The PBA's 48th season will unfurl on Nov. 5 at Smart Araneta Coliseum with the annual LEO Awards honoring the previous season's individual awards winners, and an opening game featuring the Magnolia Hotshots and the undermanned TNT Tropang Giga that will kick off the Commissioner's Cup.
During Tuesday's press conference, PBA chair Ricky Vargas said that this season's "over-arching theme" will be: "Let's bring back the PBA to normal. Let's go back to normalcy."
Vargas was referring to returning to the old schedule of an October start and three conferences.
Those won't happen this season, though, as the league will showcase just the Commissioner's Cup and Philippine Cup.
As we count down to opening day, there are some questions about this coming PBA season that are begging to be answered.
Will the new TV channel and schedule affect ratings and gate attendance?
Sources told ESPN that the most recent PBA season produced the highest television ratings in seven years.
The PBA was, reportedly, the third-highest rating show on TV5 this year.
Now comes an announcement at Tuesday's pre-season press conference that the games will now be shown on free TV on A2Z -- a UHF channel owned by Zoe TV and ABS-CBN -- in what appears to be a blocktime arrangement between TV5 and ABS-CBN.
To be clear, this isn't the first time that the league's games will be shown on a UHF channel, or on a brokered programming arrangement.
Solar Sports blocktimed with ABS-CBN Sports several years ago to show the games on the Lopez network's Studio 23/S&A UHF channel, while TV5 once blocktimed with IBC-13 to produce AKTV, a sports programming block where the PBA's games and shows were housed.
TV5 president Guido Zaballero explained the shift in channels: "The primary reason is we believe the PBA needs a dedicated home.
"We saw the possibilities with Zoe, and if we have a dedicated home for the PBA then we will be able to feature more of the games in the future, including 3x3 and e-sports.
"The other reason is because, as we bring in more partners, we strengthen our capability to promote the PBA. At the same time, I have to also acknowledge that the focus of TV5 ever since earlier this year entertainment and news. So now we have a solid entertainment and news channel, and a sports channel."
Since there's already a historical precedence, it's not likely the new channel would have a significant effect either way on the ratings.
What would probably be a bigger concern is the new weekday schedule for Wednesday and Friday games, which will have the first game starting at 4 p.m. and the second game at 8 p.m.
The PBA's live attendance improved from the previous season, although that was to be expected since the 2021-22 season still had limits on live audience capacity due to the pandemic. According to the league, live attendance and revenue growth are trending upwards but still haven't returned to pre-pandemic numbers.
With the new game schedule, fans will theoretically have to set aside six hours to attend both games, and will have to make their way home at past 10 p.m. The question for some fans is if it will be worth their time and money.
The league acknowledged that keeping fans entertained during the long gap between games will be one of the challenges in the new season, and commissioner Willie Marcial said they're finalizing a list of activities to address this.
This will be interesting to see.
Will the PBA still lend its players to Gilas next year?
This question was posed to Marcial during the press conference.
The two major tournaments in 2024 are the FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers in February and November and the Olympic Qualifying Tournament in July.
Marcial said he has a meeting with the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas next week, explaining: "We'll talk about it. We want to see their program, we'll discuss it, then I'll present it to the Board.
"From there, we will see how the PBA can help the national team. We need to first see the program of the SBP. That's where we'll start."
Given the PBA leadership recently called on the SBP to present their program, it appears that the call has been heeded. What's interesting to note is that the league has somewhat detached itself from its usual stance of always being ready to help out Gilas.
Now, their messaging is more of wait-and-see. That meeting can't come soon enough.
When will Mikey Williams show up?
Williams, TNT's gem of a guard, was last seen dropping 38 points on Barangay Ginebra in Game 6 of the Governors' Cup Finals en route to winning tbe Finals MVP award and leading the Tropang Giga to the championship.
But with a little over two weeks left before TNT plays Magnolia on opening day, Williams is still nowhere to be found.
The Tropang Giga could surely use him, as RR Pogoy has been sidelined with a heart condition, Poy Erram and Justin Chua are still recovering from injuries, and Calvin Oftana is still on an extended break from the Asian Games.
A depleted TNT recently played in the EASL -- where they lost to B.League champions Chiba Jets -- and are currently practicing with whatever warm bodies they can round up. Williams' name was not in TNT's official roster released to the media on Tuesday, and Vargas explained why.
"He refused to come home, so what can we do?" Vargas said. "That's why he's not in the lineup. He's not back yet. That's all I can say."
This isn't the first time that Williams has gone missing just before season's opening.
Last year, he skipped TNT's first five games in the Philippine Cup as he haggled with team management over a new deal before eventually signing a three-year contract extension. It's not clear if he's holding out again for a renegotiation, but whatever it is, there appears to be no resolution in sight for now.
With Pogoy already out as he battles back from a rare heart condition, TNT's backcourt is now severely undermanned, with only Jayson Castro the lone big gun left.
How will the rule changes affect the game?
Marcial said the league's competitions committee proposed several rule changes that will be in effect for the Commissioner's Cup.
The three most noteworthy are:
Players can no longer call timeouts.
Coaches' challenges per game will now be up to two.
A transition take foul can now be called.
Of the three, perhaps the most impactful is the first.
In fact, during the PBA's early days, players weren't allowed to call timeouts. The rule only changed in the mid-1990s.
Now, in an apparent attempt to align the league more with FIBA rules, the old rule is back. So starting this season, if a player can't inbound the ball, he no longer has the option of calling a timeout to save the possession. It's a move that's good for the defense and will force the offense to think on its feet.
The coach's challenge was previously just one per game, but now if a challenge is successful, the team will be awarded a second one. Also, an unsuccessful challenge will now no longer result in a used timeout.
The transition take foul was first introduced during the PBA On Tour.
If a defensive player commits an intentional foul to prevent a fastbreak, the opposing team will be awarded a free throw plus ball possession. This is somewhat similar to the FIBA rule penalizing players who clearly don't go for the ball when trying to foul intentionally.
It's meant to speed up the game by penalizing defenses that attempt to stop a fast break.