. The league hopes that the NBA Finals will be finished no later than October 12.

The league also announced that if the games resume by July 31, the final regular-season positions would be completed by mid-August. The league can then proceed with the NBA draft lottery by August 25. The Draft itself is tentatively scheduled on October 15, and the 2020-2021 season starts on December 1.

Each team would play eight seeding games selected from the remaining regular-season match-ups. At the conclusion, the top seven teams with the best combined regular season and seeding games win-loss record qualify for the playoffs.

If the eighth-seeded team is four games or more ahead of the ninth, they automatically qualify for the last playoff spot. If not, they would compete for the final playoff spot with the eight-seeded team having a twice-to-beat advantage.

It is currently unclear if the 2020-2021 season games would also be played in the Disney World "bubble" in Orlando.